- While the Rockets now have Yao, who would have believed in 1962 that the first hit played in a World Series game in Texas would be by a player from Japan (the White Sox' Tadahito Iguchi).

- I always find it interesting when they interview someone and ask what they would do if they weren't in the field they're in. Astros pitcher (and NLCS MVP) Roy Oswalt's answer seemed fitting: NASCAR driver.

- Best sign:

  To Do List
  Stop the Chop  X
  Clip the Birds  X
  Wash the Sox

  "the Chop" refers to the Atlanta Braves fans' tomahawk chop gesture, which gets old really fast.

- While this "everything is bigger in Texas" thing can get out of hand, it's at least ironic that the first World Series game played in the state also ends up being the longest ever played, one in which 43 players took part, also a record.

- Best commercial: Bank of America

- Sign, Honorable Mention: B G O
Okay, it's 3 signs, but that apparently wasn't enough for my 5 year old daughter, who has taken phonics for a year now. She looked perplexed when they showed that one on TV. Later, she came in my home office (I hardly ever have time to watch a whole game) and asked, "Daddy, how do you spell 'Biggio'?" I guess even she could tell that "BGO" couldn't be right. I told her they only used some of the letters. She said, "Well, maybe they just had a small family."

- I went and watched the bottoms of the ninth and tenth innings, but it was starting to seem "like deja vu all over again", as I recalled the recent 18-inning game in which they eliminated the Braves, and I went on to bed. The boys stayed up till the end, and one told me this morning that it was obviously getting late when instead of saying tomorrow night, Fox started announcing game 4 with "Later today on Fox ..."!

- The Astros still lost, but it's clear they're getting closer every game to winning, so in a way the Series is mirroring their steady improvement all year, where their big weakness has been (and continues to be) an inability to knock in runners in scoring position.

- While the Chronicle is full of despair at how the Astros are now sure to lose the Series, I'm just glad they finally made it. I think we'd all be better off just enjoying the fact they've finally made it to the World Series, rather than worrying about winning it.

... And besides baseball:

- OK, so say you do build your 30-foot crocodile cage and manage to catch the thing (I didn't see that far), exactly how do you stuff him in the cage?

- After all these years, Linus is still out there in that pumpkin patch!