Gothamist learned about the craziest urban nightmare come true: A huge python found in the bathroom pipes. It was also a nightmare for some Yankees fans, as manger Joe Torre declined to come back and manage the Bronx Bombers. At least the city's attempt to give some direction to subway riders was interesting, pranksters went shirtless at the Fifth Avenue Abercrombie & Fitch and the I Heart Brooklyn Girls calendars came out. And just in time for Halloween, the Chocolate Jesus is back.

By the time you read this, Bostonist will either be elated or will have had its heart broken by the Cleveland Indians during the ALCS. The Red Sox has taken Bostonist on a tummy-turning roller-coaster ride. At one point, they thought Cleveland was messing with its head when the Indians hired Josh Beckett's old girlfriend to sing the National Anthem. In non-Sox-related news, Bostonist found out what an Iron Butt is and mourned the imminent closure of one of the city's finest theaters. And an astronaut is planning on taking a little bit of the Boston Symphony Orchestra with her when she flies.

SFist interviewed New Yorker scribe Alex Ross, saw Archbishop George Niederauer apologize to the Catholic Church for giving communion to the anti-Catholic Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, and had a time-honored NYC vs. SF debate. SFist also questioned the practice of "tipping" cable car drivers. The eco-y Lights Out SF ended up a dim success. Oh, and therapeutic sound healers? Are interesting. And bizarre. Just listen for yourself.

Poor Cal-- so close yet so far. Our theory about what happened is that the idea of Cal having the #1 ranked team in the country was so crazy that even in this year (decade, actually) of sports craziness, the God of Sports deemed that just too crazy and set the upset in motion. Of course, we're also looking at the Rockies in the World Series, so whadda we know?

Okay, before the Raiders recap, here's a rant...if you've been following the baseball playoffs, especially the American League, it's been nothing but Yankees..Yankees...Yankees. When they lost to the Indians, the story wasn't "Cleveland beats the Yankees" but "Yankees lose to Cleveland." Then you'd watch ESPN and you'd have twenty minutes on the Yankees and at the most a few minutes on the Indians. Hell, if you watched ESPN after the Yankees were eliminated, you'd have difficulty knowing just who they lost too. Next time we turn ESPN on, we're half expecting a story to go "and this just in, the Yankees are still not in the playoffs." And now that it's Cleveland/Boston, it's the same thing all over again. After Game 2, the story wasn't Cleveland winning, it was Boston losing and why, as if the Sox were so destined to win and the fact they didn't was somehow they're doing, not the fact that the Indians are a pretty damn good baseball team. And even when watching the games, you barely know who the Sox are playing because not even the announcers on Fox acknowledge anything other than Boston.

And now...

Chargers 28 Raiders 14- The Raiders, it appears, had the misfortune of playing the Chargers not at the beginning of the season, but halfway through the season when a team many people consider Superbowl contenders finally got out of their stupor and realized that they're Superbowl contenders. Or, at least realized that their bread & butter is basically to do nothing than handoff to LaDanian Tomlinson, a cat who just kills the Raiders and did so to the tune of 198 yards (seriously, everytime we looked up, he was busting some twenty yard run). Something which would obviously be known by the Chargers coach, Marvelous Norv Turner, who used to see LT2 do it to him. As for the Raiders, they didn't play very well at all (Daunte was sacked 6 times) but it's hard to know whether they really are that good or whether they just got caught by one pissed-off Chargers team.

Dodgers 6 Giants 4- Before we begin the fun, we'd like to draw your attention to a pretty interesting article by the LA Times' Bill Plaschke who writes how that two game series in '97, the Brian Johnson series, completely ruined the Dodgers for ten years. Long story short, the series devastated the team that season and knocked them out of the playoffs, making it easier for Fox to buy the Dodgers and promptly trash the franchise. Good stuff. Anyhoo, the Enchanter got Cained (our new verb for when a pitcher pitches a good game only to lose due to the Giants ineptitude) as the bullpen gave up four runs in the eighth to lose the game. The damage was done by Messer’s Kline and Messenger and is it us or does Randy Messenger look like a taller, skinner Turtle from "Entourage." As for Bonds, he did nothing of much importance but we couldn’t help but notice that when he hit what looked like a decent shot at hitting the homer, the fans stood up in excitement only to see it turn into just another fly out. When he was taken out, a huge portion of fans left the stadium and yes, it is fairly typical of Dodgers fans, but it was still a 3-2 game at the time.

And one more thing-- sadly police say that they found traces of cocaine in Rod Beck's house when they investigated his suicide. When we heard about his death, that was unfortunately one of the first things we thought of, that it was somewhat related to drugs even though we really hoped it wasn't. It was.

A's 3 Tigers 2- Yeah, the A's won, but the thing we're more concerned with is that the Yankees are now only two behind the Indians for the wild card spot (and three behind the Tigers). Jesus Frickin' Christ, people, won't that team go down? They're the Jason Voorhees of baseball-- everytime you think they're killed they keep on coming back. With the Giants out and the A's out, there was nothing more we were looking forward to than some serious Yankees schadenfreude and now we can't even get that. So, anyways, go Tribe!

In case you haven't heard, tonight, at precisely 12:01, THE VERY FINAL HARRY POTTER BOOK WILL BE RELEASED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OH MY GOD!! OH MY GOD!! OH MY GOD!! And by final, we mean final. The end. Finito. And with it, all the answers to all those pressing questions will be answered: will Harry die? Is Snape good or evil? Will Ron and Hermione finally get it on? And by the way, we just discovered Hermione is in Microsoft Word’s spell check. That’s crazy.

People are jacked for this thing. There are already lines in front of bookstores for people wanting to get their books and in New York, the police have put up barricades. One college is having Quidditch games all weekend. In Israel, Orthodox rabbis are trying to prevent bookstores from taking part in tonight’s festivities because it falls upon Shabbat and in Bangladesh, custom offices stayed open despite it being a national holiday. The fact that the book got posted online, which has led to a wave of spoilers being posted everywhere, has led to serious discussions and editorials over the whole the whole thing.

Anyways, tonight a bunch of bookstores are having parties for everyone who didn't preorder on Amazon or got spoiled by evil, evil people. Even Modern Times on Valencia is getting into the act and taking a break from their usual heady discussions of gender issues of the Intuit Indians to throw a party. For fans, these things are a hoot as they get to join others in celebrating J.K. Rowling’s wondrous creation. People dress up and take part in games and some places-- not here, however-- will feature bands based on the books (Wizard Rock). We love these things because there's nothing more adorable than completely excited children up way past their bedtimes dressing up in costume or rocking their HP flair. We especially love seeing the thirteen or fourteen year old girls dressing up in costume as we know in a year or two, they'll look at those photos and be completely mortified that they did, like, something sooooooo uncool. As for us, if anyone sees us, that’ll be just a plain old scarf we’re wearing and the fact it looks like a Hufflepuff scarf is just a mere coincedence.

Goodbye Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Goodbye Luna Lovegood and Neville Longbottom. Goodbye Tonks, Lupin and Mad Eye Moody. We'll miss you.

For a list of Potter parties, check out SFGate's list here.

Padres 4 Giants 2- The Matt Cain suicide watch is in effect again as Cain once again pitched a stellar game only to get tagged with yet another loss. This time it wasn't just bad offense but bad defense too as two runs charged to Cain were the result of a Kevin Fransden boo-boo. Last week Jayson Stark wondered if Cain was the best 2-7 pitcher in history, so now the question is is Cain now the best 2-9 pitcher in history.

Actually, a decent question is if Cain deserved to be in the situation he was in. With the game tied, Cain was sent up to hit in the 7th inning. Should Bochy have pulled him for a pinch-hitter? After all, what the Giants needed more than anything was more offense. And how much can you ride Cain with a high pitch count? So Cain goes out to pitch the 8th and starts getting in trouble-- thus the loss. Couldn't it be said that this game was on Bochy? And once again, we're left to debate about whether or not Bochy should have the kids throwing as many pitches as he's letting them pitch. But that's a subject for another time.

A's 13 Indians 7- The A's ended their five game winning losing streak in a manner most atypical of the team, by scoring lots of runs. Seriously, this team lately has become the Bizarro A's. Leading the way was Jack Cust who had five RBIs and the A's B Team of Marco Scutaro and Kurt Suzuki. No, we haven't heard of Suzuki either but considering another Suzuki, that being Ichiro, just goes with his first name, maybe we should start calling Kurt just plain ole Kurt.

1) A constant display of the Giants never-so-die attitude
2) A constant display of an inability to hold leads and drive in runs

This game featured both. Barry Zito pitched a good game, giving up only two solo home runs in eight innings of pitching. The Giants, meanwhile, seemed to have runners in scoring position all game and couldn't do diddly with them. Los Gigantes rallied to score a run in the eighth and send it into extra innings only to be done in by yet another Pads solo home run in the tenth. Since it's the simple things in life that matter, we guess we should be happy about Zito's good outing. That is until you remember all the money he's being paid and realize we shouldn't be cheered by a strong outing, merely bored by it.

Indians 8 A's 5- Remember when the A's won all those games? Hell, remember when they won a game? And remember when nobody could score off them and their bullpen was untouchable? Remember when Allan Embree saved every game he appeared in?

Good times...good times.

We've given up our dislike of this whole interleague baseball thing years ago when we realized that things like the Yankees coming to town for a series against the Gints is a pretty cool thing. The same with a set in Fenway also coming this summer. As for the yearly Melee by the Bay, we've sort of acquired a feeling of meh towards the whole thing. It's done every year so there's really not that much of a difference between this series and, say, a Giants/Phillies series or an A's/Indians series.

Well, maybe it’s a bit more exciting than that.

Part of it is because there's no real animosity between fans of the teams or an intense rivalry going on between them. Sure, the front offices probably throw spitballs at each other at league meetings and, sure, Giants fans may think A's fans are non-existent at best and habitués of Antioch at the worst while A's fans think Giants fans are fair weather corporate Yuppies out schmoozing clients at the site of a team that hasn't won anything on this side of the Mississippi River, but it's not that intense. But who cares about us? As the stadiums are packed on both sides of the Bay, the front offices have to pretty happy with these things.

Needless to say, this should be an interesting series because, as we said earlier, both teams are in a way similar and completely dissimilar at the same time. Similar because they both feature excellent starting pitching and rather weak offenses (both teams seem to play one run games everytime they step on the field). Opposite because the A's philosophy is to go with a bunch of young kids and "who the hell is that guy" players while the Giants' philosophy is to go with a bunch of old geezers and "does he still play?" players and throw them on the back of Barry Lamar.

The real question for this series is will anyone actually score any runs. Both teams have their aces going and these look like the kind of games managers call for bunts in the early innings because one run could be enough to win the game. Our prediction? Offense galore just because whenever everyone talks about the pitching, the hitters go nuts. The other thing of interest is that, yes, tonight's game will have Barry Zito facing his old mates for the first time since he switched sides.

For those of you keeping score, here's the rotations for the series

Zito vs. Gaudin
Cain vs Haren
Morris vs. Kennedy

Let the games begin

Jazz 115 Warriors 101- Oh Noes. In what had to be considered a must-win game, the Dubs once again played a nip-and-tuck basketball game against the Jazz only to disappear in the final minutes. Was it another choke? Or was it what Barkley and a few others have been saying, that all that running and gunning wears down the team's legs? Frankly, it was amazing the Warriors were even in this game. The Jazz managed to keep the lid on the particular brand of Warriors craziness at least semi-closed and the Warriors got below average games from J-Rich (7 points) and the Beard (just 15 points and 7 assists). Next game is in Salt Lake City and this is not looking good. Not looking good at all.

A's 10 Indians 7- Let us all hail Jack Cust who came out of nowhere and has now hit six homers in seven games, including yesterday's ninth inning walk off homerun as the A's once again battled from nowhere to win the game. Who is Jack Cust? Well, Beane picked him up for, well, beans from the Padres on May 3rd (that gnashing sound is SFist Chris cursing his home team team for trading the guy) and he's 28 and has played for four organizations, including the A's way back in 2005. Anyways, back to the game-- the A's were down by two with two outs-- their favorite position-- when Chavez singled and Milton Bradley homered. Tie game. Then Dan Johnson singled, Bobby Crosby singled, and up came Cust. You know the rest.

Giants 15 Rockies 2- this being the 20th game of a twenty game swing without a break (all, it seems, played against the Rockies) and following a lifeless performance by the team on Saturday, Bochy decided to sit most of his regulars and start the kids. First thought: poor luckless Matt Cain, the starting pitcher. Second thought: considering the Giants track record in developing hitters in their farm system, a perfect game thrown against them wouldn't be that surprising. So what happened? Twenty-two hits, fifteen runs and Fred Lewis going for the cycle. Now how about that?

You may not be interested in strategy, but strategy is interested in, you.
To a man we are told is the smartest man in baseball, Tony LaRussa, who finally overcame years of being the most annoying and most overrated manager in baseball to not choke and win a non-earthquake related World Championship.

Where force is necessary, there it must be applied boldly, decisively and completely. But one must know the limitations of force; one must know when to blend force with a maneuver, a blow with an agreement.
The Phillies, Mets and Indians all have kick-ass offenses yet questionable pitching. Didn't Marx say that good pitching beats good hitting everytime? Or was that Stengel.

Fascism is nothing but capitalist reaction.
Fascism comes out of a result of the failures of capitalism. True socialism could never approcah fascism because the fate of the working class is in their hands. Sort of like the collective bargaining agreement.

“Technique is noticed most markedly in the case of those who have not mastered it.”
Supposedly, the Detroit Tigers pitchers spent a lot of time this spring training learning how to cover the bag.

It's difficult to categorize Shearer's art because he's done radio (KRCW), TV (Jack Benny, SNL, Politically Incorrect, Ellen, Friends, Murphy Brown), movies (This is Spinal Tap, For Your Consideration, Abbott and Costello, A Mighty Wind, The Right Stuff, The Truman Show), voice work (The Simpsons, hello!) and more. He started acting at the age of seven. Shearer quipped, "I don't eat lunch," which must be the only way he takes care of all that business.

So for those of you not on your way elsewhere or already there (like us and for those of you wondering how we could post this while up in the Moutains somewhere, all we can say is time travel, baby), we here at SFist would like to give thanks to you, our loyal readers and to our commenters. Because without you, we'd be nothing. And yeah, you hear that all the time but that's the cool thing about blogs-- the community is just as important as the site. We've gotten photos from you, gossip from you, interesting comments from you, and all sorts of feedback.

For whatever reason, in the little over two years we've been here, this site has slowly become part of the fabric of the city and it's a little amazing and all sorts of cool and kind of scary. We're just bloggers, after all-- we just anonymously post from our little hovels and wonder if anybody cares. It turns out that people do.

And finally, we're going to drop the third person for a bit because I'd just like to thank all the contributors and back-end people who work for site and who really do make the site what it is. As I've quickly learned, being an editor mainly means sitting back and watching everyone do the thing they do. I mainly just forward e-mails.

Okay, back to the "we."

SFist Chris:On paper, in my opinion, the Junior Circuit is clearly the stronger league, so I'm looking for a team with a DH to win it all this year.

SFist Jon's pick, the Tribe, is a feelgood pick to win it all -- who wouldn't want the Indians to win -- but I've never really forgiven them for bailing on the Cactus League. Their strong finish last year was impressive, but what, uh, impressed me most was that during the last week of the season, after they had battled all the way back to catch up with the ChiSox, the Wahoos went 1-6 to finish six games out. C.C. Sabathia is a legitimate ace, and Travis Hafner and Grady Sizemore are tough, but losing Kevin Millwood and Coco Crisp will hurt more than adding Paul Byrd and Jason Michaels will help. Cleveland looks good to dethrone Chicago in the Central, but doesn't quite have enough to go all the way this year.