YOU GET SPRUNG!

The weather around here today is sunny and near 75°, the birds are chirping, the Koreans are hitting the golf course, and Chicago Cubs pitchers Prior and Wood are already on the DL--IT MUST BE SPRING! Although we're losing an hour of sleep this Sunday, I'll gladly trade that in for more daylight in the evening to play golf and spend more time outside. Isn't that what it's all about?

Thanks to Statcounter, I put a free counter at the bottom of the left sidebar--it's hard to see, but trust me, it's there. Now I can see if anyone is actually visiting this site (it checks every 6 hours). It's currently in the negative, which is probably a bad sign. The only problem is that it wreaks havoc with the sidebar when viewing in Firefox, but not IE. The term "wreaks havoc" is funny, because you never hear the words separately. No one ever says "wreaks affection" or "causes havoc". Okay, you might hear the latter, but I don't know anything else that's "wreaked". Anyway, let me know if anything is "wreaked" on your browser.

I was watching "PGA Tour Golf Lesson 7" on INHD the other morning, and I think I've learned how to solve the problems with my chipping game. It's simple: lock your wrists, angle the club upright, put 70% weight on your front foot, use a grip strength of 5 out of 10, always take the same swing like you're putting, think "minimum air/maximum roll", and aim for 1 pace (3 yards) onto the green. Simple, right? And when picking out a club, the "carry-to-roll" ratio determines whether you need a PW, 9, 8, 7 or 6 iron--this ratio is the key, and it's bulletproof. All you do is measure the distance to the pin, and the distance from the, uhm . . . wait, no . . . divide the number of yards off the green by the height of the flag . . . actually, now I remember, you pace it off, and figure out the circumference of the green, no the radius of the--oh, shit. They shouldn't have these things on at 7 in the morning, I don't remember a goddamn thing now. I didn't even get a chance to pour a cup of coffee before the math quiz started. But I was told the ratio is bulletproof! The ratio is rock solid! If I only knew what it's a ratio OF.

Speaking of Mikes, Deadspin called this photo the "Ultimate Time Capsule Photo", and I'd have to agree. They said it made them kind of sad because "That could have been Whitey Ford, Ted Williams and Joe Louis hanging out right there. Oh well." Indeed. These guys had the world as their own proverbial oyster. Man, crack must be fantastic.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Did you know that Jeff Maier (I'm glad he dropped the -rey from his first name, I hate that too), who "gave" Derek Jeter a HR with his right field grab during the 1996 ALCS, is now playing baseball as a third baseman/outfielder for Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT? Pretty funny. As a sophomore playing in the NESCAC, he even had to contend with idiot Red Sox fans who apparently still hate him for helping the Yankees, and hurled snowballs and insults at him at away games in Massachusetts. Right now, a 22 year old senior, he's hitting .380 with 10 RBI and second on the team in hits, and could be drafted in June. I wonder how he is with the glove . . .

"I Turn My Camera On" by Spoon (downloadable mp3 here) from the fantastic Gimme Fiction album is being used to sell Jaguar automobiles. Why aren't they selling digital cameras? Wouldn't that make more sense? Or is that too obvious? Either that's a missed opportunity, or the commercial isn't out yet.

I made a joke about the extremely early NCAA Sportsline RPI index in my Eye-Opener November March Madness post. It turns out that the list was more accurate than previously thought. Not only did 14 of the 25 teams on the list made the NCAA tournament, but there are some unexpected teams that weren't ranked all year, like NC-Wilmington, Air Force and current media darling George Mason (the only Final Four team not in this top 25 is LSU). However, the most shocking blognostication of all was the Albany Great Danes, who came out of nowhere to nearly upset UConn in the first round. Very interesting.