Miscellaneous Baseball Thoughts

Yesterday was Todd Helton's birthday - he turned 31. One thing I didn't realize about Helton is the fact that he is the active leader in slugging percentage in MLB and 4th all-time with his .616 career slugging percentage. That's better than Barry Bonds - who is second among active players and 6th all-time with his .608 slugging percentage. Now this in no way indicates that Helton is a better slugger than Bonds because Helton has the "Coors Field Effect" working for him for half his games played but I do think it indicates how great Helton has been and how he is pretty much overlooked when anyone speaks of the best players in the game... 66-years ago yesterday - Lou Gehrig hit the last of his record 23 grand slams and yesterday Manny Ramirez hit his career 16th grand slam. I think Manny has a shot at that record... 57-years ago today - the first Little League World Series was held at Williamsport, PA... I have to hand it to Ichiro. He easily could have taken yesterday off after getting beaned on Wednesday but instead he goes out and gets three hits. This guy needs a nickname like The Samuri or something... I really thought that moving to Texas would help Alfonso Soriano but even though he should match last year's HR and RBI output - his slugging percentage is down 44 points. I was sure his slugging would have gone up with him playing half his games in Arlington... Why is it that Larry Bowa still has a job?... BTW - Todd Helton hit his 27th HR of the season on his birthday... I'm starting to wonder if the Twins' Joe Mauer is going to be a JD Drew type player - lots of potential but always hurt...