Sports & recreation
Cottage Grove Sentinel
Wednesday, August 1, 2018
South Lane County Sports and Recreation
Trying to
"Moneyball"
Yahtzee
Section B
Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail zsilva@cgsentinel.com
Rally comes to Cottage Grove
A personal attempt
at trying to
maximize efficiency
in a game of chance
By Zach Silva
zsilva@cgsentinel.com
The NBA had the three-
point revolution. The NFL
spread the field. The MLB
rode analytics into the future.
At their core these decisions
all began with people finding
inefficiencies in their favorite
game as they looked to in-
crease their own probability
of success. So, I, too, decided
to join in on the fun.
Last week, I found myself
in the same position as these
statistical pioneers as I sat at
my kitchen table and played
the game I love: Yahtzee.
I have played Yahtzee, I as-
sume, as soon as I could kind
of do math. My parents would
play and sometimes my sister
Kendall but most of the time
not my sister Kendall because
my sister Kendall would get
very overwhelmed by the
amount of decisions that had
to be made on any given roll.
So, my parents and I played
Yahtzee.
On its face, Yahtzee, much
like all games, seems simple.
Roll the dice and find ways to
score. Similar to the concepts
of shoot a ball and score, hit a
ball and score or throw a ball
and score. But much in the
same that I view these games
through a prism of advanced
metrics and efficiency, I now
see Yahtzee in the same light.
The rise of Moneyball and
Moreyball alike have funda-
mentally changed how I look
at games of chance.
Where once it was a sim-
ple roll of the dice and go for
what your heart tells you, now
it is certainly more. Where
the Houston Rockets shoot
only three pointers and lay-
ups, there I was attempting to
get fives and sixes in pursuit
of a bonus at all costs.
It was crossing out ones
and yahtzees in a calculated
risk to optimize points else-
where. It was playing multi-
ple games and averaging out
scores and values per turn to
see where I needed to focus.
(Two noteworthy things: I got
really into Yahtzee and just
couldn’t stop playing for like
a week and I don’t think this
is a cry for help but you know,
just be warned. More impor-
tantly, the Yahtzee cards my
family uses are from the 50s
and have no spot for bonus
yahtzees which could certain-
ly shift strategy.)
But even that, on its head
doesn’t look revolutionary
rather, just good strategy. The
Rockets have been in a sim-
ilar vein as shooting threes
isn’t new in the NBA but do-
ing it at the volume they do it
is. And that’s how my strategy
for this dice game also chang-
es, it is doing it at volume and
selling out in hope for an effi-
cient way forward.
The problem here, is that
sometimes analytics can only
take you so far. In sports this
shows up with the other team
just being too good. The Oak-
land A’s lost to the Twins after
having a successful year. The
Rockets missed 27 threes in a
row against one of the great-
est NBA teams ever in game
seven. In Yahtzee, it manifests
and doing all the right things
but not having the luck of the
roll.
But I will not be deterred by
the shortcomings of the A’s,
Rockets or my sister Kendall
and will roll on to success.
PHOTOS BY ZACH SILVA/CG SENTINEL
A motorcyclist starts off for an 80-mile ride on Saturday morning as part of the Jackie Colwell Memorial National Rally.
Riders from across the
country converge for three
days of riding around
Oregon
By Zach Silva
zsilva@cgsentinel.com
There’s the rider that started once he
entered college and was free of his par-
ents’ ill-will and the rider at 15 ½ who
could legally ride a motorcycle in Cali-
fornia. And then the man who started at
11 after making a makeshift motorcycle
with his brother that featured no brakes
and the woman who, at the age of two,
was regularly seated on the front of a mo-
torcycle and given a ride.
Over 80 riders gathered in Cottage
Grove last week for the Jackie Colwell
Memorial National Rally for a multi-day
event of riding antique motorcycles.
“I think Jackie would like it,” said Jen-
nifer Nielsen, the president of the Oregon
Trail Chapter of the Antique Motorcycle
Club of America (AMCA). “She would
be riding her Spyder having the time of
her life. And with her little dog Ozzie.”
Nielsen, a long-time member, passed
away last October.
Riders from around the state, coun-
try and some from Canada filed into
Jennifer Nielson, president of the Oregon Trail Chapter of the Antique Motorcycle
Club of America gives participants a run-down of Saturday’s ride.
Braaten, Corley and
Schmidt walk away
winners at Speedway
By Ben Deatherage
CG Speedway
In addition to the Interstate Sprint Car Series racing
on Saturday, July 28, so would three other classes. They
would include the IMCA Sport Mods, Street Stocks, and
Quality RV Repair Hornets.
Matt Sanders, of Brookings, had another incredible
night of racing in the IMCA Sport Mods. Sanders paced
the field for the vast majority of the distance only to get
Athlete of
the Week
Cottage Grove for the rally that began
last week. On Thursday riders went on a
50-mile ride around the area; on Friday
they travelled to Reedsport and Win-
chester Bay for a ride that some stretched
to 180 miles; Saturday riders went on an
80-mile ride that went through covered
bridges. With the $145 entry fee, riders
are together for these rides in addition to
receiving meals, support on the road, a
jacket and other various items.
“Planning and organization. We’ve
been planning this for a year. Just looking
at every possible detail that could hap-
pen,” said Nielsen. “Our goal is once the
people show up to when they leave that
it’s easy and fun. That there’s no responsi-
bilities or worries and that we’ve thought
of every need they may have and we try
to meet it.”
For Thomas Krise, who was participat-
ing in the event, it was good to see that
this organization has continued to grow
since its inception. In 1984, Krise, led
by big names in the motorcycle world,
was one of the founding members of the
group.
“I was told yesterday, as far as road
runs go, that this chapter, basically set
the mold for how these runs operate by
having events and planned rides and
everything. So there’s a lot of good runs
around the country but ours was the
model for a while,” he said.
But it has never just been about the
motorcycles for Krise who was sporting
his 1953 Indian Roadmaster.
“Motorcycle people are the best peo-
ple you’re going to find in the world,” he
said, adding “These bikes need a lot of
fiddling and stuff and if you have a prob-
passed on the final circuit by Jorddon Braaten. Braaten,
from Central Point, worked on Sanders in the final sev-
en laps and eventually prevailed. It is Braaten’s seventh
triumph at CGS in 2018.
In the Street Stocks David Schmidt would get the job
done. The Junction City driver lead the entire distance
to procure his third victory of the year and ties him for
the most wins of the season in the class with Andrew
Langan.
Oakridge’s Josh Corley would duke it out with Cre-
swell chauffeur Graig Osborne in the Quality RV Repair
Hornet main. Corley seized the initial lead while Os-
borne hunted him down to get around for the top spot
on the fourteenth trip around the ¼-mile. Corley would
recapture first place shortly afterwards in lapped traffic.
Corley held on to win his sixth victory which ties him
with Osborne for the most wins in the campaign.
Cottage Grove Speedway has two nights of racing on
This week’s athletes of the week
are Connie and Jerry Pifer of
Cottage Grove. The pair caught
a 47.5-pound dorado to win
the Dorado Shootout fishing
tournament. In addition to
first place, the pair also receive
a 2018 Volkswagen Amarok.
lem, there’s going to be six, seven people
around you helping out. Somebody will
say I have one of those parts. We’re very
cohesive, here. If some stranger is here
from Illinois or something like that and
needs a part and needs some help, we’re
here.”
Krise, wasn’t the only member who has
experience with the club. John Crawford,
who tries to go to as many of these ral-
lies as possible and has been involved in
the AMCA since 1983, made the journey
from British Columbia to be in Cottage
Grove. Crawford has been to rallies from
this group across the state in cities such
as Harrisburg, McMinnville and Corval-
lis.
“The neat thing about this is you meet
people from all walks of life. Blue collar
iron workers, doctors and scientists and
everything in between. And everybody
loves riding their old bikes and that’s sort
of the common denominator amongst
all of us,” said Crawford. “And generally
speaking, we have fun riding the bikes,
we park the bikes and then we have a
beer or two if that’s what you like to do.”
Crawford was riding a 1948 Indian last
week.
While there are lots of returning fac-
es at the event, there was also some new
blood in the mix. Steve Gusinde, 70, of
Salem has been riding motorcycles for 50
years and decided that it was time to try
something new.
“I like vintage motorcycles so I’ve been
doing it for a few years and had never
joined a group before,” he said. “This is
the first time so it’s kind of new for me
also but a lot of nice people and you al-
ways learn something.”
tap as the Summer Thunder Sprint Series will be in town
on Friday, August 3, and Saturday August 4. This will be
the last chance this season to watch 360 Sprints at CGs
this year. Support divisions for Friday are the Mohawk
Metal IMCA Modifieds and Street Stocks while both di-
visions return on Saturday with IMCA Sport Mods also
added for that night only. For more information log on
to www.cottagegrovespeedway.com.
Results (top five in each race listed):
IMCA SportsMods:
1. 84 Jorddon Braaten, 2. 2 Matt Sanders, 3. 01 Daniel
Ray, 4. 15 Justin McCreadie, 5. 30 Michael Medel,
1. 1 David Schmidt, 2. 33 Hunter Bloom, 3. 33 Ray
Bloom, 4. 44 Troy Chamberlain, 5. 23 Garrett Barth
Hornets:
1. 7 Josh Corley IV, 2. 07 Graig Osborne, 3. 85 Gene
Ashley, 4. 14 Matt Ferguson, 5. 84 Erick Ashley
Connie and
Jerry Pifer
pose with
their 47.5
pound catch.