| A Great Big Bucket of Fail
So, your friends invited you over to watch some playoff baseball, but you don't know Albert Pujols from Albert Schweitzer? Not to worry: We've got all the information you'll need to fake your way through the first round of the baseball playoffs. Just tape this sheet inside your mitt and get ready to be mistaken for Tim McCarver. American League Division Series: Oakland A's vs. Minnesota Twins
A's talking points: Odds are you've heard of Michael Lewis' Moneyball, which documented GM Billy Beane's strategies for winning with a low payroll: Draft college players and emphasize on-base percentage. Old-school baseball analyst Joe Morgan will send you flowers if you note that Beane's 2002 draft has produced a mere two major leaguers, and only four A's regulars have OBPs over .360.
V-22 team set to land $11 billion contract
After nearly three decades and upward of $25 billion for development, testing and retesting of the V-22 Osprey, Bell Helicopter and Boeing Co. are about to hit the jackpot. A senior Navy official said Friday that within the next month, the service will issue a five-year, $11 billion-plus contract to Bell, based in Fort Worth, and Boeing, all but assuring uninterrupted production of the Osprey through 2012 and beyond. "At this point, we've reached agreement on the prices on the contract. There's no major hurdles to get through, just some administrative details," William Balderson, deputy assistant Navy secretary for aircraft procurement, said in an interview. The contract will be for 167 aircraft, both MV-22s for use by the Marines and CV-22 versions for the Air Force, including the 26 aircraft already on order as part of the fiscal year 2008 budget.
3-point man: Gostkowski unfazed by Vinatieri's legend
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Memo to Patriots kicker Stephen Gostkowski: all three of the Patriots' Super Bowl victories have been by a margin of three points. Which is to say, a field goal. "So I've been told," he said yesterday morning at the team hotel. "I don't keep tabs on that stuff." As far as NFL kickers are concerned, ignorance isn't merely bliss — it's a necessity. They have trained themselves to think only about the process, not the result. To think strictly about their technique, not the situation. And never, ever, to think about missing. "I don't think about negative situations," Gostkowski said. "I work on being mentally prepared for every kick. I can't be thinking: 'Oh, man, we need this kick.' I just play dumb, and do what I do." .
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