Awesomeness the World Over

Scott Rolen - As Good As We Expected, Except Better

The Scott Rolen bonerwagon picked up a few more members as the Manmountain hit an insurance home run, made a mind-bending play at third and generally did awesome stuff all day. Rance made the point that after his jack, the entire team seemed to relax, as though each guy realized he didn't have to do it all himself. I think they all realized that Scott Rolen is in fact Jesus, and will teach them to fish and lead them through to desert to Valhalla. Or something.

Shaun Marcum - Where is the ceiling?

Rance Mulliniks fell all over himself tonight offering effusive praise for Shaun Marcum's recent performance. He stated that while some pitchers may have better arms, nobody in the big leagues is a better "pitcher" than the shell-necklaced greaseball. It is hard to argue with the results.

Rick Ankiel to Resume Pitching, Requests Rubber Be Moved to Deep Center

He is an absolute animal. MLB's ironfisted approach to video prevents me from embedding it here, but you can see the freak of nature in action here. He also added a home run, giving him 6 on the year. More than any Blue Jay I will add for no real reason. Update - I cannot stress enough how great these throws are. I just watched them again, and I cannot believe the second throw occurred on our earth with its prevailing gravity.

Getaway Day - What the Starland Vocal Band was really singing about

Despite having the first inning or so preempted by Paul Maurice's scapegoating, Vin Scully came into my house and made my "sick" day much better. An 80 year old man calling a baseball game with NO COLOUR GUY! Simply amazing. He's been working for the Dodgers since 1950, when they were still in Brooklyn! 59 years is too long to live, let alone work for the same company. Wikipedia tells us that he makes in the neighbourhood of $3 million a year, which means that even if he wanted to, he couldn't afford to move back to Brooklyn. He still does an admirable job, and hopefully Jamie Campbell can steal something from his repertoire.

Brad Penny is gigantic, but took labouring to an entire new level this afternoon. I think David Wright is the loneliest guy in the league, for reasons that are my own. The guy that the Mets traded for Johna Santana hit for the cycle today. And that ain't not bad.

Fun with movies that were better when you were in high school

Chasing Amy is on in the background, a movie I thoroughly enjoyed in the halcyon days of my youth. Turns out, it sort of sucks! I say sort of sucks, because even back then, the second half was a dreadful bore of a love story. Sort of like Wedding Crashers, funny first act set pieces give way to mushy time wasting. A fun game to play when watching movies featuring actors who have gone on to much bigger things: "Who's had their teeth fixed?" The answer is "all of them".