Did you see it in game 2? Hand-facers? It's official now. Fox has instructed their camera people to only show close-ups of fans who have their hands on their faces. In the bottom of the ninth in game 2, eight fans were shown close-up. Seven of those had their hands on their faces. The eighth? That one was a zoom-in on...just hands! Which were not by the face--but that proves the hands are the key to getting on the air.

It was weird, the inning started and they weren't going to the dreaded fan shots. And I thought, "I bet they're looking for hand-facers! They can't show a fan unless the hands are visible!" Sure enough the first one they show was just putting her hand on her head, taking it off the cheek. Almost like they found one and then she thwarted their efforts by moving the hand and then they quickly cut away. But they found plenty more HFs as the inning went on. And this was after a particularly HF-ey bottom 8 and top 9.

Note: Don't give me the "it's cold" excuse. They're specifically looking for praying and clasped hands at the mouth. You can see people in the front rows behind the plate on every pitch, and none of them are so frozen that they must keep their hands constantly covering their cheeks. It's also weird that so many people would be doing this at times when what the team needs is for fans to be, you know, cheering for them, not looking on in silent drama like it's a golf tournament. That's why I think some of these people are either planted or are told to act that way. Think about it: Your team has won a World Series in the past few seasons, and more than any other team ever aside from the Yankees. It's game 2, you're up 1 game to 0, and up 1-0 with your own team batting in the bottom of the 8th. I don't know about you, but my reaction would involve happily clapping and yelling for my guys to tack on and cruise to another world championship. These Fake Fox Fans are sitting there like they're waiting to see if their husband made it out of the coal mine alive. It makes no sense.

Note #2 (for sane people!): Okay, you folks are going, Dude, Okay, so you're right, they only show hand-facers, and even though no one in the audience gives a shit about individual fan reactions during the game, they want dramatic effect, and that's how they're doing it. First of all, thanks for being so reasonable instead of just calling me a fag. And I'm glad to see we're mostly on the same page here. Wanna get coffee later? I'll just have a water but you can get whatever. Anyway, my point is, They're making a mockery out of something that's already a mockery. Imagine if you went to a movie where every scene was the dramatic ending. An hour and a half of dramatic endings. You'd already be thinking it's just too much. But then what if all the scenes were the same dramatic ending? Okay maybe that's a horrible example. I'm just saying, if they're trying to do something secretly, but everybody can clearly tell what that secret is, it ruins the whole thing. Which was already a dumb thing to begin with.

Note #3 (for "fans of the game" types): You guys are all, "why don't you talk about the baseball game instead of some stupid thing that has nothing to do with it?" I've got an answer for you: I dunno.

Patrick picks up a run, and my mom gets two. So five of 18 people are on the board through two games, with the series going a minimum of five games. More runs, please! Make it fun!

Rangers:
1: Ruben--RSN Alberta 0
2: Rich G 0
3: Section 36 0
4: Allan--Joy of Sox 0
5: Ryan 2
6: heybluu 0
7: redsoxfandave 0
8: Charlie 0
9: Mom 2

Cardinals:
1: Brendan 0
2: Kara 0
3: Bosox Fan in Wichita 0
4: Liam, Summa Contra 2
5: Andy 0
6: tim 1
7: Patrick 1
8: Omnipotent Q 0
9: Amber 0

Early in tonight's game, they were showing some player's path to where he is now. They highlighted the state of each team he played for. Michigan for the Tigers, California for the A's, Texas for the Rangers....and for the Royals? Kansas! Come on, people!

(Easy to confuse two cities with the same name? Yes. Should the network that shows the World Series know which state each baseball team plays in? Also yes.)

The prize for this contest will be...one MILLION dollars. Actually, just a chance to win a mil. We have this raffle thing in my state and if you win my contest, I'll send you a ticket. Of course, if you win the million, you might have to come to Rhode Island to claim it, but that shouldn't be a problem for a 1%-er like yourself. Below is the scoreboard through game one. Runs scored in bold. Since the Cards have yet to bat in the 9th, I have spared Amber the 0 and given her a dash-dash.

Rangers:
1: Ruben--RSN Alberta 0
2: Rich G 0
3: Section 36 0
4: Allan--Joy of Sox 0
5: Ryan 2
6: heybluu 0
7: redsoxfandave 0
8: Charlie 0
9: Mom 0

Cardinals:
1: Brendan 0
2: Kara 0
3: Bosox Fan in Wichita 0
4: Liam, Summa Contra 2
5: Andy 0
6: tim 1
7: Patrick 0
8: Omnipotent Q 0
9: Amber --

Rangers
1: Ruben--RSN Alberta
2: Rich G
3: Section 36
4: Allan--Joy of Sox
5: Ryan
6: heybluu
7: redsoxfandave
8: Charlie
9: Mom

Cardinals:
1: Brendan
2: Kara
3: Bosox Fan in Wichita
4: Liam, Summa Contra
5: Andy
6: tim
7: Patrick
8: Omnipotent Q
9: Amber

Two spots still open. Comment if you want one, any time up until Game One starts tonight. Rules are here if you missed it. [Last second update--filled in those last 2 spots with 2 pals. Good luck everybody.]

This dude got really close to whales.

This is what I always feel like saying to cops! (Except for the part about me being in Iraq and stuff. You know what I meant.)

[Noon update: Y'all are awesome, thanks for entering. Three spots left: NL1, NL2, NL9.]

The yet-to-be determined prize in my contest! We've got 8 contestants, and 10 spots left, with three days left until the Texas-St. Louis series starts. So click that link and join in. Before I start entering fake people.

Kim & I didn't know exactly what to expect when we went to the Occupy Providence "events" tonight. But our citymates impressed us. As soon as we got to the park, a march began. I thought it was just a few people, marching a little ways, then we'd all come back to the park. Turns out we were marching till dark. And there were a LOT of us.

Okay let's get this out of the way, though. What's up with this "Weird Al Roxx" sign? I have long thought Weird Al does indeed rock--for almost 30 years now, holy shit--but is this some Internet Code or something? I asked my pal Google and he showed me this quote all over the place, along with the longer "Weird Al rox my sox" phrase, but, do people just say that for the hell of it or is there something more to this? I gotta figure there is if someone would make a sign out of it and bring it to a non-Weird Al event.... Moving on....

For years Kim has been asking why people aren't mad in the streets in this country, and I could have only dreamed of seeing large crowds of people cheering at someone holding a "Workers of the World Unite" sign in my own city, so this was kind of a huge day for us.

The actual occupation of Burnside Park starts tonight. Kim was kind enough to donate some soap to the people who will be camping out indefinitely.

By the time night fell, we'd zigzagged through "downcity" (the city of Providence's ill-conceived attempt at naming its downtown district), stopping at a few key spots and listening to speeches which we'd have to relay back to the marchers behind us since the trail of people was so long. Here we're almost to the State House.

You can see the State House in the distance. Cops were closing streets as we marched along. There was a pretty funny moment when we passed the convention center. I thought people were on a smoke break, until I realized they seemed to be having some kind of cigar convention. We got dirty looks from some of those people, others had that guilty look on their face, like, Oh shit, the world's fucked up and yet I've decided to spend my night smoking and discussing fine cigars. But hey, that's their thing.

Our bullhorning hosts in front of the Family Guy skyline.

Getting close to the final destination before a return to the park.

This was the best shot I got all night.

It was cool to march up the steps of the State House and then look back down at the crowd. It was pitch dark so I can't really show you that unless you want to look at a black rectangle. After a spirited speech by one of the flag-wavers above, we went back to the park, which was another fun march through honking stopped traffic.

After being at Occupy Wall Street last weekend, I worried the Providence version might pale in comparison, but it was effin' great. Nice job, PVD.