RIP, little man

Nelson de la Rosa, who gained fame as a) the smallest man in the world b) Marlon Brando's sidekick in the 1996 remake of The Island of Dr. Moreau and c) Pedro's little buddy and "good luck charm" during the Sox' run through the World Series two years ago, died over the weekend. Nelson, how we barely knew ye...

Must-see TV

OK, OK, OK, I know this has nothing to do with either A) baseball or B) music, and I know it is awfully bad form to link to other blogs' stories, but this from Gawker is killing me. Oh, my sides. This douchebag extraordinaire is too much to believe. It makes me want to drive to New Haven Monday morning and seek this guy out and see for myself if he is for real.

Just make sure to start from the beginning. To paraphrase Dave Chappelle in his Block Party film, if you go in, go in as far as you can...

Make that 3-0...

The Kittens of yore are definitely no more. Old Man Rogers shut down the new guys same as the old guys. Yankees, A's (Mets???) — it just doesn't matter. Craig Monroe hit another off-balance home run and Polanco had two more hits to the lead the "slumping" Tigers. Once again, The Big Hurt looked lost and his supporting cast was competent enough to scratch out only two hits. If Bonderman can duplicate his last performance, we're looking at a quick four-and-out heading into the WS.


Now, let's see how Carpenter fares in chilly Flushing Meadows...

ZU-MANIA

Billy Beane may still be every bit the genius portrayed in Moneyball, making the low-budget A's the fun and easy team to cheer on, but how can you deny the Tigers the mantle of most exciting team on the planet? It is not a stretch when you have 21-year old flamethrower Joel Martin Zumaya throwing strikes at 103-mph. But now comes this horrible news that Zoom-Zoom might not be back for awhile. And just when playoff baseball had found this year's K-Rod! Let's hope for a speedy recovery.

A lonely Road

"Twas in another lifetime,
one of toil and blood,
when blackness was a virtue,
and the road was full of mud..."

Bob Dylan, Shelter From the Storm

"They had a single blanket in the pack and he got it out and covered the boy with it and he unzipped his parka and held the boy against him. They lay there for a long time but they were freezing and finally he sat up. We've got to move, he said. We can't just lie here. He looked around but there was nothing to see. He spoke into a blackness without depth or dimension."

Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Cormac McCarthy's new novel, The Road, has about as much blackness as you can handle, and probably not something you should be reading as an international madman announces the successful test of a nuclear weapon in N. Korea. But if you like darkness, end-of-the-world scenarios or just relate to McCarthy's obsession with death, then at the very least read the NYTimes review here. It is a haunting read.

Roots, Reggae...Radiohead!

If you have a special kind of love for Radiohead's masterpiece OK Computer, then allow me to introduce you to Radiodread, a new reworking of the album done in reggae-style.


Yes, reggae, mon.


Before you run away laughing, give it a listen. You can hear clips of the album here on E-Music and read about it on Pitchfork today.

Down with...Torre?

OK, are we done with the calls for Torre's head on a platter yet? Jesus, the man has coached the Yanks for 11 years and in how many of those has he taken his team to the postseason? I for one am tired of the Big Stein and think if there is blame to be cast (and it doesn't really need to be, does it?) he should look in the mirror. All that glitters is not gold, George!!!

For those of you who read the NYT online, you can read about Torre's salvation here and the straight AP story at ESPN here (I love Joe's glare in the video still to the right).