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Thursday, October 16, 2003
What a game! Red Sox - Yankees, Pedro vs. Clemens, Game 7 - it was just as momentous as we were promised. I left work late, and by the time I got home the Red Sox were already up 4-0. "This game's practically over," I noted ruefully. I apparently wasn't paying attention to the lesson of the Cubs - Marlins game the night before: in the playoffs, no lead is safe. The last five outs are the hardest.
This game felt like a classic even as it was being played. In 15 years, the kids in the stands will be telling their own wide-eyed children that they were there in 2003, that they saw Todd Walker's amazing grab at the edge of the outfield, Giambi's two homers, Kevin Millar's stumble at first base, Posada's bloop double into center.
To me, this ability to create instant legend is what will always make baseball our national pastime. No other sport has so much weight. The game's pace and difficulty mean that the even the smallest details become important - the angle of a bat, the position of a finger - any of these could mean the difference between going home and going to the World Series, between a slow fade into obscurity and immortality on Little League fields everywhere.
Let's face it - Aaron Boone is not going to the Hall of Fame. He's not going to get a shoe endorsement deal, and he's not going to sign a lucrative multi-million dollar contract. There's a good chance that he'll be out of baseball altogether in a few years.
But none of that matters now, because his name has been written in the book. Tomorrow morning every kid in New York will be swinging a bat through the crisp fall air, pretending to be Aaron Boone lining an 11th inning first-pitch knuckleball into left field, the fans on their feet, cheering their unlikely hero. With one swing of the bat, one flick of the wrist, he's become a legend.
Is there anything in sports that's better than that? Can any other game even come close?
This game felt like a classic even as it was being played. In 15 years, the kids in the stands will be telling their own wide-eyed children that they were there in 2003, that they saw Todd Walker's amazing grab at the edge of the outfield, Giambi's two homers, Kevin Millar's stumble at first base, Posada's bloop double into center.
To me, this ability to create instant legend is what will always make baseball our national pastime. No other sport has so much weight. The game's pace and difficulty mean that the even the smallest details become important - the angle of a bat, the position of a finger - any of these could mean the difference between going home and going to the World Series, between a slow fade into obscurity and immortality on Little League fields everywhere.
Let's face it - Aaron Boone is not going to the Hall of Fame. He's not going to get a shoe endorsement deal, and he's not going to sign a lucrative multi-million dollar contract. There's a good chance that he'll be out of baseball altogether in a few years.
But none of that matters now, because his name has been written in the book. Tomorrow morning every kid in New York will be swinging a bat through the crisp fall air, pretending to be Aaron Boone lining an 11th inning first-pitch knuckleball into left field, the fans on their feet, cheering their unlikely hero. With one swing of the bat, one flick of the wrist, he's become a legend.
Is there anything in sports that's better than that? Can any other game even come close?
Monday, October 13, 2003
Holy crap:
Martial Arts Robots Hit Asian Tech Fair
You think this is a coincidence? Check out this quote:
To summarize: telekinetic monkeys are building an army of sumo wrestler assassin robots that they can control with their minds, with which they will subjugate humans and take over the world. This should probably come as a surprise to no one, I suppose, but I guess I always assumed that we'd be taken out by something more rodent-like - gun-toting badgers, perhaps, or squirrels in tiny fighter planes. I thought we were cool with the monkeys, but I guess not.
I guess I might as well start learning sign language; perhaps I'll be given a position of power in the new simian regime.
Thanks to j3zmund for this herald of our untimely demise.
Martial Arts Robots Hit Asian Tech Fair
You think this is a coincidence? Check out this quote:
"There are challenges in terms of mechanics still, but the biggest gap would be in intelligence," [Frederic Kaplan, Sony Robotics] told New Scientist.All they lack is intelligence? I think it's fairly clear what's going on here.
To summarize: telekinetic monkeys are building an army of sumo wrestler assassin robots that they can control with their minds, with which they will subjugate humans and take over the world. This should probably come as a surprise to no one, I suppose, but I guess I always assumed that we'd be taken out by something more rodent-like - gun-toting badgers, perhaps, or squirrels in tiny fighter planes. I thought we were cool with the monkeys, but I guess not.
I guess I might as well start learning sign language; perhaps I'll be given a position of power in the new simian regime.
Thanks to j3zmund for this herald of our untimely demise.
Uh oh:
Monkeys can move robotic arm with thoughts
This can't be good for us humans. We need to get some of those robot arms but quick, or else the monkeys are going to end up running the place. I saw that five-part documentary about what happened the last time they took over, and it was not pretty, believe you me.
Monkeys can move robotic arm with thoughts
This can't be good for us humans. We need to get some of those robot arms but quick, or else the monkeys are going to end up running the place. I saw that five-part documentary about what happened the last time they took over, and it was not pretty, believe you me.