Popping in on Slate and Salon

Charlie Pierce and Allan Barra, two very good writers who happen to write about sports, are engaging in an entertaining e-mail dialogue on Slate this week regarding baseball and the World Series. So far they've touched on why to root for the Yankees, the pleasure of watching Mariano Rivera, Hideki Matsui, and Josh Beckett play, and the unfolding steroid "scandal." It's fun stuff from a pair of smart, funny scribes.

Over in Salon, King Kaufman offers a grumpy piece skewering the game intros by Fox studio anchor Jeanne Zelasko. This is what's known as "mailing it in." Couldn't Kaufman have found a more difficult target -- people who talk during movies, maybe, or restaurant customers who engage in loud cell-phone conversations? I know Zelasko's no Jim McKay, but she's professional, poised, and easy on the eyes, and besides, who the hell watches the pre-game show, anyway?