While I'm nitpicking the ESPN frontpage...

I'm a writer professionally, and have been for nearly three years. Admittedly a brief period, especially for someone plying a creative trade, nevertheless my opinion counts. So everyday, when I go to the ESPN front page and see something like this:

Why is everyone now noticeing Indians' TEAMWORK? It's how they got this far the whole year.

it makes me a little queasy. Why? Because Joe Sixpack here writing under the nom de plume OkinawaMarine has just been published at a more prestigious media outlet than I ever have, and all that within forty minutes of getting out of bed, and the guy is most likely on his second beer.

And let's talk about spelling. Where in Hell is the Ombudsman during all this? Le Ann Schreiber, get on the damn ball. I know our society is all about constant connectedness and armchair speculation, but for the love of God, let's at least put a spell check in there before you get your 15 minutes.

Also, I'd like to use this space to nominate Ian Frank as the official Norwood House Ombudsman. Vote in the comments section.

This just feels more racist than the logo.

• AP Photo/Tony Dejak

Am I wrong? It's like if there was a baseball team called the Brooklyn Black Guys and my roommate and I showed up to the game looking like Amos and Andy.
Not that I have a leg to stand on as a Seminoles fan, but this here just seems more egregious.

Seriously guys...

I think Dave should add a small wrinkle to each week's Pick 'em Challenge. Since he obviously has the time and the enthusiasm, I would love to see where we all stand (week-by-week and overall) if there was real money on the line. Choose an amount to bet on each game or pick a constant amount for each week. Say $20 per game. I guess you could choose to bet more or less on each game, but that seems very complicated to keep track of.

I think there are several good reasons to do this, not the least of which being a demonstration of the pure risk one takes when putting down real money. Also it would show how hard it is to dig out of gambling debt.

But, more to the point it would emphasize how much I'm HOUSING you all at this.

Vote YES on Dave wasting more time at work ...I think he's earned it.

According to my "365 Sports facts a year" calendar...

Today is Kordell Stewart AND Tim McCarver's birthday.
Come to think of it Ian, I would love to see THOSE two guys announce the National Spelling Bee.
That would be amazing.

This is my baseball post.

1) Michael, we need some background on Dusty. Give us some perspective. I want to know what it's like to have this toothpick-chewer planting his butt on the home bench.

2) An interesting note about Hank and Hal Steinbrenner that I was thinking about this afternoon. Steinbrenner's daughter recently got divorced. That in itself is not that big a deal, except for the fact that her husband used to be an heir-apparent to a president of baseball operations-type position.
It's possible and even likely they'd been having marrital trouble for some time. Do we think the Boss hung in the saddle longer than he wanted to because he didn't want to risk turning over any portion of control to a man who he feared wouldn't be in his family permanently?

If that's the case, could we find quantifiable evidence that this "Carlo" Steinbrenner's marital habits were actually in some way affecting the performance of the team, by making George hold on even when his heart wasn't in it?

It's an interesting thing to think about. Did a bad marriage sink the Yanks for the better part of this decade?

I just want to be the one who posts this.

If the college football season ended today, Ohio State would play South Florida for the National Championship.

At this point, niether man nor god could convince me that the universe has not gone completely batshit insane.

Having said that, I'm totally in favor of South Florida running the table and getting a shot at the title. I love the idea that a decade-old program could have the ultimate success the same year that the most storied program in the history of the sport is having a historically abysmal season (no offense, Michael).

Anyone else want to see the Golden Calves win all the titty beads?

Who's On This Week?

Do you ever wonder why certain NFL games are shown in certain cities? Do you wonder which game you or the majority of the country will get to see this week? For those of us who don't have the Sunday Ticket (giving that up was one of the toughest decisions I've ever made), this website is invaluable to learning more about how the decisions to show certain games are configured.

http://www.the506.com/nflmaps/

Points of note:

Local affiliation trumps all.
National game of interest usually carries.
Games involving your team's rivals (usually in division).

But then, there's a funny fourth category: where a star may have played high school or college football. There's always a shred of red in the map in Southern Mississippi, that carries Bret Favre's Packers games more reliably than Milwaukee. Knoxville, TN has an affinity for Peyton and the Colts. As Ian can tell you, you used to not go anywhere on a fall Sunday in Danville without seeing local-boy Tim Couch's Browns on TV (and he was just holding a clipboard!).

Anyway, hope you enjoy this an interesting and useful resource.