With all apologies to the folks at the Cell for the Sox-Twins game, the real blackout on Tuesday night took place in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, where Middle Tennessee Blue Raider fans ignored the color suggestion provided by their nickname and donned the darkest color of them all in a show of solidarity. The Raiders, wearing black unis for the first time ever, responded by delivering a 14-13 win over Florida Atlantic on a crazy, last-second Hail Mary that sent the crowd of nearly 26,000 into a frenzy. On a 4th-and-8 play, QB Joe Craddock heaved one into the endzone on what ended up being the last play of the game, and MTSU’s Malcolm Beyah pulled it down amidst a sea of, uhhh, mostly other teammates of his. Nice prevent D, there, FAU.

And yes, the White Sox finally got their chance to celebrate with the champagne and all that. Most exciting about the Sox’ first postseason appearance since they won it all in 2005 is that we can finally get a little bit of this guy back in our life:

As you may remember, Steve Perry was adopted as an unofficial mascot by the 2005 Sox after they chose “Don’t Stop Believin’” as their theme song on their “journey” to the World Series title. They even had Perry celebrate with them in the clubhouse after all of the big wins. But, from what I understand, Tampa has Kevin Costner writing its playoff song this year. I don’t know if Perry can hang with the immensely relevant powerhouse that carried Swing Vote to box office records.

In other baseball news, Cliff Lee and Brad Lidge are your comeback players of the year. Lee went 22-3 with a 2.54 ERA this season and the Indians were nowhere close to making the playoffs. Last year, he was a crappy 5-8 with a 6.29 ERA and his team came within one game of the World Series. Go figure. Lidge’s career was nearly destroyed by Albert Pujols in 2005, but he bounced back to go 41-for-41 on saves this year.

Speaking of the Phillies, Pat Burrell tweaked his back during batting practice yesterday and his status is unknown going into today’s playoff opener against the Brewers. The Phils are trying to avoid a repeat of last year’s NLDS disaster, when they fell flat on their face and didn’t win a game against the Rockies.

Not satisfied to watch their cross-town rivals sign their GM to an extension after missing the playoffs, the Yankees followed suit by extending Brian Cashman for three years. Now Cashman gets to deal with having like 17 guys who can’t do anything but play a crappy first base.

Today is a bittersweet day for baseball fans across America. Sure, it’s awesome that the playoffs are finally here, but the Frank TV promos are just getting fired up. You know, without the writers’ strike this show would’ve gotten its fair chance to die last year.

Now, without further ado:

• Maria Sharapova isn’t playing tennis these days, so the only way to sneak in gratuitous photos of her is to talk about who she’s dating. BITTEN AND BOUND says the lucky dude is Charlie Ebersol, son of NBC Sports lord Dick Ebersol and Kate from Kate & Allie.

• Not to be outdone by Jason Williams‘ retirement announcement, Jayson Williams is back in the news because one of the investigators in his manslaughter case used a racial slur, according to the ASSOCIATED PRESS. Naturally, the slur caused him retroactively to shoot his limo driver.

• A.J. Pierzynski is a giant d-bag, but CHICAGO BULL loves him anyway.

• Who’s got small sample size fever! Northwestern and Vanderbilt are ranked in the top 5 in 2 different computer rankings used in the BCS formula, as compiled by RIVALS.COM.

• It’s apparently illegal for a goaltender to be a team captain in the NHL, but that didn’t stop the Canucks from naming Roberto Luongo to the post, says the HOCKEY NEWS. He’s still the captain, he just can’t actually do anything that captains do in a hockey game. He can’t even wear the “C” on his shirt.

• What’s going to become of the Wachovia Center and the WaMu Theater, among other venues, wonders the AP’s Samantha Gross. Naming deals certainly seem like a smart expenditure in these times of prosperity.

• Over the past 10 years, the best college football conference has been the Pac-10, if you simply analyze each conference’s record against the other BCS conferences. (via THE WIZ OF ODDS)

• Mariners CEO Howard Lincoln channels a little bit of Al Davis, says it wasn’t a very good idea to hire now-fired GM Bill Bavasi in an interview with the SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER.

• Phil Hughes is excited that he won the International League championship with Scranton-Wilkes Barre. That’s what it’s come to for you, Yankee fan (via YARDBARKER)

• Somehow, the same guy keeps catching home run balls in New York. BIG LEAGUE STEW reports that the lifelong Mets fan “almost” started rooting against the team so his Carlos Beltran ball would be the last Met homer at Shea.