The Yankees win it in six! 27 time world champs! All is right in the world tonight!

I don't know how many of you watched the World Series game last night. Needless to say it was a disappointment to me in that the Yankees lost.

And yet, to be able to watch pitching such as Cliff Lee delivered last night was a really bittersweet pleasure. He just dominated. His fielding was positively insouciant, as well.

It's been a long time since I've seen pitching like that in a World Series game.

That being said, the Fox Sports anchors were positively wretched, as they have been throughout the playoffs.

Tonight is game two. Go Yankees!

Yankees in a walk-off win over the Angels: 5-2! Advance to 40th World Series!

Richard B. has some comments on the upcoming series, here.

Here's why you, too, should be a Yankees fan:

Are Yankees fans also Barack Obama supporters? The Yankees have won eight world championships during Democratic administrations in the past 50 years but haven't won a title with a Republican in office since Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1958. Since then, the Yankees have won titles during the terms of John F. Kennedy (1961-62), Jimmy Carter (1977-78) and Bill Clinton (1996, 1998-2000).

Heh!

Nota bene: If you're a hater, a Yankees hater that is, then you'll enjoy this very funny post.

The Stanley Cup checked into the lodge tonight. The cup is gorgeous and weighs a ton. A drunk asked the nice minder if he could see it and then tried to grab it - almost dropped it! Some kids parents!

Peter N. Spotts | Grand Junction, CO | October 21

CSM - From a rock formation near Grand Junction, Colo., comes a tale of a dainty dinosaur.

Meet Fruitadens haagarorum, though it might as well be called Fifi. It's roughly the length of a toy poodle and a fraction of its weight.

It's the smallest dinosaur ever found in North America, according to an international team of scientists formally describing the creature this week. It stretches some 29 inches from beak to tail. In its day, it would have weighed in at just under two pounds.

We live in an age of sports immortals. Men like Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, and Roger Federer, and women like Serena Williams, have not only thoroughly dominated their sport, they have set records which will last for a very long time – possibly forever. What they have in common is a rare combination of athletic grace and unwavering determination to win. These are athletes who are noted for making everything look easy, when in fact they put in hours of work each day to accomplish just this illusion.

Three of the four are still performing and gave wonderful examples this week of what makes them so extraordinary. Tiger Woods completely dominated the field in a victory at the BMW Championship, part of the playoffs for the FedEx Cup that caps off the PGA Tour. Roger Federer displayed some unusual brilliance at the US Open this week, and then in the finals failed to show anything of his normal form as he lost to a newcomer, Juan Martin del Potro. Still, people will be talking about this tournament as the one Federer lost, just as they will be discussing the mental collapse of Serena Williams in her pursuit of yet another US Open title.

Michael Jordan is retired from basketball but was in the news this week with some illuminating comments, so let’s begin with him.

My alma mater pulled off a massive upset tonight beating #5 ranked OSU by ten points. It was a wicked game. From the Houston Chronicle:

They showed the heart of a champion, the toughness of a champion and the resolve of a champion. If you don't remember anything else about their 45-35 victory over fifth-ranked Oklahoma State on Saturday afternoon in Stillwater, remember that

It reminds me of the day when Andre Ware won the Heisman Trophy back in the late eighties and early nineties, the days of the run and gun offense. At this point, it doesn't really matter what Houston does the rest of the year. This is a very real victory to savor. Makes college ball fun again, too! It's been a long time since sports were this fun. The Yankees look great. U of H Cougars looking good. Maybe the Dallas Cowboys will do something this year too? Talk about a trifecta!

Derek Jeter topped Gehrig's 70 year old record tonight. It couldn't have happened, or been earned by a classier guy.

From the Times:

On a drizzly Friday night at Yankee Stadium, Jeter’s graceful grind through 15 seasons vaulted him past Gehrig, his storied predecessor as team captain. Gehrig held the record for more than 70 years, until Jeter’s 2,722nd hit skipped past Gehrig’s old position, first base, for a single.

You just gotta love baseball, the history, the lore and the sweetness of the perfect game.

And you can bet I will be wearing my Jeter jersey all day tomorrow.

...nothing seems to reveal your inner truth like the story of Caster Semenya..

Read her tale, come back here, and by saying what the IAAF should do now... reveal the dark core of your gender politics.

Derek Jeter had a night to remember last night, tying Lou Gehrig's 70 year old Yankee's hit record. On top of that the Yankees are ahead of the Sox by 9 games. Looks like 2009 is going to be the year of the Yankees!

It's pretty clear, that with three yellow cards awarded to US starters, the refs have been bought off by the cartels. Nat is right about corruption down there!

Regardless, Fútbol si, se puede!

Crap, 80 minutes in and Mexico scores: 2-1.

The US Men's soccer team is 0-22-1 all time when playing in Mexico. Here's hoping they beat the jinx today and beat the snot out of the Mexicans. After last month's 0-5 defeat we need a win!

This is one futbol game I would love to attend.

And if you don't like futbol, bite me. The rest of the world plays it, for good reason. It's a splendid game. My team is Besiktas in Istanbul, but hey, I'll take Team USA in a pinch any day.

Travis Lupik | Vancouver | July 28

Georgia Strait - What are Canadian Security Intelligence Service’s plans for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games? And—perhaps the more pressing question—what are they up to in Vancouver right now in relation to the Games?

Gennady Fyodorov | Moscow | Aug 4

Reuters - Russian soccer fans have been told to drink whisky on their trip to Wales for next month's World Cup qualifier to ward off the H1N1 swine flu virus, the head of the country's supporter association (VOB) said Monday.

"We urge our fans to drink a lot of Welsh whisky as a form of disinfection," VOB head Alexander Shprygin told Reuters.

"That should cure all symptoms of the disease."

Russia's Health Ministry has issued a public warning against traveling to Britain because of the spread of the H1N1 virus but Shprygin said he expected at least several hundred fans would go to Wales for the September 9 qualifier in Cardiff.

"Health officials say this virus is very dangerous but being a fan myself I can tell you that for a real fan nothing is more important than the well-being of the team," said Shprygin, who also sits on the executive board of the Russian FA.

"Russian fans don't fear anything or anybody so this virus will not stand in our way of supporting our team."

I think this qualifies as *OUCH*....

Tania Branigan | Beijing | August 12

The Guardian - When nine-year-old Lin Miaoke launched into Ode to the Motherland at the Olympic opening ceremony, she became an instant star.

"Tiny singer wins heart of nation," China Daily sighed; "Little girl sings, impresses the world," gushed another headline, perhaps in reference to Lin's appearance on the front of the New York Times. Countless articles lauded the girl in the red dress who "lent her voice" to the occasion.

But now it emerges that Lin lent someone else's voice, following high-level discussions - which included a member of the Politburo - on the relative photogenicity of small children.

The Olympics start in a few hours. I won't be watching, in case you were wondering. I'm going to watch "Shawshank Redemption" on my iPod and also finish watching the final season of Deadwood. It's Friday and I'm still not quite up to going out and carrying on, so I'll just hang out in my flat tonight. I'm sure someone will SMS me if something important is happening. Yawn.

Jack Chang | August 7

McClatchy - While China has billed the 2008 Summer Games starting Friday as the coming-out party of a new world power, the United States enters the 18-day competition struggling to stay on top both in athletics and on the world stage. Many observers are predicting a second-place U.S. finish in the total medals count, a result that would be seen by many as symbolic of a shift in the global balance of power.

August 7

Reuters -
Green Bay have agreed to trade veteran quarterback Brett Favre to the New York Jets, the Packers confirmed on their website on Wednesday. The announcement of the deal brings an end to a drawn out tussle between Favre and the team he served for 16 seasons over his playing status after the 38-year-old made a bid to return to action after announcing his retirement in March.

That quadrennial nationalistic orgy known as the Olympics is once again upon us. Exactly what the Olympics are about has always been a touch unclear. This year’s extravaganza – if that is a good enough word for something that costs $17 billion – has the snappy motto “One World One Dream.” Maybe this means something in Chinese. In English it might as easily translate to “One World – One Can Only Dream.”

Of course, the Olympics are supposed to be about amateur athletes competing on the world stage. Ha ha ha. The host country has been snatching promising children away from their parents for at least a decade, locking them up in training facilities where they work out seven days a week, and letting them know that only gold medals are acceptable performance. That well known amateur basketball player Yao Ming will be leading the Chinese team, and the U.S. will again be recruiting their basketball players from the NBA.

This is just dumb. First, it's a slap in the face of the Chinese and the pride they as a nation are justifiably taking in hosting the games.

Two, as the Times notes:

The Chinese and the International Olympic Committee, including Arne Ljungqvist, chair of the I.O.C. medical commission, have repeatedly said that athletes were not at risk because of the air quality here.

During a previously scheduled news conference Tuesday night, Ljungqvist dismissed the athletes’ actions as unnecessary.

“I don’t see the need for it, honestly,” Ljungqvist said of the masks, although he noted that some athletes with respiratory conditions may need to wear them.

So, unless all the American cyclists have respiratory conditions then there just isn't any need. Don't American athletes have any sense of political propriety, or rather just good manners?

This is really saddening. It really breaks my heart to hear of this, and to know this is happening in a city I have very strong feelings for. From the article:

On Monday morning, Xinhua, the state news agency, reported what appeared to be the deadliest assault against Chinese security forces in recent memory: 16 policemen were killed and 16 others injured when attackers threw two grenades into a police station in the desert oasis town of Kashgar, in the far west, after driving a truck into the station at 8 a.m. Two men were arrested.

I can't say, however, that I am surprised. This would be the best chance the Uighur's would ever have to draw any serious news coverage to their plight--and a valid plight it is, what with the Chinese boot firmly lodged at their throats for so long and so hard. But what pains me the most is that this attention getting is being done the worst possible way at the worst possible time. They won't elicit any sympathy from anyone, no matter how deserved. The killing of innocents never does. Even if they are policemen, and in some sense legitimate targets. I still don't understand why people don't just lay down in the middle of the road sometimes. What power a protest like that would portray? Don't we all remember the lone man stopping a column of tanks in Beijing in 1989?

Stephen McGinty | Aug 2

Scotsman - THE Little Red Book, the sayings of Chairman Mao, has been replaced by a little red booklet that instructs Beijing's residents how to act and dress ahead of next week's Olympics.

** Don't mix more than three colours

** Do shake hands for three seconds only

** Don't wear your pyjamas in public

Like a totalitarian version of Trinny and Susannah, Zheng Mojie, deputy director of the Office of Capital Spiritual Civilisation Construction Commission, has penned a booklet posted to four million Beijing households stating acceptable standards of dress and behaviour.

July 30

dpa - The chairman of the International Olympic Committee's press commission, Kevan Gosper, has said he was 'disappointed' that the Chinese authorities were blocking websites deemed sensitive, but that the IOC cannot tell China what to do, according to a report in the South China Morning Post Wednesday.

Gosper's statements to the newspaper indicate the IOC apparently knew in advance that the websites would be blocked, despite having told the international media that the estimated 25,000 journalists who are in Beijing already or will arrive in coming days to report about the 2008 Olympic Games would be granted unfettered access.

'I have also been advised that some of the IOC officials had negotiated with the Chinese that some sensitive sites would be blocked,' the Hong Kong-based newspaper quoted Gosper saying.

'I would like it all to be open. I am not here to defend the Chinese decisions. I am here to ensure journalists can report on the Games. I am disappointed the access is not wider. But I can't tell the Chinese what to do,' Gosper said.