Miscellaneous Thoughts

Some morning thoughts while I have my first cup of coffee...

Last night I had a dream where Gary Burgoff was standing at a podium to announce the engagement of Bill O'Reilly to Morgan Fairchild. Strange... I have decided to root for the Calgary Flames to win the Stanley Cup just because I think they have the best playoff beards... I still think the Dodgers will win the NL West but each day that passes makes me more impressed with San Diego's pitching. I'm starting to think that the Padres will be this year's NL wild card (if the season ended today they would be a 1/2 game out of the wild card)... Tom Glavine has quietly gone 3-1 with a 1.64 ERA for the Mets. Glavine trails only Dontrelle Willis (0.71 - he's gotten to feast on the putrid Montreal offense three times this year) and teammate Al "mid-season trade to the Red Sox" Leiter (1.61) among NL ERA leaders... Many people have commented on the hot hitting of the Texas Rangers. As a team they lead all MLB with a .313 batting average but were you aware that the Pittsburgh Pirates are second with a .294 average? However, this could be a good example why batting average isn't the greatest statistic to go by to judge offensive capability. The Pirates may be second in BA but they are only 10th in OBP, 11th in slugging and a measley 25th in runs scored. (Meanwhile the Rangers are Top 10 in all three of those categories - 3rd, 4th and 8th respectively)... From Doug Pappas; "Through three weeks of the regular season, [MLB] attendance is up 14.4%, to an average of 29,718/game. That's the second highest ever, trailing only the 1994 season. 22 of the 30 clubs are ahead of last year's pace. The Cubs could draw 3.2 million; the Yankees could approach 4,000,000. In Florida, the Marlins are up 86%, the Devil Rays, 72%." Interesting... I'm starting to get annoyed with those ESPN commercials about the baseball scout with one last chance to make it good. I'm starting to feel like it will turn into a Sid Finch type of thing...