It is said that all good stories have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Last night’s game may have had a beginning and middle so sloppy that was at times hard to watch, but boy, did the ending make up for it.

Just how good was it? I can’t see how Gerald Laird’s celebration isn’t enough to convince, but for the stat-heads out there, I’ve included the full list of the 10 top-rated games in our history below, including last night’s epic that slid into the #6 spot.

World Series.
Game 7.
Less than an hour.
Let’s do this.

1. Packers 31, Steelers 25
Rodgers, Packers beat Steelers in Super Bowl
Final (729)

2. Syracuse²⁰ 127, Connecticut⁴ 117
Sixth OT proves to be charm in Syracuse’s win over UConn
Final – 6OT (692)

3. Auburn¹ 22, Oregon² 19
Auburn downs Oregon on last-second FG for BCS title
Final (661)

4. Giants 17, Patriots 14
Giants win Super Bowl XLII, spoil Patriots’ bid for perfection
Final (635)

5. Packers 42, Saints 34
Packers survive Saints in high-scoring thriller
Final (569)

6. Cardinals 10, Rangers 9
Cards rally to force Game 7 with Rangers
Final/11 (565)

7. Phillies 5, Reds 4
Let’s play 19: Phillies edge Reds in marathon
Final/19 (501)

8. Arkansas 50, LSU¹ 48
McFadden, Arkansas shock No. 1 LSU in triple-OT
Final – 3OT (494)

9. Steelers 24, Jets 19
Steelers ground Jets, reach another Super Bowl
Final (489)

10. Jets 28, Patriots 21
Jets KO Patriots, set up title game with Steelers
Final (489)

Any of you early members of RUWTbot’s Army might remember the last time Mark Buehrle threw a no-hitter—I know I do.

It was a just a couple months after our TechCrunch write-up, and RUWTbot completely missed it. Total and complete Fail.

It was probably one of my most depressing days at RUWT?, so to see Buehrle pitch another no-no yesterday, and watch all the alerts stream out, felt extra sweet.

Things are always a bit quiet during the Summer, but there are some big changes coming to the way alerts work—some awesome, some not so awesome. Stay tuned.

Running a startup is a lot like having a kid. Well…maybe a pet. A real annoying pet. One that pees all over the rug as soon as you leave the house.

Headed out with some friends this afternoon to catch Josh Hamilton play some Triple-A ball on a perfect Austin day in the low-90s. (And he signed autographs for a solid half hour. It was pretty dope.)

Got home to find a disconcerting “What happened to all the scores?” shout from senorpepr. Ugh. Fail. RUWTbot fell asleep for a bit, but he’s up and cranking again.

Oh, and for the RUWT? Sports Toolbar users out there, keep your eyes peeled—there’s a new version dropping in the next couple days.

Is anyone else’s head still spinning? Manny, Pudge, and Junior were the big names, but it seemed like every team was up to something at some point this week.

To help you keep track of all the chatter in the Bleachers, I’m happy to announce the relaunch of the RUWT? Sports Desktop Widget. Launched over a year ago (wow!), it got as much love from me as the AppleTV gets from Jobs. (zing!)

To make up for that, I scrapped everything and rewrote it from scratch with a new game plan. For the first time with any RUWT? widget you can root and shout from your desktop without even opening your browser.

I’m really psyched about this “new” app and you should expect a lot of new features rolled out over the next few weeks. Gimme a shout if you have any requests. Get it!

The motivation for RUWT? is pretty simple: I hate missing great games and I don’t think any of us should have to ever again. Here’s a great post I found late last night about RUWTbot doing his job.

I almost missed Jon Lester’s no-hitter. There I was with my softball team, relishing another victory, not really paying attention to much, largely due to some slightly inconvenient tv locations. The meal and beers were seemingly at an end when my buddy Derek piped up:

“Uhhh… so, I signed up on this site called areyouwatchingthis.com. The idea is it sends me e-mails and texts when there is an awesome game on, like an overtime basketball game, 12-inning baseball game, whatever. You tell it what tv channels you get and what sports you want to follow, and it let’s you know when something exciting is going on. Anyway, I’m supposed to get e-mails when games are at an “high” level of excitement, and texts when a game is at “severe” level. So, my question is… why am I getting a text that says “Red Sox 7, Royals 0″? Do we need to check the Sox game?” (more)