What it would look like if I played baseball

If there is one sport that I would be horrible at more than any other, it is baseball. I'm not the best at throwing, catching or hitting. But I can run.

Anyway, if I were to play baseball, it would most likely look something like the Not Web Gems from ESPN's Baseball Tonight:

Report: 90% Of Waking Hours Spent Staring At Glowing Rectangles

From The Onion:

"From the moment they wake up in the morning, to the moment they lose consciousness at night, Americans are in near-constant visual contact with bright, pulsating rectangles," said Dr. Richard Menken, lead author of the report, looking up briefly from the gleaming quadrangle that sits on his desk. "In fact, it's hard to find a single minute during which the American public is not completely captivated by these shining…these dazzling…."

"I'm sorry," Menken continued. "What were we discussing again?"

America's Finest News Source indeed.

Why it is alright to hate Rossi

From Soccer By Ives:

Most U.S. fans don't hate Rossi simply because he didn't choose to play fo the USA, the hate stems from the fact that Rossi is a special talent, a once-in-a-generation player who has qualities never seen in an American player before. If it were simply about not playing for the USA then Americans fans would have much more hate for Edgar Castillo, who not only chose another country but chose arch-rival Mexico. As it stands, Castillo goes largely ignored by American fans, an afterthought who only recently came back into the picture now that a FIFA rule change could allow him to play for the United States.

Rossi scored two goals for Italy against the United States yesterday. Italy won 3-1.

Mayne Street is hilarious

This week's edition:

Facebook has more US users than MySpace

I have hated MySpace for a long time now. I prefer Facebook, and it appears that many Americans feel the same way as I do.

From the Los Angeles Times:

Facebook Inc., after eclipsing MySpace in global users last year, now leads its social-networking rival in the U.S. as well, according to research firm ComScore Inc.

The Palo Alto, Calif., company had 70.28 million U.S. users last month, topping MySpace's 70.26 million, ComScore said. Facebook's users almost doubled from a year earlier, while MySpace lost 5%.

Facebook has more than 300 million users worldwide.

Rick Reilly is an idiot

I wrote before that Rick Reilly is a horrible writer. He also is an idiot because he has no idea why people dislike Kobe Bryant.

And talking about the fact that people dislike Kobe, Reilly writes, "John Stockton makes Bryant look like a stand-up comedian and nobody hates on him."

That's because John Stockton wasn't unlikable -- he wasn't likable either, but he wasn't unlikable. He was (not talking about his skin color, I promise), vanilla.

People is actively unlikeable. He's hateable. That's why nearly everyone who isn't a Lakers fan isn't happy that Kobe won his first non-Shaq title.

If only Reilly, arguably the biggest sports columnist in the United States, would realize this. But in addition to being such a very successful columnist, Reilly is an unabashed and unrepentant Kobe lover and apologist.

YouTube is popular, but a horrible business

From Business Insider:

Goldman Sachs analyst James Mitchell projects that both the iPhone and Kindle stores will generate more gross revenue than YouTube this year. And Apple's net revenue -- the 30% it takes from transactions -- could overtake YouTube in 2010, he predicts. (And that's not even including the hardware sales these products generate, which is a major reason these stores -- especially Apple's -- exist in the first place.)

In other words, though YouTube is an insanely popular website, it isn't so successful as a business.

Lakers win championship; fans riot, loot

While there is rioting going on in Iran, there was also some unrest going down in Los Angeles, but for a vastly different reason. The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Orlando Magic and the fans went around lighting fires and looting in celebration.

On one hand, I have to wonder what point it is for people to light things on fire when celebrating. On the other hand, I want to be in a city when they win the championship just to witness it.

But some people in the city surely wish they weren't in the city -- like this sneaker shop owner.

Torres and his girlfriend entered through the back door and saw the storage room all but empty. Fewer than 20 pairs of shoes were left out of the 800 pairs they had in stock. The floor was littered with receipts, price tags, tissue paper and crumpled-up shoe boxes.

Torres’ eyes grew teary at the sight. Neighbors told them the revelers had gone to the back of the store, and pulled and pulled at the white metal door until it broke open, all the while chanting: “We want shoes, we want shoes.” Glass display cases had been shattered. Two computers, cash, sunglasses and hats were also looted.

“It makes me not want to be a basketball fan,” Torres said, adding that he opened the store near the Staples Center in November 2007 because he was a fan and thought the post-game crowd would be the right clientele for his consignment sneakers.

I'm a better writer than this guy

I don't consider myself to be a great writer. I just start typing on my keyboard while leaning back and looking up at my monitor and hope that it comes out as something other than gibberish.

But, man, this guy's tribute to his dad on his dad's birthday ten years ago sounds like something written for a children's book:

Dad loves the outdoors. He often took me fishing when I was a kid. We'd go fishing for bluefish off the coast of Maine. I learned the skills of fishing from listening to him, and the joy of fishing from watching him. Dad's a good hunter, too, and one Christmas he gave me a shotgun, a .410. I would go with him to Louisiana to shoot ducks. Those are fond memories.

So who is it? Former President George W. Bush writing about his father, former President George HW Bush.

Top 7 most expensive bottles of alcohol

I'm just sayin' -- my birthday is coming up in a month.

The most expensive bottles of alcohol:

$75,000 - The Macallan Fine and Rare Collection, 1926, 62 Years OldOriginally listed at $38,000, a bottle was sold to a South Korean businessman in 2005 for $75,000.

The oldest and most sought-after of Macallan’s revolutionary Fine & Rare Collection is now sold out. It is still possible to taste this totally unique Scotch whisky at the Old Homestead Steakhouse in the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City, N.J. However, it sells for a nosebleed-inducing $3,300 per dram (1/8th of an ounce/shot). I could create a separate list of better things to do with $3,300.
And I thought I was crazy when I bought two lowballs of Johnnie Walker Blue for $30 each…

And that's just number five.

Via @peter770