Nate Silver ("Blogger for Times") joining ESPN

Thirty votes is a pretty small sample size, and the fact that the votes rotate would make the year-to-year numbers irrelevant. The Heisman or Baseball HOF voting would seem like the only one that would come close to his elections model.

 

The awards in the big four sports actually sometimes produce some surprises. As LTL points out, there's a small number of voters and they don't usually vote the way the "experts" think they should.

 

Last year. Johnny Manziel.

 

No one was surprised by that.

 

Yes.

If you can add value to an organization, you will not only always be able to find employment, you will be well compensated. And, in the internet era, it is easier than ever to demonstrate your value.

Obviously, it helps if you are an innovator, and your innovation is not easy to duplicate.

Silver's work was innovative, he was very good at it (and at explaining it), and he's built a brand for himself.

 

Nobody was surprised by Manziel winning.

I don't remember it being a surprise when Bradford won, but I seem to remember that one being really close between him, Tebow and McCoy.

Grossman was robbed in 2001, but nobody was surprised by it.

I know it was really close when Ingram beat Gerhart, but the surprise wasn't that Ingram won, but that it was as close as it was...

 

WWL officially announces it:

http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/id/9499752/nate-silver-joins-espn-multi-faceted-role

 

Times omsbud Margaret Sullivan has a piece up on Silver. Reveals that when she wrote that Silver's stuff should get more print play, three "senior reporters" wrote her to say Silver sucked and his work wasn't worthy of the paper.
There's three reporters bucking to be transferred to covering fires in Queens.

 

http://publiceditor.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/22/nate-silver-went-against-the-grain-for-some-at-the-times/?smid=tw-share

Good thing he's going to ESPN, where jealousy is never an issue.

 

Moneyball II: You can't cover baseball politics without talking to the insiders!

 

Not just senior reporters. Political reporters. The kind of people he described as "fundamentally useless" and who spent the entire campaign season proving him correct.

 

"If we run Silver's stuff, who will tell us who won the day? I saw a LOT of Romney yard signs today."