Countdown to Glory: 9 to go

THE COUNTDOWN CONTINUES. 9 DAYS TO GLORY!!!

Number nine. Number nine. Number nine. Number nine. Repeat for eight minutes or so.

Not gonna lie. Been excited about this one for a while. Nine is awesome, because it's 3 times 3. Or is it? In my view, 3 times 3 equals RADICAL.

Nine is naughty, so sayeth Schoolhouse Rock. And Eliot Spitzer, AKA, Client Number 9, might agree. Or perhaps he was slipped a little of "Love Potion No. 9"?

Nine is the best number in baseball. 9 innings. Three strikes in an out times three outs in an inning. There are 9 players on each team. 9 was worn by Roger Maris, Bill Mazeroski, Catfish Hunter, Mister October Reggie Jackson, and perhaps the best pure hitter of all time, Ted Williams. But there might be one baseball player who wore number 9 and was even greater than any of them, even if he's fictional. It's Roy Hobbs, whose #9 New York Knights jersey was stained with blood when he used not-Wonderboy to shatter the lights in the greatest filmed sports scene of all time.

Nine isn't too shabby a number for other too. Lots of NFL starting quarterbacks wear number nine: Carson Palmer, David Garrard, Tony Romo, the late Steve McNair, and current Super Bowl Champion Drew Brees. Three of the greatest hockey players of all time wore #9: Bobby Hull, Rocket Richard and Gordie Howe (and the Great One wore 99). Not too many basketball players wear #9, but there are still a couple of good ones: Tony Parker and Rajon Rondo, for example. Jordan and Dwyane Wade wore #9 when they played for the USA. In soccer, some of the world's most prolific scorers today wear #9: Cristiano Ronaldo, Fernando Torres, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Samuel Eto'o, Wayne Rooney (for England), Landon Donovan (for Everton), the old fat Ronaldo, Alan Shearer, Roger Milla, and (equal opportunity here) Mia Hamm.

There are nine planets. Yes, NINE. Pluto was a planet when I was taught it, and that does not change. NINE.

Nine is a lucky number. Not (necessarily) in the sense that you might win if you bet on 9 at the roulette table. No, apparently "lucky number" is a mathematical concept, based upon a sieve of elimination where numbers are stricken based upon their particular order (first you eliminate every second number, then every third, then every seventh, then every ninth). I don't get it, and it's somehow similar to prime numbers (which I also don't really get). So I'll leave it at that.

There are nine justices on the Supreme Court. Ubiquitous Jeffrey Toobin wrote a book about the court called "The Nine." Had Franklin Roosevelt gotten his way, or had the sitting court not begun upholding the constitutionality of New Deal legislation, perhaps there wouldn't be just nine justices today.

Nine was also an important number in our nation's history: New Hampshire was the ninth state to ratify the Constitution, and with its ratification, the Constitution took effect. The Ninth Amendment states that the rights enumerated in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are not intended to be exclusive or comprehensive, and that those not mentioned are reserved to the people. Therefore, it is my Constitutionally-protected right to sell over the internet uranium-laced candy cigarettes to married homosexuals (none of which is enumerated in the Constitution). Please refer to Glenn Beck's Constitutional Law Primer for further information.

Nine is a part of my favorite movie of the last year. No, not the widely panned musical starring Penelope Cruz, Nicole Kidman and Daniel Day-Lewis. Who thought that movie was a good idea? Someone who went into a coma in 2002? Someone who only gets their news from Vanity Fair magazine? Someone with bad taste? No, no, no. My favorite movie from last year was District 9. And I'm not a sci-fi guy. It's just a really good movie - it's exciting, cleverly written, with stunning special effects that don't really make the movie look fake, and it's thought-provoking without badgering. And it has sadistically insane Nigerian gangsters who control the district's black market weaponry sales by dealing cat food to the aliens. I found that utterly awesome. If you haven't seen District 9, see it. It's great.

ninemillion.org is a pretty great concept. It's a campaign associated with the United Nations' High Commissioner for Refugees, in partnership with Microsoft and Nike, seeking to provide access to education, technology and sport to displaced children (think refugees from Darfur, Rwanda, Congo, Iraq, Sierra Leone, etc). Also: a big supporter of this is Luol Deng, the Chicago Bulls star who wears, you guessed it, a #9 jersey.

No argument here: Nine is awesome. Let's make nine special: join TEAM 33 today in honor of #9. Make a contribution with a 9 at the end of it. Do it!

Join TEAM 33. If you can join us for the Walk at Atlantic Station on May 22, please do! Bring your friends and family, including dogs. If you can't come, you can still join TEAM 33 or contribute in any way you'd like. AND YOU CAN SPREAD THE WORD! For more information on joining TEAM 33 or contributing, please follow the link below:

http://www.kintera.org/faf/r.asp?t=4&i=312420&u=312420-211716341

Join TEAM 33. Sign up. Spread the word to your friends and family. Join us at the walk. Give a few bucks for a great cause. Mash up Cookie Monster and Rammstein in the most awesome way possible. And we'll have cake.

And visit http://team33arthritiswalk.blogspot.com/ for more.

If you have any questions about how incredibly awesome TEAM 33 is, give me a call or send me an email. Thanks again!