Statistics K501 is kicking my ass tonight. Would it really be so freaking hard to explicitly say that if the standard deviation of the population is unknown, you can use the standard deviation of the sample to calculate the standard error? For f*cking out loud, I’d still be on question 4 if it weren’t for Wikipedia.

And it’s impossible to do a gut check on whether these answers are right when the book fails to tell you the significance of the values. Woo boy, now I know the t value with 45 degrees of freedom. What the hell does that mean??

Homework’s due Wednesday night. Seriously, if you’re an expert and want to help, I’m sure we can work out some sort of exchange of goods or services. Just think: there’s a Paul Janish-autographed baseball that could be yours!

In the continuing series on Women in Baseball, the ladies at We’ve Got Heart talk to Cheryl Zimmerman, mother of Washington National’s third baseman, Ryan Zimmerman. In addition to being his biggest fan, Cheryl has inadvertently been the inspiration for his Multiple Sclerosis foundation.

Check out Cheryl Zimmerman’s story for yourself.

Dates: Friday, Dec. 12 and Saturday, Dec. 13
Times: Friday 4-10:30 p.m., Saturday 11 a.m.-7 p.m.
Location: Duke Energy Convention Center
Ticket Info: Now on Sale!
Adults – $20 for 2-day pass; $15 for 1-day pass
Kids 12 and under – $10 for 2-day pass; $7 for 1-day pass

The Red Hot Family still hasn’t decided whether to make it out for Redsfest this year. On the one hand, last year was a really quality setup with lots of cool stuff for the kids. We didn’t take our son, and swore we would next year. On the other hand, we might run into Dusty Baker there, and I’m still mad at him for the whole 2008 season thing.

Brandon Phillips is your NL 2B Gold Glove winner for 2008. I give this move three “Yippee!” and two and a half “it’s about time”s.

In an effort to make up last year’s slight to the NLC–or an effort to prove that the winners may as well be chosen by a roll of the 16-sided die–Nate McLouth of the Pirates was selected as the Gold Glove CFer.

Congratulations to all our winners, worthy or otherwise.

On Thursday, the Brewers signed Ken Macha to a two-year manager contract. From the official release:

Macha, 58, has four seasons of Major League managerial experience with the Oakland Athletics (2003-06). He owns a career record of 368-280 (.568). Under his leadership, the Athletics won 96, 91, 88 and 93 games, respectively, and captured the American League West Division championship in 2003 and 2006. The Athletics’ winning percentage ranked fourth in the Major Leagues during Macha’s tenure, trailing only the Yankees (.608), Red Sox (.577) and Cardinals (.577).

My first thought upon hearing the news was to remember in Moneyball how the role of the A’s manager was that of impotent figurehead. That wasn’t Macha, of course, but I’ll still be interested to see how he works out.

In other Brewer’s press releases, the team has declined Craig Counsell’s option:

MILWAUKEE — The Milwaukee Brewers today declined the 2009 club option for infielder Craig Counsell. The Brewers and Counsell will continue to negotiate. The announcement was made by Executive Vice President and General Manager Doug Melvin.

Counsell batted .226 with one HR and 14 RBI in 110 games in 2008.

If it doesn’t work out, there’s another NLC team in need of a shortstop and in current possession of a GM who loves the Scrappy White Guy.