The owner of the Oakland A’s, Lew Wolff, recently suggested that the first round of playoffs in professional baseball, the League Division Series, should be shortened to a single game. He said it would be, in his words, exciting.

I find this interesting for a few reasons. First, the source of the suggestion: As was noted in the book Moneyball, the problem with the Playoffs is that it undoes the thing that makes a low-budget, strategically winning team such as Oakland successful: it introduces luck. The timeline of the playoffs is excruciatingly short when compared to the marathon regular season, so luck (a random vector that only time can average out) becomes a far more potent influencer. This could be the reason that, despite having winning seasons, the A’s particular management style never finds them in the World Series.

So this makes the suggestion by Wolff to shorten it to one game all the more curious. I could understand the impetus, but this only exacerbates the problem: shortening the gameplay from 5 games to 1 increases the possibility of luck as influencer dramatically (I would say it increases it 5x, but I’ve never been good at percentages). I suppose they hope for the best on the crapshoot: put it all on black.

If Major League Baseball really wanted to shorten the postseason while limiting luck as a deciding factor in the outcome, the structure should be something like this: LDS: 7 games. LCS: 5 games, WS: 3 games. That would ensure that luck as a factor was minimized during the early rounds, when there are a greater number of teams involved, ergo a greater number of games played (the math works out to a possible 28 games in the LDS, 10 games in the LCS, and 3 games in the WS) to spread the luck over. That way, by the time we get to the World Series, luck is only strongly influencing the outcome between 2 teams, so it’s a greater chance that a “deserving” team will be crowned champion.

Now, will Selig agree to a best-of-three WS? Severely doubtful. The World Series has always been a best of 7 situation, and tradition aside, limiting it to at worst 2, at best 3 games wouldn’t exactly make for a windfall in advertising dollars. So I humbly suggest the 3-5-7 game structure. Sure, it still increases the odds of an “undeserving” team making it to the World Series, but each successive round would prove out the stronger team’s particular strengths.

Just a thought.

Here’s something interesting: RED, the camera company started by Oakley founder Jim Jannard, has launched the Scarlet and Epic, a modular, Chinese-Menu style approach to building one’s own custom imaging solution.

Basically, you choose the “brain” (an imaging core ranging from 4.9MP to 261MP!), and then outfit it to your personal needs, whether they be photo or video. Best of all, it offers both Nikon AND Canon mounts in addition to their proprietary mount.

If you have the scratch and can look past the Halo-esque aesthetics, this may represent the first evolutionary leap in digital camera technology: a design that no longer conforms to the vestiges of a film system. It also embraces the fact that sensors will keep getting better, so why not just upgrade your brain once in a while?

(Full brochure)
via Photography Bay.

A few months ago, I was at lunch with some of the boys from the office, and I was racking my brain trying to figure out how I could raise money for my candidate for president, Barack Obama. Someone (I want to say it was Keith, but it may have been Toby. We’ll just say it was Toby Keith.) suggested I shave off my much-maligned mustache. I agreed, for $2000. Mustaches for Victory was born.

Fast forward to yesterday. After shockingly reaching that goal (I set it high so I wouldn’t HAVE to shave it off), I made good on my promise and went down to see Michael at the New York Shaving Co. to have my pushbroom removed.

The whole thing was documented in glorious 720p HD, so check out the ready-for-HGTV clip:

So, apparently, according to Gothamist, NYC will soon be testing out some awesome new location-aware ads on buses. While I’m sure most of the advertising world will use these for really mundane things, like letting you know how close you are to Chili’s, it would be awesome if they became a utility – like maybe telling you where the closest bathroom is?

Man, coupled with all of the newly opened ad space in the subways, and walking around NYC is going to feel like being in an IRL version of MySpace. AWESOME.

(via PSFK)

One thing we strive for here at The Barbarian Group is uniformity, and nowhere is uniformity more important than in IT.

I have a constant, love/hate relationship with modern photography, but people who shoot incessant band photos for their blogs tracks way over to the Hate end of the spectrum.

That said, I do appreciate a great shot, so it’s a conundrum. This comment thread on BrooklynVegan is a really nice snapshot (ahem.) of the current debate. It also has some nice 4th wall breaking from Fleet Foxes themselves.

OK, political allegiances aside – this is awesome! Barack Obama’s campaign has launched an App for the iPhone!

And it does smart things, too, like inform you of the Senator’s stance on issues, urge you to call friends to get them to vote, see how your fundraising is doing (cough Mustaches for Victory! cough), even browse photos and videos.

To be fair and balanced, it should be noted that John McCain has released his own line of Tickertape machines:

The SF Office might have Shepard Fairey on their wall, but TBG NYC has BANKSY painting up the side of our building! Well, to be fair, the side of the building at the end of our block, but still!

We’re not sure which one he is, but I’m willing to bet it’s the casual british dude in a denim jacket idly sitting on the steps of American Apparel across the street.

Rad!

UPDATE: The final piece. It’s massive.