For God knows what reason, the Rays and MLB briefly resurrected the Backstreet Boys to sing the National Anthem at Game 1 of the World Series, and Phillies pitcher Kyle Kendrick was as excited as a little schoolgirl.

After we won Game 1 of the World Series, I texted some of my buddies, guys I grew up with back in Seattle. “You won’t believe this, the Backstreet Boys were here,” I told ‘em…

I’m only 24, and as a kid growing up near Seattle, boy bands were popular. I always thought the Backstreet Boys were the best out there, better than ‘NSYNC. I was a freshman in high school when they came out with their big CD, and my buddies and I used to listen. The girls always thought they were cute and I liked their music. They were just good.

Counterpoint: no they weren’t.  To be fair, most teenagers have horrible taste in music.  But it’s our responsibility as adults to feel ashamed for liking trash when we were young.  If you liked Backstreet as a kid and saw them today, your message to your friends shouldn’t be, “Wow!  I saw the Backstreet Boys!”  It should be, “Can you bail me out?  I stabbed that homo with the stupid facial hair.”

Phillies' pitcher Kyle Kendrick was the target of an elaborate practical joke yesterday where his manager, GM, teammates and the press tricked him into believing he been traded to the Yomiuri Giants in Japan:

Ha, that's almost as funny as when the prosecutor said he was going to try me as a juvenile because of my boyish looks, but then the judge revealed it was just a joke. Oh, that was a riot. By the way, I expected there to be many more Kentucky Fried Chicken buckets in Charlie Manuel's office, didn't you? -KD

{Crashburn Alley}