I can’t believe what I received in the mail

Thanks so much, MLB Insiders Club! You’ve convinced me to never become a “paid lifetime member” by sending me this official program for a series that reminds me of the lowest time of my life.

For those who don’t know what MLB Insiders Club is, it’s pretty much your ticket to several free gifts featuring giant MLB Insiders Club logos that you’ll never want to flaunt anywhere on earth.

The easiest way to begin this bombardment of mail is by typing in your contact information on this page and then by clicking the join button.

See, look what they’ll send you…


…for $28.75 (my parents must’ve paid them).

I have much, much more items like these at home that I didn’t think to bring with me to my college dorm. How did I forget!?

Now they want me to pay for a “paid lifetime membership” that will get me a team jacket, complete with, of course, a giant MLB Insiders Club logo on the sleeve. I think I’ll pass.

A-Rod’s 30 and 100 milestone unmatched

Alex Rodriguez reached a milestone no player in major league history has reached before. He hit his 30th home run, marking the 14th 13th consecutive year of at least 30 homers and 100 or more RBIs. Fourteen overall.

Only Hank Aaron has more seasons with 30-plus homers, inconsecutively, with 15.

It’s truly an amazing feat.

Last year he hit two homers and seven RBIs in the final game of the year to reach 30 and 100 dead on, and this year he hit five homers in his last six games to reach 30.

Unfortunately, I have trouble raving much more about A-Rod’s career accomplishments because of his tarnished reputation. Don’t you?

Roger Maris Featured Card of the Week

If you’ve never seen the movie 61*, I advise you get yourself a copy from the video store tonight.

The movie details Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle’s race to 61 homers in 1961. A lot of it shows how the media treated both players differently and how fans felt about both too.

For your information, I have two more cards left from this era. Click here for a full archive of all the old cards I've featured this summer and fall.

Skip Bayless isn’t that bizarre in real life

Tonight I saw a skinny old guy in a suit pounding on a desk in my classroom who called himself Skip Bayless. He argued Ben Roethlisberger, who hasn’t played a regular season game yet this year, is a top five quarterback in the NFL today.

Sounds like The REAL Skip Bayless, right? The only problem was he didn’t seem anything like the guy we are all used to seeing on ESPN’s First Take every day.

He spoke to my class called “ESPNization of America” at Quinnipiac University, just a quick half-hour drive from Bristol, Conn.

My class and I saw a much more mellowed out Skip than the one on First Take, as my friend learned from Jay Crawford a few years ago. Skip didn’t raise his voice once in his three-hour Q&A. In fact, sometimes he needed to speak up.

Some fun facts/stories from Skip:

• His producers at First Take have never told him after a show he went too far. They trust he knows his boundaries.
• His meetings before First Take when he argues for certain topics to be covered on the show are more entertaining than the actual show sometimes.
• He drinks two Mountain Dews every morning before First Take. He’s not a morning person, but wakes up at 5 a.m. during the week.
• When he followed the Dallas Cowboys in the early ‘90s, after a loss in the playoffs he was called to the back of the plane by an intoxicated, 300-pound left tackle named Mark Tuinei, who then backed him into the plane’s bathroom door. Tuinei had a problem with Skip because of what he had written about Troy Aikman. Skip told us he thought Tuinei would have killed him if coach Jimmy Johnson hadn’t broken up the scuffle.
• Favorite movie is The Wizard of Oz.
• Favorite TV shows are True Blood and Entourage.
• Favorite actor is Jack Nicholson.
• Favorite actress is Marisa Tomei.
• Favorite late-night snack is a protein bar.
• The only team he roots for every year is Oklahoma in college football. He doesn’t dislike any team, not even the Yankees. But he does root for whichever team he picks to go all the way before the season.

Thanks for talking to our class, Skip! It was great meeting you.

Yanks clinch playoff berth behind CC’s gem

CC Sabathia nearly tossed a complete game in tonight’s postseason-clinching win for the Yankees. They crushed the Blue Jays, 6-1, but still remain a half game out of first place because of the Rays.

Best of All: Now us Yankees fans don’t have to worry about what would’ve been the biggest collapse in sports history.

Derek Jeter is showing life in September. He scored three times tonight and had a couple of hits. Like everyone I’ve asked, Jeter’s regular season totals don’t mean anything if he comes up big in the postseason.

Worst of All: Lance Berkman is hitless since last Wednesday.

Coming Up: The Yankees vie for their first series win since Baltimore a week and a half ago.