I agree that we'll need a vintage Unit outing tonight - hopefully facing a 19-year-old kid nicknamed "King" will angry him up good.

Fan Value Index: Final Rankings
Rank Team Stadium
1 Milwaukee Brewers Miller Park
2 Pittsburgh Pirates PNC Park
3 Colorado Rockies Coors Field
4 L.A. Angels of Anaheim Angel Stadium
5 Atlanta Braves Turner Field
6 St. Louis Cardinals Busch Stadium
7 Philadelphia Phillies Citizens Bank Park
8 Cincinnati Reds Great American Ball Park
9 Arizona D'backs Bank One Ballpark
10 Cleveland Indians Jacobs Field
11 Chicago Cubs Wrigley Field
12 Toronto Blue Jays Rogers Centre
13 Boston Red Sox Fenway Park
14 New York Yankees Yankee Stadium
15 Oakland Athletics McAfee Coliseum
16 Chicago White Sox U.S. Cellular Field
17 Texas Rangers Ameriquest Field
18 Baltimore Orioles Camden Yards
19 Seattle Mariners Safeco Field
20 Kansas City Royals Kauffman Stadium
21 Houston Astros Minute Maid Park
22 San Diego Padres PETCO Park
23 Tampa Bay D-Rays Tropicana Field
24 San Franciso Giants SBC Park
25 Los Angeles Dodgers Dodger Stadium
26 Washington Nationals RFK Stadium
27 Minnesota Twins HHH Metrodome
28 Detroit Tigers Comerica Park
29 Florida Marlins Dolphins Stadium
30 New York Mets Shea Stadium

Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Colorado, Anaheim, and Atlanta as the top five best places to see a baseball game, are you insane???? I have heard Pitt. is a nice stadium, but the problem being that you 1) have to be in Pitt. and 2) have to watch the Pirates...

Am I crazy for thinking they are crazy?

Nah, with their coiffures, silver bullets should do the trick.

Plus I find it entertaining to see a fight in the upper deck almost every game at McAfee.

With these 5 good teams(Yanks, Sox, Cleveland, Oakland, and The LAAof A) fighting for 2 spots we may have too little margin for error to make the post-season. At any rate we have the talent but it ain't going to be easy.

Note that between St. Louis (#6) and San Francisco (#24), there is only a 6-point difference in the score. There's a 22-point difference between #1 and #30.

Talk about a bell curve.

At least Cleveland is losing going into the bottom of the 9th - as much as I'd like to see them catch the White Sox, our needs come first.

Re: ballpark rankings, ESPN.com's Page2 did it a couple years ago. The rankings gave lots of info - most of it subjective, of course - but at least meshed with what I thought was right. But these SI rankings . . . Camden Yards 18th? WTF!?

PNC Park in Pittsburgh is a gorgeous stadium - every seat makes you feel like you're right on top of the field. But Anahiem Stadium? The blahness of Turner Field? I'm missing something. Is it really another rant about how expensive trips to the ballpark have become, as opposed to actual rankings?

King Felix has five major league starts under his belt. His first was a short outing to get adjusted (5 IP, 84 pitches, 1 ER) that the M's wound up losing. In his second outing he pitched eight scoreless. Since then, he's allowed one more run each time out, his last start being a 7 IP, 3 R stint in which he gave up his first two major league home runs (both to White Sox rookie Brian Anderson). His last two starts have been no decisions, with the M's losing the most recent to the Chisox.

To me the most startling stat Hernandez has posted thus far has been just five walks in 36 IP (against 38 Ks).

The Yanks are sitting Bernie today and starting Tino at first and Giambi at DH. Flaherty, of course, catches Johnson. Bellhorn rides pine. Sheff's back in right, Lawton in left, Matsui in center.

From the Yankee page: "not much for the kids aside from the action on the field and the occasional action in the stands when a Red Sox fan foolishly cheers for his team."

Geez, when my dad took me to the Stadium as a kid I thought it was the greatest thing to actually watch a game in person. Silly me.

I think the Yanks will need to kick into "Pedro Mode" tonight.

Yikes.

Randy Johnson pitched a 1-2-3 first, striking out two.

Yeah.

Yeah Cliff, i thought the same thing about his fastball- if they don't overwork this kid early, he's going to be great.

The spector of the blowout fifth hangs over his head though...

Maybe only young kids can hit him.

Arod for MVP.

Don't worry, Marc, we won't hold it against you. You've learned your lesson.

And as I type that another strong play from Rodriguez.

The HR and AVG are within reach for A-Rod, but he's gotta go on a ribby tear to catch Papi/Manny for the Triple Crown.

Yankz, see #83.

That said . . .

Huge win. Great game. Very satisfying evening of baseball.

Goodnight.

Hernandez reminds me of Kerry Wood, as well as obviously Gooden. Who knows what the future will hold for him ...

Its actually harder to hit 70mph from 40 ft away. I can't remember the exact numbers but your reaction time is about equivalent to a high 90s or 100 mph fastball as I recall. Add in that with a machine you have no view of the release point and its pretty tough. Of course, you don't have to worry about the cutter, or say whether the pitch is in fact an 89mph slider thats gonna hit you in the knees.