I loved Barry Melrose. The first time I heard his name was in the late ‘80s when he was the coach of the Red Wings top farm club, the Adirondack Red Wings.

There were whispers that he could be a future Wings coach but the L.A. Kings scooped him up and he led them to the ‘93 Cup Final. His first season!

In 1997 or so I passed him in O’Hare Airport and could not get over his size. He looked like a hockey player.

He’s been off the air for three years but it still seems like he’s around.

RIP, Barry.

📺 ESPN’s tribute

Tech: I installed LM Studio and loaded the Gemma 4 E4B model. Then I just stared at my screen. Now I’m wondering what I’m supposed to be using it for instead of Claude, Gemini or ChatGPT. Maybe I’ll ask it.

TV: Generally speaking, I don’t like to watch TV. That is, I won’t sit down and watch just anything – what am I, still in college? But I like watching specific shows. Another one I discovered this week on PBS, a British show, “Professor T.” Full endorsement.

Tigers: Off day, mercifully.

Tune: “Dancin’ Shoes” by Nigel Olsson

I’ve never understood, i.e., never bothered to look up, the NFL’s Quarterback Rating. Today I finally understand it better. I gave Google Gemini this prompt:

“Help me understand what the NFL’s Quarterback Rating is and how it’s calculated.”

Here’s the response:

The NFL's Quarterback Rating is a formula that attempts to measure a quarterback's overall performance in a game. It's calculated using four factors: 1. Completion Percentage: This measures how often the quarterback completes his passes. A higher completion percentage is better. 2. Average Yards per Attempt (AYPA): This measures how many yards the quarterback gains on average per pass attempt. A higher AYPA is better. 3. Percentage of Touchdown Passes: This measures how often the quarterback throws touchdowns. A higher percentage is better. 4. Interception Percentage: This measures how often the quarterback throws interceptions. A lower percentage is better. Each of these four factors is given a score between 0 and 2.15. The scores for each factor are then averaged together and multiplied by 100 to get the final Quarterback Rating. It's important to note that the Quarterback Rating is just one way to evaluate a quarterback's performance. It doesn't take into account factors like rushing yards or fumbles, which can also be important for a quarterback's overall impact on the game.

Then I had to look up the highest-rated QBs to get some perspective.

Now I know.