## Okay, I think I've heard this one enough times: "The Baltimore Orioles are in first place, but can they last?" The season is one-third over, are they still going to keep asking this question all year? The Orioles may have finally come together or the rest of the division is slumping. Either way, Baltimore is proving to be a force. If they're there at the end, some idiot is bound to say, "They have an eight-game lead with seven to play. Will they make it?" Sounds like Tim McCarver to me.
## If you predicted this one at the beginning of the year, the men in the white suits would have come for you. The first results for the All-Star game are in. There are a few excellent choices for first base: Mark Teixeira, Adrian Gonzales and Albert Pujols, to name three, and you'd have to believe that Pujols would be the favorite. Pujols is currently fifth in the voting. Fifth, by a lot. Usually, a players reputation will carry the votes as evidenced by last years votes. Derek Jeter was voted in as the starter even though he was hitting .257 with almost no power. Now it appears that voters are actually paying attention to how the players are doing.
## Janice Hough, Brad Dickson and the like are always poking fun the Yankees payroll and the cost of going to a game at the stadium (yeah, me too). So who has the highest average ticket price? It's our old friends up in Boston. The Yanks are only third. Here are the top five:
Boston $88.26
Toronto $71.89
Yanks $70.81
Cubs $65.24
Mets $63.56
This the AVERAGE ticket price. If you really want to pay $1200+ for a seat, the Yankees will gladly accommodate you. If you watch the game, it looks like those seats are readily available.
Here are the top ticket prices for the other major sports:
HOCKEY - Toronto Maple Leafs $199.62
BASKETBALL - LA Lakers $169.80
NFL - NE Patriots $241.86
## I was watching ESPN this morning and I saw some great plays, however, most of the great basketball plays were not in the Top Ten. Why? Because ESPN thinks watching a guy drive and dunk the ball with no opposition, is a great play. Forget the beautiful spin moves or the thread-the-needle passes or the three-point shot with a defender draped all over you. No, they've got to highlight the really tall guy, jumping. Whats next, watching a pitcher throw a pitch for a called strike two? I'm beginning to think that ESPN doesn't understand the game. What do they understand? The answer is easy: promotion. Especially self-promotion. Just for the fun of it, I recently timed one hour of ESPN and found that there were only 38 minutes of actual sports reporting. the other 22 minutes were spent on commercials, promos of what they were going to show, and noise and fireworks to let you know what program you were watching. ESPN stands for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network. It ought to be EsPN because there isn't much in the way of sports being shown.
## The other night, the YES announcers mentioned that in addition to leading the Yanks in home runs, Granderson also leads the team in walks. Their point was that Curtis does more than just hit the homers. That's fine, but they neglected to mention that he also leads the team in strikeouts. (A-Rod is second) Another forgotten stat: Derek Jeter leads the team in hitting into double plays with 9 (I thought it was a lot more than that).
## Headlines that make no sense: Hallady's rehab is on schedule: Still out 6-8 weeks. Right, and Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.
## Jamie Moyer will not give up. He was released by the Colorado Rockies last month, and has now signed a minor league contract with the Baltimore Orioles. Apparently, Jamie Moyer is still NOT dead.
## The second biggest question in the AL is why the Tigers are doing so badly. The answer seems obvious: their defense is so bad, they couldn't catch a cold. They have ONE plus-defender, Austin Jackson, and he's on the DL with an abdominal strain. I think he would still be better than the current outfielders even playing centerfield doubled over in pain. They are a team of Designated Hitters.
***THEY SAID IT***
"How about Detroit D-lineman Nick Fairly getting pulled over for driving 160 kph. Looks like Ndamukong Su isn't the only Lion who likes to step on it." -- RJ Currie
"On a highway in western Pennsylvania, rush-hour traffic was backed up because two cows were mating in the road. OK, that's one thing. But then state police held up traffic for another 20 minutes so the cows could spoon." -- Brad Dickson
"American gymnast, Shawn Johnson retired at 20 years old, to make room for younger gymnasts. The current favorite for All-Around title in the 2012 Olympics, is a Romanian embryo." -- Brad Dickson
"The New York Mets have now gone two games without a no-hitter. It's the second-longest such streak in team history." -- Budd Bailey, Buffalo News
"Last Friday, in case you missed it, was National Doughnut Day. St. Louis Cardinals hitters, a little too caught up in the moment, celebrated by going 0 for 27." -- Dwight Perry
"A beer at the London Olympics will cost $11 USD this summer. $11?! “Is the government subsidizing prices”, asked Yankees fans?" -- Janice Hough
"Pitcher Juan Carlos Oviedo of the 'Miami Ma' was caught playing under a fake name and suspended by MLB for eight weeks for age and identity fraud. The pitcher will be eligible to return July 23. Guess he’ll be known around the clubhouse as the 'player to be named later'." -- TC Chong
CP-
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