Geddy Lee is a powerful motivator

There is an ad on ESPN for the network's free fantasy baseball "service," and it fucking rules.

I do enjoy baseball, but I would never participate in any sort of fantasy league. In fact, participating in some such league, for me, would be much less of a fantasy and much more of a hellish reality. My husband -- lifelong Mets fan, Major League Baseball employee, knower of all statistics -- as you might imagine participates in several leagues each year. He even won some cash money last year in his favorite league, thereby earning himself the right to tote around a communal trophy for the 2007 season (which is roughly the size of the Stanley Cup).


As you can imagine, I make fun of him a lot. (Except for when he wins the benjamins. That I am OK with.)

So last night during the Mets vs. Cardinals season opener this ad came on, and because I love the rock I immediately looked up from the issue of This Old House that I was reading. I thought, OK, this is a funny ad. Could have been done better, but there is a keytar so I can't complain. Then we reached the end of the ad, where it became the most awesome television advertisement since Domino's Pizza mocked my silly rules: Rush's Geddy Lee wails, "FANTASY BASEBALL IT'S FREE AND IT ROCKS!!!" Case, closed. Fucking socks, rocked off. And I don't even like Rush.

(The YouTube video of the ad unfortunately cuts off a split second too soon, so one can't appreciate the full sincerity of Geddy's exhortation. Sadly, I sort of suck at the Internet and can't find a better version.)

When the ad was over, Husband turned to me and said, "See, now you're going to want to do fantasy baseball." And instead of my normal response, which would have been something like, "I would never do fantasy baseball; no way it is for losers," I instead said, "I don't know enough about baseball to do fantasy baseball."

Because if I knew more, dear Geddy, you and I would be negotiating a trade RIGHT NOW.

I'm lovin', touchin', squeezin' this whole White Sox thing

As a lifelong Cleveland Indians fan, I have always loathed the Chicago White Sox. Even though I generally prefer "blue-collar" (Mets, White Sox) teams to wealthy entitled ones with wealthy entitled fans (Yankees, Cubs), I could never wholeheartedly root for a team who was in direct competition with my own. Plus, I strongly dislike Hawk and Wimpy.

This has changed. I hope the White Sox win the World Series.

Why? Two words: Steve Perry. The former lead singer of Journey has become the unofficial mascot of the team, even traveling to Houston -- at the team's urging -- to cheer them on:

Journey is making the road trip to Houston. At least Steve Perry, the former lead singer of the band is coming along as part of the White Sox family.

The group's 1981 hit "Don't Stop Believin''' has become the unofficial theme song of the White Sox, and club vice president for communications Scott Reifert tracked down Perry to bring him to Games 1 and 2 of the World Series in Chicago.

Reifert said Perry was invited into the clubhouse after Sunday's game and players urged him to come to Houston. He called the club Monday to say he'd join them there.

This is so awesome, I don't even know what to say. I wish I could adopt Steve Perry as my own personal mascot. Then I would never be far from a rendition of "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)." Ah, what a utopia that would be.