The first thing I did when I visited NYC for the first time was to track down a New York Yankees cap and proudly wear it for the rest of my trip (or at least most of it). Unfortunately, I did not make it to Yankee Stadium, as the party I was with did not want to leave downtown Manhattan. In retrospect, I should have ditched his ass and hauled out to the Bronx for a REAL baseball game and some genuine, old-fashioned New York memories. But alas, this is as close as I got to the legacy of Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio and Lou Gehrig, and as close as I ever will get to the real Yankee Stadium.

That's right, the New York Yankees played their last game in that 85-year-old stadium last night (vs Orioles, NY won 7-3). All week I have read stirring, and in some cases, tear-jerking recounts of memories made in that stadium over the years. It seemed like everyone had a Yankee memory of some kind, from watching the games from behind first base as a kid, to spending every Sunday for 10 years in the same seats with a spouse who recently passed away, to the first games after 9/11, the New York Yankees and baseball in general have been a defining part of our journey as Americans.

I didn't play or watch baseball as a kid, I didn't get the experience of staring in awe and reverence at players I had only seen on baseball cards, as so many others had. For a time, I actually considered it boring! I was raised on football and basketball; those were the only sports my family ever watched or talked about. The Utah/BYU football game was The Holy War and the Utah Jazz only made it to the playoffs if we paid fervent attention to every minute of every game. So you will forgive me, dear baseball aficionado, when I admit that my introduction to baseball was through Field of Dreams.

Ever since then, an aura of mystery, magic and maybe even unearthliness has surrounded this game. There was something about it that I didn't understand but felt just the same. There is a reverence to baseball, to the classics and to the greats, that is not present in other sports. I understand now how cheating in this game, whether it be by cork bat or human growth hormone, can shame every legacy, every player, every fan.

So it is with sadness that Yankee Stadium is bid farewell. Hopefully someday, I will finally see the Yankees play in their home city. On that day, whosever number is on my blue and white striped jersey, you can bet he loved being a Yankee.

Picture of "Skin Man" © Institute for Plastination & Dr. Gunter Van Hagens

For anyone who did not see SNL's season premiere on Saturday and for anyone who just KNEW that Palin looked like Tina Fey, I give you....the 2008 Opening Sketch. I must say, Tina Fey nailed Palin's funky regional accent. Enjoy!

The science of polling has always mystified me, mainly because I have never had the time to buckle down and learn all the rules, eccentricities, ins, outs, ups and downs that come with it. So I present the following excerpt from an op-ed piece in the City Weekly (Salt Lake City, Utah) for discussion.

America is set to dump the party that’s hosted the past seven years, and the GOP brain trust is aware that polling data suggesting a close presidential race is wildly inaccurate. Pollsters can’t contact the cell phones of all those Obama-loving younger voters who don’t own landlines (the only ones pollsters are allowed to call). Those members of the youthful demographic who are being surveyed prefer Obama by 20 plus points. The very poor (primed to actually vote this time) and the highly educated (also strongly Obama) are likewise less reachable by telephone. --Jim Catano, City Weekly 9/4/08

Can this be true? Is it possible that modern day polling firms have not taken issues like this into account when doing their calculations?

In college, I had a political science class from a professor who was (and is) not only the prominent pollster in the area, but was also Karl Rove's political science college advisor. Now, I wanted to take what this professor said seriously, but given the fact that he namedropped faster than attendees of the Sundance Film Festival, I was inclined to dismiss him as an egocentric spawn of the devil. However one of the things he did hammer home was the point that because of little issues like those mentioned in the quote above, polling will never be as accurate as we would like.

Your thoughts? Is Mr. Catano's point valid?

I have been planning on a special post for next Thursday, but something happened at the Republican National Convention last night that demands I mention it now.

This post will be expanded later today when I am not sequencing DNA on the other screen, but for right now, THE RNC CAN GO TO HELL.

UPDATE: I apologize for leaving you hanging, I have been figuring out how to word my explanation without taking away from the therapeutic post I have planned for Thursday. Until then, and in explanation for my anger, I defer to the anchor who covered 9/11 from the streets of Manhattan for 40 days straight: