"about 109,000"

Number of hits at Google for "cleveland indians" torture.

That ump who called Kenny out in the fifth will burn in a special section of hell.

Jack Roy, you sick commie-lovin' east coast wannabe, I'd root for the Rockies in 4 if I didn't think the Curse of Chief Wahoo would rub off and bring them tumbling the whole mile down.

Rooting for a team from Denver. It's like a guaranteed week of tasting hurl in my mouth.

Kenny Lofton's hand reaches second before the Dustin Pedroia tag but he was called out by umpire Brian Gorman as he tried to stretch a hit into a double in the 5th inning. John Kuntz/The Plain Dealer

Posted by anonyme at 9:57 PM 0 comments  

Not Wake Up

Go back to sleep, Jacky Boy.

PE-RRRRRRALTA!!!

Posted by anonyme at 7:10 AM 0 comments  

crossed several lines

... like the one from admiration-worthy to WTF are you thinking?

Still, looks like fun.

Still, insane.

Posted by anonyme at 7:08 AM 0 comments  

Obsession

Thank you, internets, for approprating more hours of my life.

Seriously, it's a wonderful site if you have any chess appreciation at all. I'm no chess master, but there's something that stokes my geek gene about watching the "immortal game" unfold, say, or viewing a reenactment of a classic Kasparov win.

But I got hooked when I stumbled (don't ask me how, I don't have any idea) onto this stunning endgame by Josh Waitzkin, of Searching for Bobby Fischer fame.

(And really, has there ever been a more likable dad than Joe Mantegna in this movie? Some relatively early great performances from Kingsley, Fishburne, Joan Allen, William H. Macy, Laura Linney -- damn, that was one hell of a cast! Also, apparently Josh is now some kind of martial arts champ too, which seems ... well, downright odd. But I digress excessively.)

You think I'm a total geek for encouraging you to go watch a chess game play out on a web page, and you're not far off, but it's really something. The game is moving along like anything ordinary and boring, and you're wondering why you keep clicking the show-me-the-next-move button, and then suddenly he's giving up his rook and his queen and you're wondering what the hell he's thinking. And then suddenly he's chasing down a five move checkmate. Like Emeril -- bam, bam, bam bam bam!

Then you go back and see that he had to see the whole thing at least eight moves out. Before the big sacrifices, he moves his knight into just the right spot to lay in wait all those moves -- it seems like an odd choice at the time -- and the next thing you know he's pretty much taunting his opponent into taking his rook to set up the rest. It comes out of nowhere, like classic Gretzky, or that damn Shot. (Pardon me while I recover. "[W]hile Ehlo crumples at the sideline" evokes one of the more upsetting memories my brain has been unable to purge.)

Now, ok, you could think setting up a checkmate eight moves ahead isn't too impressive for today's grandmasters. But, uh ...

Waitzkin was 12 at the time.

I'm just sayin'. It's a cool site.

Posted by anonyme at 7:30 PM 0 comments