Baseball and Body Parts: We Know What Brings You Back

Today kicked my ass like I was wearing my special mankini with the big target on the back (which, that reminds me, I must get cleaned before the next time I head to the beach), but I'm looking forward to tomorrow more than normal. Not for any reason other than I'm happy to be doing something semi-meaningful with my week.

Prizes this week include some special squishy human body parts (it sounds gross, but it's actually kind of cool. Well, maybe a little bit gross), and for first place, actually an amazing book:

Baseball Between The Numbers: Why Everything You Know About The Game Is Wrong, by the nice people who do the Baseball Prospectus, is a really fun read that debunks much of the conventional wisdom about how the game is and should be played. It's big (450 pages) and stat-heavy and breezily written with lots of snark and goofy asides, and it belongs on the toilet tank of some Yankee hater somewhere.

(I used to be a baseball nerd until the 1994 strike, after which I swore I would never spend a dollar on a major league team again. I've kept my promise, but that doesn't mean I don't pay attention to what's going on.)

Anyway. They apparently showed the episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent that takes place in Dempsey's during trivia this week, so you might want to consider getting there a little earlier if you want the table of your choice. (That really feels like bragging. Sorry.)