at the break

anyone who knows me relatively well (and i guess that would include all of you reading this) is aware of my obsession with baseball... the 2004 season is halfway through, and for those of you who don't particularly follow the sport, here's a rundown of what's happening...

first, and actually surprising quite a few people this year in light of all the personnel changes made in the offseason, the Atlanta Braves (my favorite team) are one game out of first place behind the Phillies... actually four out of the five teams in the NL East division are in contention, with 2 games separating the four teams (Phillies, Braves, Mets & last season's world champs, the Marlins)... should be fun to watch this second half of the summer...

more surprising, perhaps, is the play of two AL clubs, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and the Detroit Tigers ... both are seasonal "cellar dwellers" in their respective divisions and both are in the middle of the pack with 42-45 records... Tampa Bay will have a tougher time making the playoffs, though, with Boston and NY slugging it out in the top of their division...

the AL West is shaping up to be a three-team race (Texas Rangers - another quasi-surprise, Oakland A's and Anaheim Angels), with the slumping Mariners continually attempting to avoid embarrassing themselves with another poor outing, much to the probable ire and chagrin of my native Seattle readers/friends... 15 games outta first at the break ain't gonna cut it...

ok. so what does all this mean?

absolutely nothing. it's only the first half of the season and anything can happen. but division leaders at the break usually go on to at least appear in the playoffs more than not... stay tuned for more details.

we now return you to your regularly scheduled illegal war.