Opinion

At this time last season, Astros' first baseman Lance Berkman left many wondering if he could continue at his torrid pace when he led the NL Triple Crown categories heading into the All-Star break.

In what has turned out to be a tale of two seasons for Berkman, 2009 has been a struggle.  Flirting with the dreaded "Mendoza Line" for the better part of the season, Berkman (a career .300 hitter) has ignited the last ten games improving his average to a respectable .268.

Yes, I went for a tired old pun to start the article. The Bronx Bombers, the Evil Empire to those that are not supporters, are the dreaded baseball cap. But really, they and a few other teams are the ones who dread the cap, because it will infringe upon their ability to buy the players that other teams' farm systems have sculpted for years.

Here's how I came up with my cap concept:

Homer Bailey did not deserve what he was served by Dave Weathers last night.

Bailey was pitching one of the best games you could imagine.  Through seven innings, he had limited the St. Louis Cardinals to just two hits and was ahead 3-0.

Bailey entered the eighth inning with the dreaded 100-pitch count just in sight.  After giving up a pinch-hit single to Cody Rasmus, he coaxed Brenden Ryan to fly out.  With a man on and one out, Bailey walked Skip Schumaker, giving Dusty Baker something to do besides chew on a toothpick. 

With the first half of the 2009 baseball season reaching an end, it is time to start looking towards the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline, as the the contenders begin to deperate themselves from the pretenders.
With the New York Mets, the story for this season has been one of in jury and inconsistent play. Still, despite hovering around the .500 mark, the Mets are only two games behind the Phillies for the NL East division lead, and will look to be buyers when the trade deadline comes around.
So who will be available? Who should the Mets go after?

New York Yankees backup catcher Jose Molina has been on the disabled list since May 8 with a strained left quadriceps. This is a significant injury for any player, let along a catcher. When he likely returns this upcoming week against Minnesota, Molina will have missed two months.

Where would the Yankees be right now if they hadn't re-signed Andy Pettitte?

In the winter, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman made a vow to improve the starting pitching. He brought in the two most attractive names on the market, in CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett. While doing so, Cashman almost forgot to re-sign one of their most important players over the last 14 years.

It wasn't until January 26th that the Yankees finally re-signed Pettitte to a one-year, $5.5 million dollar deal with incentives.

"Manny Ramirez is back in the big leagues, looking like a guy who missed 50 games.

Returning from his suspension for violating baseball's drug policy, the Los Angeles slugger barely hit the ball out of the infield in the Dodgers' 6-3 win over the San Diego Padres on Friday night.

He did provide a lot of energy to the team with baseball's best record."- Foxsports.com

I will stop you right there.

Yesterday night, I turned on the TV to watch The Late Late Show, only to find that it was starting 20 minutes late.

Just for this week, I think they should've renamed it The Late Late Late Show.

Anyway, I decided to pass the time by watching Baseball Tonight, which I don't normally watch because I can't stand the analysts. But it was something to do.

After about ten minutes, the Braves-Nationals highlights came on. I wasn't really paying attention; I was checking minor league scores on my computer.

Baseball is unquestionably the most American form of entertainment we as Americans have in our short history.

For over half of our country’s existence since declaring Independence from England, baseball has been there along the way and signals part of the American dream that so many immigrants since coming from their homeland have learned to love.

The fact that it remains largely an American sport played mostly within the lands of the Monroe Doctrine, and dismissed in continents like Europe show how American it is more so than any other export America has to offer.

On Thursday, July 2, I went to the new Yankee Stadium for the first time. Overall, I was much more pleased than I originally thought. I had expected much different things from the stadium, and I will describe everything that I saw, and explain all of my opinions.