Taking a slight break from this past week's London murders, Supreme Court retirements and rumors of the same, and the Hurricane currently beating its path through the Gulf of Mexico, I thought I'd focus on some baseball stories making their way through the news at the moment.
First up is John Smoltz and Julio Franco. Both are quickly moving towards 2,500 - strike outs for Smoltz and hits for Julio. Smoltz currently sits at 2,496 strike outs and should cross the mark in his next game (after the break.) And the ageless Franco now has 2,495 hits and will also probably move past the mark after the All Star game. Milestones for both.
As for another milestone, Rafael Palmeiro is three hits away from 3,000, that coveted number that makes a Hall of Famer (as if we did not know that already about this great first baseman.) With his 1,823 RBIs and his 565 home runs, he is a lock for the Hall and soon to be only the fourth man in history to have both 500 home runs and 3,000 hits (the others being Willie Mays, Hank Aaron and Eddie Murray.)
And here is some bad news. Roy Halladay was quietly having the best season for a pitcher in the American League (for Toronto.) He was among the league leaders in wins (12-4) and strike outs (108), and led the league in innings pitched (141.2) and ERA (2.41). Garland (for the White Sox) and Rogers (The Gambler for the Rangers) were getting all the attention. But now Halladay has broken a bone in his left leg keeping him out for a month. Let's hope it heals up soon and well.
Finally, let's look at the position of the Braves as the head into their last game before the All Star break. With last night's loss, they now sit 2.5 games back of the over acheiving Washington Nationals. However, I feel that the Braves are in prime position. As it stands, they have the highest amount of runs scored in the division (with 424, compared to Washington's 353 and Florida's 381) and they have allowed the fewest runs against them (with 340, compared to Washington's 356 and Florida's 359.) Notice too how Washington still has more runs allowed than runs scored. How much longer can they keep that up? Adding in the return of many Braves regulars after the break (Hudson, Hampton and Chipper) only gives Atlanta an extra boost to move right past Washington and hopefully finally run away with the division, something none of the five teams have been able to do thus far. In fact the Mets are the only team in the division under .500...by one game. I predicted the National League East may be entirely above .500 at the end of the season and it may turn out true. As for the rest of my predictions...well, the season ain't over yet. And for the Braves - well, I refuse to look at the Wild Card standings. It's the division title or bust, I say!
All Star weekend and Home Run Derby coming up after this last Sunday of the first half, then it's Hall of Fame weekend (with Sandberg, Boggs and Gammon), and finally the expected pennant races and post season. This has turned out to be a pretty darn good season all told. Looking forward to the rest. That is all.
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