If you read the thread below, you would have seen the news that Phil Nevin is now a Twin.

Nevin is with his fourth team in two seasons: San Diego, Texas, the Cubs, and Minnesota.

The Boston Red Sox made a waiver deal and acquired Kevin Jarvis from the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Jarvis was 0-1 with an 11.91 ERA in five games in the majors this year.

In other Red Sox detritus news, the Padres have also picked up Rudy Seanez. This will be Seanez's fourth different stint with the Padres. He pitched for the Padres in 1993, 2003, and 2005.

Ryan Howard hit his 49th home run of the season in the 4th inning tonight against Pedro Astacio of Washington. Howard broke Mike Schmidt's old record of 48 home runs set in 1980.

And apparently gone to San Diego.

However, neither the Red Sox nor Padres have made an official announcement nor has any compensation for Wells been discussed.

The Padres in September (and October 1) will play:
3 vs. Cincinnati
3 vs. Colorado
3 at San Francisco
3 at Cincinnati
4 at Los Angeles
3 vs. Arizona
3 vs. Pittsburgh
3 at St. Louis
4 at Arizona

According to the ESPN.com transactions page, Wells was designated for assignment and Lenny DiNardo was called up. No announcement yet that he is officially bound for the large city south of Orange County and north of the Mexican border.

AP says Wells is a Padre.

Geography Alert - From the Sports Ticker story comes this, "A native of Torrance, California, Wells should feel right at home in nearby San Diego...." Perhaps they forgot that David Wells actually grew up in San Diego and went to the same high school (Point Loma) as Don Larsen.

Since rosters are "frozen" on August 31 for postseason eligiblity (not the use of quotation marks there), teams are calling up players from the minors and sending down others (on paper) to ready their postseason roster.

Already today we've seen:

Florida Marlins
Optioned RHP Randy Messenger to Class-A Jupiter and recalled INF Robert Andino from Triple-A Albuquerque.

New York Mets:
Optioned pitcher Dave Williams to Triple-A Norfolk and recalled INF Anderson Hernandez from Norfolk.

Cincinnati Reds:
Optioned RHP Matt Belisle to Class A Sarasota and recalled INF Brendan Harris from Triple-A Louisville.

Oakland Athletics:
Recalled 1B Dan Johnson from Triple-A Sacramento and sent INF D'Angelo Jimenez outright to Sacramento.

Philadelphia Phillies:
Recalled C Carlos Ruiz from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre; Optioned LHP Matt Smith to Single-A Clearwater.

Yesterday there was:
Los Angeles Dodgers
Recalled LHP Hong-Chih Kuo from Triple-A Las Vegas and optioned LHP Tim Hamulack to Class A Vero Beach.

On August 29:

Cincinnati Reds:
Optioned LHP Chris Michalak to Class A Sarasota; Recalled OF Chris Denorfia from Triple-A Louisville.

Detroit Tigers:
Purchased the contract of OF Alexis Gomez from Triple-A Toledo; Designed OF Nook Logan for assignment and recalled INF Tony Giarratano and placed him on the 15-day disabled list.

There will likely be more today and I will try to add them up top when they happen.

Charlie Wagner who pitched for the Red Sox from 1938 to 1946 (missing a few years because of World War II) passed away in Reading, Pennsylvania at age 93.

The last paragraph struck me:

Wagner was at a minor league game in Reading, Pennsylvania Wednesday night. As per his custom, he went to his car in the 7th inning. It was there he passed away from natural causes.

But Reading was playing a doubleheader yesterday? Did he leave after the first game or the second? Minor league doublheaders are seven innings for each game. Reading split the doublheader against New Britain and won the second game in nine innings, 3-2.

Dan Holmes of the Baseball Hall of Fame has an interesting tale of the last baseball used in the 1918 season.

It was in the possession of Davy Jones, the baseball player, not the Monkee, until his death in 1972.

Jones appeared in the last game of the 1918 season and played briefly in the game at age, despite having been retired since 1915. Jones actually was attending as a spectator when he was put into the game.

Let this be a lesson to all of you coming to late season games when your home team is out of the race. Bring your spikes.

The news in Boston does not get any better as the Boston Herald, according to this MLB.com story reports that Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester was sent back to Boston after doctors discovered enlarged lymph nodes and decided to test him for cancer. There could be other causes as well that are less foreboding.

In better news, David Ortiz was released from the hospital Thursday.

Alfonso Soriano of the Nationals has 43 home runs this season. If he gets to 45, he may or may not break a Nationals franchise record of 44 set by Vladimir Guerrero in Montreal in 2000.

Why?

Well, according to Barry Svrluga of the Washington Post, there is debate on just what a "Washington" record is. Some people argue that the Washington team records should include the Senators. ALL of the Senators teams. That would push the record up to 48, set by Frank Howard with Washington AL 2.0.

The article points out that the Texas Rangers (formerly Washington AL 2.0), doesn't include any marks set in Washington. However, the Minnesota Twins (formerly Washington AL 1.0) do.

The Baltimore Orioles pretend that the St. Louis Browns never existed. But what would you expect from the Orioles, baseball's most irrelevant franchise? They don't know that there have been far worse pitchers in their team's history than Russ Ortiz.

Ten games on the docket today and none of them in the Pacific Time Zone, so let's all catch up on some sleep before the Labor Day Weekend.

The AL Central and East leaders play the last game of their three game series. Detroit will be at Yankee Stadium for a 10:05 am PT game (Jeremy Bonderman vs. Randy Johnson). The Yankees lead Boston by eight games and the Tigers lead the White Sox by 4 1/2 games.

In the West, Oakland leads the Angels by 7 1/2 games and both teams are off.

In the AL wild card, the White Sox stretched their lead over the Twins to 1 1/2 games. The Twins try to avoid a sweep at home to the Royals at 10:10 am PT (Jorge de la Rosa vs. Carlos Santana). The White Sox attempt to finish off a sweep of Tampa Bay, who have lost 12 straight on the road. They will play at 11:05 am PT (Jason Hammel vs. Javier Vazquez). The White Sox head to Kansas City for the weekend and the Twins will go to New York.

As for the National League, the Mets, now the owners of the best record in the majors, have a magic number of 16 to clinch the East. They lead the Phillies by 15 1/2 games. The Mets play the last game of the day at 6:05 pm PT at Colorado (Oliver Perez vs. Jeff Francis).

The Cardinals lead the Central by 4 1/2 games over Cincinnati. The Cardinals ended Florida's 9-game winning streak Wednesday and play the Marlins again at home at 5:10 pm PT (Dontrelle Willis vs. Jeff Suppan). If the Cardinals lose, they would drop to the #3 spot overall in the National League behind the idle Dodgers, who lead the Padres by three games in the West.

Philadelphia can catch idle San Diego for the wild card if the Phillies can beat the Nationals in Washington at 4:05 pm PT (Randy Wolf vs. Pedro Astacio). The Reds are now 1 1/2 games back in the wild card and the Marlins are 2 1/2 games back.

But if the Phillies and Padres continue their duel for the wild card, it will be time for me to dust off my long list of famous Philadelphia-San Diego playoff race battles. The teams are done with their season series, which the Padres won 4-2. The biggest problem with these two teams battling for a playoff spot is that they are two of the three teams (along with Toronto) that don't have their games shown on the MLB Extra Innings package. While this does keep people from having to listen to Matt Vasgersian unnecessarily on Padres broadcasts, it does keep people from watching Ryan Howard slam home runs for the Phillies. Howard's next home run will be a Phillies team record for a single season.

They will also play:
Toronto at Boston - Roy Halladay to face some guy in a Boston uniform who shows up
San Francisco at Atlanta - 13 years ago this would have been a lot more interesting
Baltimore at Texas - There is no way this could ever be interesting
Milwaukee at Houston - Six straight losses for the Brewers

And the Chicago Sports Review published it.

Perry wrote the linked article taking the Major League Baseball Players Associations to task for not acting like a "genuine trade union" and not supporting the umpires when they went on strike or organizing the minor leaguers.

First of all, the MLBPA is not a trade union. It's a company union. It's an entirely different animal. A trade union, such as the United Auto Workers, tries to get the best deal for all types of people doing various jobs in an industry. A company union, like the MLBPA, can only represent people who are employed by one entity, Major League Baseball. And all of those people have one job: they play baseball. This also means that MLBPA can't organize minor leaguers either. They're in the wrong company. If this were something like "The International Association of Baseball Players" then you might have a case. But it isn't.

Second of all, Perry tosses this line out "Genuine labor unions -- the ones fighting for the living wages and workplace safety of plumbers and stevedores-are fellow travelers with other unions, often marching in one another's picket lines."

Hmm, I'm a union member. I know I've crossed picket lines. I've known a lot of other members of my union who have crossed picket lines. Some people care about such matters. Others don't. We seem to get by OK.

Perry seems to think that labor unions are only groups of blue collar workers who work against gritty backdrops like in "On the Waterfront". But there are a lot of white collar unions. And there are still company unions, like MLBPA. And their aims are entirely different from what the AFL-CIO, SEIU or the Teamsters have.

Cincinnati Reds GM Wayne Krivsky signed yet another pitcher, Jason Johnson.

Johnson was given a minor league deal. He was 3-12 with a 6.35 ERA with Cleveland and Boston this year.

Battle Creek, Michigan bids adieu to its minor league team, the Southwest Michigan Devil Rays, an A level team in the Midwest League.

The team, which for a time was known as the Michigan Battle Cats, is being moved to Midland, Michigan.

Despite a 13-8 loss to the Braves last night with ace pitcher Jason Schmidt getting shelled, John Donovan of SI.com thinks that the Giants are still in the race.

Manager Alou figured something positive was in store for the Giants when the Dodgers went on their good streak and the Giants weren't immediately buried.

"I wasn't concerned. You're winning all those games and you don't open up a 10-game lead?" Alou says. "Something's going on."

Well, for starters, the Dodgers were in last place before they went on their hot streak. And the Giants were near first place at the time.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch via this AP report states that Cardinals center fielder Jim Edmonds and pitcher Mark Mulder are likely to miss the rest of the season.

Edmonds is not making progress in recovering from post-concussion syndrome.

Mulder has been rocked in three starts since coming off the DL with arm maladies. Mulder has a record of 6-7 with a 7.14 ERA, which is either Ruthian or Joe Fridayian.

A commentary by Roland Watson in the Times Online asks what an Australian baseball glove and the game Twenty20 have in common? Twenty20 is a special three-hour version of cricket.

The more interesting qualities that Twenty20 shares with its transatlantic cousin are subtle and rhythmic. Baseball is hugely watchable because the game changes after every pitch. When the ball leaves a pitcher's hand it is destined to be either a ball, a strike or a hit, and each has direct consequences.

Because Twenty20 has only 120 deliveries in an innings, (about the same number of pitches thrown in nine baseball innings), the import, and therefore the excitement, surrounding each is enhanced.

But the real similarity is La Russa's point. Baseball is a constantly snappy, aggressive, intense game. It does not meander. You play hard or you lose. The same now goes for cricket in all its forms, to the great benefit of spectators.

Todd Jones, Tigers reliever, knows why the Tigers can beat up on the Royals and Devil Rays, but struggle against the Yankees, White Sox, and Twins.

They don't walk.

Pitchers like me are always trying to make hitters put the ball in play as early in counts as we can. When playing the Yankees -- as well as the Red Sox and all good-hitting teams -- you want to stay away from hitters counts -- 2-0, 3-1, 3-2, 2-2. Give those counts to the Yankees and you're in for a long day. Also, when your counts get long, the games get long. Game 2 of the Yanks-Sox doubleheader set the major league record for longest 9-inning game (4 hours, 45 minutes). That kind of pace puts your defense to sleep and can result in someone getting a ball hit down his throat because he wasn't totally ready.

Contrast that to the Tigers. We have a weakness that sometimes is our strength: We love to swing. We're aggressive, and, as a result, we swing at a lot of borderline pitches. Against teams with bad pitching, that's OK because they make mistakes over the middle of the plate. But it's a problem against teams that know how to expand hitters' strike zones.

Take note of the pitch counts in today's Yankees-Tigers doublheader two games that just happen to be played on the same day.

Because of a rainout in New York, there are 17 games scheduled today. The checkered jerseys in both leagues changed hands. In the AL, a good team took it over from a good team. In the NL, a mediocre team took it from a team that is more mediocre. But can you compare mediocre? Can you be more or less mediocre? Think about it.

First of all, in the AL, Central-leading Detroit and East-leading New York will play day-night doubleheader (which according to the Elias Sports Bureau really isn't a doubleheader so just ignore the fact that two games are scheduled on the same day). Detroit leads Chicago by five games and the Yankees are ahead of what's left of Boston by 7 1/2 games. The first game is scheduled for a 10:05 am PT start (Nate Robertson vs. Chien-Ming Wang). Then everybody files out of Yankee Stadium, goes and hangs out somewhere and comes back for a 4:05 pm PT game (Wilfredo Ledezma vs. Jaret Wright).

Oakland now leads the Angels in the West by 7 1/2 games and hosts Boston at 12:35 pm PT (Curt Schilling vs. Barry Zito). Boston is without Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz. Theo Epstein and Terry Francona are accepting applications for anyone who wishes to pitch or play first base.

Chicago leads Minnesota by 1/2 game for the wild card. The White Sox host Tampa Bay at 5:05 pm PT (Tim Corcoran vs. Jon Garland). Minnesota, shut out last night by the Royals and Mark Redman, go at it again in Minneapolis at 5:10 pm PT (Luke Hudson vs. Boof Bonser).

In the NL, the Reds dropped a 16-inning marathon and lost possession of the wild card spot and actually are now behind two teams. San Diego leads Philadelphia by 1/2 game and the Phillies lead Cincinnati by .0001 in the standings.

The Mets lead the Phillies by 15 1/2 games in the East and have a magic number of 17. The Mets are at Colorado at 6:05 pm PT (Dave Williams vs. Josh Fogg).

The Cardinals lead the Reds by 3 1/2 games in the Central. The Cardinals host Florida, winners of nine straight, at 5:10 pm PT (Ricky Nolasco vs. Jason Marquis).

The Dodgers lead San Diego by 3 in the West. They host the Reds at 7:10 pm PT (Aaron Harang vs. Greg Maddux). The Dodgers have won all five games this season against the Reds and go for a season sweep.

Wild card leading San Diego plays at Arizona at 3:40 pm PT (Mike Thompson vs. Claudio Vargas), a very strange time especially considering that both teams are off Thursday.

The Phillies can take over the wild card if they can win at Washington at 4:05 pm PT (Cole Hamels vs. Ramon Ortiz) and the Padres lose. The Reds can go back in to the lead for the wild card if they beat the Dodgers and the Padres and Phillies lose. If the Padres, Phillies, and Reds all lose, San Diego would still lead, but Florida would join the pack just a half game back.

They will also play:
Chicago at Pittsburgh - Cubs creeping closer to the worst record in the NL
Toronto at Cleveland - The Blue Jays have a better record than all but 3 NL teams and are irrelevant
San Francisco at Atlanta - The Giants could be considered contenders, but c'mon!
Baltimore at Texas - Thinking about the Orioles irritates me
Milwaukee at Houston - Willy Taveras tries to stretch his hitting streak to 1!
Los Angeles at Seattle - The Angels only play well against the Yankees

Canada's last AAA team, the Ottawa Lynx will play their final season in Canada's capital in 2007 and then move to Allentown, Pennsylvania for the 2008 season. So the International League won't live up to its name anymore.

A small sketch of the proposed stadium in Allentown.

Billy Joel will now record a new version of an old hit of his and change the title to "Ottawa". It likely will be just as annoying as "Allentown."

Ottawa will become the Phillies AAA team in 2007. The Phillies present AAA team, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, will need to find a new major league parent. Presently, Ottawa is Baltimore's AAA affiliate.

The Houston Chronicle reports that Roy Oswalt is going to receive a five-year contract extension from the Astros valued at $73 million.

The Astros website said there would be a postgame news conference announcing the news.

The St. Petersburg Times has entered into "multi-year, exclusive sponsorship affiliation" with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

The newspaper will be the "presenting sponsor" for the Devil Rays website and there will be signs for the newspaper all throughout Tropicana Field.

The Devil Rays apparently did a market survey of all their season ticket holders about this and they both thought it would be OK.

Marlins manager Joe Girardi is not with his team in St. Louis as he has decided to stay back in Florida with his wife, Kim, who is pregnant with the couple's third child. Girardi was concerned about complications with Tropical Storm Ernesto. Gary Tuck is in charge of the team.

The rest of the Marlins players brought their families with them on the trip if they so chose.

This somewhat balky link from Maury Brown's site discusses the possible end of the use of draft picks for free agents.

Continuation of discussion that started here.

According to the AP recap of Seattle's 2-0 win over the Angels, the Mariners tied a dubious mark also held by the 1969 Expos.

The Mariners had dropped 20 straight games to AL West opponents. The last win over an AL West team had been back on June 11, also against the Angels.

The Seattle lost three straight to Oakland (3). Then they went 8-4 against NL West teams. Then they lost three to Oakland (6). Then an 11-10 stretch against the AL East and Cleveland. Then three more losses to Oakland (9). Then a sweep of Tampa Bay. Then 11 straight losses to Texas, Oakland, and the Angels (20). The Mariners won 5 of 6 against the Yankees and Red Sox before their lightning fast win (1:51) against the Angels.

Monday's win was the quickest game at Safeco Field by one minute. The previous record was set on June 30 and I was there!.

When the Expos lost 20 straight games to the NL West, they did it in a much simpler way. They played all the games in a row. After beating the Reds on May 10, 1969, the Expos lost 20 in a row, two against Houston, two against Atlanta, three at Houston, three at Cincinnati, three versus Los Angeles, three versus San Diego, two versus San Francisco, and two at Los Angeles, before snapping the string at Dodger Stadium on June 8, 1969, 4-3. Jerry Robertson got the win and Elroy Face picked up the save. The Expos then won their next game against the NL West as well, winning at San Diego 7-4.

The 1969 Expos went 16-56 against the NL West en route to a 52-110 record. They lost all 12 games they played in Cincinnati and Houston.

OK, MLB.com's content (for the most part) is not subject to approval by the Powers That Be, but Jim Molony of MLB.com has a piece on the possible last minute trades that teams could be working on.

I'd really like to see the Phillies pick up Juan Pierre because then Cub Town would have a celebratory column and Mike's Baseball Rants would implode on itself like the Kingdome's demolition.

The National League wild card races are officially a mess. There was a formal declaration of a mess issued by the Commissioner's Office. When such a declaration has been made, it's best to just wait until all the games are over at the end of the day and see who's ahead.

First of all, the divisional leaders have started to pull away again. The Mets lead the Phillies by 15 1/2 games in the East and have a magic number of 18 to make the playoffs. The Mets start a three-game series at Colorado at 6:05 pm PT (Steve Trachsel vs. Byung-Hyun Kim). The Mets are 19-7 against the NL West.

St. Louis which led Cincinnati by .0004 in the standings at the start of play Friday now lead the Reds by 3 1/2 games. The Cardinals host Florida, which has won eight straight, at 5:10 pm PT (Scott Olsen vs. Mark Mulder).

Los Angeles stretched its lead to three games in the West over San Diego. The Dodgers host the Reds at 7:10 pm PT (Eric Milton vs. Mark Hendrickson).

The Reds lead the Padres by a 1/2 game in the wild card. The Padres are at Arizona at 6:40 pm PT (Chris Young vs. Enrique Gonzalez). The Phillies are just one game back and play at Washington at 4:05 pm PT (Brett Myers vs. Tony Armas). If the Reds win, they hold on to the wild card lead. If the Reds lose and the Padres win, the Padres would lead the wild card by 1/2 game. If the Reds and Padres lose and the Phillies win, the Phillies would take over the lead in the wild card by a margin of .0001 (.5038 to .5037).

The Giants are just 1 1/2 games back of the Reds and the Giants will be in Atlanta at 4:35 pm PT (Jason Schmidt vs. Tim Hudson).

The AL is much tidier. Two divisions are seeing their leaders pull away from the pack. The Yankees lead the Red Sox by seven games. In the West, Oakland now leads the Angels by 6 1/2 games. Detroit leads Minnesota in the Central by five games.

Detroit opens up a three-game series at New York at 4:05 pm PT (Nate Robertson vs. Chien-Ming Wang). Oakland hosts Boston at 7:05 pm PT (Josh Beckett vs. Kirk Saarloos).

Minnesota leads Chicago in the wild card by 1/2 game and both teams are starting series against the bottom feeders of the AL. The White Sox host Tampa Bay at 5:05 pm PT (Casey Fossum vs. Freddie Garcia). The Twins host the Royals at 5:10 pm PT (Mark Redman vs. Matt Garza). Both Tampa Bay and Kansas City are 18-48 on the road this season. Tampa Bay has lost 10 straight road games and has not won on the road since they beat the Yankees 19-6 on July 29. The Royals will have a big effect on the winner of the Central as their last ten games are against the Tigers and Twins.

They will also play:
Chicago at Pittsburgh - Will the Cubs get a complete game this year?
Toronto at Cleveland
Baltimore at Texas
Milwaukee at Houston - Willy Taveras goes for 31 games in a row!
Los Angeles at Seattle - Jered Weaver faces Jarrod Washburn. Loser has to change the spelling of his first name.

Delmon Young was called up to the majors by Tampa Bay to replace disabled DH Jonny Gomes.

Young, who was suspended for 50 games earlier in the year in AAA for tossing a bat that hit an umpire, will join the Devil Rays in Chicago Tuesday. The Devil Rays do not play Detroit again this year, so Delmon will not get a chance to square off against his brother Dmitri.

Team USA routed Mexico 15-3 in its third qualifying game in Havana.

The game featured a bench-clearing incident in the seventh after Mexico pitcher Adrian Manzano hit Jarrod Saltalamacchia with a pitch. However, no one was ejected.

Mexico was a last-minute replacement for Aruba.

In his Detroit Free Press column, Tigers announcer emeritus Ernie Harwell writes about the hot dog and how he's never ate one after he went into broadcasting.

As a kid, I loved hot dogs (in Georgia we called them weenies). Once I became a baseball announcer, and they were so available, I vowed not to eat them. If I started, I'd have no restraint and end up weighing 500 pounds. I made one exception. At Milwaukee's County Stadium, I allowed myself one bratwurst per game.

Supposedly Americans average eating 60 hot dogs a year. I feel that somewhere someone must be eating well over 60 to make up for me because I rarely have more than 3 or 4 a year for the same reason that Mr. Harwell eschews them.

Of course, there is a semantic argument about whether or not a bratwurst is a hot dog.

Boston placed pitcher Jon Lester on the disabled with a bad back. First baseman Carlos Pena was called up to replace him. Manny Ramirez is expected to miss the series with Oakland.

The Mariners put Julio Mateo on the disabled list after he broke his hand while weightlifting. Mateo was put on the 60-day DL and Jon Huber was called up from Tacoma.

The team from Columbus, Georgia won the 60th Little League World Series with a 2-1 win over Kawaguchi, Japan Monday.

The only other team from Georgia to win it all was the team from Marietta back in 1983.

The lords of MLB have decreed that the most expensive tickets for the World Series will be priced at $250. I assume that teams that have seats that already cost more than $250 apiece will be allowed to charge a commensurate increase, judging from this line "Premium seats, which include waiter service, cost even more."

At least when you're at Shea Stadium sitting through a 45-minute long half inning when Steve Trachsel is pitching, at least you can feel like you are getting your money's worth.

And if you pay $250 to be inside the park, you don't have to listen to Joe Buck and Tim McCarver or watch endless ads for some new Fox TV series. However, all of the new series on Fox will debut before the playoffs. So, I don't know what will be the most likely ad to become a catch phrase.

"His father is the district attorney!"
"What are you some kind of teacher?"
"You're risking a patient's life!"

If the "War at Home" is chosen as the series to publicize, I may just listen to the whole postseason on radio.

Jeff Reardon was found not guilty because of insanity on a charge of attempting to rob a jewelry store in Florida, reports Palm Beach Sun-Sentinel

Reardon, who played in two World Series, was taking a dozen medications that impaired his judgment. Attorneys said Reardon was distraught over the 2004 death of a son and had been taking anti-depressants and mood stabilizers.

Defense attorney Mitch Beers, who used a voluntary intoxication defense, said the robbery episode, with Reardon's "thank you" and "please" on the note, was like something out of a Woody Allen movie.

................

"I don't think I've ever had a speeding ticket before for crying out loud," Reardon said.

Pitching in the major leagues, he added, was easy. "This wasn't," he said.

Reardon is to return before Rapp in six months for a court-ordered review of his case.

Suggested by many others and link from BTF

Couldn't resist a nautical metaphor even though it's not quite accurate.

But Mike Gonzales and Tom Gorzelanny have gone on the disabled list for Pittsburgh. Gorzelanny is likely done for the season.

Britt Reames was designated for assignment.

The replacements are Marty McCleary, Brian Rogers, and Jonah Bayliss.

The Pirates play the Cubs today.

woo hoo

The Little World Series championship game, originally scheduled to be played yesterday, but then postponed until today was originally slated to start at 5 pm PT, but it's now been moved up to 2 pm PT because of a threat of rain.

The final will match Kawaguchi, Japan versus Columbus, Georgia.

Brent Musburger and Joe Morgan to call the action on ESPN2!

When writing up my daily previews of action, I've been trying to decide which teams are contenders for a playoff spot or worthy of mention.

At first, I thought it would just be teams were either in first or second place in a division or teams within five games of the wild card and above .500.

However, the National League has made it tough this year.

So, I'm thinking of using this definition.

Contenders are:
1) Teams in first place
2) Teams in second place until they are mathematically eliminated
3) Teams with a greater than 10% chance of making the playoffs according to the Baseball Prospectus playoff odds report.

So in the AL, there are just seven contenders:
New York, Detroit, and Oakland (qualifying under clause 1); Boston, Minnesota, and Los Angeles (qualifying under clause 2); and Chicago (clause 3).

In the NL, there are just seven contenders:
New York, St. Louis, and Los Angeles (qualifying under clause 1); Philadelphia, Cincinnati, and San Diego (clause 2); and San Francisco (clause 3).

If there are people who genuinely believe that Florida or Houston have a shot at the playoffs, I will listen to their cases, but you would have to be pretty persuasive.

Just eight games on the schedule for Monday and one of them is a makeup for a rainout yesterday.

The Mets and Phillies were rained out yesterday and they'll go at it at Shea Stadium at 9:10 am PT (Jamie Moyer vs. John Maine). The Mets lead the Phillies by 14 1/2 games and have a magic number of 20 in order to clinch a playoff spot.

Central leading St. Louis is off. Cincinnati trails the Cardinals by three games and plays at West leading Los Angeles at 7:10 pm PT (Chris Michalak vs. Brad Penny).

The Padres trail the Dodgers by two games and will be at Arizona at 6:40 pm PT (Woody Williams vs. Brandon Webb). San Diego trails Cincinnati by 1/2 game for the wild card. The Phillies are one game back of the Reds. San Francisco is idle, but the 65-66 Giants are just two games in back of the Reds after winning three of four from Cincinnati over the weekend.

Oakland is the only division leader in the AL in action Monday. The Athletics host Boston at 7:05 pm (Kason Gabbard vs. Esteban Loaiza). Boston trails New York by 6 1/2 games in the East. Oakland leads Los Angeles by 5 1/2 games. The Angels are at Seattle at 7:05 pm (Kelvim Escobar vs. Felix Hernandez).

Detroit leads Minnesota (the wild card team) by five games and Chicago by 5 1/2 games. All three of those teams are off today. Detroit is heading to New York for three games. Minnesota will be hosting Kansas City for three and Chicago will be hosting Tampa Bay.

They will also play: Chicago at Pittsburgh, Milwaukee at Florida, Toronto at Cleveland.

With the end of the Random Game Callbacks (which won't be back next year in this format as it will be too hard for me to get the game stories), I'd share some extraordinarily unimportant facts from the 136 RGCs.

First of all, there were more than 136 games. There were 143 games played. There were eight doubleheaders and one game that didn't come to an end because the teams were arrested before the game was official.

One game went 20 innings with Houston beating San Diego 3-1. The Padres lost in their other RGC appearance in 16 innings.

The longest AL game went 18 innings, a 0-0 tie between Washington and Detroit in 1909.

By dint of being around a long time and my having access to a lot of years of the Chicago Tribune, the Cubs had the most wins in RGCs. They won 12 games. They also lost 9 and had two ties. The Giants won 11 games. The Yankees led AL teams with 10 wins in RGCs.

The Cubs and Giants also led with nine losses. The Senators/Twins franchise led AL teams with eight losses. The Kansas City Royals appeared four times and lost each time. It wasn't a conscious decision, Royals fans.

I did manage to get all of the 30 present franchises covered, although the Brewers only showed up in their AL version. And they lost.

The Rangers and Blue Jays both went 3-0. The only undefeated existing NL team was Montreal/Washington which won in its only appearance on April 23, 1982.

Team USA got a game-ending home run in the 10th from Kurt Suzuki to beat Brazil, 8-7 in Olympic qualifying at Havana.

Brazilian baseball players use their full names.

This tournament consists of 12 teams playing in two six-team round robin pools. Teams that finish first and second in each pool automatically qualify for Beijing in 2008. Teams that finish third and fourth will play in another qualifying tournament in 2008.

First place Detroit called up #1 pick Andrew Miller after pitching just five innings of Class A ball at Lakeland. Colby Lewis was optioned to Toledo.

Also, outfielder Brent Clevlen was optioned to Erie and Alexis Gomez was called up to replace him.

Futhermore, the Tigers announced that pitcher Mike Maroth will be activated after September 1 and be used out of the bullpen and Wilfredo Ledezma will take Zach Miner's turn in the rotation this week at New York.

The championship game of the Little League World Series in Williamsport was rained out Sunday.

The teams from Kawaguchi, Japan and Columbus, Georgia will try again Monday night at 5 pm PT. The game will be shown on ESPN2.

The Phillies, hoping to catch some of the magic of the 2003 Marlins, have made a waiver deal to pick up Jeff Conine from Baltimore for a player to be named later.

In 2003, the Marlins acquired Conine from the Orioles on August 31, 2003.

Conine has had two separate stints with the Royals, Marlins, and Orioles in his 16-year career.

The Kansas City Royals became the first team to be eliminated from playoff contention with a 10-6 loss today in Toronto.

The Royals are 47-85 and had already been eliminated from the Central division title, but were eliminated from the wild card as well today.

The Twins lead in the wild card race with a 76-53 record and the White Sox are 76-54. So if the Royals were to win their last 30 games, they would end up with 77 wins. The Twins and White Sox still play each other three times, so one of them would have to finish with at least 78 wins.

Tampa Bay appears to be the next candidate for elimination, but that may not be for a couple of weeks.

Team USA, which failed to qualify for the Olympics in Athens in 2004 under the generalship of Frank Robinson, has turned to Davey Johnson this time around.

The qualifier is being played in Havana and the USA won its opener 9-3 over Canada.

The USA takes on Brazil today. The Brazilians seem to boot a lot of grounders, but in an artful way.

I added five tables on the sidebar marking what I call "Metro Area Battles". It's just a place to track which team in a two-team market has the edge.

I have five of them listed: New York, Chicago, Balitmore/DC, Los Angeles/Orange County, SF/Oakland.

I think the White Sox and Athletics will be the kings of their sandboxes, but the other three races are wide open. I'm sure everyone will have a keen eye on the Orioles/Nationals race for supremacy!

The time has come when magic numbers are being banded about. Yahoo.com now puts a (20) by the Mets. The Mets lead the second-place Phillies by 14 1/2 games. They play again today at Shea at 10:10 am PT (Jamie Moyer vs. John Maine).

In the Central, the Cardinals have gone ahead of the Reds by two games. The Reds finish up a four-game series in San Francisco at 1:05 pm PT (Kyle Lohse vs. Matt Cain). The Cardinals host the Cubs at 5:05 pm PT. Les Walrond faces Jeff Weaver in what should be a juicy matchup for ESPN.

Out West, the Dodgers hold on to a one-game lead over the Padres. San Diego is at Colorado at 12:05 pm PT with Jake Peavy facing Aaron Cook. The Dodgers will be at Arizona at 1:40 pm (Chad Billingsley vs. Livan Hernandez).

The Reds lead the Padres by a half-game in the wild card. If the Reds and Dodgers lose and the Padres win, the Reds would fall out of the wild card spot which would be shared by the Dodgers and Padres, who would also be tied for the NL West lead. If the Dodgers and Padres finished tied and would both qualify for the playoffs, the Padres would be the division champs as they have clinched the season series over the Dodgers already (11-3). The Phillies are 2 1/2 games behind the Reds in the wild card.

In the AL, the Twins stretched their lead in the wild card to 1 1/2 games over the White Sox. The Twins go for a sweep at Chicago at 11:05 am PT (Carlos Silva vs. Mark Buehrle). The Tigers now have the smallest lead of any division leader in the AL, just four games over Minnesota. Detroit is at Cleveland at 10:05 am PT (Kenny Rogers vs. Cliff Lee).

Oakland and New York each lead their divisions by 5 1/2 games. New York tries to avoid a sweep in Anaheim by the Angels, the second place team in the West, at 12:35 pm PT (Jeff Karstens vs. Joe Saunders). The second place team in the East, Boston tries to avoid a sweep in Seattle at 1:05 pm PT (Kyle Snyder vs. Cha Seung Baek). Oakland will play at Texas at 5:05 pm PT (Dan Haren vs. Vicente Padilla). The Rangers are nine games out.

They will also play: Milwaukee at Florida, Washington at Atlanta, Kansas City at Toronto (if the Royals lose they are eliminated from playoff contention), Houston at Pittsburgh (Willie Tavares goes for a 30-game hitting streak!), Tampa Bay at Baltimore.

In one of the biggest years of offense in the 20th Century, the Brooklyn Dodgers used a Johnny Frederick home run and fourteen other hits to pound the crosstown rival New York Giants, 7-2, before a crowd of about 30,000 at the Polo Grounds.

The Dodgers, under the direction of manager Wilbert Robinson, started lefty Watty Clark. The Giants, managed by the estimable John McGraw, started a lefty of his own in Bill Walker.

Brooklyn and New York did not like each other much and tempers were high. In the second inning, Clark was ejected by home plate umpire Lou Jorda after tossing his glove to the ground in protest of a walk call to Giants first baseman Bill Terry. Jumbo Elliott relieved and pitched the rest of the game for Brooklyn.

The Giants scored the game's first run in the fourth when Terry doubled and scored on a single by catcher Bob O'Farrell. They would never lead again.

In the top of the fifth, second baseman Neal Finn singled, but catcher Al Lopez hit into a double play for Brooklyn. Elliott walked and then center fielder Frederick homered to give Brooklyn a 2-1 lead. The Giants tied the game in the bottom of the half of the inning on a sacrifice fly from center fielder Ethan Allen (the inventor of All-Star Baseball and a great American inventor on a par with Thomas Edison) to score left fielder Wally Roettger.

Brooklyn drove Walker from the hill in the sixth with four consecutive hits from shortstop Glenn Wright, first baseman Del Bissonette, left fielder Rube Bressler, and Finn to score two runs and put Brooklyn ahead 4-2. Hub Pruett relieved and got Lopez to hit into his second double play to get out of further trouble.

In the ninth, Brooklyn broke the game open against the Giants third pitcher, Joe Heving. Lopez singled and stole second. After Elliott struck out, Frederick, third baseman Wally Gilbert, right fielder Babe Herman, and Wright singled to score three runs.

With the win, Brooklyn moved just 1/2 game behind New York for second place in the NL. The defending champion Cubs were on top by 5 1/2 games. When the season ended, St. Louis would end up on top as the Cardinals went 21-4 in the last month of the season. The Cubs were just 13-13 in the final month and finished two games out. Chicago manager Joe McCarthy got fed up and quit the team with four games left and gave the job to Rogers Hornsby. The Giants would finish in third place and the Dodgers in fourth.

The National League would have its biggest offensive year of the 20th century in terms of batting average and on base percentage. The league batted .303 and had an on-base percentage of .360. The NL also slugged .448, the highest mark ever. Other highs set for an 8-team NL were set for runs, hits, doubles, total bases, extra base hits, and RBI.

Terry would lead the NL in batting average at .401, the last NL player to top .400. Herman finished second at .393. Hack Wilson of the Cubs set an NL record with 56 home runs and drove in a still-standing record 191 runs.

Perhaps the most amazing performance of 1930 was by a pitcher. Brooklyn's Dazzy Vance, at age 39, managed to post a 2.61 ERA (the league ERA was 4.92). The second best ERA among qualifiers was 3.87 by the Giants Carl Hubbell.

The Cardinals scored 1,004 runs, the most by any NL team in the 20th Century. No NL team has gone over 1,000 runs since then, although several AL teams have. The Phillies pitching staff gave up 1,199 runs and had an ERA of 6.72, the highest in major league history in both categories.

In 1931, offense in the NL dropped to more normal levels. Just what caused this one year offensive spike is still unclear, but many historians point to a livelier baseball used by the National League. Or maybe everybody was on Depression-era steroids.

Sources: New York Times, Retrosheet, Baseball-reference.com

The team from Columbus, Georgia beat the team from Beaverton, Oregon 7-3 in the U.S. final to advance to Sunday's championship game in the the Little League World Series.

The opponent will be the team from Kawaguchi, Japan which beat Matamoros, Mexico 3-0 in the International final.

The last Japanese champion was in 2003. The last champion from Georgia was in 1983.

The Padres sent Mike Thompson Ben Johnson back to Portland for what I believe is the sixth separate time. Thompson was sent down to make room for Russell Branyan.

Also Scott Williamson was put on the DL and Jon Adkins was called up from Portland. Adkins had been sent down last week so Tim Stauffer could make an emergency start in place of Chan Ho Park, who was later disabled so Thompson could be called back up after he had been sent down after he came up earlier to make an emergency start for Clay Hensley.

Meanwhile, Manny Alexander is in the majors with the Padres.

And the Padres could move into a tie for first tonight.

Here is the official sequence from MLB.com's transactions.

8/1/06 Reinstated OF Ben Johnson from the 15-day disabled list and optioned OF Terrmel Sledge to Triple-A Portland; Released INF/OF Eric Young; Acquired nonroster LHP Matt Blank from the Marlins for nonroster RHP Jim Brower.

8/11/06 Reinstated RHP Chan Ho Park from the 15-day disabled list; Optioned RHP Mike Thompson to Triple-A Portland.

8/19/06 Recalled RHP Mike Thompson from Triple-A Portland and placed INF Khalil Greene on the 15-day disabled list retroactive to Aug. 18

8/20/06 Purchased the contract of INF Manny Alexander and optioned RHP Mike Thompson to Triple-A Portland.

8/21/06 Recalled RHP Tim Stauffer from Triple-A Portland; optioned RHP Jon Adkins to Portland.

8/22/06 Placed RHP Chan Ho Park on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to Aug. 21, with intestinal bleeding; recalled RHP Mike Thompson from Triple-A Portland.

8/23/06 Recalled RHP Brian Sweeney from Triple-A Portland and optioned RHP Tim Stauffer to Portland.

8/25/06 Acquired INF Russell Branyan from the Devil Rays in exchange for Minor League RHP Evan Meek and a player to be named later or cash considerations.

Today's transactions aren't on MLB.com yet.

The Tampa Devil Rays, taking no chances with their best pitcher, placed Scott Kazmir on the disabled list with a sore left shoulder. J.P. Howell was called up from the minors to take his spot in the rotation.

Also, the Washington Nationals lost Alex Escobar to a shoulder separation and pitcher Kevin Gryboski replaced him. Earlier, the always popular Robert Fick came off the DL and Damian Jackson was designated for assignment. Don't be surprised if Jackson ends up making stop #3 with the Padres, who seem intent on piling up mediocre infielders like the Reds are piling up mediocre relievers.

This story from the Indian website IBN live has a video clip from a film entitled "Gandhi at the Bat", which is based on a "New Yorker" humor piece from 1983 by Chet Williamson.

The short film hasn't been released yet and you will need to hit the film festival circuit to see it.

Link picked up from Baseball Think Factory.

Michael Texeira, presumably no relation to Mark of the Rangers, lost a personal injury lawsuit he filed against the New Britian Rock Cats team after getting in the testicles by an errant baseball during a pregame barbecue at New Britain's stadium, which is called New Britain Stadium.

Judge Don Shaban of the New Britain Superior Court ruled against Texeira, according to this article from Thomas B. Scheffey in the Connecticut Law Tribune on the basis that the "limited duty rule" applied to Texeira even though he was at a pregame event that was more business than part of a game. The "limited duty rule" essentially means that teams have to offer seats that are either protected by screen or are exposed and it's up to the ticket buyer to beware of the location.

The moral of the story is: always wear a protective cup.

Everywhere.

Even in the shower.

A playoff spot changed hands for the first in over a week as the Twins took over the checkered jersey and occupy the AL wild card spot now. The last time the Twins were in this spot, they lost the next day.

Game two of the series in Chicago will be at 4:05 pm PT with Johan Santana facing Jose Contreras.

In the East, the Yankees and Red Sox both lost Friday and the Yankees maintained their 5 1/2 game lead. The Yankees face their arch nemeses, the Angels, in Anaheim at 1:10 pm PT (Cory Lidle vs. Ervin Santana). The Red Sox will be at Seattle at 7:05 pm PT (David Wells vs. Gil Meche).

Oakland leads the Angels by 5 1/2 games in the West and plays at Texas at 5:05 pm PT (Joe Blanton vs. Adam Eaton). Detroit now has the smallest margin of any division leader, just five games over Minnesota. The Tigers are at Cleveland at 4:05 pm PT (Justin Verlander vs. Jake Westbrook).

The NL could have had some changes Friday night, but it only became muddled in a different way.

The Cardinals increased their lead over the Reds to one full game. The Cardinals host the Cubs at 10:20 am PT (Rich Hill vs. Chris Carpenter). The Reds will be at San Francisco at 1:05 pm PT (Bronson Arroyo vs. Noah Lowry). The Reds lead the Padres and Phillies by 1 1/2 games for the wild card.

The Dodgers still lead the Padres by one game after both teams lost Friday. San Diego starts first in a game at Colorado at 5:05 pm PT (Clay Hensley vs. Jason Jennings). The Dodgers are at Arizona at 6:40 pm PT (Derek Lowe vs. Miguel Batista). The DBacks are three games behind the Dodgers and the Giants are 3 1/2 games back.

The Mets lead the East by 13 1/2 games over the Phillies. The Mets play host to them at 4:10 pm PT with Jon Lieber facing Oliver Perez.

They will also play: Washington at Atlanta, Kansas City at Toronto, Tampa Bay at Baltimore, Milwaukee at Florida, Houston at Pittsburgh.

In a game that was scoreless for seven innings, the visiting Florida Marlins staged a miraculous comeback with six runs in the ninth inning, and defeated the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-6, in 10 innings before a crowd of 30,004 at Busch Stadium.

The defending World Series champions, managed by Jim Leyland, had been stripped of nearly all of its star players from the previous season as owner Wayne Huizenga opted to cut the team's payroll in anticipation of selling the team. Lefty Kirt Ojala started for the Marlins. The Cardinals, managed by Tony LaRussa, started another lefty, Darren Oliver, who had been acquired from Texas on August 9 with Fernando Tatis in exchange for Todd Stottlemyre and Royce Clayton.

Neither team had much chance of making the playoffs. The big story for the Cardinals was first baseman Mark McGwire's attempt to break Roger Maris's home run record. He came into the game with 53. In some bizarre way to get McGwire more at bats, or perhaps just some idea La Russa had that he thought would make him look really smart, La Russa put Oliver in the #8 slot in the lineup and batted catcher Eli Marrero in the #9 spot. McGwire batted third.

Ojala and Oliver each put up goose eggs in the first six innings. Ojala retired McGwire all three times he came up.

In the seventh, Florida loaded the bases but couldn't score. With one out, left fielder Cliff Floyd picked up an infield single and third baseman Kevin Orie had another. But Floyd was caught stealing third for the second out. Catcher Randy Knorr walked and second baseman Luis Castillo walked as well to load the bases. Leyland opted to let Ojala hit and he grounded into a force play.

St. Louis finally broke through in the bottom of the seventh. Left fielder Ron Gant led off with a double. Right fielder John Mabry attempted a sacrifice. Ojala pounced on the bunt and tried to throw out Gant at third, but made a bad throw and Gant scored and Mabry went to second. Justin Speier eventually came in to get the Marlins out of further trouble.

In the eighth, third baseman Tatis led off with a triple and then McGwire thrilled the crowd with a shot to left field that was measured at 509 feet. Speier's next pitch to center fielder Brian Jordan brushed him back and umpire Harry Wendlestedt warned both benches. Leyland came out to argue and was ejected. Jordan singled and Gant doubled him home. Mabry homered and it was 6-0 Cardinals. Donn Pall came in to get out of the inning.

John Frascatore, who had pitched a perfect eighth, was left in to try to pick up the save for Oliver. First baseman Derrek Lee led off with a home run. Then Floyd homered. Then Orie homered. La Russa interpreted this as a sign to get a new pitcher and Lance Painter came in from the pen. Knorr grounded out, but Castillo drew a walk. Pinch hitter Dave Berg singled to move Castillo to second.

Exit Painter and enter the Cardinal's nominal closer, Jeff Brantley. Brantley had saved 44 games for the Reds in 1996, but was slowed by injuries in 1997. The Cardinals took a chance on him in 1998. But Brantley was still hurt or ineffective most of the time. The first batter Brantley faced was pinch hitter Mark Kotsay, batting for John Cangelosi. Kotsay sent a Brantley pitch into the seats for a game-tying home run that left the crowd in St. Louis stunned.

The Cardinals couldn't score in the bottom of the ninth and the game went into extra innings. In the top of the tenth, Floyd had an infield hit and went to second when shortstop Luis Ordaz misplayed Orie's grounder. Knorr doubled in Floyd with what ended up as the winning run against reliever Juan Acevedo. Antonio Alfonseca pitched two innings for the win.

McGwire would end up breaking Maris's record and would hit 70 home runs. Sammy Sosa of the Cubs would hit 66 and win the MVP award. Four days before this game, a reporter looking into McGwire's locker noticed a bottle of androstendione. And the whole home run record chase had a much different resonance than people expected, although in the short term, the fans loved it. In retrospect, 1998 looks much different.

St. Louis finished third at 83-79, 19 games behind Houston. The Marlins were 54-108, the worst record in franchise history, 52 games in back of the Atlanta Braves. Castillo was the last player from the 1998 Marlins to stick with the team. Castillo was traded to the Twins after the 2005 season. Matt Morris was the last Cardinals from the 1998 team to leave. Morris signed as a free agent with San Francisco prior to the 2006 season.

Sources: Palm Beach Post, Retrosheet, Baseball-reference.com

The New York Times has gotten on board the "Shawn Green is the next New York Jewish sports hero" train.

The story above is running not in the Sports section, but in News. On Page 1, no less. You can tell the story is "news" and not sports.

There are references to: Mr. Green, Mr. Cone, Mr. Koufax, and Mr. Danning.

Mr. Green went 0 for 4 Friday night against Mr. Wolf and Mr. Rhodes of the Philadelphia National League Baseball Team.

The Little League Board of Directors adopted a pitch limit for players in the Majors division (11 and 12 year olds) to be put into place for next year.

Pitchers will be limited to six innings per week or 85 pitches. If a pitcher throws more than 61 pitches, s/he must have three days of rest before pitching again.

In the recently ended National High School Baseball Tournament, pitcher Yuki Saito of the champion Waseda Jitsugyo school threw 948 pitches in seven games and threw four complete games in the last four days of the tournament, including a 15-inning tie.

But he still seemed fresh at the end.

In Cleveland, for the AL Central leaders Detroit, Neifi Perez is batting leadoff.

In St. Louis, for the NL Central leading Cardinals, Aaron Miles is batting leadoff.

In Pittsburgh, Willy Taveras of Houston has gotten a hit already to stretch his hitting streak to 28 games. This streak has raised his seasonal average to .281. And he has an OPS of .672.

The Baltimore Orioles, once the model AL franchise, has become, in my opinion, the most irrelevant franchise in baseball. I just look at the roster of players and say "These guys have no hope of making the playoffs in the next ten years." Maybe it's just that the presence of both Russ Ortiz and Bruce Chen on the roster has made me dizzy

Maybe, I'm wrong.

But now the Orioles are remembering their past and inducting two new members into the team's Hall of Fame:

Chris Hoiles and Doug DeCinces

Chris Hoiles?

Who's next? Wayne Krenchicki?

Reggie Sanders is out for the rest of the season after having knee surgery.

Doug Mientkiewicz is also out for the rest of the year with back surgery.

Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch discusses whether the Cardinals are underachieving or just the victim of high expectations.

Apparently, some in Redbird Land wanted the Cardinals to make a splashy deal and pick up Shawn Green. At least Walt Jocketty has some sense.

It's possible that the Cardinals could be out of one of the four NL playoff spots by the end of play Saturday.

By the time Friday's full slate of games are over, it's possible there could be a new leader in the NL Central, a tie in the NL West, and a new team in both league's wild card spots.

The Cardinals lead the Reds by a margin of .0004 in the NL Central because they have played two fewer games than the Reds.

Coming off a sweep in New York, the Cardinals return home to face their long time rivals and 2006 nemesis, the Cubs. The Cubs have won 11 of 16 games against the Cardinals. Over 20% of the Cubs wins this season have come against the Cardinals. They play at St. Louis at 5:10 pm PT (Juan Mateo vs. Jeff Suppan). The Reds will be at San Francisco at 7:15 pm PT (Aaron Harang vs. Matt Morris). If the Reds win and the Cardinals lose, the two teams will trade places as NL Central champs and wild card team.

In the West, the Dodgers lead the Padres by one game. The teams could be in a tie with a Dodgers loss and a Padres win. The Dodgers are at Arizona at 6:40 pm PT (Greg Maddux vs. Claudio Vargas). The Padres will be at Colorado at 6:05 pm PT (Mike Thompson vs. Jeff Francis). The Padres trail the Reds by 1 1/2 games for the NL wild card.

Philadelphia is now 2 1/2 games in back of Cincinnati for the wild card. The Phillies will play the team they trail in the East by 14 1/2 games, the Mets, at Shea Stadium at 4:10 pm PT (Randy Wolf vs. Brian Bannister).

In the American League, the White Sox stubbornly hold on to a 1/2 game lead on the wild card over Minnesota. The two teams start a three-game series at 5:35 pm PT in Chicago (Brad Radke vs. Javier Vazquez). The Twins lead the season series 7-6. The teams will meet again the last weekend of the regular season in Minnesota.

Detroit leads Chicago by 5 1/2 and Minnesota by 6 in the Central. The Tigers will be at Cleveland at 4:05 pm PT (Jeremy Bonderman vs. Jeremy Sowers).

The Yankees had their lead over Boston trimmed to 5 1/2 games Thursday. The Yankees will be at Anaheim to take on the Angels at 7:05 pm PT (Jaret Wright vs. John Lackey). The Red Sox will be at Seattle at 7:05 pm PT (Curt Schilling vs. Jake Woods).

Oakland, leading the Angels by 5 1/2 and the Rangers by 7, will be at Texas at 5:35 pm (Barry Zito vs. Edinson Volquez).

They also will play: Houston at Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay at Baltimore, Kansas City at Toronto, Milwaukee at Florida, Washington at Atlanta.

With their loss last night to Cleveland, Kansas City was mathematically elminated from winning the AL Central. They are still alive for the wild card. Actually, I think the Royals were mathematically eliminated in the Central a couple days ago, but I lost track.

On a Sunday afternoon in Hamilton, Ohio, about 25 miles north of Cincinnati, the Brooklyn and Cincinnati teams of the American Association got together before a crowd of 5,000. But the game was never completed as the local authorities arrested all the participating players in the bottom of the fourth of the inning and ended the game.

The American Association's big selling point compared to the much more staid National League was that it offered Sunday play. Well, that and beer and cheaper admissions. But Sunday ball was a big selling point in an era when many people had six-day workweeks.

Cincinnati had played Sunday games at home earlier in the 1889 season and in many years before that. Cincinnati's first NL team was booted out of the league after the 1880 season for playing Sunday games as well as serving beer, which was pretty much a necessity for the large German population of the city.

But for reasons I'm not sure of, the city fathers of the Queen City decided not to allow the Reds (the ancestor of the current Cincinnati team) play at their usual home at League Park. So Brooklyn and Cincinnati decided to decamp for Hamilton.

Prior to the start of the game, a county magistrate arraigned Brooklyn manager Bill McGunnigle and Cincinnati manager Gus Schmelz for violating the Sunday law, but let the game go on.

McGunnigle started Bob Caruthers and Schmelz had Jesse Duryea pitching for him.

Cincinnati opted to bat first, but failed to score. In the bottom of the first, Brooklyn third baseman George Pinkney doubled to score second baseman Hub Collins and first baseman Dave Foutz. Pinkney would double in two more in the third.

In the top of the fourth, second baseman Bid McPhee singled and Tony Mullane walked. Hick Carpenter got an infield to load the bases. Outfielder George Tabeau hit a grounder to Collins who stepped on second for a force, but thew wildly in an attempt to get a double play but threw the ball away and McPhee and Mullane scored.

In the bottom of the fourth, with Caruthers at bat, a commotion at the gate of the stadium stopped play. Eighteen police officers, led by a Chief Lindley, stopped play. Each officer arrested a player and took him to Hamilton City Hall, where a Mayor Dirk arraigned them. The mayor fined each player $5 plus court costs and the bill came to $159.30. The Cincinnati team paid the fine and the players were released. Umpire Bob Ferguson, according to the Brooklyn Eagle story of the game, mingled in with the crowd to avoid arrest. The complaint was issued by a group called the Law and Order League of Hamilton. Presumably Hamilton has had no crime since this day in 1889.

Since Brooklyn had no more games schedule in Cincinnati, the game was replayed in its entirety and made up in Brooklyn in September.

At the time, Brooklyn trailed St. Louis by two games in the AA pennant race, but the Bridegrooms came on strong down the stretch winning 22 of 30 in September and October to beat out St. Louis by two games with a 93-44 record. Brooklyn picked up an important win on September 8, when St. Louis forfeited a game to Brooklyn because its team captain and manager, Charles Comiskey, feared that there would not be enough police protection at that game. That was one of three forfeits involving Brooklyn that year. They won two of them and lost the other.

Cincinnati finished in fourth place at 76-63, 18 games behind Brooklyn.

At the end of the season, Brooklyn agreed to play the NL champions, the New York Giants in a postseason series. The Giants won six of the nine games. The next season, Brooklyn would abandon the AA and join the National League. And Brooklyn would win the pennant again, the only time a franchise won consecutive pennants in two different leagues.

Sources: Brooklyn Eagle, Retrosheet, Baseball-reference.com

Dave Sheinin writes in the Washington Post and MSNBC.com about what has been going on with baseball's ban on amphetamines this year.

The conclusion by Sheinin (with a guest appearance by Will Carroll!) is that performance hasn't changed much one way or the other with regards to player's energy levels. And there seem to be a lot of espressos consumed in MLB clubhouses this year. And a lot of Red Bull consumed.

Japan's two major league, the Pacific and Central, finally settled on a plan that would guarantee that both leagues play the same number of regular season games and have the same playoff systems to determine their champion.

Starting in 2007, both leagues will play 144-game schedules and have the top three teams in each league advance to a playoff to decide the league champion.

This season, teams in the Central League play 146 regular season games. Teams in the Pacific League play 136 regular season games.

The Central League's representative in the Japan Series will be the regular season champ. Presently, the Chunichi Dragons have a big lead (9 games) over the second place Hanshin Tigers.

The Pacific League's representative in the Japan Series will be one of the teams that finish in the top three. Presently that would be the Seibu Lions, the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks, and the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters. If the season ended now, the second and third place teams (Softbank and Nippon Ham) would play a best of three playoff. The winner of that series would play Seibu in a FOUR game playoff, with Seibu being spotted one win. In other words, the winner of the first series would have to win three games before the champion wins two. I will be in Japan in time to see the second stage of the PL playoffs and I hope to be at the stadiums to see the games. Wherever they may be.

The number of interleague games is being reduced from 36 to 24 games for 2007. Presumably each team (there are six in each league) would play two game home-and-home series.

The last two Japan Series champions, Seibu in 2004 and Lotte in 2005, did not finish first in the regular season. But both benefited from playing a Central League champ in the Japan Series that hadn't played a game in over two weeks.

The Central League still has pitchers bat. The Pacific League uses the DH.

Shawn Green was activated by the Mets for tonight's game against the Cardinals.

To make room for him on the roster, Ricky Ledee was designated for assignment and Ramon Castro was moved to the 60-day DL as well.

Castro had been on a rehab assignment for a ribcage injury and he injured his knee.

Also Lastings Milledge was sent back down to Norfolk and pitcher Brian Bannister was recalled as Orlando Hernandez will be missing a start.

San Diego, desperate for infield help with Khalil Greene injured and Todd Walker fielding at third base like a 1978 Butch Hobson, acquired Russell Branyan from Tampa Bay in exchange for minor league pitcher Evan Meek and either another player to be named later or cash or perhaps a bunch of gift cards to be used at PETCO.

However, Branyan has played just five games at third base this season, spending most of his time in the outfield.

Frigtheningly, a transaction like this could actually swing the balance of power in the NL playoff race. Six teams in the NL have winning records and with the exception of the Mets, no team is more than six games over .500.

Kawaguchi, Japan downed Dharan, Saudi Arabia 4-1 to advance to the International Final of the Little League World Series. Kawaguchi will face the team from Matamoros, Mexico on Saturday.

Columbus, Georgia beat Portsmouth, New Hampshire 8-0 and will play Beaverton, Oregon in the U.S. Final on Saturday.

The championship game will be played Sunday.

Former player Albert Belle was sentenced to three months in jail and given five years of supervised probation for stalking an ex-girlfriend near his home in Scottsdale, Arizona. Belle had place a GPS transponder on the woman's car in an attempt to keep tabs on her.

Yesterday in Cincinnati:

In the bottom of the seventh, Reds pitcher Todd Coffey throws ball three to Morgan Ensberg of Houston to make the count 3-1. Coffey dissents. Home plate umpire Wally Bell tells Coffey that he is dismissed. Reds manager Jerry Narron brings in Ryan Franklin, who throws one strike and one ball, and walks Ensberg.

Narron then replaced Franklin with Rheal Cormier.

According to Rule 10.18(g)(1):

(1) If, when pitchers are changed, the count is
2 balls, no strike,
2 balls, 1 strike,
3 balls, no strike,
3 balls, 1 strike,
3 balls, 2 strikes,
and the batter gets a base on balls, charge that batter and the base on balls to the preceding pitcher, not to the relief pitcher.

So, the walk was Coffey's. Franklin was credited with an appearance, but nothing else. He officially faced no batters.

Yesterday in Detroit:
In the top of the seventh, Chicago's Scott Podsednik bats against Detroit's Jamie Walker. White Sox manager order Podsednik to bunt and he gets two strikes on him. Detroit manager Jim Leyland decides to replace Lewis with Jamie Walker. Guillen matches Leyland and sends up Brian Anderson to bat for Podsednik. Walker blows strike three past Anderson.

Rule 10.18(h)(3)

(3) If, when pitchers are changed, the count is
2 balls, 2 strikes,
1 ball, 2 strikes,
1 ball, 1 strike,
1 ball, no strike,
no ball, 2 strikes,
no ball, 1 strike,
charge that batter and his actions to the relief pitcher.

So it's Walker's strikeout. But what about the batter?

Ahh, Rule 10.17(b)

When the batter leaves the game with two strikes against him, and the substitute batter completes a strikeout, charge the strikeout and the time at bat to the first batter. If the substitute batter completes the turn at bat in any other manner, including a base on balls, score the action as having been that of the substitute batter.

So Jamie Walker struck out Scott Podsednik without throwing one pitch to him. It really takes a batter with Podsednik's "unique" talents to do that.

Danys Baez who had a very small Marching and Chowder Society in Los Angeles has likely developed a similar small one in Atlanta and how has gone on the disabled list after having an appendectomy.

Pluto no longer gets to hang out with the cool planets.

Or even the hot ones.

Just the icy dwarves.

Only eleven games scheduled today, but one playoff spot is still subject to change: the AL wild card.

The White Sox still lead the Twins by 1/2 game for the wild card as they occupy second and third in the Central, 6 1/2 and 7 games in back of Detroit.

Chicago finishes a four-game series in Detroit at 10:05 am PT (Jon Garland vs. Nate Robertson). Minnesota will be at Baltimore at 4:05 pm PT (Boof Bonser vs. Kris Benson). Minnesota will be at Chicago for a three-game series over the weekend.

The Yankees lead the East by 6 1/2 games over Boston. New York will be at Seattle at 7:05 pm PT (Randy Johnson vs. Jarrod Washburn). Boston will be at Anaheim to play the Angels at 7:05 pm PT (Josh Beckett vs. Jered Weaver). The Athletics, who leads the Angels by five games in the West, are off.

In the National League Central, the Reds have a chance to pull within .0004 of the Cardinals. St. Louis will be at New York at 4:10 pm PT (Jason Marquis vs. Dave Williams). The Reds play the Giants for the first time this season in a 7:15 pm PT game at AT&T Park (Eric Milton vs. Brad Hennessey).

The Reds lead the wild card by one game over idle San Diego and by 1 1/2 games over Philadelphia. The Phillies are at Chicago in an 11:20 am PT game (Cole Hamels vs. Carlos Zambrano). Philadelphia trails New York by 13 1/2 games in the East. If the Cubs win, they tie the Nationals for the 14th best record in the NL!

West-leading Los Angeles is off. The Dodgers lead the Padres by one game.

They also will play: Colorado at Milwaukee, Houston at Pittsburgh, Texas at Tampa Bay, Cleveland at Kansas City.

The New York Giants belted five home runs to set a new National League record for home runs in a season as they split a doubleheader at the Polo Grounds to the Cubs, winning the first game 4-0, and losing the second 8-3. 26,715 fans looked on.

The Giants ran their season total to 173 at the end of the day, breaking the previous NL best of 171 set by the Cubs back in 1930.

Giants manager Mel Ott started his rookie ace Larry Jansen in the first game and the interestingly named Hooks Iott in the nightcap. The Cubs, managed by Charlie Grimm, had Hank Borowy and Hank Wyse starting each game.

In the opener, Giants catcher Walker Cooper hit a 2-run homer and left fielder Sid Gordon hit a solo shot to bring the team total to 170. The Cubs had eight singles off of Jansen. The game was over in 1:48.

The second game was scoreless until the fifth. The Cubs pushed across a run and had the bases loaded with first baseman Eddie Waitkus at bat. Waitkus got hold off of an Iott offering a clobbered it to center where Bobby Thomson of the Giants tried to make a diving catch, but missed and the ball rolled behind him. The problem, of course, was that the center field fence at the Polo Grounds was over 480 feet away. Waitkus had no trouble circling the bases for an inside-the-park grand slam. And that was the end of Iott's day as Andy Hansen came in to relieve.

Catcher Ernie Lombardi hit the record-tying 171st home run when he homered off the left field foul pole in the sixth. Shortstop Buddy Kerr hit the record-breaking home run in the seventh into the upper deck in left field. First baseman Johnny Mize hit his 40th of the season in the eighth.

The Giants would go on to break the major league record for homers, 182 by the 1936 Yankees, later in the year and finish the season with 221 home runs. The Reds would tie the mark in 1956. The Yankees would reclaim the record with 240 home runs in 1961. The 1997 Mariners currently hold the record with 264 home runs and the 2000 Astros hold the NL record with 249.

The Giants had seven players with double digit marks in home runs. Mize tied with Ralph Kiner for the league lead with 51. Willard Marshall had 36, Cooper had 35, and Thomson had 29 to round out the NL top five in home runs.

It wasn't unusual that the Giants led the league in home runs as the Polo Grounds was not a hard place to hit the ball out of. The Giants led the NL in home runs in 1946, but they had just 121. Home runs spiked in 1947 for reasons that no one seems to know. The Giants would not top their 1947 total until 2000 when they hit 226. The team record is now 235 set in 2001.

Despite all the homers, the Giants finished in fourth place at 81-73, 13 games out of first place. The Brooklyn Dodgers, with rookie sensation Jackie Robinson, took the pennant and lost a seven-game World Series to the Yankees.

Although the Giants led the NL in scoring, the pitching staff was seventh in ERA at 4.44. Jansen went 21-5 with a 3.16 ERA, but the rest of the staff was awful. The rookie who was supposed to star for the Giants, Clint Hartung, made his debut and went 9-7 with a 4.57 ERA. He did bat .309, but he would never hit or pitch well again and was out of the majors after the 1952 season.

The best help for the Giants in 1948 would be coming from across town. Brooklyn manager Leo Durocher was suspended for a season for consorting with gamblers and other unsavory types. Durocher came back in 1948 to manage the Dodgers, but left in midseason and moved over to the Giants to replace Ott. Durocher would lead the Giants to a pennant in 1951 and a World Series win in 1954.

As for the Cubs, just two years after winning the pennant, they were in sixth place with a 69-85 record. The Cubs would not finish in the upper division of the NL again until 1967. When Leo Durocher was the manager.

Sources: New York Times, Retrosheet, Baseball-reference.com

The Cleveland Indians spotted the Kansas City Royals ten runs in the first inning at Kauffman Stadium, but the Indians rallied to win in 10 innings, 15-13.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the last team to lose a game after scoring 10 runs in the first inning was Pittsburgh on June 8, 1989 in Philadelphia.

That game gained fame when Pittsburgh broadcaster Jim Rooker told his audience that he would walk home if the Pirates lost the game.

Pirates and Phillies fans held Rooker to his word and after the season Rooker and a friend kept their end of the bargain and walked from Veterans Stadium to Three Rivers Stadium.

Newly acquired New York Mets outfielder Shawn Green says he is excited to be playing in front of New York's large Jewish population.

"I'm excited about it. It's something that has always intrigued me," Green said Wednesday during a conference call. "Playing in L.A., there's obviously a large population there, but New York is head and shoulders the largest in the country."

New York's Jewish population was about 1.75 million in the 2000 census, followed by Miami at roughly 535,000 and Los Angeles at approximately 490,000. The figures are for metropolitan areas.

See, I said he was excited.

Chan Ho Park of the Padres had surgery to correct an intestinal bleeding problem that put him on the disabled list for the second time this year.

Doctors said Park had a Meckel's diverticulum.

Park will be out at least four weeks and will likely miss the rest of the season. Mike Thompson was called up from Portland for the fifth time to fill Park's roster spot.

The boys from Matamoros, Mexico moved on to the International Final of the Little League World Series with an 11-0, 4-inning mercy rule win over the team from Barquisimeto, Venezuela.

Matamoros will play the winner of tomorrow's game between Dharan, Saudi Arabia and Kawaguchi, Japan on Saturday.

Beaverton, Oregon beat Lemont, Illinois 4-3 to advance to the U.S. final against either Portsmouth, NH or Columbus, GA. Lemont had no hits in the game.

In no particular order:

Ryan O'Malley of the Cubs went on the DL with a forearm strain and Jae Kuk Ryu was called up. Ryu has pitched 2 1/3 innings for the Cubs earlier in the year. They haven't been pretty.

Mike Mussina went on the DL with a groin strain. Brian Bruney takes his place.

David Eckstein went on the DL for St. Louis with an oblique strain. Jose Vizcaino was signed to replace him.

Gustavo Chacin came off the DL and Dustin McGowan was optioned back to Syracuse

Jae Seo of Tampa Bay went on the DL with a groin strain. I hear his groin strain isn't as nice as Mussina's though. Jason Hammel will likely get the call to replace Seo.

The Orioles called up James Hoey from Bowie and sent Chris Britton down.

Mentioning this only because it's a team record, Willy Taveras of Houston stretched his hitting streak to 26 games today in Cincinnati, breaking the team record of 25 he shared with Jeff Kent.

Daniel Brown of the San Jose Mercury News interviewed scouts who tried to identify players who are the worst at certain skills.

Under "Worst knowledge of strike zone", the "top" three are:

1. Angel Berroa
2. Pedro Feliz
3. The entire Tampa Bay Devil Rays lineup

One playoff spot still has the potential to change hands today: the AL wild card. The White Sox lead the Twins by just 1/2 game. Both teams lost Tuesday.

Both play today at 4:05 pm PT. Minnesota is at Baltimore (Matt Garza vs. Rodrigo Lopez) and Chicago is at Detroit (Freddy Garcia vs. Zach Miner). Detroit leads the White Sox by 7 1/2 games and won its 81st game Tuesday, ending a stretch of 12 straight losing seasons.

West leading Oakland had its lead cut to four games over the Angels with Texas hanging around on the periphery at 6 1/2 games out.

Oakland is at Toronto at 4:07 pm PT (Esteban Loaiza vs. Gustavo Chacin). The Angels host Boston at 7:05 pm PT (Jon Lester vs. Kelvim Escobar) and Texas is at Tampa Bay at 4:15 pm PT (Kevin Millwood vs. Casey Fossum).

The Yankees lead Boston by 6 1/2 games in the East and play at Seattle tonight at 7:05 pm PT (Chien-Ming Wang vs. Felix Hernandez).

In the National League, the Cardinals lead over the Reds is down to just one game. The Reds start things off early this morning at 9:35 am hosting a game against sputtering Houston (Roy Oswalt vs. Chris Michalak). The Cardinals are at New York at 4:10 pm PT (Mark Mulder vs. Steve Trachsel).

If the Cardinals lose and Reds win, the Cardinals will lead the Central by a margin of .0005 (.528 to .5275). The Reds would still be the wild card team.

The Phillies are 2 1/2 games out of the wild card and have a winning record now to boot (63-62). The Phllies are at Chicago in a 5:05 pm PT game (Brett Myers vs. Angel Guzman).

In the West, the Dodgers lead over the Padres dropped to two games and the two teams meet again in San Diego tonight at 7:05 pm PT (Brad Penny vs. Woody Williams). San Diego is also two games back of the Reds in the wild card.

Arizona is four games out and San Francisco five games out and the DBacks are at San Francisco at 12:35 pm PT (Enrique Gonzalez vs. Jason Schmidt).

I picture the NL West standings as an accordion with it expanding and contracting and giving off a horrific wheeze and whine like a kid trying to learn play "Lady of Spain" and not succeeding.

They also will run: Washington at Florida, Pittsburgh at Atlanta, Colorado at Milwaukee, Cleveland at Kansas City.

John Fay of the Cincinnati Enquirer reports that Wayne Krivsky, Reds GM, along with the front office is preparing a grievance of some type against the Washington Nationals and their GM Jim Bowden for not informing them of possible shoulder problems with pitcher Gary Majewski.

Link via BTF

Pluto's planetary status looks to be headed the way of Andy Hawkins and Harvey Haddix's no-hitters. The International Astronomical Union appears to be changing its mind about keeping Pluto as a planet as well as promoting Ceres, Charon, and UB313 2003 ("Xena") to planetary status.

The new consensus, according to this New York Times report, is that Pluto would be classified as a "dwarf planet" and lumped in with "smaller solar system bodies" such as asteroids and comets.

"Orbitary dominance" is the new watchword. The IAU believes a "planet" should be big enough to clear other objects out of its orbital path.

Pluto flunks this test as its orbit intersects Neptune's.

Billy Crystal has announced plans to make a mo