Wonder Twin powers activated?

After more than a week-long hiatus, there's a lot to get to today: NBA Finals, E3 news, a St. Louis trip including Cardinals' news, and what might turn out to be the most important QotD of all time.

If playoff series don't really start until the home team loses, then I guess there's no reason to watch either the Stanley Cup Finals or the NBA Finals. I guess you could watch the NBA Finals if you like bad officiating or Kobe Bryant.

One late-game play caught my eye/mind during last night's game. It was right after Lamar Odom saved the ball from going out of bounds with about a minute and a half left. Either Derek Fisher or Trevor Ariza caught the ball at about the three-point line. This is where the late-game rulebook came into play: Hedo Turkoglu pretty much bear hugged whichever Laker it was with the ball, but the refs didn't call a foul, in my estimation, because the Lakers weren't winning at the time. It was exactly the sort of touch foul that every NBA team uses to send winning teams to the free throw line to extend games. Only, the Lakers weren't the winning team at the time. At any rate, this Lakers/Magic series has turned out to be better than I expected.

This blog probably won't be very organized.

E3 was full of previews for games that have already been announced. A lot of the presentations were just updates. EA Sports showed a watchable Xbox 360 demo of a game that already has a playable demo on Xbox Live and previewed a game that was shipping within 10 days of the conference. The new Madden will have an online franchise mode, which could be awesome if I had 31 friends who play or if they allow smaller leagues with computer-controlled teams included.

Nintendo announced new games in a number of classic franchises, like Metroid, Zelda, and Mario Galaxy, some of which I care about. But they were pretty much just announcements, other than the Metroid trailer, which just reminded me why I don't play Metroid games.

The Microsoft press conference was evidently about Project Natal, and it's probably had the biggest ripple effect of the conference. I often compare the video game industry to the movie industry, considering they have similar assets and, presumably, similar goals. In that light, the Wii was like the first successful movie in a particular genre; it's Le Voyage Dans la Lune for sci-fi or Shrek for animated, G-rated movies with PG-13 jokes. Now that the relative success of the Wii is well established, all the other game makers are attacking exploding moon men with umbrellas and masking sexual innuendos with cartoon donkeys. Now we just wait for the video game equivalents of Star Wars and The Incredibles. It's only a matter of time.

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I'd say I had an appropriate amount of fun on my St. Louis trip, if not more. For some reason, my cousins have really cool friends, so I was always with good company.

We went to the first two games of the Cardinals' abysmal series against the Rockies, after which the Cards had securely lost their first-place status.

The first game started out really well: Adam Wainwright only gave up two through six. But then the seventh started. The bullpen came in and gave up nine runs, including six by Dennys Reyes and Jason Motte, neither of whom recorded a single out. (Motte also lost last night's game without recording an out.) Then we got to see the MLB debut of Jess Todd, who at least got some guys out to end the inning. The top of the seventh probably lasted 30+ minutes and took a severe toll on some of our fellow bleacher-mates, but I'll leave that whole story for Matthew's blog.

The Saturday game was also bad for St. Louis, which was, in turn, bad for me. I decided to pick up Kentucky Colonel Todd Wellemeyer in the fantasy league, so I'd have something else to root for, besides a Cardinals' win and/or something other than a blowout. It worked out well because I was facing Matthew last week, so I got to remind him of how many points each of Wellemeyer's season-high six Ks were worth in our matchup. But then Wellemeyer gave up six through seven and got the loss, so that didn't work out as well. I still whooped Matthew, though, especially after Roy Halladay's Sunday gem. Unfortunately, Matthew was already on his way home to Texas before that game was final, so I had to call him on the phone to gloat about his fantasy team's utter destruction.

My St. Louis trip was also, in part, about the graduation of my cousin Emily (Dunn) and her/our friends Katie and Jessica. I probably said this about a million times while I was there, but congratulations again to all three of them. I suppose I should also congratulate my other cousin Emily (Sherrick), who probably (officially) graduated sometime in the near past, and Charles' brother Patrick, who graduated Thursday. I think Jenny graduates at some point this month, but not from high school.

This St. Louis trip also afforded me the chance to drive my grandpa's car, at one point through this:

(Not the golf ball.)

QotD:

As you probably know, Matthew, a.k.a. stat boy, started his own blog a little over a month ago. Matthew and I have discussed combining our blogging powers into one über-blog that would include, but probably not contain, both of our thoughts. (Max Kellerman wanted too much money.) There are both benefits and problems with this plan, but I won't mention any here to avoid any pollution of my readers' (pronounced Bryan's) opinions.

At any rate, the QotD is:

Should Matthew and I combine our blogs?

My take: If the ayes have it...

Editor's note: Matthew is currently homeless as he waits out a period between leases, so his access to the internets may be limited, in which case, this decision might rest on the shoulders of one Bryan Sherrick. Can he handle the pressure of this decision and the intense boredom of Buies Creek all at one time? We'll find out.