Sportsguy and Gladwell

I have come to appreciate Sportsguy's "Curious Guy" columns/exchanges even if at first I thought it might be a bit hokey and the title is really bad. His latest is with Malcolm Gladwell (of Tipping Point. Blink and New Yorker fame) and is fantastic, even if from how he explains it, Sportsguy is unclear on what a "contract year" is. (He implies that the contract year is the first year after a player signs a big, extended deal; in fact it is the last year of an exusting deal, when a player performs beyond all expectations and precedent, that is the contract year.) What I like about this one, and what I loved about his exchange with Chuck Klostermann, is that in these cases he is dealing with rabid sports fans who are, first and foremost, writers and whose work primarily is not sports related. I guess what i am saying is that if I ever make it big, I hope to be the subject of a "Curious Guy" interview. (This is part one of two parts -- the second segment will appear tomorrow.)