PETA, of course, already weighed in on this. But the beauty of the new Deadspin layout is that readers can contact us directly, and in this case rip us as if we were the bat-murderers.

A sample of our fan mail:

What an ignorant Neanderthal! There was no need to kill the bat. Bats rarely contract and transmit rabies, and when they do, it is by a bite. Let's hope the bat had a chance to bite the bastard when before it died, and even better, it was rabid.

Susan Barnard, Editor
Bats in Captivity

(Editor's note: Manu got 16 preventative rabies shots. You win this round, Susan Barnard.)

Killing harmless and beneficial animals is not funny, even on Halloween. Its sick! Your reference to the "bloodsucker" is in very poor taste, implying that a tiny insectivorous bat is somehow a vampire. Although I don't know in what state this game took place, generally bats are protected wildlife, and wanton killing is hardly in the best interests of our wildlife populations. Surely you are not so ignorant as to believe that a good bat is a dead bat! I suggest you go to batcon.org and catch up on your education.
Richard LaVal

Bats are as important to our ecosystem as humans, and dare I say are much more beneficial than basketball players. Bats are some of the most harmless creatures on earth, but I wish that poor bat has the power to cruelly kill that Manu Ginobli. It would have been in self defense.
Bruce

(Editor's note: No, that reader's last name was not "Wayne.")

Bat death is a serious offence across all of Europe.
Your post seems very insensitive to those of us who work to conserve bats.
Noel Jackson
Vice-president, Durham Bat Group.

We should not be glorifying this man! Bats are innocent animals, not the vampires and bloodsuckers of fiction. If it had been a kitten on the court, would he have stepped on it? No. So why couldn't he just grab the bat and safely release it outside, or call animal control to capture and release it? I think he released the bat himself just so he could be on TV, and you are giving him the attention he wants! If any teenagers try to copy what they saw, and kill bats, this will be on your head.

Okay, let's do this for posterity. I am not in favor of bat murder. I did not kill that bat; that was a professional basketball player, who probably doesn't read this site, and certainly doesn't read my e-mails.

But a serious question for the bat-lovers. Why did I get more angry e-mails over this than any time I've written a post making fun of dogfighting?

[UPDATE:] Has Manu been unjustly accused?

Manu gave the bat to an usher. The usher took it outside and it flew away. Im a officer at the ATT center and I saw it my damn self.

Peta... did you see the professional athletes run like kids when the bat swooped the floor. This is TEXAS. We have millions of those things and we even sell their poop.

Peta... grow up. Go bother the circus and leave MANU alone.

Either someone released a live bat into the AT&T center for Halloween, or Dracula has Spurs season tickets. Either way, Manu Ginobili took care of things, swatting down the bloodsucker in cold-blooded horror murder.

I can't wait to see Malcolm Gladwell write a 10,000 word piece equating professional basketball with brutal animal slaughter.

Bats Everywhere Quiver in Fear of Manu [FanHouse]

•You might be hearing about this a little later on this morning, if your esteemed editor ever wakes up. The Phillies are heading back to the World Series after disposing of the Dodgers in five games. Is Daulerio excited? Let's just say Center City Philadelphia isn't the only one with a greased pole right about now.

•Patrick Crayton is a little ticked his coaches didn't tell him before the media that Miles Austin usurped his starting role. With more yards and TDs in a single week than Crayton's had all season, I thought this is one of those things that didn't need to be said.

•Also mad at management: Cedric Benson says the Bears tried to blackball him from football after his two arrests. Funny, I thought it was his incompetence at football before his two arrests that did it.

•FOX is adding Ozzie Guillen as an analyst for the World Series. Given his unrivaled ability to string together profanities, we might see the first 70-second delay.

•A dozen members of the Browns have come down with the flu, and the NFL will allow them special roster provisions to restock the depleted positions. Unfortunately, both quarterbacks are perfectly healthy.

•Yes, I know we're bloggers, but we would never make like one San Antonio blogger who brought cookies to the locker room for Manu Ginobli. This blog only reports on personalities caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

•Finally, via Fark, we get a 12-year-old on the receiving end of a Taekwondo KTFO:

• And how exactly is a 9-42 team supposed to play? Watching the Heat play the Rockets was decidedly not fun, but even less enjoyable was listening to TNT announcers Dick Stockton, Mike Fratello, and Reggie Miller try desperately to sell the lousy game to their national audience.

"The Heat have cut the lead to 14! They're very much in this one! They sure aren't playing like a 9-41 team!" I was half expecting Mike Fratello to start begging, or maybe for Reggie Miller to promise a signed copy of I Love Being The Enemy to everybody who managed to sit through - and stay awake for - the entire game. The Heat got outscored 41-26 in the first quarter and were down by double digits for most of the game before eventually succumbing to a 112-100 loss, their 10th straight defeat. Said Shawn Marion: "We dug a hole that was too deep and it is hard to come back. We had to exert so much energy in the comeback and we ran out of gas." Welcome to Miami, Shawn! Meanwhile, the Rockets described their 10th straight win as "bittersweet" due to the trades that sent locker room cancer Bonzi Wells and Mike James to New Orleans for Bobby Jackson and Kirk Snyder to Minnesota for Gerald Green. "We've lost a couple guys that were well-liked around here," said Rafer Alston. "But hey, that means more shots for me, right? So it's all good." Tracy McGrady scored 23 points and 10 assists for Houston, who also got 21 points and 9 rebounds out of Ming the Merciless. Dwyane Wade, who just really wishes the season would end already, had 33 points and 11 assists for Miami.

• This was not what the schedule makers had in mind. Several months ago, it looked like this game was going to be a battle between the two leading Rookie of the Year candidates. Instead, it was former ROY Brandon Roy showing Kevin Durant how it's done by going for 19 points, 5 assists, and a career-high 14 rebounds to help the Trail Blazers end their five-game losing streak with a 92-88 win over the SuperSonics. LeMarcus Aldridge helped the Blazer cause by dumping in 18 and 12, while the Sonics got 20 points out of Durant and a near triple-double out of Earl Watson (15 points, 8 rebounds, 9 assists). Said Seattle coach P.J. Carlesimo: "Our guys played really hard and really well, but just not hard enough." I think he should just issue that statement every game.

• 1, 2, 3...pass the trash! Part of me wants to say, "I can't believe the Bulls tricked the Cavaliers into taking on Ben Wallace's contract." The other part of me wants to say, "I can't believe Chicago agreed to take Larry Hughes out of the Cleveland chum bucket." But if you think about it, the Cavs get a defensive big man with championship experience. Who cares if he's aging so fast he might be a pile of dust come playoff time? And the Bullies get a volume-shooter who's hitting 37 percent from the field this season. But, you know, at least he's taller than Ben Gordan.

How bad is it? Even the Jazz fans are getting violent.

Jazz fans — seeing their team lose at home for the first time in eight games this postseason — showed their disgust by hurling things toward the court, appearing to hit San Antonio's Bruce Bowen with something small. "They threw Carmex at me," Bowen said. "I like Carmex, but not getting it thrown at me."

For some reason, we have a hard time imagining Bruce Bowen loving Carmex. Regardless, the heroics of our man Deron Williams — who no one will ever place below Chris Paul again, not after this series — have been for naught, because Manu Ginobili has truly perfected the new art of the NBA flop. Something to be proud of.

Spurs 91, Jazz 79 [Houston Chronicle]
Why Are The Spurs Boring? [Full Court NBA]