The Fan understand about being a fan. Right now the Pittsburgh Pirate fans have lost their hero and the San Diego Padre fans have found a new one. Brian Giles is one of the best players in the game. The fact that he played for the Pirates hid that fact quite well for a long time. Try to remember the last time you saw a Pirate game on national television?

But Brian Giles also was paid over $8 million a year by the Pirates and when you are losing, that's a lot of money to spend on one guy. That is the strategy that has worked for the Oakland A's and the Seattle Mariners. The Pirates are hoping they can duplicate that philosophy. But the thing is, how much of Giles play for the Pirates is responsible for ticket sales in Pittsburgh? How do you measure that? How do you measure the amount of tickets are lost when the team's message to its fans is that superstars are too expensive? That's a bitter pill and almost as damaging to fans morale as a baseball strike.

On the other side of the country, the message that San Diego is telling its fans is that they are serious about building a great team. The core is shaping up nicely and with Giles being only thirty-two years old with at least six good years left, he will be the cog in that core. Giles is from San Diego and going home is only going to help him even more to continue to put up the kind of world class numbers the world shouldn't be ignoring.


Elsewhere, Portland Oregon has passed a stadium bill in an election and become the front runners for the Expos. Portland is a beautiful city and all, but you better build a dome as it rains a lot there. The only other Expos option seems to be Washington. I can't imagine baseball agreeing to a team in Puerto Rico as the travel costs that would be added to the teams would be enormous.

The only problem with an Oregon Expos result would be that the National League West already has five teams. The NL Central has six. What seems to make sense to me is to move Milwaukee from the NL Central to the NL West (but make sure plenty of Cubs/Brewer games are scheduled) and move the new Oregon Expos into the American League West as that division only has four teams. Texas would love that...one more good team to have to contend with!


Oh those Phillies! They were beating the (for now) Montreal Expos 8-0 in the fifth inning and 10-4 in the sixth. They lost the game 14-10 as the Expos scored ten runs in the final two innings. "Ouch!" says those Phillies fans hoping for the wildcard. Yes, I know what it's like to be a fan.

In that Phillies game, the combined line of the Phillies' relievers is:

2 10 10 10 3 1

(Innings, hits, runs, earned runs, walks, strikeouts)


Quickly around the majors tonight: Toronto outlasted the Red Sox despite a late charge by the Sox. The game featured 31 hits and four errors.

The Cubs got another win from Mark Prior, who is really the front runner for the NL Cy Young award. Randall Simon has made a big impact in the first week playing for the Cubs. The man swings at everything but he rarely misses. He struck out only 32 times last year in 480+ at bats. The highlights showed him hitting a ball a ton that was pitched over his head! Oh! By the way, the Cubs beat division rival, the St. Louis Cardinals.

The Marlins lost again, this time to Pittsburgh as Jason Kendall took out his non-trade (he was hoping to go with Giles) frustration out on the fish including a two run homer. The Marlins are staying neck and neck with the Phillies as they shrink back to the wildcard pack that both teams could have owned.

The White Sox pounded Roger Clemens (sigh) as they won their sixth straight. Frank Thomas hit a grand slam. I hope Clemens doesn't finish the year poorly.

The Royals kept pace by beating Texas 9-2. Mike Sweeney broke out of his slump by going three for five with four RBI. Rafael Palmeiro hit his thirty-first homer of the season (521 for his career) and now has 93 RBI. Why would you want to dump a guy like that to go along with all your kids?

The Devil Rays are leading the suddenly anemic Seattle Mariners 3-0 in the fifth. The A's and Orioles are scoreless after four innings. The Orioles have really missed Melvin Mora and haven't shown the same potent offense since he had to shut it down. They will be a tough team next year.