Starting Five

1. You R.A. mazing! Some time within the next two to four years, someone will release a film based on the life of R.A. Dickey. The 37 year-old knuckleballer for the New York Mess won his 20th game yesterday, and it was only fitting that his lone USDA Prime-quality teammate, David Wright, stroked the decisive three-run blast in the Mess’ 6-5 win. Dickey’s memoir, Wherever I Wind Up, which he began while sleeping on an air mattress four years ago in Seattle, is a terrific tale of redemption,  perseverance, self-effacement and faith. That he had it published before he became the Mess’ first 20-game winner in more than 20 years is pure serendipity. Only three years ago Dickey was 34 and still riding minor-league buses. Today, he is a 20-game winner, leads the National League in ERA (E.R.A. Dickey?) and only Tony LaRussa and others whose hearts are three sizes too small would begrudge him their Cy Young vote (yes, we know LaRussa does not vote.) Here’s a piece we wrote on Dickey earlier this summer.

2. Timberrrrrrr! If a Tree falls on a Thursday night in Seattle, do any AP voters hear it? No. 8 Stanford squandered a 10-point lead that it held until the end of the third quarter lost at U-Dub last night, 17-13. In the final eight minutes the Cardinal allowed the Huskies to convert a 4th-and-inches in Husky territory, failed to wrap up on a quick out pass that resulted in the game-winning TD, dropped a difficult but doable out route that would’ve given them first and goal, completely boofed their own 4th-down attempt, and then JUMPED OFFSIDE on a critical 3rd and -and-3, thus sending the game into Schiano Mode. Forget the A.P. poll; Stanford may actually be in danger of falling out of the U.S. News & World Report Top 10 as well.

Look, Madge, a double entendre! MH salutes RA on his 20th win and a sublime cover photo.

3. Baltimore, the setting for The Replacements (unless you’re an alternative rock fan in his/her 40s; then the setting was Minneapolis), is the scene where the replacement referees are replaced by the NFL referees. The fans at Baltimore’s Corporate Name Here Stadium gave them a standing ovation before the Ravens defeated the Browns, 23-16. How long will this honeymoon last?

4. Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, the man behind “The Innocence of Muslims” is arrested. And yet Jerry Bruckheimer walks free.

5. Doug Fister of Detroit Tigers strikes out nine straight batters (on a date, 9/27, we should mention, that is perfectly aligned with the math of baseball) and none of them were Oakland A’s. That’s an American League record.

Reserves

The Wall Street Journal ranks the Top 50 start-ups. Nos. 28 and 48 piqued our interest.

Plane carrying trekkers to the Mount Everest region crashes in Nepal, killing all 19 aboard. The pilot radioed to the tower that the plane struck a vulture. A vulture! We mean, c’mon. Awful news, of course, but now Jon Krakauer can pitch a two-fer to his editors.

You saw the end of the Browns-Ravens game, right? Similar situation to the Packers-Seahawks, except that Brandon Weeden’s pass fell incomplete. However, a referee flagged Baltimore linebacker Freddie Paul Kruger for a personal foul on Brown lineman Joe Thomas, whose wife is hot  (well that was a totally unnecessary aside), after Weeden released the pass. So the Browns were given a second chance. That pass, too, fell incomplete. However, what if it had not? And what if a replacement referee had made that call? Are you telling us we wouldn’t be subjected to a ceaseless barrage of Trent Dilfer/Steve Young bloviating on and on about how you CANNOT make that call at that point of the game? Your thoughts, please…

In bizarre manslaughter sonslaughter news…

France has approved a 75% tax for its super-wealthy… whom we presume will all simply change their primary residences to Monte Carlo.

Two very, very, very different messages in terms of the presidential election, this one and this one. Notice on the latter that it is not accompanied by an, “I am Barack Obama, and I approved this &$%* message.”

Looper opens today… but we already saw it in 2044.

This catch. THIS CATCH! Travis Snider of the Pirates makes an astounding grab to rob the Mess of a home run. If his new nickname is not already Sniderman, we don’t know nothin’ from nothin’.

Sniderman, Sniderman, does whatever a Snider can.

So now Neil Young is a music technology entrepeneur? Young appeared on Letterman after Jimmy Fallon, who does a fair Neil Young impersonation.

The NBA is finally, FINALLY, instituting a rule to penalize flopping. We’re calling it the Ginobiliiiiii Rule.

Don’t look now, but it may be too soon to bury Blackberry.(We still own and love ours)

China has expelled Bo Xilai from the Communist Party. Bo will now pledge the University of Tennessee’s Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. #ButtChugging

So, if you’re keeping score, that’s two football games in prime time this week at Seattle Corporate Name Here Stadium that basically ended on an interception, although the teams intercepting the pass went 1-1.

Reports from trusted sources (our big brother) that Red Hot Chili Peppers tour is a tour de force in kickassery and must be seen.