Hardball Heaven

Now, if I had bet on things like 'Prince will open with 'Let's Go Crazy' I'd be doing alright. Unfortunately, I did not - and I was one of many thousands of Americans who lost an opportunity to win some square money when Adam Vinatieri missed that chip shot right before the half. Traitor Bastard. Honestly, the greatest clutch kicker in the history of the world is lining up a 20-something yarder, and I'm thinking it's okay to start wondering how I'll spend my 250 clams and not tell my wife about it. And then he pulls a Rich Karliss on me. Another bastard from my past. Bare-footed, even. But, as my Mom always told me, there are people worse off than me. Just got off the phone with my Dad and he lost $500 on the missed FG. And then he told me the waitress at the place he's at lost $1000. So I'm calming down.

Colts lead a rainy, mistake-filled game 16-14. I actually feel bad for the teams and fans that have to sit through this - they had gorgeous weather all week long, and now it's raining pretty good and nobody can hold onto the pigskin. Actually, screw that - I almost did a split on ice this morning in my driveway and I can't feel my toes right now. They can deal with some wussy showers.

By the way, allow me a quick media commentary note. I was an early reader of Bill Simmons, ESPN's Sports Guy, back when he used to send around 'live diary' emails of Patriots games. He was really good back in the day, and he pioneered the sports blog on his old Digital City Boston website. He's since gone on to greener ($$) pastures, and good for him. When he's on, he's one of the best. But I have to say, his coverage this week in Miami has been absolutely lame. He's written a column every two or three days, and the submissions have been half-assed. Walking around radio row. Some observations on Miami. How him and his old intern bumped into Anna Kournikova at a party. It's almost like something happened to him down there - maybe one of his patented colds or the sniffles or something set in. Warrants mentioning. For some good yuks, check out his Wikipedia page, which some ingenious sole took the time to write (I claim credit for the first line of the second paragraph - seriously).