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There’s a hole in my heart shaped like Lou Piniella’s dome. I know baseball is coming back, but that’s what they said about my old dog Chuck. Chuck didn’t come back, and until baseball does, I will lament.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n The Phillies ended their manufactured curse of 100<\/b><\/span> in a heroic, albeit staggered World Series victory last week. Philadelphia professional sports (Phillies, Eagles, Flyers, and 76ers) had amassed twenty-five seasons<\/b><\/span> of no hardware, close-but-no-cheese-steak frustration—hence the century mark tag put next to Philly’s woeful quarter-century<\/b><\/span> of sports. I’m no longer jaded with baseball’s insatiable fascination with the “story”;<\/b><\/span> theoretically the reason why the fan should give a damn, and usually the angle the purists couldn’t give two poops<\/b><\/span> about. The truth remains that baseball needs the Disneyfication<\/b><\/span> factor. When the sport can’t play day games on the weekend because of midseason, often meaningless football games, it needs all the help<\/b><\/span> it can storyboard.<\/span><\/p>\n So I’ll keep vomiting<\/b><\/span> every time Joe Buck shouts, “The curse is broken! They’ve done it, they’ve done it! The curse is broken!” For the good of the game, the Leaguer will vomit. For the good of the game.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n But I digress. I actually enjoyed this series despite its brevity. The precocious Rays <\/b><\/span>had me believing, so much that I mowed the lawn last weekend after ten years of not mowing the lawn. I’ve been inspired.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n My mom wonders why I didn’t come out more like Cole Hamels<\/b><\/span>—talented, well spoken, handsome, shaved—and predicts consecutive twenty-win seasons from him in the near future. She also posits that the DH blows.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n To Campus:<\/span><\/p>\n Texas Tech over top ranked Texas. Another Big 12 on Big 12 blockbuster. Ho hum<\/b><\/span>. TBL is crazy and is thus justified in saying Texas, and the entire Big 12 for that matter, is either overrated or laughably untested<\/b><\/span>. Or both. More on that next week.<\/span><\/p>\n