10/31 (Boo!) Quickie

The best Halloween candy is the mini Twix. 

Gabe is going as RGIII for the elementary school parade, but was supposed to be Cam Newton (we also made him a back-up costume, an iPhone). Jonah is going as Captain America. Lucy is going as an owl, and if you know the Old Navy infant Halloween costume selection, you'll know what I'm saying when I say it's adorable.

I'm going as Tim Tebow. Kidding. But I am intrigued that the Jaguars could trade for Tebow at tomorrow's NFL trade deadline. Some context: Tebow reportedly chose between the Jets and Jaguars and picked the Jets -- I don't blame him. The promise was that Rex Ryan had the chutzpah to use Tebow dynamically. That, plus the Jets' status as contenders, outweighed a north Florida homecoming. Here's the thing: Ryan turned out to be a dud and the team turned out to stink and playing in NYC doesn't do so much for Tebow that he wouldn't get playing in Florida. And the Jaguars really (really really) need him -- as they have since the night they passed on drafting him. The Jets won't trade him, because it would be seen as their failure -- not Tebow's. As if the failure of a season isn't humiliating enough.

NBA: Lakers 0-1. (Lakers 0-1!!!) Mike Brown's Princeton offense is terrible. This should be the offense: "Let Nash be Nash." Everything else will take care of itself.

By the way: I'm not one to put stock in a season-opener (or any single regular-season game), but file away Howard's atrocious FT shooting for the playoffs, where that kind of thing can kill a team.

NBA, Cont'd: Ray Allen blitzes his old Celtics mates. Allen was every bit as potent as we assumed he would be once he lined up alongside LeBron, Wade and Bosh. It only gets more devastating from here, friends.

NFL: Mike Vick is the Eagles' starting QB, but you better add a "for now" to that. A loss to the Saints probably ends his run as QB1.

MLB Awards: You can have the defense of anyone else in baseball. I'll take Mike Trout, inexplicably snubbed for a Gold Glove (not that Gold Glove matters anymore -- cripes, Derek Jeter won Gold Gloves).

Last Word: It's amusing to watch the media's political horde fall over themselves talking about Nate Silver and a stat-centric methodology, if only because it's something we've been dealing with in sports for at least a decade (let's call the publishing of "Moneyball" the unofficial start). Political pundits who don't rely on anything but qualitative "gut" to make pronouncements have every reason to feel like they are being exposed as frauds, but like sports pundits who act the same way, they should feel secure that their employers make money off quippy, boisterous pronouncements -- the accuracy doesn't (and has never) mattered.

-- D.S.