1. Go to www.SMAKTONES.COM.
2. Click on Ringback under Choose a Style (you'll have to scroll down).
3. Click on Rich Aurilia under Ringtones.
4. Tell me this isn't the awesomest thing you've heard since “Would you believe a double?”

It seems like no one can stop talking about Aurilia. Joel Sherman says in today's New York Post:

The Mets can be pretty certain their pen and lineup will be strong next year. They need to find a second baseman, preferably righty hitting, and an intriguing possibility is Rich Aurilia, a New Yorker who was signed to his first pro contract by a Rangers scout named Omar Minaya. Minaya loves free agent Julio Lugo. But so does new Cubs manager Lou Piniella (who had him in Tampa Bay) and the Red Sox, so the price is going to get steep.

What the heck? Aurilia had the opportunity to go free agent last year and couldn't get a nibble; this year the press can't stop talking about him.

Dude's gonna cash in.

I know that this is old news now, but I'm desperate to continue pushing that Spiezio photo off the front page, so here's something I intended to link to last week.

Josh Bacott at JoeSportsFan.com tells us how the Mets and Cardinals spent their unexpected night off when game one of the series was rained out in the article The Rain Delay. My favorites:

David Eckstein – Walked around Times Square, wearing his newly purchased styrofoam Statue of Liberty hat and hit every single spot on his “Explore New York” tour map.

Jim Edmonds – Four words. Shop till you drop.

Albert Pujols – Put his full uniform on, spikes and eye black included, and stared at a picture of Tom Glavine for six consecutive hours without blinking.

Tom Glavine – Crossword puzzles. All night long.

Plus, the very best one:

Jose Valentin – Did what he does on every Wednesday night – groomed his mustache.

Gotta love those Valentín mustaches.

Major League Baseball has struck a deal to put team logos on caskets and urns. Starting next year, the dearly departed fans of the Yankees, Red Sox, Tigers, Phillies, Cubs, and Dodgers can spend their posthumous existence entombed in their team colors.

Each urn will be stamped with a message saying Major League Baseball officially recognizes the deceased as a lifelong fan of that team.

If the pilot project goes well, they could expand to include more teams. If waiting for the next Reds' World Series wasn't enough to keep you going, hanging on for the availability of a Reds-themed final resting place certainly is.

Go read the story on ABC News. You can also check out Eternal Image, the company that will be making the coffins and urns. Among their other themes are Precious Moments, and the urn is just a disgustingly cute as the little figurines your aunt collects.

So Fire Brand of the American League wrote up a lengthy discussion of the benefits of Boston acquiring Adam Dunn, including making room for the right-handed bat of Kevin Millar.

And, since the author is committing a total blog foul in leeching my bandwidth by placing a photo from RHM on his own site, I think I'll do a similarly heinous thing and repost his article in its entirety. Though it's not really that heinous, since I'm at least including a link to the site. SOME of us have manners.

Like I said, the article is lengthy, so I'm putting it below the fold.

UPDATE 10/26 -- The author of the article, Evan S. Brunell, was nice enough to write and let me know that weasin' my bandwidth isn't actually illegal while my reposting his article is. So if you want to read it again, you'll have to follow the link.