Because it is my blog... baseball ramblings!


Now, I don't think this will hold up over the rest of the season, but the terrible National League West of 2005 (where the winning team ended 2 games above 500, only by winning its final game) is ALL playing above .500 ball.

And this is not just them beating up on themselves. Not a single team has a losing record outside of the West. In fact, only San Francisco has a losing record against either the Eastern or Central division (4-6 vs. E). Every other team is at least .500. San Diego has beaten the ever-loving crap out of the Central division (9-1), actually putting them in 1st place despite having a terrible record inside their own division (9-12).

This bodes well for the West not being the embarassment of baseball. Well, the NATIONAL league west, anyway. I suppose it shouldn't be that surprising. Outside of Colorado, which has surprised everyone by not being mathematically eliminated after the first month (the harshest comment I heard about them last year, as it was said so matter-of-factly), these teams have line-ups which should not be awful. They spend money. They have stars.

They are not Pittsburgh, which has no money, or Florida, which sold off every single major league player but one in the off-season. The Nationals used to be the Expos and have only just become a real boy and the Cubs.... Well, they are cursed by God. The West SHOULD look better by comparison.

No one in the West should be able to play with the big boys, which look to be the Mets (who have spent approximately a billion dollars) and the Cardinals (Pujols one-man wrecking machine). Cincinnati may be something, but I need to see more. Never count out the Braves (although I think this year might finally be one to do so). For completeness I'll say Houston, Milwaukee, and Philadelphia are probably NL-West-level and would be lucky to have a shot at a wild card. Barring returns of Hall-of-Fame pitchers, of course.


BONUS MATERIAL
If you perservered through all that baseball crap, I can give you my latest Stephen-Colbert-Fame-ometer reading.

I met with a visiting colleague yesterday who I had never before been formally introduced to. He greeted my name with a joke, along the lines of, "Say you aren't that Colbert that I saw saying the funniest things to the President, are you?" I said, no, that wasn't me and left it at that. Hamnet (my former bossman) was there and we just kinda shared a look. He is now what you think of when you see the name, "Colbert". Up yours, Claudette!