Mr. Jim Thome is carrying his Phillies on a run that has the Phillies in the top spot for the NL wildcard and only five and a half games behind the first place Braves. Thome has hit homer after homer lately and is now over 20 for the year. His homerun tonight won the game for the Phillies. Thome is such a fun guy to watch play. He seems to have a sense of wonder and plays like he's having fun which is the way it should be.

Yesterday I erroneously listed the Astros as the division leader in the NL Central. The Cardinals were actually on top. But the Fan can claim a mulligan as the teams in that division have been leap-frogging each other for quite a while. The Cards are getting beat tonight and the Phillies' opponent, the Cubbies, had a great chance to gain a game but Thome took care of that with one of his typical opposite field drives.

The Phillies look really good and if Pat Burrell can get going, they can streak the rest of the season. Burrell has shown signs of life lately but his efforts have been for not. In the typical if-something-can-go-wrong-it-will scenerio, just about every Web Gem on ESPN's "Baseball Tonight" show Burrell getting robbed: a home run robbed by Torii Hunter, a single robbed by the Cubs third baseman. Sooner or later, those will start to find holes.

The only thing that can hold back the Phillies is their manager, Larry Bowa. I just believe the guy is a loose wire and can hinder as well as help his team. I watched him in the dugout and if I was playing for him, he would drive me crazy. After all, Scott Rolen is one of the best third basemen in baseball and Bowa ran him out of town.

The Phillies chase of the Braves was helped tonight as Greg Maddux again pitched poorly and was beat by Florida. Maddux is going into the AllStar break with a losing record and he just doesn't appear to be the pitcher he was. Of course, that doesn't hurt the Fan's feelings very much. I still think the man is one of the most arrogant players to ever play the game. I do have to admit that all I have to go by on those feelings is my perceptions of his body language when he pitches. The body language seemed to me to be pretty obvious.

But then again, arrogance has been a problem for the Braves for quite a while. I'll never forget the Braves/Yankees World Series when the Braves were up and thought that they had the Series won. I forget what source I read at the time but I remember reading that the Braves were full of themselves and never believed the Yankees could beat them. The sign of greatness is KNOWING that any team can beat you. I will say that Bobby Cox has never gotten the credit he deserves as one of the best managers of all time.

Bobby Valentine had a great observation concerning Maddux insisting on using his "personal catcher" when he pitches. Apparently, there is bad history between him and Javy Lopez. Valentine's comments were that the Braves lose one of their best hitters because of the pitcher's silliness. I thought it was a great observation.