Why the Baseball Playoffs Rule
There are a whole bunch of reasons why I prefer baseball over most other sports. And there are a few sports that I just can't even watch at all, the most notable being basketball.

First, why I dislike basketball. And no, it has little to do with Kobe Bryant raping (oh sorry, allegedly raping) the 19 year old hotel worker. But, in a way it does. Basketball is a game of showboating, its a sport where it doesn't matter how the ball goes through the hoop, its always worth 1, 2 or 3 points depending on the situation.
And sure, there are moments when celebration is warranted, like when you've won a championship or a buzzer beater to win the game. But the vast majority of points are just way stations on the road to the 110-109 victories. And dunking, while its marginally interesting to watch (assuming the watch-paint-dry channel is down for some reason) its just an extension of the look-at-me-ism of the sport. Its not a team sport although there are always five guys out there on the court. Its a sport for mutant giant freaks who would most likely end up in jail if they didn't possess a boatload of athletic talent. Its a ghetto sport, its a game for thugs, its the drug dealer's past time, its just wholly uninteresting to me.

And they have the lamest playoff arrangement ever. How many teams in the league don't make the playoffs? One in each division? Something ridiculous like that? How can that be the run to the championship when damn near every team makes it in to the post season? And yeah, I may be off by a bit on the number of teams that make the post season, I've not been paying any attention to basketball (with the exception of enjoying the spectacle of Kobe's blunder and whoever is the next NBA star to fuck himself up by thinking with his pecker instead of the little hamster in the wheel in his head), so hey, if I get some facts wrong, set me straight or don't. It won't change my dislike for the sport one iota.

Take baseball as a counter-example. In baseball there are two leagues, American and National and in each league there are three divisions, East, West and Central (this will change soon but for now its valid). How many teams make it into the playoffs? Eight. The divisional winners for six and then the two remaining spots are wild cards, the teams with the next best records in each of the leagues. Eight teams into the post season out of, what, 30? Now that's a playoff race. Not all but the crappiest of the crappy.

Baseball's playoffs also feature absolute top tier pitching matchups. The stuff of dreams for baseball fans. Clemens against Zito. Schmidt against Schilling. Super star pitching stud against super star pitching stud.

Basketball will feature bottom of the barrel scrapers against teams with ten times the payroll for a three game blowout extravaganza that shows almost no skill, just the chasm between the teams with money and those without. Its not even good sport either.

The best sport in the playoffs, in my book, is in hockey. Everyone's hungry, everyone's playing at their best. Passes are crisp, shots are like rockets, the fights are more intense (and yes, I like the fighting in hockey but that's another post for another time) and the games have a palpable intensity, even through the television. Another cool thing (literally) about hockey is that, at games, you can cheer like mad and not get overheated because of the chilled arena and the ice. Its kind of nice!

The skinny is that I'm jacked for the playoffs for baseball. Jacked because both the Giants and the A's are in it again this year and there's a chance of a bridge series again (though the last time the two teams met in the World Series, the earth quite literally shook). But its just a good time to be a fan and I'm looking forward to the next few weeks and maybe this time Felipe can suceed where Dusty flailed.

In Nauseating Food News
Welcome to Texas! The state where they will and do deep fry anything and everything. Because if it tastes alright normally then it'll be downright smackalicious when its battered and then deep fried in oil. The latest gnarliness to succumb to the fat fryer? Oreos. Oh yeah, to heck with giving a damn about arterial plagues, about heart disease, about being able to see your feet. To hell with it all in the name of more consumable fat.
Texas-Fried Oreos, Anyone? and how about a pic to chew on too?
But wait, they are concerned for your well being, just check out this story excerpt, "Skip Fletcher, the head of the company called Fletcher's that has been selling corny dogs at the fair for over 60 years, said he uses peanut oil to fry the food in order to cut down on cholesterol.". See now, they want you to live longer so you can chow down on more outrageously terrible for you foods.

If you can eat then they'll deep fry it for you first. Which makes me wonder, would people eat deep fried dog food? What about deep fried chew toys? How about deep fried pizza? Or deep fried grapes? The list goes on and on into endless and exceedingly fat perpetuity.

And fat buggers wonder why they can't lose weight? Its because you're eating lard and fat, you morons. Oreos are evil transfatty poison cookies, try them deep fried and you get double to bonus fat fucking.

P and I were out shopping the other day and came across a family of overweight people, they had a small kid of about 2 years old who was already just bursting at the seams. Its sad because they'll never know the joy of bombing down hills on a bike, they'll never know the pleasure of a strong and fit body. They'll only know the momentary pleasure of another deep fried fatling crossing their wattling palates.

And let's not even do anything but scratch the whole surface of the Eating contests. Why do people hate America? Because there are millions of people all around the world right now who are dying of hunger and then we have these grotesque displays of food waste? World Champion Eater is what it says on these fat bastards shirts and the only thing about them that's world champion is their ass size and the impacted fat between their ear holes. How wrong is it to have contest for literally stuffing one's face as full as possible as quickly as possible when there are people going to bed hungry again and again. No wonder our nation is so hated the world over.