it's...

I'll take the physical challenge...

They did it! The Rays won the American League pennant. Joe Maddon is mumbling something about "nine equaling one." Sure. Why not. Black is white. Bad is good. Tampa Bay is this year's mecca for October baseball. 9=1, the new math. An improvement from 9=4, and 9=8 that proceeded it. This team is a group of the most lovable idiots I've ever had the pleasure of rooting for.

Reasons to like the Rays (even though they're idiots):

• They are baseball geniuses. Joe Maddon is a great manager who flawlessly used his pitchers, did an exceptional job motivating players and keeping them loose. Team President Matt Silverman is a former Goldman Sachs guy. Among other smart moves he bought a baseball blogger for $535 in an auction.
  
• The "Ray-hawk". What kind of idiots decide that team-wide mohawks is a great way to inspire unity? They're setting a terrible example for the children. Thank god baseball players wear hats.
  
• A magical "worst to first story" in which they went from having the worst record in baseball to 97 wins this year and the second best record in baseball. It's the biggest change in baseball fortunes ever.
  
• The annual Jack/Mike Rays/Sox Game. Always good to see Mike and company. Baseball in Chicago in July/August is almost always a beautiful thing.
  
• Rocco Baldelli spending two years fighting injuries and a rare mitochondrial disorder that prevents him from properly regaining his strength after physical exertion, to come back at the end of the season to contribute.
  
• They let kids run the bases after (non-playoff) games. How awesome is that?
  
• They make Nate Silver look like a genius, using his PECOTA system to predict this success. And that's a good thing if you're happy he's predicting a 90+ percent chance Obama wins the election in two weeks.
  
• One sexy Longoria.
  
• The Rays can exorcise a curse. Cubs fans take note how they were able to drop
• Excellent Defense. Excellent brawlfense
  
• There was an organizational wide fine of $1 each time someone called them "Devil Rays" instead of Rays. Even a kid with cancer didn't get let off the hook for the $1 fine.
  
• When the Rays offense gets an opposing pitcher pulled during an inning, "Seven Nation Army" by the White Stripes is blasted through the speakers during the pitching change with fans chanting along.
  
• The fans in Tampa Bay are coming out to support them. It's taken a while, but would you enjoy watching a team as bad as the Rays were? Attendance jumped 30.4 percent this year, and will definitely match or exceed that next year.
  
• The Red Sox are the new "Evil Empire". They use their financial advantage to put together the best team money can buy (though they do it smartly) and the fans who just a few years ago were as loveable a loser as any cubs fan, now expect to win every series.
  
• A crocodile skin glove snagged the final out that sent them to the World Series.
  
• One seriously unhinged Aussie.
  
• Those 30 minutes at the trade deadline when Jason Bay was a Ray. It was so sweet, and so fleeting.
  
• Just like the team in Major League, the Rays are a team of castoffs, washouts and overlooked or under-appreciated players. (The Mohawk thing is starting to make sense.) Joe Maddon was passed over by the Red Sox to hire Terry Francona who he just beat. Carlos Pena was signed to the minimum salary last year. Dioner Navarre was the catching prospect the Dodgers didn't want (they kept Russell Martin). Garza and Bartlett came over for Delmon Young (whom everyone tabbed as the next great slugger). Aki Iwamura was the "other" Japanese free agent that no one bid much money for the year of the Dice-K sweepstakes (where the Red Sox paid $51,111,111.11 just to be able to negotiate a contract with him). I could go on and on. Well, except for David Price. Everyone wanted David Price. But this was such a team effort. They got (and needed) help from everyone on the roster.
  
• More Cowbell
  

It's all been just awesome. And so is this:

WORLD SERIES SCHEDULE
Gm 1 Phillies @ Rays Wed Oct. 22 8:00 PM FOX
Gm 2 Phillies @ Rays Thu Oct. 23 8:00 PM FOX
Gm 3 Rays @ Phillies Sat Oct. 25 8:00 PM FOX
Gm 4 Rays @ Phillies Sun Oct. 26 8:00 PM FOX
Gm 5* Rays @ Phillies Mon Oct. 27 8:00 PM FOX
Gm 6* Phillies @ Rays Wed Oct. 29 8:00 PM FOX
Gm 7* Phillies @ Rays Thu Oct. 30 8:00 PM FOX

Hat tip to Marc and Brendan and their Phillies. Should be a good series. But the Phillies are going to have to play out of their minds if they want to win. The Rays don't disappoint.

Last night I was starting to nod off a bit during the Presidential debate. It was all sort of a blur. But then it was brought to my attention that McCain was railing against earmarks and in particular a certain $3 million projector Obama requested.

Wait. What?

"$3 million for an overhead projector at a planetarium in Chicago, Ill. My friends, do we need to spend that kind of money?" asks John McCain.

My friends, there is one planetarium in Chicago, Ill., and that is the Adler planetarium, the oldest planetarium in the western hemisphere and among the premiere public outreach center for Astronomy and Science in America. (It also has the best view of Chicago.) It houses the world's leading collections of ancient cosmological instruments and is a national historic landmark we can all treasure.

My friends, I know the people who work at the Adler, and they live on Main St. and do not needlessly and recklessly waste tax payer money. All the money they receive and the countless volunteer hours goes to educating and inspiring children, the future of American competitiveness in science. They certainly do not ask for $3 million boondoggles. What was John McCain really talking about?

from the AP factcheck article:

THE FACTS: McCain's phrase suggests Obama spent $3 million on an old-fashioned piece of office equipment that projects charts and text on a wall screen. In fact, the money was for an overhaul of the theater system that projects images of stars and planets for educational shows at Chicago's Adler Planetarium. When he announced the $3 million earmark last year, Obama said the planetarium's 40-year-old projection system "has begun to fail, leaving the theater dark and groups of school students and other interested museum-goers without this very valuable and exciting learning experience."

So, there you go. Obama asked for $3 million for a national historic landmark and John McCain wants children to sit in the dark.

Really this story has been on the net because it plays to two memes that McCain is trying to put forth against Obama. First, all earmarks are bad and shouldn't be given out. If you are against earmarks -- and there are many many examples of great things and terrible things that earmarks have funded that could legitimize either side of that argument -- well then you probably won't think much of his VP selection, Sarah Palin, who acquired $27 million in earmarks from 2000-2003. That would be for Wasilla the small town she was mayor of at the time, not the state of Alaska.

The other issue/meme isn't about Obama asking for $3 million in 2008 to support a major improvement to a national historic landmark. It's that the planetarium chairman is Frank Clark, CEO of ComEd who reportedly raised $200,000 for Obama's campaign. This is the kind of thing that buys favor with politicians; and the meme they are trying to start is that Obama takes money (and by implication favors) from special interests. But let's put this in proper perspective. The Obama campaign has raised $456 million through August with more than $18 million from Chicago alone... and they're still counting. Personally, that much money wouldn't buy much favor with me if I was on pace to raise more than $500 million.

This earmark seems to me to be all about enriching Illinois and Chicago by supporting a national landmark. You can argue that the earmark system isn't the way to do it, but face reality, it's the way things like this are currently done. I think John McCain owes the dedicated people at Adler Planetarium an apology. Even better, Adler still hasn't received funding to repair/replace their projection system. How about a donation?

Don't stop bloggin' (even if you have to move your white sox column to DWblog).

I was doing so well all the way up to "OK, do you have a postdoc lined up?"
Doh!

but this will help...


Empire of the Sun, "Walking on a Dream"