What a glorious day for baseball. Not too hot, not too cold and a bright blue sky. Well as bright as it can get in LA. more ›

Two years ago, baseball took its scheduling out of the hands of the mom-and-pop operation that had done the job for 24 years, trusting a computer program to do a better job. That software would seem to still have a human hand guiding it, as evidenced by the careful attention to such details as ensuring rematches of World Series past: this year, we had Cubs vs. Tigers (1935 WS), White Sox vs. Reds (1919 WS), Dodgers vs. A's (1974 and 1988 WS) — and a rematch of the 2002 Series, in Angels vs. Giants. A lot's changed since 2002: both teams have had their offensive cores age, hitting the Angels hardest, with Garret Anderson, Darin Erstad, and Tim Salmon all suffering steep declines. Teams pitch to Barry Bonds now. Similarly, both teams have absorbed young talent, to mixed success: the Angels successes include catcher Mike Napoli, starting pitcher Jered Weaver (unfortunately sent back down upon the return of Bartolo Colón), and to some degree, the return of Dallas McPherson, in his third major league season, but yet without a full year of playing time under his belt. In this series, the Giants featured youth in the guises of 25-year-old lefthander Noah Lowry and 21-year-old righty Matt Cain. Inbetween, Team Halloween started Matt Morris, the veteran right-hander. But regardless of who was on the mound for the opposition, the story was sadly the same as it's been throughout most of this year: all told, the Angels hit an anemic .224 against Giants pitching in the series. Way more after the jump... more ›

Liquid Nitrogen + Hotel Swimming Pool + Nerds = oooooooo - via Boing Boing more ›