A Job I Am Glad I Do Not Have

Much as I enjoy baseball and, in particular, Cardinals baseball, I really really would not want to be a baseball beat reporter. Here's one reason why. If, like me, you find it too painful to sit through the entirety of this video, just skip to about the last thirty seconds. The look on the guy's face at the very end is priceless.

And on a related note:
"...what LaRussa has on other pantheon managers is that he's the only one whose car keys Buzz Bissinger has tried to take after a scotch-y night at a Macaroni Grill in suburban Houston."

Also, for the record, I respect LaRussa's accomplishments, generally approve of his managerial style, and admire the good work he does for animals. Don't want to be lumped in with the LaRussa haters, of which there are plenty.

Three Sides: One Too Many?

I haven't watched all that much soccer in my life, but the other night's Arsenal-Newcastle United match was one of the wildest, most improbably entertaining I've ever seen.  3-0 Arsenal after ten minutes, 4-0 at the half, and it ends in a draw?!?!  The shots of Newcastle fan reactions at the high and low points (including some early, thoroughly disgusted walkouts) were priceless.

As great as that match was, my main reason for posting about "the beautiful game" is my discovery of something called "3-sided football".  According to the Wikipedia entry, this three-team, three-goal variant is associated with situationists and psychogeographers and, while theoretically interesting, is perhaps a bit less than beautiful in actual practice. You can read a very fine account of a match here, including a description of an "orgy of free-scoring libertarian collectivism".

Somebody at Slate Thinks Green Bay is in Florida

...and doesn't know how to spell Pittsburgh.  From this morning's Slatest newsletter roundup of the day's top stories:

Green Bay Packers Triumph at Super Bowl
The Florida team took down the Pittsburg Steelers 31-25.

Both errors have since been corrected on the site, but fortunately the newsletter made it to my inbox in its original, much more amusing form.  To be fair, I'm sure this is someone working very early in the morning for very little money.  Still funny, though.