If Ben Franklin were alive today, he’d probably smell awful and he’d have to agree that three things are certain in life – death, taxes and people hating ol’ biased Joe Buck. Sure enough, baseball fans complained to the highest heavens and lowest hells about his alleged love for the St. Louis Cardinals during last year’s World Series, and they absolutely bitched and moaned again this year during the NLCS. So of course the San Francisco Chronicle asked Tim McCarver’s babysitter what he thinks about these accusations.

“We get it everywhere we go,” said Buck, referring to himself and partner Tim McCarver. “It’s not unique to San Francisco. It doesn’t matter where we are.”

“It’s easily explainable in the baseball world,” said Buck. “Fans are used to hearing their hometown guys. When you come at it objectively, people aren’t used to it. It gets frustrating. You want to say, ‘No, I don’t hate the Giants.’ “

A very diplomatic and reasonable response by Buck, who I sometimes feel bad for because of all of the hate that he receives from baseball and football fans alike. But there’s another side to this coin that people don’t often recognize – a lot of Cardinals fans think that Buck is biased against the Cardinals. And he had a response for that as well.

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Tory Belleci and Kari Byron from Mythbusters host this video of Matt Cain of the San Francisco Giants showing off his legendary throwing arm by rocketing a baseball through various objects thrown up in the air!

Before you say it, yes, this clip is fake enough to have ended with a Powerade logo. What myth are they busting? Is “Matt Cain can’t hit a watermelon with a fastball if somebody threw it in the air” a myth? Regardless, ‘Evan Longoria Saves Reporter’ set a dangerous precedent for what people on the Internet will accept as real, so until Prince Fielder shows up riding a minotaur or whatever, just roll with it.

The only really terrible part of the clip is Tory Belleci. He has clearly never watched baseball before. He intros Cain like he’s in a local band (“We’re here with Matt Cain, the pitcher for San Francisco Giants”) and gets way, way too excited about everything. If Cain could hit a soda bottle, why are you losing your mind over him clipping a watermelon? Also, why do you make a weird blowjob face when you’re impressed? There are children present. “This guy should host something on television” is the only myth I need to see busted.

I really want to see them do a video like this now with Justin Masterson, where a kid tosses a deep dish pizza into the air and gets drilled in the face by a 72 mph fastball.

[h/t to Bob's Blitz]

I forget what company it is, but there’s been a new commercial with Marisa Miller airing lately, and it makes me sad because she’s all pregnant now. But the commercial was filmed either before she was pregnant or early on because she doesn’t have a bump, and it’s like, why’d she have to go and get all pregnant on us? How selfish can one woman be?

But it’s like my dad always says: “Sure, a woman might be pregnant and that could ruin her appeal, but in nine months that kid’ll be out and she’ll have bigger cans.” My dad is a poet, naturally.

Also, Marisa is a San Francisco Giants fan and she’s probably bummed right now that the St. Louis Cardinals are up 3-1 in the NLCS. Oh the fun we could have had if she had answered all of my letters about wanting to marry her.

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Here’s what I know from my very limited knowledge and actual viewing history of Fox’s hit show, The X Factor:

It is a glorified episode of MTV’s Cribs, in that they spend more time gawking at the celebrity judges’ homes than they do making children cry.

It employs Britney Spears and Demi Lovato, who have both long since taken dips in the batsh*t crazy pool.

It allows Simon Cowell to become even wealthier than he already is by manipulating the celebrity worship of America’s zombie-like youth.

That’s it, the extent of my knowledge of the show in a nutshell. Oh, and now I also know that the show is on hiatus thanks to the Major League Baseball postseason, and holy hell does that have the show’s fans in a poorly-spelled uproar. Last night was the best example of this, as the rain delay during Game 3 of the NLCS in St. Louis lasted longer than the actual game, and someone in Fox’s programming department decided to air the Top 16 reveal for The X Factor.

And then, even before the rain stopped, things went delightfully haywire.

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Word around the Tweeters right now is that the weather looks pretty bleak in my beloved hometown of St. Louis, but the league has assured both teams that the game will be played tonight no matter what (UPDATE: They’re obviously playing). That’s awesome news, because either way I won’t be able to watch it tonight because I work too much and MLB.tv likes to take my money but only let me watch playoff baseball from really sh*tty angles (UPDATE 2: MBL.tv’s Postseason Package allows me to watch the ALCS but not the NLCS, so thanks for that, MLB).

That said, I’m glad we’re all back to loving the Cardinals and agreeing that they’re the best team to cheer for in the playoffs.

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Blogging icon and the Internet’s most famous St. Louis Cardinals fan Will Leitch recently penned a piece for Sports on Earth about the realization that some of us Best Fans in Baseball are dealing with – people f*cking hate the Cardinals. I didn’t notice it so much after the Cards won the World Series last year, as people just sort of nodded at their win and moved right along.

Now, though, as they’ve once again knocked off the team with the best record in baseball and are up 1-0 on the San Francisco Giants in the NLCS, people are really starting to show their hatred. Especially on Twitter. Who knew that people could be so mean on the Internet?

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