Well, the cousin bailed on me... it seems his little chickie's grandmother died. As far as Tarreck is concerned, grandma couldn't have timed her death any better if she had tried.... And since Tarreck is world renowned for bailing at the last minute, I don't know whether the death is only in his head, in which case I'm glad I still get the Cubs tickets, or if she really did die, in which case I feel bad about the whole thing... but I'm still happy about the Cubs tickets. (What can I say, I'm a selfish asshole like that.)

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I gotta say that I am right there with Bill Simmons on disagreeing with the fine folks at ESPN about the top 25 sports movies of the past 25 years. I mean, ok, YEAH number one was a no-brainer. HOOSIERS is just the ONLY movie that culd be number one... but here, look at the rest of these:

BEST SPORTS MOVIES As selected by ESPN25's Expert Panel	BEST SPORTS MOVIES As ranked by ESPN.com SportsNation users
1. Hoosiers	1. Hoosiers
2. Raging Bull	2. Caddyshack
3. Field of Dreams	3. Field of Dreams
4. Bull Durham	4. Rudy
5. Caddyshack	5. Major League
6. The Natural	6. The Natural
7. Chariots of Fire	7. Bull Durham
8. Jerry Maguire	8. Remember the Titans
9. Seabiscuit	9. Jerry Maguire
10. Remember the Titans	10. Raging Bull
11. A League of Their Own	11. White Men Can't Jump
12. Eight Men Out	12. Seabiscuit
13. White Men Can't Jump	13. League of Their Own
14. Major League	14. The Rookie
15. Tin Cup	15. Eight Men Out
16. 61*	16. Tin Cup
17. The Hurricane	17. 61*
18. The Color of Money	18. Chariots of Fire
19. Finding Forrester	19. The Hurricane
20. The Rookie	20. The Color of Money
21. Ali	21. Ali
22. Bend it Like Beckham	22. Finding Forrester
23. Cobb	23. Cobb
24. Rudy	24. Searching for Bobby Fischer
25. Searching for Bobby Fischer	25. Bend It Like Beckham

Some of these make me wonder, why Ed isn't on this list. You know Ed... the sports classic starring Matt LeBlanc as a minor league pitcher who has a killer fast ball, but struggles with controlling his curve. So of course the team's overall play and Matt's pitching so dramatically improve when the team somehow manages to land a chimpanzee as a player... because that makes all kinds of sense. What? You didn't see that one? Well, that's ok, most people didn't see a lot of the other movies that made the official top 25.

Now here's the thing, I might have different criteria for what defines a sports movie, let alone one of the top 25 sports movies, but I think (and correct me if I'm wrong here,) that The Sandlot was much more qualified as a top ranking sports movie than Searching for Bobby Fischer. And if you're really looking to limit the number of baseball movies on the roster, then that's fine... leave Bobby Fischer and replace Cobb... nobody saw either one anyway, and if you're really attached to dark dramatic baseball stores, then that's fine, leave Cobb in and take out The Rookie... That way you replace one sappy, cheesy family-oriented baseball story with a movie that is an original, memorable, family-oriented baseball story. This is just a jumping off point, there are a lot of revisions to be made to the bottom 24 movies on the list... like I said Hoosiers stays at number one. Am I alone here? Am I the only one who thinks we need to construct the real list of the top 25 and let ESPN know what's up? I think I'm going to have to establish some kind of criteria for ranking and get this thing in the works. (Please feel free to suggest movies that make your top 25)

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go watch the E! True Hollywood Story: Jim Varney (Yeah, the guy who played Ernest.)