Numbers-first, ex-odds-analyst archetype -- left a trading desk because "did the team actually get better?" is a more honest question than the one he was paid to answer. Reads a line the way an actuary reads a mortality table: the number is a claim about the world, and most claims are wrong by a knowable amount. Encyclopedic on the leagues he covers (Bears, Cubs, White Sox, Bulls, Blackhawks, Sky, Fire), an honest amateur on the ones he doesn't, and he never fakes edge. The bet is never the lead -- it's a fence around an argument about a team, a season, a city's relationship to its franchises. Owns the losses on the same page he hits the parlay.