"oh, that's right . . ."

Grant Brisbee on Game 5 of 2011 World Series:

Let's say there's a guy with some known quirks and flaws. For La Russa, it's compulsive bullpenning and small ball. For the analogy, say it's a guy who is scared of spiders. Doesn't like spiders. Can't deal with spiders. Most of the time, no one cares too much. It's caused some embarrassment here and there, but that's about it.


Then one day, our arachnophobe is making a delivery to the Sistine Chapel while it's being restored, and he sees a spider, and he freaks out and jumps back right into the scaffolding, and the workers restoring the Sistine Chapel tumble down screaming, but not before someone, desperately grabbing at the air, knocks a can of paint up and it splatters all over The Last Judgment, and the scaffolding crashes into a heap with people flying everywhere, with the screaming, oh god, the screaming, and stained glass windows are shattering, and there are also banana cream pies flying everywhere because, oh, that's right, the guy who was scared of spiders was delivering banana cream pies at the time.

That was Game 5. It was the perfect storm to magnify Tony La Russa's strategic quirks. With two straight wins, everyone will forget about this. Without those wins, they're the story of the World Series.
 
http://mlb.sbnation.com/2011/10/25/2512429/2011-world-series-tony-la-russa-decisions-genius

Richard Stark: Simple and pure.

"Be right back honey." She twisted the last word like a knife.

Bad dreams.

Bad dream tonight, but a bad dream with some really cute baby chicks thrown in.

Favorite lyric from the band Andrew Jackson Jihad:

"Angels are hating on you."

One good thing about having a Mormon President: we'd have a First Lady, and a Second Lady, and a Third . . . .