One of the best things to happen in major league baseball the last few years has been the emergence of the players from Cuba.  Several have become out and out stars and it looks as though there will be many more to come now that “normalization” of relations between Yanquis and Cubanos is finally upon us.  There were many Cuban players before the 60s and it seemed like most of them played, rather ironically, for the Washington Senators: Jose Valdivielso, Carlos Paula, Juan Delis, and Camilo Pascual, to name a few.  Then Fulgencio Batista got the sack and that pissed off the racketeers who got run out of town so JFK had to try to force out the new, supposedly Communist regime or else they might have to bump him off.  Wait a minute.

Anyway, the point here is not to talk about 55 years of political treachery, stupidity, and corruption but rather to celebrate the fact that a lot of good baseball players are getting the chance to shine on the big stage.  Two of these who are playing a big part in what remains of the 2015 pennant race are outfielders Yoenis Cespedes and Yasiel Puig.  Cespedes arrived in 2012 with the at that time rather successful Oakland Athletics.  In 129 games that season, Cespedes batted .292 with  23 home runs, 82 runs batted in and an OPS of .861.  His statistics offensively the following year were not as impressive as he batted .240 but with good power numbers, 26 homers and 80 RBI.  More importantly, his team won a lot of games.  Batting .300 when Oakland is your home field is never easy and fielding ability is less quantifiable (sabermetricians notwithstanding) but Cespedes also showed good range and hands in the outfield and a very good throwing arm.  He has since then joined Juan Uribe as one of the least appreciated major leaguers.  At the trading deadline in 2014, Billy Beane proved he was smarter than a cucumber by trading Cespedes to Boston for a much ballyhooed left handed pitcher who has never really done much.  In a season of 101 games with Oakland and 51 games for the Red Sox, Cespedes totaled a .260 batting average with 22 homers and 100 RBI.  The A’s were 66-41 at the time of the trade and 22-33 thereafter.  The left handed pitcher got beaten by Kansas City in the wild card game.  Then, in December, the Red Sox  showed that they could under appreciate as well, trading the Cubano to Detroit for Rick Porcello in a vain attempt to rebuild a pitching staff that they had disassembled for some reason.  There have been no reports that Cespedes has been some kind of problem child who causes problems for management but you never know.  So in 2015 Cespedes was batting .293 with 18 homers and 61 RBI on July 31 when the Tigers, fearing success, shipped him to New York to help the Mets.  He has batted .312 with 14 home runs and 36 RBI for the Mets in the 36 games he has played for them.  New York has won 25 and lost 11 during this time.  There are, of course, other factors to consider, such as tight sphincters in the nation’s capitol.  However, I think it is safe to say Yoenis Cespedes is a winner.  He is 29 years old, and, if the Mets are smart, they will make him an offer he can’t refuse.

Yasiel Puig’s story is equally mysterious.  He is just 24, but Los Angeles seems to be aging him quickly.  If he had come to a team like Houston or Seattle that had been struggling to find success in a smaller market with lower expectations, things might have been easier for Puig.  In 2013, he burst onto the scene for an underachieving team, batting .319 with 19 home runs and 42 RBI with an OPS of .925 in 104 games.  His talent, large but raw, was on display in Glittertown as he performed feats both wonderful and awful with youthful exuberance.  Last season, the Dodgers won their division crown  with Puig playing mostly right field while Matt Kemp, past his prime defensively, attempted to cover center field.  Puig’s arm became legendary, but not always for the right reasons.  He did not become a superstar as many had expected, batting  .296 with 16 homers and 69 RBI and an .863 OPS in 148 games.  Surely, 2015 would be the year that the big, strong, fast Cubano would mature into the elite outfielder we all had anticipated.  Nope.  He has battled injury while rookie Joc Pederson took over center field for the traded Kemp and Puig remained in right field.  He’s batting a respectable .256 with 11 homers and 38 RBI in 77 games this season, and he may be finished for the year with hamstring problems.  Worse, there are rumors floating that both teammates and management do not mind his absence. What next?  Well, he is still young and, if he can be  reached and communicated with minus a ton of pressure, perhaps he will eventually blossom.

How could I have been so wrong about both New York baseball teams this spring?  I wrote both of them off early and here it is September 10 and they could both win their division titles.  As for the Yankees, I have to admit that part of it was prejudice; I have been a Yankees hater since before I was born.  Also, however, I never dreamed that Alex Rodriguez would make any significant contribution this and let’s face it, neither did you.  Carlos Beltran looked like he was finished a year ago, as did Mark Teixeira.  The starting pitching was iffy.  But Brett Gardner, Jacoby Ellsbury and Chase Headley made a solid core, Brian McCann made a great comeback, and Didi Gregorious did not get booed out of town as I expected.  So there, I was wrong.  Yuck.  As for the Mets, I knew that strong young pitching makes up for a lot of things but David Wright was seriously hurt, Curtis Granderson was a bust as either a lead off man or a slugger and a candy armed outfielder to boot, plus who was catching?  Their current surge can be attributed to good trades around Black Friday, especially the aforementioned Cespedes but also the underrated Uribe, and the retreat from greatness by the Nationals.  Plus Terry Collins, like Sparky Anderson, might just be a lot smarter than he sounds.

There is little doubt now that there will be three playoff teams emerging from the National League Central division while the West division threatens to be relegated to the Pacific Coast League and the East division watches the Mets disappear from the pack like cash that went from DC to Baghdad when Jeb’s brother sat in the first chair.

Let’s have a fun look at the MLB standings since Black Friday July 31:

National League

East                                          Central                                  West

New York 15-6          Chicago 17-4                    San Diego 11-10

Philadelphia 10-11  Pittsburgh 15-6               Arizona 12-11

Atlanta  8-14             St. Louis  13-8                San Francisco 10-12

Miami  8-14              Milwaukee 9-12            Los Angeles 9-11

Washington 8-14    Cincinnati 6-16             Colorado 6-16

Substandard League

East                                          Central                               West

Toronto 16-4              Kansas City 15-7           Texas   14-7

Tampa Bay 11-9         Cleveland  10-12           Houston 11-11

Boston      11-10         Minnesota 10-12           Seattle     10-11

New York 11-11          Detroit     9-12                Oakland  10-12

Baltimore  10-12       Chicago    9-13              La Habra    8-14

Does this tell us anything significant?  Well, some.  Getting Ben Zobrist didn’t hurt the Royals, and maybe the Tigers were right to give up so soon, or maybe, since only now do they have Miguel Cabrera back, not.  Toronto apparently made some good acquisitions, even if Troy Tulowitzki is not hitting so well yet.  St. Louis would probably just keep winning even if the team bus blew a tire and half of the roster ended up hospitalized.  The Rangers have already clinched team comeback of the year honors while the Angels are flopping even though they were able to send Josh Hamilton to Texas, where he likes the DL a lot better.  The Cubs were looking mediocre there for a while but then Addison Russell became the shortstop and whoa, daddy!  There are other reasons but Joe Maddon’s team is always full of surprises.  It is probably time to admit I was wrong about the Orioles but Buck Showalter’s teams also have a way of not going away.  The Nationals appear to need to eat some hallucinogenic mushrooms and talk about it but they still have a pulse.  The Giants made a good move getting Mike Leake, but they seem to have the same injury problem as the Cardinals without the vast reservoir of talented replacements.

For the most part, though, life is slogging on for most teams.  The sleeper in the bunch seems to be Arizona, but only because the Giants and Dodgers have pitching problems that may equal the Diamondbacks’.  Stay tuned.  As for the Yankees, I’m glad you didn’t ask.

Saturday, August 22:  There are four games of the Little league World Series that will be televised today on ESPN and ABC.  I am sure that it will be a very exciting thing for the players, their friends and relatives  but I will add to my curmudgeon resume by stating that this is a very bad idea.  I’m not certain that there even should be such a thing as a Little League World Series, especially when it is taken as seriously as it is and has been, increasingly, over the years.  Sure, if you are twelve years old, what could be cooler than to be televised playing ball with the best of your age group?  I will not cite any psychological studies about trauma to adolescent  souls but I just know that it is wrong to make such a big deal about super competition at an age where the concentration ought to be on teaching and learning whatever game you are playing rather than going for the glory.  Also, it is bad enough to have so many nettlesome adults involved in the first place, but it tends to get out of hand when the honor of your town, your state, your region, your country is considered to be at stake.  It leads to that most American of pastimes, cheating, for one thing.  The other day the coach of one team protested that an opponent wasn’t trying to win a tournament game hard enough because they were trying to manipulate their way out of having to play a team that was feared to be stronger in the next game.  Were you paying attention to that, little Cody?  At the same time that those parents who can afford to are usually being over protective, so-called helicopter  guardians of young ones we have some being thrust into high pressure contests that mean too much.  Of course, for the vast majority of 8 to 12 year old boys and girls, the fact that you or your team wasn’t good enough to make it that far, where John Kruk might be describing your throwing arm, it might suggest that it is time to hang up those spikes you’ve been growing out of before next season.  It’s a bit sick, in my opinion.

You don’t hear much about “pace of play” or “speeding up the game” anymore, but, just in case the rulers of MLB were not kidding, here is an idea that would probably help the cause.  With 25 player roster limits, let’s limit the number of pitchers per roster to ten. Most teams carry 12 or even 13 pitchers nowadays.  This insures that we all get enough toilet and refrigerator breaks while a game is in progress as manager after manager deals with the stresses and bothersome physical ailments of middle age by walking out to the mound five or six times a day to change pitchers.  It’s great for the television ad sales because you can squeeze three or four quickies that we’ve all seen hundreds of times already into the time it takes the next mediocre hurler to replace the last one.  “Well, Jack, Bochy wants to use the lefty Lopez here to face Alvarez, who’s batting .142 against lefties, but it looks like Hurdle is going to send up Sean Rodriguez, who hits lefties well, instead.”  Yeah.  Look, it might be a better way to increase scoring, if that is our wish, than the made for slow pitch softball designated hitter rule.  Starters might have to stay in the game longer.  “You know, Curt, so far 29 per cent of the starting pitchers have thrown over 105 pitches this year and only one of them has been rushed to the emergency room…”  Additionally, righties might have to figure out how to get lefties out, but it’s been done before.  Best of all, we would no doubt have fewer 18 inning marathons because there would be such things as pinch hitters, pinch runners, and defensive replacements available to actually use.  The idea of four position players on the bench is ludicrous.

One final thought from the calcified noggin of an old school baseball fan:  Dodger Stadium and Wrigley Field as we knew them are gone.  Okay, the advertising signs all over the place at least have a bit of a tradition going back to the days of the first outfield fence.  However, the extremely loud public address systems that have made so many other places unpleasant to be around are now present in these two old and once dignified ball yards.  At least, fans should be offered a civilized alternative, such as a headset that only plays Vin Scully.

Is the new commissioner of major league baseball really serious about his stated desire to speed up the pace of games?  If he is, doesn’t it seem strange that we were able to count four minutes of commercial breaks between each half inning of the recent All Star game?  Why not just admit that this is a non-issue and that this is how all of the large bills get paid and then quit pretending?  All of those young fans he says he aims to please can just continue to use the time to Instagram each other photos of the snacks they are enjoying during the pause, pop another cold one, and use the toilet without rushing to get back to Fox announcers interviewing some participant rather than describing the action.

Why is Buster Posey batting over .400 in the last month or so?  Could it be because he finally has Hunter Pence batting behind him?  The Giants are 29-11 with Pence in the lineup and 30-38 without him.

Which team has surprised us the most with their consistent winning ways, the Cardinals or the Yankees?  The Cardinals were always expected to contend, but did you think they would without key figures such as Adam Wainwright, Matt Adams, or Matt Holliday for much of the time?  Mark Reynolds, are you kidding me?  Quite remarkable.  As for the Yankees, I have to stand up straight and face the world and say it: they are much better than I ever thought they would be this season and, not only is it not a fluke but also it has to be said that one of the big reasons for their success is the contribution by Alex Rodriguez, who has proven himself to be an exceptional 40-year old athlete.  Now excuse me while I go barf.

Okay, I’m back.  Couldn’t the Tigers have replaced Dave Dombrowski before he rid them of David Price and Yoenis Cespedes?  Perhaps there is more to that story than I’m seeing but the Avila in the front office had better outperform the Avila behind the plate or Detroit fans will not be amused.

Is it possible that the Los Angeles Dodgers have improved themselves, at least on paper, over last year’s division winning team without improving their chances of repeating?  They cling to the lead for now but several players are underperforming,as the management types say, particularly the enigmatic Yasiel Puig.  Could there still be troubles in the clubhouse?  Will Kershaw and Greinke remain enough to make it not matter?

These and other important questions will be with us in the weeks to come.  Don’t step out of the batters’ box; you might get quick pitched.

The most amusing thing to me during the major league baseball  version of Black Friday was that, during all of the frantic wheeling and dealing and speculating and analyzing, the hottest team playing ball was the Philadelphia Phillies, possessors of the lowest winning percentage of them all.  Back when Nixon was vice president, these kinds of shenanigans did not exist.  In those days, the Yankees would figure out where they needed some help and then simply raid other teams’ cookie jars for a relief pitcher or pinch hitter and then go on to win another pennant.  I’m glad those dark days are long gone, but one has to admit that things have gotten a bit silly with regard to player transactions before The Trade Deadline.

The media frenzy over the supposed presidential ambitions of real estate white shark Donald Trump has been equal parts amusing and terrifying as well, but one thing that  Trump’s Folly has done that is good is the unambiguous presentation to all who care or don’t care that  it’s all about money and everything else is bullshit.  The politicians can talk about freedom, human rights, the constitution, whatever—-wealth is power and real power doesn’t even need lawyers.Therefore, Trump can do the baseball world a big favor if his presidential bid falters by offering to become the commissioner of baseball.  Then, baseball fans would be know beyond a shadow of doubt that the same rule applies to sports.  This might be disillusioning to many of us but bear in mind that at least half of the speculating and analyzing leading up to Black Friday had to do with contracts, potential free agency, big market, small market, blah blah blah.  I truly wish that this side of sports was confined to the business pages but I am in the distinct minority here,apparently: everybody wants to play GM, not baseball.  A former GM was one of the leading analysts for Black Friday on the ESPN telecasts.  Teams used to talk about five year plans and developing players to fit their ballparks et cetera but now we have half year plans, many of which are quite confusing.

For instance, the Oakland Athletics.  In the times when the Yankees were supreme, the then Philadelphia or Kansas City A’s were sneeringly referred to as the Yankees’ farm team, an easy source of future stars for New York in exchange for much needed cash or players the Yanks no longer wanted.  Today’s A’s are the farm team for any number of contenders.  The trade of Scott Kazmir to the Houston Astros helped facilitate the sudden reversal of roles for the two teams as Oakland plummets to the bottom (while still making big money) and Houston soars to the top.  The whole Moneyball thing has been a gigantic fraud and Billy Beane should have been played in the movie by someone more like James Mason than Brad Pitt. This followed helping the Toronto Blue Jays move into contention by sending them Josh Donaldson in the winter.  Where have you gone, Yoenis Cespedes, Jon Lester, and so many others?  Off to win games , my dear.  And what is up with Detroit?  Still in contention while Miguel Cabrera is disabled, with a very solid team that would contend next year for sure even if they didn’t make the playoffs this year, the Tigers gave up, sending David Price to the grateful Blue Jays only twelve months after acquiring him from Tampa Bay.  Toronto had a great week, also relieving Colorado of its when’s he going to get hurt angst about Troy Tulowitzki and adding Ben Revere to lead off for good measure.  Kansas City added to Beane’s reputation as a philanthropist by taking Ben Zobrist off his hands just as Zobrist was getting healthy and productive.

Baltimore made what may be the best addition of them all, obtaining Gerardo Parra from the Brewers.  They won’t be missing Nelson Cruz so much now.  The Mets almost became a real team by adding Carlos Gomez as the Brewers, not really that bad a team now that Jonathan Lucroy is back, showed a mysterious lack of patience.  The Mets still need a legitimate lead off batter but they can be taken more seriously now that they have Cespedes and Juan Uribe.  It is strange that both the Dodgers and the Braves have dealt Uribe.  Maybe it’s because he looks older than he is.  Uribe is a good third baseman with a strong arm and a dangerous hitter who will let Mets fans feel better about the apparent loss of David Wright.

With David Murphy, David DeJesus, and Shane Victorino all now in their clubhouse, the El Monte Angels have depth in the outfield.  Their disappointing starting pitching has me ready to abandon my prediction of an A.L. West title, especially with the improvement of the Astros, but their lineup looks good without Josh Hamilton.

As for Jonathan Papelbon going to Washington, that would have been fine except for his insistence on being The Closer.  No team needs that kind of egotistical crap.

Cole Hamels to Texas is puzzling to ponder both because one would have thought that the Dodgers, Yankees, or Giants would have outbid the Rangers and that Hamels himself would know better than to go where flyball pitchers do not fare so well.  The Giants made a good, modest addition with Mike Leake.

So the dog days are here and everything is still mostly unpredictable.  Let’s all go count our money.

We would, and it was almost always spontaneous, go up to The Field, which later was given a name but to us was always the field, with a bat or two and a ball.  We almost never had a new ball.  The baseball would be used, a bit worn, with grass stains and probably a loose stitch or two, sometimes more, so that it had be taped up.  Maybe it was a bit lopsided but, as long as you could throw it, hit it, try to field it, it was fun.  We might have to share gloves.  A catcher’s mitt was a rarity.  I had two brothers who were catchers, George and Tommy.  They were real ballplayers, not pretenders like us, and I remember that Tommy had a real catcher’s mitt that was hidden away in what was called a cupboard but wasn’t really a cupboard.  It was a cabinet two steps down the stairs to the cellar where several forbidden items were held.  There was a clean baseball in its pocket and a belt wrapped around it to keep it from losing its pocket.

The same cabinet also contained a totally off limits BB gun, a rifle that I took out and played with if I thought no one could see me.  The same cabinet also once held a 7-Up bottle that one day made me curious enough in my thirst and love for the taste of 7-Up to uncork and sample only to realize with a shock that it  actually contained some white lightning that my father had stashed.

It would be me and my brother Jimmy and probably two or three Fulkersons, Dicky and Patty and Bobby.  If you had enough guys, you played a game.  Maybe you only had 16 guys, so right field would be closed.  Maybe you only had 14 guys, so the backstop would be the catcher.  You didn’t have a mitt anyway.  The backstop was frequently in need of repair, so there were a lot of passed balls.  The batter would be throwing the ball back to the pitcher, so if he wasn’t liking the pitches very much he could find a way to let the pitcher know that.  Maybe the same guy would pitch to both teams, ’cause he could get it over.

This was ball as I knew it.  Maybe you only had a half dozen guys, so you played 21, or work up.  Catch a ball in the air, 7 points.  One hopper on the bounce, 5 points.  Stop a grounder, 3 points.  Miss one and you go in the hole, same points.  You could be out there all fuckin’ day.

Everybody played catch to warm up.  But hitting the ball, that was the thing.  Anybody that says that they don’t like swinging a stick at a moving rock and trying to hit it from here to Spain has never tried it.

Sometimes we arrived at the field to find a game already in progress being played by the big guys.  The big guys were older, better players already in their teens who looked upon us with disdain for the most part.  So we couldn’t play until they were finished, perhaps having to go and deliver their newspaper routes or some other task or maybe just being tired after three or four games and wanting to smoke cigarettes.  If they found themselves short a player or two they might condescend to put one of us in the game.  Usually Jimmy would be the first chosen because they knew he was the best of us but Patty and I would normally just watch since we were both a year younger than Jimmy and not nearly as skilled.  Watching did not hold our attention for long but it enabled us to learn some of the lingo that was so important, like how to taunt the batter while you were in the field and how to coax your pitcher to get them out, and possibly some new swear words.

Much of our time was spent searching for lost balls, poking in the weeds.  It was nice that whoever owned the last house on the block of Winslow Avenue would not yell at us for using the spigot at the side of the house for water breaks.  In fact, the lack of  cranky adults trying to spoil our fun was one of the best things about the field.  The time would come, however,  when the city recreation department  would decide to turn The Field into an adult influenced playground with things like swings and monkey bars and picnic tables and a slide and, worst of all, a “teacher” with arts and crafts.  We were aghast, but we had a counter plan.  And that will be a subject for another day.

Sixteen acknowledged followers of the Seattle Mariners baseball club were charged with misdemeanor negligence after it was discovered that they had failed to watch the home run derby contest on Monday July13th.  Four of the sixteen fans  pled not guilty and were seeking legal advice while the rest of the accused refused to contest the charges and were quickly sentenced to 60 days of watching replays of the Mariners’ first 89 games.

Those of us so advanced in years that we still use turn signals when driving our cars may recall the old television program Home Run Derby that was filmed at Los Angeles’ Wrigley Field about 55 years ago.  Except for the fact that it featured star sluggers of the time such as Eddie Mathews and Harmon Killebrew, including fascinating 30 second interviews, the show was a bore.  I believe it was cancelled after a couple of years when it was defeated in the ratings by another half hour filmed program Watching Paint Dry with Burt Parks or some such thing.

ESPN’s promotion of this year’s home run contest has been relentless but I am sure that it will be equally boring.  At least the old show was an opportunity for the participants to make a few extra dollars, which was meaningful in those days.  No one needs the dough for today’s showing but you can bet Chris Berman will be there trying extra hard to sound excited.  I’d rather watch Chris Christie play miniature golf.

Erratum: In my  all star selections post a while back, I got so excited over picking the DH that I forgot to include my pick for American League catcher position.  It was Salvador Perez of the Royals, although Stephen Vogt of Oakland certainly is a worthy candidate as well.

As for the All Star Game itself, sure, I’ll be watching that, although I’ll be averting my eyes when Fox inevitably shows their new analyst, Pete Rose, crashing Ray Fosse in the 1970 game.  And it will be hard to swallow  also when they keep reminding us that the outcome determines home field advantage in the next World Series.  Wait. I’ve got it!  The team that the home run derby winner plays for gets an automatic berth in the wild card playoff!  And, if they qualify anyway, they get home field!  Yes!

A long, long time ago, when sabremetrics were just a twinkle in Ford Frick’s glass eye, the legend was that  the team that held first place on the 4th of July was  a good bet to win the pennant.  I doubted then, and really doubt now, that this proved true very often but it gave everyone an excuse to review the first half of the baseball season and to speculate madly on what might be the final outcome.  Now, of course, we have six first place teams and several others vying for wild card spots but still, July 4 is really closer to the halfway point than what most of the media use, which is the All Star break.

The ghost of Curt Flood was stumbling around my bedroom last night and he was bitching up a storm.  It wasn’t about the standings, though.  It was about the game within the game that seemingly every ESPN and Fox  baseball announcer or color man or whatever they are called these days feels compelled to play:  Who Is Buying  and Who Is Selling?  Whereas when Curt and I were young pups the average fan identified more with players and managers, it seems the fans today, or at least the ones these TV and radio guys are talking to, don’t want to play baseball so much as play owner or general manager.  Is the team under .500 and loaded with big contracts?  Sell!  Is the team healthy and playing good ball but just a starting pitcher or slugging outfielder away from the playoffs?  Buy!  I realize that all of the players are very well paid these days so that, unlike you or me, they can pack up and move to a new locale with their  families without fear of financial and emotional ruin but still….it does sound a little too much like a slave auction at times and these are real human beings, not chattel.  By the way, Curt’s ghost wanted me to pass the word that his book, or rather Brad Snyder’s book about him, A Well Paid Slave, is still worth reading.  Where was I?  Oh, yeah, the halfway point.

In the American League, the most startling development has been the consistent winning ball played by the Houston Astros.  Many knowledgeable people say that they are for real, and the success of their young pitchers  cannot be denied, so that’s fun.  I still believe that the Angels will emerge on top in the West division but Houston is fun.  The Rangers are doing considerably better than expected but, as usual, the pitching is a bit thin.  The Mariners and Athletics have been disappointing the first half but (don’t sell!) they  should both play better in the second half, or at least the A’s should.  It’s nice to see both Albert Pujols and Prince Fielder having good seasons again in this division.

Kansas City has been my choice as best in league, and so far they look that way, although not as much as All Star voting would indicate.  And, yeah, that’s another thing that presages the fall of the empire!  What’s with 35  votes per idiot?  Can we extend that to the general elections as well?  Think of all the dough the triple chinned bloviators could raise then! But the Royals have pitching and defense and hitting and speed with just a pinch of longball and the Tigers have just taken a big hit with Miguel Cabrera down and Justin Verlander looking like Charlie Brown.  The Twins are the new fun team of this division but there ain’t enough there.

There sat the New York Yankees in first place on the 4th of July but I’m sticking to my belief that Baltimore will prevail in the end.  Boston looks like they have a pulse still but they gave away too much pitching last year and haven’t really replaced Jacoby  Ellsbury yet.  Toronto has a great lineup but…I like the Orioles.

In the National League, Los Angeles, St. Louis, and Washington all hold first place as of  July 4 and all three could very well stay right there the rest of the season.  I was just to the point of not worrying about the defending champion Giants a week ago and then they lost seven straight.  I think they will not drop from contention, but San Francisco has definite issues with shaky health among outfielders and bullpen pitchers that have been around long enough to be more predictable than reliable.  The Dodgers, meanwhile, have been considerably less than perfect, although Kershaw and Greinke keep them alive almost by themselves.

St.Louis was 6 games ahead of Pittsburgh July 4, but the Pirates have the time and the skills to catch and pass the Cardinals.  Mike Matheny has done well managing the Cards without Adam Wainwright, Matt Adams, and others but time will tell.  This may once again be the strongest division in the bigs. Advice to Milwaukee and Cincinnati: don’t sell!  Advice to Chicago: stay patient, but stay away from overpriced guys like Jon Lester.  This division promises the most fireworks (inadvertent July 4 reference) to come.

Washington held a modest 4.5 game lead on the New York Mets July 4 and one would expect that to gradually increase as the summer rolls along, but the Nationals have shown a peculiar ability to play down to the rest of the division’s level  and the they have had injury problems as well.  Atlanta has not been the pushover many people thought they would be while Miami threatened to get into it before Giancarlo Stanton’s unfortunate injury.

In other words, who knows?  That’s what makes it fun.

Individual half season highlights have included  Cabrera and Fielder’s high batting averages despite the obvious lack of leg hits, Mike Trout’s combination of speed, power, and defense that reminds us of young Mickey Mantle, Bryce Harper putting up numbers finally equal to the hype, Stanton’s incredible 27 home runs despite his playing home games in  what is definitely a pitcher’s home ballpark, and a slew of spectacular pitching performances by the likes of Max Scherzer, Garret Cole, Chris Heston, Sonny Gray and several others.  One last gripe for now, though–let’s put a moratorium on rating pitchers’ strikeouts per nine innings until they start pitching nine innings again.  How about strikeouts per six innings?

Now that it really is Summer, it is time for every baseball fan’s favorite game within the game, that is: picking the all stars for each league.  Let’s have a bit of a rant before we start, though, to keep pace with call-in talk shows around the country.

A few years back, the geniuses in charge (in other words, the bosses at Fox television) decided to contribute to the ruination of all things fun by declaring that, henceforth, the team that wins the All Star Game wins, not only the game, but also home field advantage for its league in the same year’s World Series.  There is no other apt way to put this: it’s a crock of shit.

This decision is also further evidence of the decline of the empire.  Horror of horrors, there had to be a tie in an exhibition game because both the American and National League teams ran out of pitchers to use.  A tie, or draw, at one time was an honorable thing in football and hockey but no, now here in the Imperial United States of America, we have to have winners and losers, also once respectable in championship endeavors, will soon be made to cross interstate highways blindfolded to pay for their sins.  At its inception, this game was an exhibition for fans to see the players voted best in each league face each other in the middle of the season, providing a treat for fans and a break for the players from the arduous and perhaps cutthroat regular season.  The only ones getting a break now are those not selected to the teams.  Home field advantage for the World Series used to alternate between the leagues and that was fair.  The Seligism we endure now is simply not fair and proves only how big money is capable of taking the fun out of just about everything.

Nevertheless, it is the game we love and our hope is that the game survives big business while the planet somehow does the same.

Okay, National League first.  My choice for first base is Paul Goldschmidt of Arizona.  He plays in a hitters’ yard but .358, 50 runs, 19 homers, and 57 RBI are still very impressive.  Adrian Gonzalez got off to a blazing start but has cooled somewhat.  They are both excellent fielders so the Diamondback gets the nod.

Dee Gordon of Miami is my second sacker over D.J. LeMahieu of the Rockies.  At third, Cincinnati’s Todd Frazier beats out another Rockies star, Nolan Arenado.  Shortstop has a lot of capable choices but San Francisco’s Brandon Crawford beats Atlanta’s Andrelton Simmons because he is more productive offensively.

Bryce Harper has earned the left field spot easily and one could say the same for Giancarlo Stanton in right field .  Denard Span edges out Andrew McCutchen for center field since McCutchen started slowly but that was a tough call.  At catcher, I go with Yadier Molina even in a slightly off season just because of his deadly arm and his handling of the first place Cardinals’ pitching staff.

My starting pitcher selection is Gerrit Cole of the Pirates.  Max Scherzer has has the incredible run recently but the fiery young Cole has a Bob Gibson type demeanor that deserves this showcase.

For the American League, it’s not very difficult to choose Miguel Cabrera at first base, although Albert Pujols is making big noise of late.  Second base is a tough one because Dustin Pedroia is consistently great, Jose Altuve very worthy, and Jason Kipnis is very good, but I’m going with Brian Dozier of the Twins.  He gets hard competition from Manny Machado, a superior fielder, but Josh Donaldson has to be the third baseman.  The Blue Jays have become legitimate with him in the lineup as well as Russell Martin. Jose Inglesias of Detroit is the best shortstop in the A.L. with the possible exception of Alcides Escobar of the Royals so his .325 batting average puts him on top even if it’s a “soft” .325.

The Tigers get a third starter from me in Yoenis Cespedes in left field.  He keeps getting better.  Surprise surprise!  I’m picking Mike Trout of the La Habra Angels in center field.  Nelson Cruz is my right fielder even if he’s not being Babe Ruth this month.  My American League starting pitcher would be Sonny Gray of Oakland.  Oh, yeah–designated hitter.  This was an easy choice too—Donald Trump.

What an unpleasant surprise it was to tune in Fox Sports Thursday night for a baseball game and have to endure the sight and sound of none other than Pete Rose, the esteemed gambler who now lives, appropriately, in Las Vegas.  Yuck.  It stands to reason, of course, that the network that uses a criminal like Ollie North for political commentary would offer the profound thoughts of baseball’s biggest schmuck for the sporting set.

The pleasant surprises of 2015 so far: The Twins, the Rays, of course the Astros, and now we need to include the Blue Jays and the Rangers.  Of all those teams, Toronto appears to be the one with the most staying power but I keep writing off Houston and they keep proving me stupid.  For surprising ineptitude, the Athletics have now outdone the Marlins.  Less surprising is the nosedive by the 2013 World Champion Red Sox, who looked so good and smart then but now seem to be clueless with disciplinary problems.  Maybe they’ll be goofy enough to take Starlin Castro off the Cubs’ paws for Clay Buchholz or something.

Delusional Mets fans alert: their 10-21 road record is better than just one team, the Phillies.

And now, as they say on HBO, for a little basketball space.  It was really fun to see the Warriors be successful, if for no other reason than to prove that Charles Barkley just might have been wrong.  I followed their season mostly in the newspapers though because I just can’t watch NBA games.  I try but I can’t do it; it’s worse than American rules football: two, maybe three minutes of action followed by time out, foul, foul, time out, sell beer, sell Viagra, foul, time out.  I know that television executives love football and basketball because of all the interruptions but, as a convert to futbol (soccer), I really have become spoiled by 45 minutes of action, a halftime break, and then 45 minutes more action.  With some modest rule changes the NBA could become interesting enough to watch but it is never going to happen.  First, as in soccer, a team should never gain an advantage by committing a foul.  Loss of possession should be the only consistent result from fouls, with penalty kicks (free throws) for flagrant violations and yellow and red cards for things like tackling a player on his way to a goal or gouging someone’s eye out. When a player “fouls out”, he is not replaced.  Let’s play ball.  If people enjoy watching 7 footers clang free throws, no wonder they sell so much Viagra and beer.  Next, the three point circle has added drama to the game, so how about another circle?  This one should be maybe within three or four feet of the basket.  It would be a one point circle, suitable for dunks and layups.  I wonder how the Bread Truck would like that?  I think it would be fun.

It’s a rather consistent theme among corporate types to accept blame when mistakes have been made and assign that blame to middle management if blaming lower echelon workers doesn’t provide enough relief.  The latest example in the major leagues is the firing of Bud Black by the San Diego Padres.  The Friars tried to excite a flatulent fan base in the winter by acquiring outfielders more capable of power hitting, such as Justin Upton and Matt Kemp.  This didn’t really improve the team because, while these are honorable fellows and , indeed, good power hitters, they are not any longer what we pundits refer to as fleet flychasers and the Padres have a big yard. So, sorry, Bud.  Will Venable understands.