Yep, that's my team.

The Rams reached a new level of futility on Sunday and it caught the eye of ESPN in a new way.

From the Possibly Unnecessary Department:

I recognize it's only a rumor, but: the Cubs now appear to be leading the chase for Jake Peavy. I'm just not sure why.

a) We have a dearth of good young pitching talent, which appears to be the Padres' goal.
b) The pitching staff last year was 2nd in the NL, behind the Dodgers.
c) The offense needs a lefty. (Hello, Adam Dunn?)
d) If Ryan Dempster's contract is going to be roughly in the same neighborhood, we can't upgrade the offense.

I recognize the desire to add starting pitching, but it isn't as though we need help getting TO the playoffs - which would be the point of strengthening the rotation, probably by dumping Marquis for Peavy. Unless you feel that Peavy is a 2-runs-or-fewer playoff pitcher, or Zambrano's going to break down, or Harden will break down again, or you're not going to sign Dempster, this move isn't a necessary one. Might not even be a good one. Sign Adam Dunn, swing whatever deal you need to for Brian Roberts (or any other qualified leadoff hitter that will allow Soriano to be moved out of the leadoff spot), slide Fukudome (or Edmonds, or Pie, or Reed Johnson. I really don't care) to center, and everyone's happy. Right?

Is it weird that I almost enjoy the baseball off-season more than the regular season?

Yee-Haw!!!!

And yet, NASCAR fans continue to try to get people like me to take the "sport" seriously.

http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/nascar/cup/news/story?id=3680567

A Challenger for Shawn Kemp's Throne?

Even for the South, this is extreme. 10 kids? Eight women? Does he walk around every day dressed up as a sperm bank, frat-boy-Halloween-costume-style? (As an aside, I'm in search of costume ideas that are school-appropriate... thoughts?)

It brought to mind this article from several years back. Is the bad press athletes get for issues like this not as bad as it used to be? Or is it just that Jason Caffey's a nobody who can't keep his pants on?

If he happens to go to prison for this, can we consider all these women de-Caffeynated?

Meanwhile, in Kazakhstan, Borat calls his travel agent

Adam, what can you tell us about this school? I don't think it would've come off quite as bad if they had included things like "Hit a Catholic Day," "Hit a 'Metrosexual' Day," and "Hit a Fat Girl Day."

Al Davis, meet Dale Tallon.

Four games.

Denis Savard, fired four games into '08.

I don't care how bad of a coach you are, nobody can tell you're bad enough to be fired in just four games. Especially Dale Tallon. Even Drinky Years-era Bob Probert would deserve more than four games behind the bench. If this is leftover trigger-pulling from last season, it should've been done over the summer to let the new guy install his systems. They built up all this good will since last winter, and go and spoil it by canning one of the most popular Blackhawks figures ever to wear the Indian. Worst of all, they hired a former St. Louis coach.

What? He's made the playoffs ten of his eleven seasons as head coach?

Fuck it, I'm on board.

Drought? What drought?

Like the NFL (or MLB) tells you when your team is crummy, a few off weeks (or an off century) is nothing...

Anyway, this made me laugh this morning. Lopsided high school football games AND a "Three Amigos" reference? Excellent.

Relatively-little-known trivia: Jefe was in Season Four of 24.