If you get Turner Classic Movies, each of the famous films in today's lineup is preceded by a classic Warner Bros. cartoon parodying it. I'd wondered why a Lon Chaney silent was running first thing this morning; I missed the Bugs Bunny before. Ted Turner is a prize horse's ass, but TCM might be the best channel on television.

No one did the Thylacine Yawn as well as Joe E. Brown, the "man with the air-cooled tonsils," as this 1935 trailer for Ring Lardner's Alibi Ike indicates. That's Fred Mertz playing the Cubs manager.

Joe E. Brown was a great fan of the old minor-league Hollywood Stars, who are colorfully recalled at Sports Hollywood. See also the page on LA's old Wrigley Field, which carries at bottom an outstanding collection of Pacific Coast League links; a remembrance of Fatty Arbuckle's Vernon Tigers, and the Harry Caray pearl of wisdom that tops the page of Greatest Sports Quotes.

A few of the latter:

"Baseball is like church. Many attend but few understand."
-Wes Westrum, Mets Manager (1965-67)

"The last time the Cubs won a World Series was in 1908. The last time they were in one was 1945. Hey, any team can have a bad century."
-Tom Trebelhorn, former Chicago Cubs manager, after a loss.

"If a woman has to choose between catching a fly ball and saving an infant's life, she will choose to save the infant's life without even considering if there are men on base."
-Dave Barry

"Football combines the two worst features of American life: violence and committee meetings."
-George Will, journalist, political commentator, 1994

I found out that all the important lessons of life are contained in the three rules for achieving a perfect golf swing: 1.Keep your head down - 2.Follow through - 3. Be born with money.
-P.J. O'Rourke