Link Lockdown

• Barack Obama and John McCain spoke a couple nights ago at an annual charity event in New York City. They were funny. Watch McCain first, then Obama. Refreshing to see them act more like the guys we had grown accustomed to before this loooooooong campaign. Also, the MSNBC.com politics page has some other great videos on it, spend some perusal time.
• When the Boston Red Sox came back from down 7-0 with two outs in the bottom of the 7th the other night against the Tampa Bay Rays, I remembered why I watch. We spend our time and money hoping special athletes who may or may not be special people (and trust me, several of your favorite players are far from that) will give us the feeling that used to overtake us when we were young. That's what sports is all about--the reclamation of our youthful exuberance. Well, at 12:16 am on October 17th I felt the way I did in 2003 when Derek Lowe threw the greatest two-seam fastball I had ever seen to an unsuspecting Terence Long and followed up his initial wrist action with another, the second of the DX variety toward the Oakland dugout. After J.D. Drew hit a line drive that sailed over the head of Tampa Bay's Gabe Gross, silent screams in the depth of night mixed with leaps of immeasurable height had me feeling 17 again.
• Barack Obama is planning on buying a half-hour television spot before the start of Game 6 of the World Series. Yes, he's going to talk for 30 freakin' minutes. 30. I can't possibly see the rationale of speaking for that long when the public is growing tired of the longest campaign in history. Not only is he quite possibly going to turn off a few voters simply because they're sick of hearing him, but he's delaying the start of Game 6 for 15 minutes by doing so, further preventing America's youth from forming a love lockdown with the greatest game. Education plans aside, does Barack truly care about the kids? You know John McCain would never do something like this, if only because he'd be scared he might not be able to stay up late enough to watch it live. No matter, however, since the likelihood of the Philadelphia Phillies (what a creative moniker, by the way), the champions of AAAA, extending the series that far against either the Red Sox or Rays is almost nil.
• PS--I currently sit at 466th overal in unique page views vis-a-vis raking in a gargantuan total of 6 per day at Today.com, the host for The Sports Beat, so please give it a read if you like what you've seen here.