The effect of overworked pitchers' arms

Only recently has Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci joined Christian Doppler, Pygmalion and Martha Beall Mitchell in the starting rotation of people who have had an “Effect” named for them.

Yet the so-called Verducci Effect has captured the imagination of baseball fans with a statistical bent, fantasy baseball players and, to a lesser extent, gamblers.

NCAA tournament field's top seeds are firmly planted

Of all the conferences that have sent basketball teams to the NCAA Tournament, the Big East is expected to win the most games, collectively, in the event.

That much can be solved by inspection, as the math crowd says. The Big East, after all, has seven representatives in the tournament, tied with the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Big Ten for the top spot in the category. Consider the Big East has three teams with No. 1 seeds in Louisville, Pittsburgh and Connecticut, and it’s easy to see why expectations are high.

Yet in Las Vegas, we can quantify those expectations by attaching a specific number to them — and in this case, the number is 15 1/2. That’s the over/under on NCAA Tournament victories by Big East teams according to the Las Vegas Hilton sports book. (Wagering on this proposition closes at noon today.)

Poker pro says a tour modeled on golf's would use star power to reinvigorate game

With many of poker’s most recognizable figures packed into a relatively small space, this weekend’s National Heads-Up Poker Championship commands perhaps the most star power in the game — per square foot, anyway.

Each player in the field put up $20,000 to play, but all of that money and more will be returned in the prize pool.

As poker pro Gavin Griffin sees it, those factors not only create a win-win situation for the players and the tournament organizers, but they could also indicate the direction in which big-time poker is headed.