Rant One: Damn Yankees
My worst fears were realized this week when the New York Yankees catapulted to the top of the AL Wild Card Race. How can a team that has used Sean Henn, Tanyon Sturtze, Tim Redding, Darrell May, Scott Proctor and Marlins' reject Al Leiter in their rotation possibly be winning? Heck, they even claimed Hideo Nomo, complete with his 7.24 ERA, off waivers from Tampa Bay. If you like baseball and have a soul, you should be pulling for Oakland, Cleveland or Minnesota to put the Evil Empire in its' place -- on the golf course in October.

Rant Two: NL Worst
Outside of the San Diego Padres, who have a tenuous grip on the break-even mark, nobody in the NL West is playing .500 baseball. Even the Bondless Giants, who are hovering around 15 games under .500, are not out of the race. I say that if nobody in the division can post a winning record, they should forfeit their playoff spot and give it to a second Wild Card team.

Rant Three: Why Ask Y?
If you don't keep up with the last-place Seattle Mariners, you probably haven't noticed that lately their line-up has regularly featured IF Yuniesky Betancourt and journeyman C Yorvit Torrealba batting eighth and ninth. Two players with first names that begin with Y batting back-to-back? Seems strange, but wait, it gets weirder. It turns out that they are also the last two players to triple in their first major league at-bat. Torrealba did it with the Giants in 2001 and Betancourt turned the trick earlier this year.