Grading Weather Forecasts Just how accurate are weather forecasts? A Web site has taken an inventive approach to trying to answer that question, by poring over data from major providers. One conclusion: Where you live has a lot to do with reliability.

After a stunning start, the young Tigers have stumbled this summer, watching their American League Central lead shrink to a paltry 1.5 games over the Minnesota Twins, a more-experienced team that's peaking at the right time.

from the world of sports? Got something to say? Don't keep it to yourself -- write to us at dailyfix@wsj.com and we'll consider your find for inclusion in the Daily Fix.

During their slide, much has been made of the Tigers' lack of patience at the plate -- as the Detroit Free Press's Michael Rosenberg observes, conventional baseball wisdom has it that teams have made adjustments against the young, free-swinging team, staying away from the heart of the plate and letting them get themselves out.

"Then there is another theory, which is brilliant, groundbreaking and -- coincidentally -- mine," writes Mr. Rosenberg. "Even when the Tigers were going great, there was a lot of talk about their patience at the plate. Reporters talked about it. [Manager Jim] Leyland talked about it. Players were well aware of it. Naturally, they started thinking more about what kind of pitches they tried to hit. And these Tigers, free-swingers since they could pick up a Wiffle Ball bat, out-thought themselves. They started laying off bad pitches and good pitches -- and as a result, they got themselves into bad counts and didn't capitalize on pitchers' mistakes. The solution? Go back to who they are. In other words: Don't think. Just hit. Swing away, gentlemen."

In the AL East, the New York Yankees are cruising to another division title, despite having played most of the year without two of their big offensive guns, Hideki Matsui and Gary Sheffield.

"Without Matsui and Sheffield, the Yankees managed to march to the best record in the American League," writes Jack Curry in the New York Times. "With Matsui returning as a designated hitter last night and Sheffield likely to soon follow him back into the lineup, the Yankees will be trying to figure out how to best use two marquee players who have scarcely been missed. Welcome to Joe Torre's splendidly muddied world, where he will spend the rest of the month determining if Matsui and Sheffield can shed their rust and make the already powerful Yankees even more potent."

In the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Mark Bradley looks back at a horrific run of injuries and bad luck that kept the Braves from giving the Mets a real battle this year. One of Mr. Bradley's signs that it's not your year: "Only three members of your seven-man Opening Day bullpen are on the active roster in September -- and all three have been pressed into service as starters."

Meanwhile, the Associated Press has a handy rundown of all 14 title seasons, plus the strike year of 1994. It's a fitting epitaph for an amazing team that remade itself again and again, winning titles with an ever-changing cast of characters. Sure, there was Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine and John Smoltz. But the Braves conjured 20-win seasons out of Denny Neagle and Russ Ortiz, saw Fred McGriff and Andres Galarraga and Gary Sheffield come and go, and won in 2005 with 18 rookies.

The receiver's 45-day holdout ended when the Pats traded him to the Seattle Seahawks, who immediately signed him to a $39 million, six-year deal. The Pats are now seeking payment of fines, an additional levy for missing minicamp, and the return of part of his signing bonus -- a lump of change NFL precedent (in the person of Carolina Panthers holdout Kevin Greene) suggests they won't collect much of.

In the Boston Globe, Bob Ryan takes a dim view of the whole affair, decrying the Pats' intransigence and then offering tart advice for Mr. Branch and his agent.

"Apologize to the fans for playing the reprehensible 'I've Got To Feed My Family' card, and do so immediately," he writes. "Use of that line is touching the third rail in player/fan relations. Branch may very well have been underpaid to some degree in the context of quality wide receivers, but according to [the Globe's Ron] Borges, he would have made $1,405,000 this coming season. I'll take a wild guess and assume Branch did not grow up with maids and European vacations, which means that $1,405,000 should constitute a whole lot of money to him, more than enough to feed him and his three children, plus any assorted relatives for whom he is financially responsible."

The New York Islanders have signed the hardly proven 25-year-old goalie to the longest contract in NHL history -- a 15-year, $67.5 million deal. Fifteen years as in the contract doesn't end until the science-fiction date of 2021. And this is the same Islanders team that's still hobbled by a 10-year, $87.5 million deal given to Alexei Yashin in 2001.

"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results," writes Allan Muir on SI.com, adding that now "there might be enough evidence to finally commit whacked-out Islanders owner Charles Wang. It had to be some form of mental instability, or perhaps the ability to see a future where old and underperforming goalies are in high demand, that led Wang to sign DiPietro".

"Since the contract is guaranteed, DiPietro will certainly have a good life in the NHL even if he never proves himself or can't find the motivation to prove himself," huffs Hugh Adami in the Ottawa Citizen. "That is one of the really bizarre things about this deal. If DiPietro doesn't improve his game, how do the Islanders unload such a long contract, given how they failed in trying to dump the underachieving Alexei Yashin … If DiPietro's game doesn't improve -- and that's a really good possibility as he plays for the sad-sack and badly managed Islanders -- that makes him a double whammy on the trade market."

In the National Post, Mark Spector writes that "Wang becomes [Gary] Bettman's first rogue owner after the tiny perfect commissioner had finally reined in those among his group who have more money than brains. On Monday, the ceiling on long-term deals was seven years. Yesterday, it became 15. As other owners follow suit, eating up 2020's salary cap quota long before 2010 has even begun, Bettman can see the horsemen gathering on the horizon, a growing cadre of owners who would aim to push the salary cap ever higher."

from the world of sports? Don't keep it to yourself -- write to us at dailyfix@wsj.com and we'll consider your find for inclusion in the Daily Fix.

This is cache, read story here