BASEBALL DIARY: so the Tigers, seemingly on the ropes and not scoring any runs, take two games yesterday from the team chasing them for 1st place in the AL Central, the White Sox--winning the afternoon game 5-1, and the nightcap 4-3. Give big credit to Justin Verlander, who pitched like an ace in the opener. And to Carlos Guillen, who went 3 for 7 on the day with a home run; he, perhaps as the Tigers' brass hoped, seemed to rejuvenate the offense. The Tigers need to keep winning--go for a sweep!
The Texas Rangers meanwhile, despite being decimated by the flu, keep getting good pitching--this time from underrated star Scott Feldman, who shut out the Royals for 8 innings and saw his team win 2-0. But the Angels keep winning...
And the Cubs have injuries too, but they too kept winning, beating Cincinnati 8-5 yesterday. Aramis Ramirez has returned, and he's really helped the Cubs' struggling bats, especially with runner in scoring position.
MICHAEL VICK UPDATE:
So it appears NFL commish Roger Goodell might suspend Michael Vick an additional 2 games or more for the start of this NFL season.
My view: yes, what Vick did was horrible. He's deserved all the punishment he's gotten. But why a further suspension??? He's already missed two NFL seasons due to suspension. He's done jail time. Hasn't he paid his penalty? If Vick rejoins the NFL, there's going to be a media uproar; it doesn't matter when that is. It will happen. Apparently Goodell doesn't want it to in any way upstage the start of the NFL season, but my view is--if he's going to be reinstated in the league and a team wants to sign in, let's get it over with and get the media firestorm over with. Why wait and postpone it? And why pretend the guy hasn't already had a serious penalty? He has.
Naturally, though, he must also be told that one slip-up and he's gone, done, for good.
IS THE GOP/CONSERVATISM DEAD? DEPT:
Hardly--they seem poised to give very liberal Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer a good run for it next year:
"Sen. Barbara Boxer, who has taken heat in recent months for clashes at Senate hearings, is facing a potentially tough election challenge from prominent businesswoman Carly Fiorina, who is within striking distance in a recent poll. Fiorina, a former Hewlett-Packard CEO and top economic adviser to John McCain's presidential campaign, hasn't said yet whether she'll throw her hat in the ring against Boxer for the California Democrat's Senate seat next year. But it already could be shaping up to up be one of the most closely watched Senate contests. A Rasmussen Reports telephone survey released July 24 shows that Fiorina is trailing by only 4 percentage points behind in a hypothetical head-to-head with the three-term incumbent. The poll put Boxer's support in such a face-off at only 45 percent, with 7 percent of survey respondents saying they're undecided."
