Pounding Fists Is Not Locking It Up

• Revamp:
• You may notice the new widget to the left that says "Latest Tweets." I started a tweet just for this blog -- @RBabbles -- and the last five are listed. With a tweet, I can micro-blog, adding content when I think of it rather than waiting until the nightly post, and hopefully I can promote this a bit more. So far, the Leno tweet is my favorite. Please follow if you're so inclined.
• Random Pop Culture:
• A crazy, fantastic night of emotion on two fronts on TV, but before that I need to note that on Survivor, one of the contestants made a reference to how lame the Heart Ring was on Captain Planet. So true!
• First, on the aforementioned Survivor, you had what seemed to be the closest any contestant has ever come to dying on the show. Going into the episode, the two contestants I felt the show could least stand to lose were the two Russells. Evil Russell is the single most important person on the show this year, obviously. The other Russell, as leader of the purple tribe, was the heart and soul of half of the contestants and it could be seen tonight as he took on too much and paid the price. His collapse and subsequent removal was scary, but it led to the emergence of a new leader in the game. With two tribes side-to-side at tribal council for the first time in show history, Eric amped up the tension with trash talk and an impassioned speech that had me ready to jump off of the couch and hit someone. "Every drop of sweat that Russell gave, we're bringing it to you." Wow!
• But that tension was a mere blip compared to what came after, the 9th inning in Anaheim. Facing elimination, Angels closer Brian Fuentes got a quick two out and then intentionally walked A-Rod, who had killed him -- and every other pitcher -- during the postseason. But then, Fuentes walked Matsui and hit Posada to load the bases. He got ahead of Nick Swisher 0-2, but Swisher worked the count full. 3-2, two outs, one-run game, bases loaded. On the next pitch, every runner would be going. Baseball is great because it's a game of anticipation. Every pitch, every second builds towards what might happen in big moments of the game. Those moments don't happen in every game but they happen more often in the playoffs, and when they do happen, it's as good as sports gets. Swisher stood in and then backed off twice, messing with Fuentes' timing. The pressure kept building and building, even with nothing happening. Finally, Fuentes came with a fastball and Swisher popped it up. Fuentes immediately started cheering. I melted, sweating. It took me so long to stop shaking that I poured myself a drink to calm down, something I rarely do. Game 6 is on Saturday.
• If the Angels can send it to a seventh game, by the way, the Yankees are in trouble. Not only would it mean that they could actually lose the series, but they'd have to use Sabathia. Pitching Sunday, he would be unable to go Wednesday in Game 1 of the World Series and, hence, unable to go in 4 and 7 also. A huge loss for the Yanks if it happens.
• Bill Fagerbakke, Dauber from Coach, showed up briefly as a patient tonight on Grey's. Considering Don Gibb is now reduced to playing second banana in a freaking Capital One commercial, it's disappointing that our big goofy '80s/'90s actors have fallen so far.
• Did you see this article about the musicians complaining about the use of music during sleep deprivation torture in Guantanamo Bay? As Tony Kornheiser put it, they may not want to dig into this too deeply. How good does it make them look if one of the prisoners cracked because they just couldn't listen to No Code one more time?
• Random Music Video:
• I'm into this "released on this date" thing I started last night. Seven years ago, the Donnas dropped the album Spend the Night that included this, one of the more underrated kick-ass songs of the decade.