•Tony Gonzalez (and a strategically placed Mrs. Gonzalez) go naked for a PETA ad. Think it's ironic someone on the Falcons, of all teams, to do an anti-fur ad? Well, it's not; Michael Vick never wore fur.

•The Raiders are actively cooperating with the NFL of Tom Cable's Punch-Out!! because they hope to be able to fire Cable "with cause," and not have to pay him. Or they could keep him on staff, and not have to pay any assistants whose careers he ends.

•A Notre Dame assistant called out Navy's head coach for his postgame comments and repeated chop blocks. Never mind the fact that it was Veterans Day; any team who tries to cripple the Fighting Irish will always have the public's sympathy.

•Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino win Gold Gloves. They're obviously not talking about batting gloves.

•In a battle of teams named after primary colors, the Red Wings demolish the Blue Jackets 9-1. But if they could somehow combine forces, they would blend into the Purple Parrots, the absolute best team on Legends Of The Hidden Temple.

•Jim Riggleman "wins" the hotly contested Nationals manager sweepstakes, and will sign a one-year contract. Second prize, obviously, was a two-year deal.

•Finally, we've got Duke recruit Kyrie Irving starring in his high school production of High School Musical:

•Think it was an odd year? In 2009, baseball saw 8 players hit for the cycle, three steals of home, a no-hitter, a perfect game, and an unassisted triple play. Perhaps the most mathematically improbable feat of all: Mark McGwire is back in baseball.

•The defending champion Lakers opened their season in "we played the Clippers" form, getting outshot and outrebounded but still winning. Kobe takes the early league lead in shots taken, a lead he is sure to never relinquish.

•Shaq had 10 and 10, for literally the most ineffectual double-double possible, as the Cavs fell to Boston on opening night. Rasheed Wallace didn't earn a technical, and Kevin Garnett's knee didn't explode, so all in all a good night for them.

•Speaking of the Celtics, Glen Davis will be out a couple months after breaking his thumb in a fight with a childhood friend. He'll be suspended, forfeiting a good chunk of his $3,000,000 salary. Hell, for less than half of what he stands to miss, I'll be his friend and not break his finger.

•Jimmy Rollins went on Leno and predicted Phillies in five. It was easily the funniest thing said on Leno's show since it premiered.

•Titans owner Bud Adams wants Vince Young to take over as starter. Bud Adams is 86, so I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he just doesn't remember how VY played when he was starting.

•Finally, in honor of A.J. Burnett's and Shane Victorino's postgame tradition of pieing teammates, a video from the archives; Soupy Sales nailing Bob Costas (go to the 1:00 mark).

But, seriously, and I hate, hate, hate to put you non-Philadelphia people through this all over again since last October on Deadspin was littered with non-stop boner typing but, damn, the sound of ball-meets-Rollins-bat could crack open the sky. Even Chip Caray sounds like Vin Scully on that call.

Of course, there is still one game to go and even though the Phillies appear unstoppable right now, the sticky film from years of downtrodden loser-dom are tough to wash off. Honestly — a Philadelphia team just can't be this good. It's so disorienting.

I promise I'll keep my pants zipped up throughout the rest of the playoffs and keep most of the updates limited to nonsensical face-typing when things go ridiculously well. Okay — I'll try. I will fail, but dammit, I'll try.

And how can you not love this photo? Or this one?

New vid courtesy of The700level.com

From The Fightins:

Noble experiment though it was, “Campaign Cheer” failed in its quest to persuade the faithful at Citizens Bank Park to refrain from making all but the most supportive noises. The urge to boo Jimmy Rollins was too great to resist, and watching the shortstop go hitless again did little to soothe the savage beasts. ... If nothing else, the outpouring of Rollins’ soul brought forth what may be my favorite J-Roll quote, ever: "In Philly, can't be no punk."

Rollins remains unwilling to put this thing to rest:

And he again talked about how booing has, in the past, affected some of his teammates to the point where "they're halfway defeated before they get up there" to the plate. He also added that potential free agents have come up to him in the past and asked about the Philadelphia fans and said things, "Most of 'em, you can't repeat." Rollins said that players have said they don't want to put their families into this kind of situation, "That's just the truth."

Wow. So Rollins is actually saying that potential free agents are spurning the Phillies because of their mean, negative fans? That should calm the waters.

This all seems to agree with the rest of the team, by the way. Wednesday's 4-0 win over the Nationals was Philadelphia's fourth victory in five games.

Only Some Boos Kick In [Philadelphia Daily News]
You Can't Say We Didn't Try, Jimmy [The Fightins]
Cheers, Boos About Evenly Split [Philadelphia Daily News]

Don't underestimate the work done by Rollins here. He's providing the beat in that way somebody in sixth grade always would, by banging on a desk. His knuckles have to be sore by the end of the song but you can't even tell. That's heart.

Anyway, not that you care, but this is evidently associated with some stupid promotion that major league baseball was running.

Ryan Howard and J-Roll- "Take me out to the ballgame" (Remix) [The Fightins']

They stood with a horde of other fans along the hotel's circular driveway, waiting for players to pop out of taxis and limousines.

At one point, a silver stretch limo arrived. The back door opened, and a handsome young man emerged.

Someone yelled, "Hey, it's Jimmy Rollins," and the mob lurched forward and surrounded the man, who was startled.

"Jimmy who?" he said.

"Hey, Jimmy, sign my ball," someone shouted. "Jimmy! Jimmy!"

"I'm not Jimmy," the man said. "I think you got the wrong guy."

Rollins said as he swept his opened palm over their faces. "I am not the man you seek. You will go home now. You will make an honest living. An honest living."

"Yes... honest living," said the autograph hound in a trance.

• The Philadelphia Story. We were all ready to send Charlie Manuel off to the laugh factory when he sent Brett Myers to the bullpen a little while back, although the move did generate from Myers our favorite baseball quote of the year so far: "Let me let you direct that question to my arm." On Thursday, Myers closed a game for the first time, um, ever, and got the save in the Phillies' 9-7 win over the Giants. He pitched the ninth in place of the injured Tom Gordon, retiring all three batters he faced. Meanwhile, Jimmy Rollins continues to perform at a pace that will eventually draw the attention of Lex Luthor; tripling twice and driving in two runs. And suddenly a season that looked hopeless just a couple of weeks ago looks promising. Giants starter Matt Cain and his 1.54 ERA didn't last past the fourth inning, with the Giants losing for the fifth time in seven games. Rollins, a native of Oakland, had to miss his Warriors' win over the Mavericks, which occurred at the same time right across the bay.

• I'm A Walking Candy Apple! The Rangers' Sammy Sosa was hit in the helmet with a pitch on Thursday, but it appears that he's OK. So hard not to make a steroids joke here, so we'll simply recount the Seinfeld episode in which a bird collides with Elaine's head, killing it. Bystander: "It's like that bird couldn't avoid your head. I've never seem anything like it." The Yankees won the first game, 4-3, behind Hideki Matsui's tiebreaking double in the eighth. Then, Mike Mussina (1-1) allowed one run and four hits over five innings in his return from the DL in New York's 5-2 win in the second game.

• We Know. The Bases Are Like Pillows. No one quite admires his own handiwork like Manny Ramirez. The ball that went for his second homer on Thursday — breaking an eighth-inning tie with the Mariners — was already back in the dugout before Manny even got to first during his home run trot. Boston won, 8-7, despite falling behind 5-0 in the first. Seattle had happy amazing fun time with Boston starter Daisuke Matsuzaka, who walked the first three batters and struck out only one over five innings. He gave up seven earned runs.

• Lust In the Dust. The Mets begin packing all of their stuff today to move to their new permanent home: Arizona's Chase Field. New York has won 11 straight there, including Thursday's 9-4 victory in which Damion Easley and David Wright each had three-run homers in the ninth. Arizona's last victory over the Mets in Phoenix came on May 11, 2004, according to AP.

• May We Introduce To You, The One And Only Jamie Shields. James Shields (3-0) gave up three runs over 7 1-3 innings for the win and Rocco Baldelli had a two-run homer in the Devil Rays' 6-4 win over the Twins.

If you're into the counting stats, here's every hitting streak over 30 games coming into this season. There's some fun names on the list, including:

• Benito Santiago hit in 34 straight games in 1987. Imagine if they'd have had steroids for him back then.

• A bunch of people got stuck right at 30, illustrious names too: George Brett, Albert Pujols, Tris Speaker, Stan Musial, Nomar Garciaparra, Eric Davis and the immortal Jerome Walton.

• Pete Rose is the closest anyone has come in the last few decades with 44 games; no one's been above Rollins' 38 in 20 years.

So go go, Chase. We do love a good hitting streak.

Marlins-Phillies Box Score [Yahoo Sports]
30 Game Hit Streaks [The Baseball Page]

30-Plus Game Hitting Streaks [Baseball Almanac]
Rollins Hit Streak Reaches 36 Games [Phillies.com]