World Series set to go

On deck for the 2008 World Series: Tampa Bay Rays versus the Philadelphia Phillies. Either way, history will be made.

The Rays beat the Red Sox tonight in dramatic fashion, and I could not be happier. Well, I could be if the Yankees didn't suck so badly this year, but hey -- F Boston!

Rays pitcher Matt Garza kept the Sox to one hit--a Dustin Pedroia HR--through six innings. Rookie Evan Longoria tied the game in the fourth, and in the fifth, Rocco Baldelli singled in Willy Aybar, who subsequently homered in the 7th, putting the Rays up 3-1.

The next four Rays pitchers allowed just one hit total, and September call-up David Price looked to shut down the Sox in the ninth. After walking Jason Bay, Price struck out Mark Kotsay, who broke his bat earlier in the game out of frustration. Sox captain Jason Varitek, batting .053 in the ALCS, embarrassingly whiffed on a slider from Price. Jew Lowrie grounded out to end the game, and the young Rays team dog piled it up in the middle of the field.

After changing their moniker, logo and colors, the Tampa Bay Rays--in their 11th MLB season--set their club record for most wins in a season, landed their first division title, and set a record for most wins by a worst-to-first team.

The Rays will host the Phillies Wednesday night in Game One. I guess it'll be rally towel versus cowbell...?

The Phillies, who clinched a big-show berth last week, have the weight of William Penn on their shoulders. For those of you unaware, "the curse" is allegedly to blame for no major Philadelphia sporting team (arena football does not count) having won a championship since the One Liberty Place skyscraper--which dwarfed the city's statue of founder William Penn--was completed in 1987. The last team to a win a 'chip was the 1983 76ers.

The city, still haunted by Joe Carter's walk-off home run in the 1993 World Series, is hoping this Phillies team will bring a seemingly long overdue parade down the streets of Philadelphia. (And apologies to my friends, but as a New York sports fan living in southern New Jersey, I would love nothing more than to see this curse continue for another 30 years, but that's just me.)


And don't forget - Taco Bell is again offering its "Steal a Base, Steal a Taco" promotion. If a base is stolen during any game of the World Series, the fast food chain will offer a free Crunchy Seasoned Beef Taco to its customers. If the base is stolen during Games 1-4, the deal will take place Oct. 28; if Games 5-7, then Nov. 3. I'll keep you posted. Last year, we said 'gracias' to speedster Jacoby Ellsbury, but I guess we won't be relying on him --or any other BoSox player-- to do that for us this year, haaaaa.


RELATED LINKS
Boston wins World Snoozefest
Speedy Gonzalez
Yo quiero free taco

A fond farewell - take two

As a follow up to my last post, I wanted to get some of my pictures up from Saturday's game. I also just want to say that the tribute to the Stadium that aired on ESPN Sunday night was extremely touching. Praise the Lord that Bernie Williams --my favorite player of all-time-- was in attendance (and he got a bigger ovation than Reg-gie!)

I found close to nothing wrong with the entire thing; my one gripe: WHERE THE HELL WAS JOE TORRE? I understand maybe snubbing Roger Clemens because of his steroid scandal, but to me, Joe Torre is as much of a Yankee legend as Derek Jeter. I know they didn't part on the best terms, but come on...

Anyway, back to happier thoughts...Here are just a few of my pics. (I took like, 110). These were by far the greatest seats I've ever had to any game; we were so close I felt like I was watching a township little league game.

Mo signing autographs

The Captain

Arod

Yankees win, thhhhhhhe YANKEES WIN!

Oops-skee

Follow me on my train of thought here:

I was looking at pictures from a weekend bar outing my friends and I went on this weekend, and I started thinking about what we used to do for social gatherings before we were old enough to drink: go to the mall, the movies, Friendly's (ew)--hey, whatever happened to going to Chuck-E-Cheese?

The pizza that always looked better on TV than it did in front of you, the person who had to dress up as the rat mascot (I knew someone who had to do that when she worked there in college) and--of course--playing Skee Ball. That game was the shit, right?

I remember one time I got my fingers slammed by a ball that was returning down that slot, but I think that's as far as my Skee Ball injuries extend; the little boy in this video, however, isn't so lucky, and unfortunately for him, he's not getting too much sympathy from the man taking the video.



And either that girl had it in for that cute little kid or she just really sucks at Skee Ball and can't keep it in her lane.

Fun with Google!

You might not think this sounds fun, but Google's got anaddicting "game" for you to try... one that sucked me in for a good hour last night.

The Google Image Labeler pairs you with another user to match labels in an attempt to earn points.

Over a two-minute period, you and your partner will:

• View the same set of images.
• Provide as many labels as possible to describe each image you see.
• Receive points when your label matches your partner's label. The number of points will depend on how specific your label is.
• See more images until time runs out.

It's basically a photo/word association game that you play with someone you've never met.

The points mean nothing and the whole point of the activity is the betterment of Google's image search feature (tricky, tricky Google), but it's a fun way to kill time and learn that people all over the world think as simplistically as you do.

Give a try; you'll be addicted in no time!

Thanks, TJS!

More Olympic fun

I know I said I wasn't too into the Olympics this year -- and that's still true. But my boyfriend and I did happen to catch Michael Phelps winning his first gold medal last night; Pretty exciting stuff, I must say.

Sometimes it almost doesn't seem fair how good Phelps is, and last night, it was almost like he was just competing against himself and his own world record. But check out the video below from the 2000 Olympics --this guy actually was only competing against himself after his two competitors disqualified themselves. Sorry to say it, but I think even I could have beaten this guy. He manages to almost double the record for this event, while still setting a personal best.

Still, you gotta love his -- and the announcers'-- enthusiasm... and the constant giggling that takes place in the background.

"Your balls are showing"

Spencer Tunick, a New York photographer famous for large-scale nude projects, has created some 'balls-out' shots to celebrate The Beautiful Game.

Tunick shot 1,840 nude volunteers yesterday in Vienna's Ernst Happel stadium--the site of the EURO 2008 — the European soccer championship — which will be played next month.

The photographer had hoped to get 2,008 people out for the shoot, but no go. The shoot took place over a several hours, and the models posed in various positions throughout the stadium. [click here to view the gallery]

The goal, according to an ad for volunteers, was "to capture and combine the spirit of sports, the grand sweeping waves of stadium architecture and the abstract relation of the human form to modern structures."

Talk about running up a score...

Well, I love me some baseball season, so this story undoubtedly caught my eye.

A Japanese high school baseball team let up 66 runs Thursday before the coach pleaded for the game to end.

That's not even impressive; that's just straight up sad.

Kawamoto technical high school's pitcher threw 250 pitches in 1 and 1/3 innings, allowing 26 runs in the first inning and 40 in the second. I think they should probably fire their manager and pitching coach, ehh?

But, in an effort to make the score look respectable, the team's opponent from Shunshukan school was only credited with a 9-0 victory. Wow, that's some good sportsmanship they're teaching them over there...

'Give to me your paraphernalia, take from me my Lace'

You might not be pumped for NBC's reinvention of American Gladiators, perhaps because it's a WWE-ified version of its former self? Whatever happened to Zap, Diamond, Nitro...?

Well, I don't know about the rest of them, but Los Angeles PD busted former Gladiator babe Lace for possession of drug paraphernalia last week.

Lace? Drugs? Gosh, the joke is almost too easy. Maybe Blaze will get busted for marijuana next week.

Lace, also known as Marisa Pare, was held on $250 bail.

RELATED LINKS:
"Gladiators, are you ready?"

Police: 'Olly olly oxen free!'

It was like a game of hide-and-seek when a group of burglars broke into a 21-year-old woman's Utah home Thursday morning.

The college student had just returned home from class when she saw the men, who had been scoping out homes that looked unoccupied, knocking her door. After she didn't answer, they broke in through a downstairs window. She ran upstairs, grabbed a cordless phone and hid in her closet to call 911, while the men ravaged her home.

Then, one burglar entered the closet where she was hiding, looking for anything valuable, and literally knocked into the woman's boots but did not see her.

When police arrived, they called out in the most cliche way possible: "Come out with your hands up," and the men, who had now gathered in the same room as the woman, grew frantic. One of the men scurried back into the closet, hiding right up next to the woman.

An officer entered to home and approaching the room, the woman fled the closet, yelling, "He's in here! He's in here!" when really she should have been yelling, "Tag, you're it!"

"He just kind of looked at me with this really confused face, like, 'What the hell?"' she said.

Adam Cloward, 22; Jake Hampton, 26; and Tony Cone, 19, were booked into the Salt Lake County Jail for investigation of various charges including aggravated burglary, theft and criminal mischief. All of the men were also either on parole or probation. Police also recovered two knives and brass knuckles from the men.

There's no crying in football!!

This weekend brought some upsets in the world of playoff football.

Unfortunately, the Patriots remained perfect, beating the Jacksonville Jaguars and advancing to next weekend's conference championship game.

But in better news... How 'bout them Giants?? Eli Manning, whom I thought was totally due for a catastrophic week after two impressive showings, somehow pulled it together and led the G-men to victory versus the favored Dallas Cowboys, 21-17.

The most buzzworthy news, however, came after the game when everyone's favorite a-hole wide receiver Terrell Owens cried like a baby over the inevitable media slaughtering of Tony Romo, saying with black glasses hiding his tear-filled eyes: "He's my teammate. He's my quarterback." Whaa, whaa. This is the same guy who blasted Eagles' quarterback Donovan Mcnabb every Sunday when he was in Philadelphia, fighting with Hugh Douglas in the locker room and doing sit-ups on his lawn? Suddenly, he's found God and decides to back his headcase of a QB?

Oh well, not like we'll be seeing him again this season, haaaahaaaaa. And for another good laugh, check out the clip.



So it's Giants v. Packers, Patriots v. San Diego (who upset the Colts 28-24 yesterday).\

Super Bowl predictions anyone?

TGIweekend

Hey, if beer pong has lost its jazz after 10 years of playing with the same group of people, perhaps you can try some mastery of the sport.

Check out this video of a skateboarder with arguably too much time on his hands. Some, or rather, most of these tricks are phenomenal, but please, if for some reason this is digitally mastered or completely fake, please let me know. It'd be like finding out Santa isn't real, but I'd still like to know so I can stop singing this guy's praises.

Watch and decide for yourself!

Stupid Cue-pids

Getting your head stuck between the bars on your stair railing is child's play: Two men in Prague had to be cut out of a pool table by a crew of firefighters.

The Czechs, who were playing billiards in the western Czech city of Karlovy Vary, stuck their arms into the table's pockets to search for a missing ball. At first they thought it was funny they couldn't initially get their arms out, but the men began to panic when they realized they were stuck...and also when they realized how embarrassing it is to be stuck in a pool table.

"Their trapped hands hurt them quite a bit. We have no clue at all how they could become stuck in there. In the end we had no other option but to dismantle the entire table." - a fire brigade spokesman.

"Gladiators, are you ready?"

Please, tell me you didn't miss the premiere of NBC's American Gladiators tonight.

The two-hour reinvention of the 90's classic aired tonight and introduced America to 14 new Gladiators ready to whoop on some short and comparatively scrawny contenders: Blast, Crush, Fury, Hellga, Siren, Stealth and Venom for the women, and Hammer, Justice, Mayhem, Militia, Titan, Toa and Wolf for the men.

A little fun fact: Titan is the only Gladiator to be on both the original and the remake of the series, and Toa is the cousin of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.

I was stoked for this show to start and tonight's double showing was entertaining, but honestly...it was a little too WWE for my taste. The extremely terrible overacting and audience singing "Nananana, hey hey hey, goodbye" every time someone fell into the water, sprinkled with the occasional heartfelt testimonial and shout out to the loving family, I felt like it was like fake-o wrestling meets Oprah Winfrey.

Also, I was pretty disappointed by how nice the female Gladiators were being. Don't shake that bitches hand--kick her while she's down!!

The 2008 American Gladiators leaves 1991 loyalists with much to be desired, but I was pleased to see the return of Assault (where contenders aim arrows and rockets at Gladiators while dodging 100-mph tennis ball shots) and the ever-popular Eliminator, which destroyed and embarrassed several of tonight's contenders.

I'm predicting the show probably won't last longer than this season (or until the strike ends), but for a shot of old school, cheesy, barbaric entertainment, check out the second part NBC's 2008 American Gladiators premiere tomorrow night at 8 p.m.

UPDATE: Titan appeared on a local radio show this morning saying that tonight's episode features a nice bone breaking - whoo hoo!

RELATED LINKS:
Reinventing Lace, Zap, Blaze and Laser

Interactive Tetris

In all the madness and obsession over Playstation 17 and Xbox180, honestly, I'm a little lost. Other than the Wii, I don't get why people are going nuts over these game systems.

I really miss the good 'ole days when I'd button mash and beat my brothers in Street Fighter, or come home and catch my parents playing Tetris anytime the console was free.

Yeah, Tetris... that was an awesome game, and if you happen to miss the game as much as I do, please watch this video of Human Tetris.



It's incredible, though I'm pretty sure I would totally dominate whoever is "playing" the game.

Reinventing Lace, Zap, Blaze, Laser...

Though the revival was announced back in August, a commercial during Sunday football brought a tear to my eye thinking about the countless hours I spent hoping to someday be on the greatest physical competition game show of the '90s: American Gladiators.
"We're not going to completely reinvent the wheel here, but we're making it better, faster and stronger," said an NBC exec. Is he going to credit Kanye West for those adjectives there?

NBC will be bringing back the hit show, which ran from 1989 to 1996. The new 'Gladiators' will follow eight gladiators (four male and four female) as they take on more regular-ish people. The spin, as NBC suggests, is that "players will be given the opportunity to train for their match -- and viewers will be given a glimpse of their personalities prior to the actual competish."

....Is that really an incentive to watch? What I really care about is if they're bringing back that hamster ball challenege, or if they're still going to use tennis balls in The Eliminator.

The show was set to tape this month, but because of the writer's strike, it's looking more like January of next year.

Critics are saying that NBC is sinking to new lows by bringing back the show, but honestly, I'm going to check it out. But I really hope they bring back Nitro and Diamond, and they're like, 45 years old and still whooping ass.

Kill some time for a cause

I apologize for the scarcity in posting; it's a busy life a journalist leads.

...But to kill time and improve your vocabulary while simultaneously feeding the hungry, visit this site. When you play the game, advertisements appear on the bottom of your screen. The money generated by these advertisements is then used to buy the rice. For each word you correctly identify, 10 grains of rice are given to the hungry.

Challenging game with worldly benefits - yum.

Bust-ed

An online poker room scandal has been busted open this week. Do not play poker at AbsolutePoker.com. I don't play online poker for money, but I find this story so interesting, especially the way the scandal was uncovered.