MLB

Anytime sports and politics mix, things get a little sticky. We want sports to be pure and offer a sanctimonious escape in the form of entertainment. We also want sports to use its national platform to encourage positive change in our country and countries beyond our borders. Both are achievable, presumably, but we can rarely have it both ways.

Asking Bud Selig, the commissioner of Major League Baseball, to single-handedly change the new immigration law in Arizona is asking too much.

Here’s a look at some unheralded players who played well yesterday.

Brett Cecil, Toronto Blue Jays

Cecil, my pick for a streaming option yesterday, chewed up the Indians, going eight innings and allowing one run on one hit with 10 Ks. He improved to 2-1 with a 2.61 ERA.

David Freese, St. Louis Cardinals (pictured with Albert Pujols)

Remember the good old days when fans just got tackled for running on the field? Not anymore.

A 17-year-old fan who ran onto the field during the Phillies-Cardinals game at Citizens Bank Park was taken down by a Taser.

This was no Zach Galifianakis in "The Hangover" either. There was no fight.

I think we may have just discovered the game changer in the War on Streakers.

Begin Slideshow

Welcome to the second half of this week's Featured Columnist Poll, an early All-Star vote.

As stated in yesterday's AL results slideshow, for this survey, I asked my peers to select only the players who have earned spots based on their performances so far this season—not to predict who will make the team or choose players who they think will have earned spots by July.

For each position I have included the full vote totals, and asked a different respondent to write a synopsis for each winner.

Thank you to everyone who voted and submitted commentary!

Note: So as not to clog people's in

Attention mediocre American League pitchers and hitters.

If you'd like to build Hall of Fame numbers, it would be in your best interest to transfer to the National League as soon as possible.

We see pitchers like Brad Penny, Carlos Silva, and Jose Contreras, recent transfers to or back to the National League, as examples of the most recent hilarities the National League has produced.

When the action on the field grows tiresome, too many fans decide to create their own entertainment.

That was the case last night in Philadelphia where a 17-year-old Phillies fan hopped the fence and ran onto the field during the eighth inning.

Dusty, does this Cairo guy have an incriminating video of you smoking crack à la Marion Barry?  A Dusty Baker sex tape à la Paris Hilton?

We're fans.  We will understand and forgive your past indiscretions.

Seriously, why is this guy on the team?  And why do you keep using his weak stick to pinch hit?

Take Monday night for example: men on the corners, and you pinch hit Cairo for Mike Leake in the Reds half of the sixth?

Is April gone already?  Last year, it couldn't end soon enough.  The Rays 2008 World Series hangover left them 9-14 at April's end, leaving Rays fans searching for the aspirin.  The Rays would never recover.

Lesson Learned.

The Rays capped off the first month of the season with their best start in team history.  The offense pummelled other pitchers into frequent early showers.  The starting pitching led the AL in ERA.  And for the most part, the bullpen shut the door.

But have the Rays finally started to cool off?

Anyone who is a fan of the 1994 Kevin Smith film Clerks has probably seen – in any number of its dozens of video releases – the film’s original ending.

Cut before the film was released theatrically, but included on subsequent Laserdisc, DVD and Blu-ray releases, the original ending features the shocking twist of store clerk Dante being shot and killed.

Over the past few years, the hot corner has gotten hotter. It is the address of some of Major League Baseball's best talent, featuring players who flash the leather and provide some thunder at the plate.

Many teams throughout the league call on their third sacker to anchor the middle of their lineup. Then when the inning's over, they look to them to turn two on scalding two-hoppers or cover bunts with acrobatic barehanded plays.

The position features some long-established stars, but in recent years it has been augmented by the emergence of new stars.