The Arizona Diamondbacks have become the first team to advance to their Championship Series, completing their sweep of the Chicago Cubs.  Since Arizona finished with the best record in the National League this season, they know that they will face the winner of the Phillies/Rockies series at home in Phoenix on Thursday and Friday.

My heart goes out to Cubs fans, who will have to again say "Maybe next year," which will  be the 100th anniversary of the start of The Curse of the Billy Goat.

With Boston, Cleveland, and Colorado all up 2-0 in their respective series, the first round of this year’s playoffs might go quickly.  Go Sox!  Spank the Rally Monkey!

Update: WTF?  The lights are off in Colorado!  The dumb thing?  Only the lights went out!  The scoreboard and smaller scoreboards around the field are still on!

~~The lights went out here because of a computer error!  There was no power outage at all.

Sputnik, the 184-pound piece of metal that started the space race, celebrates its 50th birthday today.  Here’s the official American take on the anniversary.  Of course, even though the Soviets beat us into space, notice who is mentioned the most in NASA’s article.

For those of you who haven’t heard (either you’ve been living under a rock or have been clouded in a sea of purple Rox fans)… Here are the Division Series updates as of this morning.  All games are on TBS; all times are Eastern (what’s the point of posting if I can’t show my own east-coast bias?).

01 (game 2 Friday at BOS, 8:30)

0 0  (game 1 today at CLE, 6:30)

1 0 (game 2 today at PHI, 3:00)

0 1 (game 2 today at ARI, 10:00)

It took a while (especially given the 13-inning one-game playoff for the NL Wildcard), but the 2007 MLB playoffs are set:

vs

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Update: Phillies logo fixed, I hope.

Guest-blog by Josh Rubin

Whatever happened to the moderate John McCain who ran in the 1996 and 2000 elections?  By all accounts, he’s dead (though, I must point out, Mandela isn’t).

This was further cemented by an interview the aging Senator and Presidential hopeful gave to BeliefNet.com.  My favorite part?

But I think the number one issue people should make [in the] selection of the President of the United States is, ‘Will this person carry on in the Judeo Christian principled tradition that has made this nation the greatest experiment in the history of mankind?’"

If this is the number one issue, maybe we haven’t progressed much since the Spanish Inquisition.

[I don’t know how to embed movies, but you can see the whole thing here or read the transcript here]

Of course, Jews and Muslims alike have voiced their displeasure–so he apologized.

Kill the Rally Monkey.

*Signed*: Red Sox Nation

PS: And go Indians–kill the Bronx Bastards!

*The ball which was (un)fortunate enough to be the record-breaking 756th hit out of a ballpark by Barry Bonds will be branded with an asterisk.  The ball is headed to Cooperstown.

In other Bonds-related news, the team on which he has played for more than a dozen seasons has decided to cut its ties with him.  Here is an interesting post trying to figure out who might actually want the steroid-tainted-home-run-king.

I won’t post a gigantic number this time, nor will I add to the curse Brendan believed I may have started.

I’ll just say this: the Sox are in the playoffs!!!!  The first team to clinch a playoff berth in the Majors, Boston’s magic number to clinch the AL East now sits at 6.

Maryland’s highest court has declared that the Constitution of my adopted home state does not allow room for the marriage of homosexuals within its borders.  The US Supreme Court will not and cannot hear this case, since it is a matter of state law that is in question.  The reason?

the prohibition on same-sex marriage promotes the state’s interest in heterosexual marriage as a means of having and protecting children.

So let me ask this question to all of the law experts in the Brendansphere.  If a man or a woman is physically unable to produce children (due to menopause, castration, or for any other reason), should they not be allowed to marry in this State?  Should we ban married couples from buying contraception?

IMHO, there is absolutely no reason for the Court of Appeals to decide this.  The legal ground on which it rests is shaky at best.  Furthermore, the majority of the 4-3 decision agreed that the State General Assembly (the legislature) could (and should!) write a law allowing gay marriage in Maryland.  The last governor, Robert Ehrlich (R), vetoed a civil union bill that had passed the General Assembly in 2005.  The current governor, Martin O’Malley (D), would support a civil union bill.

But my opinions of civil unions (and how they’re no better than white-only lunch counters) make up another rant all together.

Though unofficial, it looks like Pope Benedict XVI will likely visit Washington, DC when he visits the US in April.  Also likely on the schedule: Mass in Central Park plus a visit to Ground Zero and a trip to Boston.

Maybe the message of peace he delivers to the UN will resonate with some of those folks in our nation’s capital.

In Venezuela, a man was in a car wreck and declared dead on the scene.

He woke up in the morgue while they were performing the autopsy.  Hmm, inside the chest cavity we find… HIS STILL-BEATING HEART?!?!

Apparently, the man woke up screaming from the pain on the autopsy table.

And his wife showed up to identify the body.  Hi, Honey!  Yes, that’s my husband.

This says two things.

1.  Don’t go to the hospital in Venezuela, you might be declared dead.

2.  Someone feels like a moron.

I couldn’t resist…  That’s the actual title of the article found here.

The worst part of this article, though is when the author refers to Uranus as the "second most distant planet in our solar system."

Pluto is not amused.

After a 10-1 drubbing of the Bronx Bastards…

The magic number for Boston to clinch the AL East is…

(more…)

How about a Hummer H2?  Nothing says "environmentally-conscious" like a gas guzzler that gets 2 miles to the gallon!

Congressman Paul Gillmor (R-OH-5) was found dead in his home yesterday morning.  Though he maintained a low profile during his 10 terms in office, he was known as a good man and a "decent lawmaker."

More on Congressman Gillmor here and here.