Dear Fellow Participants in CP96,
I started writing this letter in italian, when I realized that many of
the participants of CP96 are not native italian speakers... so I'll switch
to english which seems to be the "lingua franca" of CP96 and
in which I can also express myself more clearly.
First of all, let me extend, yet again, a sincere "Thank You" to Roberto
Ricca for organizing and supervising CP96. This little contest means a
lot to me, and Monday mornings will not be the same without the weekly
updates. I hope that CP97 will become a reality and that our pool of
participants will continue to increase. Keep up the good work, Roberto,
we all appreciate it!
Second of all, let me congratulate Danilo Monaco for putting together
another impressive year after his tour de force last year...I don't
know what his system is, but it's clearly outstanding.
For those of you who don't know me, I am an italian-american professor
of astronomy at the University of Georgia, located in the small town of
Athens (pop. ~ 50,000 without the students, ~85,000 with the students).
I was born in Milano but I moved to the U.S. when I was 8 years old so
I guess I'm more american than italian. I do have great nostalgia for
Italy and would like to move back (so if any of you have a job for an
astronomer, please let me know!). Unfortunately, it looks like I will
have to retire here in the States and move back to Italy for my "golden
years". I'm also a lifelong Milan fan which explains, I think, why I
do well when Milan wins the scudetto...In fact my system basically
consists of picking Milan to (almost always) win and picking Inter to
lose or tie many more games than is reasonable. In years when Milan
does well and Inter not-so-well (i.e., two years ago and this year), I
tend to be fairly successful.
There is an aspect to my success in making picks that disturbs me and
it may be worth discussing via the Bar-Sport-Virtuale that Roberto
runs or some other forum. I've noticed that I tend to do better at the
end of the season than at the beginning. This is not, I believe, due to
accumulated knowledge during the course of the season, but to what I
perceive to be an incredible level of "cynicism" when teams who are
battling for relegation or a UEFA slot are playing. My "system" then
consists of asking myself "what is the result that mutually benefits
both teams independent of the relative strength of the teams or home
field advantage...". Although I haven't kept statistics on this (I will
next year), I suspect this is where I get a lot of points. But, of course,
this is not a good thing about italian soccer...at best it smacks of
"unspoken" collusion and at worst it reminds us of the match-fixing scandals
of the past. I would be interested in hearing people's opinions on this
topic...
But as befits a college professor, I've gone on too long...Let me wish
everyone in our group a good summer, to the fans of the Azzurri, let's
hope for success in Euro96 and in the Olympics (semifinals and finals to
be held about 100 yards from my office), and I hope to meet you all
again next year in CP97.
Ciao,
Loris
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