Fan News

Greg Gibson is a 41-year-old Ohio-born man, who has worked as an umpire for some 13 years.

On August 23, 2010 he made a controversial, potential game deciding call, against a team in the heat of a vicious pennant race. If that is not enough, he consulted nobody for a second opinion.

In the top of the eighth, Ryan Howard fielded a bunt by Michael Bourn and dove to tag Bourn. Bourn ran out of the base path to avoid the tag, and proceeded to first base where he was called safe.

       There are two schools of thought when it comes to hiring a General Manager for a Major League Baseball team, either you hire a business man or a baseball man. The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox have gone the business man rout with Brian Cashman and Theo Epstein and have been successful.

Every season, fans, writers, and anyone following baseball has an idea of how the season will play out. We know that Albert Pujols will always be great. We know that the Yankees will always have way more wins than losses.

But there are always individual and team performances that we can't predict.

And this year, many teams have surprised, in both good and bad ways. There are many surprising division leaders and even a few surprising division cellar dwellers.

Here are the top 10 surprising teams of the season thus far, as we head into the stretch run of September.

Now on the docket - Roger the Rocket. Except the grand jury felt he should instead be wearing Roger Staubach's nickname.

The indictment cites 15 instances of Clemens obstructing Congress. "Hell, only 15?" Clemens asks, "I've struck out more batters than that in one game."

The indictment drips in strangeness.

Our theory is that Clemens, back in February of 2008, embarked on a strategy of denial, thinking that even if he is indicted of obstruction his buddy, George W., would pardon him.

The Yankees were impressed enough with Ivan Nova's start Monday night in Toronto that he will replace Javier Vazquez next Sunday at Chicago.

Vazquez, who has an ERA above five, will move to the bullpen and will be available starting Monday. Joe Girardi did not comment about using Nova for more than one more start, and did not say he is prepared to use a six-man rotation.

There's one thing that you never, under any circumstances, want to hear when scouting a pitcher.

Raw? That's not a big deal. The pitcher can be developed in the minors, as long as it may take, and it can still work out.

Wild? That's a problem, but again, it can be worked out, whether it's just a wild arm or something psychological.

Lack of Passion? We are getting close, but even this is not the worst; if the pitcher has talent it can still work out. After all, Rube Waddell was a Hall of Famer.

I can safely say that I am a gigantic fan of Adam Dunn. Consistency is one of the main benchmarks for picking my favorite players, and he very simply gets the job done. He is a freak of patience and power, but the consistent production is what draws me to him.

For instance, his production from 2007 to 2009 looks a little something like this:

2007   .264 AVG/.386 OBP (101 walks)/40 home runs

2008   .236 AVG/.386 OBP (122 walks)/40 home runs

The Florida Marlins (62-61) begin a six-game road trip in Citi Field against the New York Mets (62-62).

The Marlins come in having won five of six and send their ace Josh Johnson to the mound. The Mets counter with knuckleball pitcher R.A. Dickey, who has been a pleasant surprise.

Johnson is coming off a good outing where he pitched eight innings of two-run baseball against the Pirates. That isn't saying much, but it's a great sign to see him bounce back from his worst outing of the year against the Reds.

Six years ago, prior to Game Four of the ’04 ALCS, Kevin Millar strutted around Fenway Park with a message.

“Don’t let the Sox win tonight!” Millar bellowed to anyone that would listen.

Of course, the Red Sox trailed the New York Yankees 3-0 in the series and looked all but titleless for yet another October. The Curse of the Bambino appeared to live for another year.

But Millar didn’t see it that way.

When you're a fan of a team that never wins and has no real chance of winning, it's hard to get really excited.

There's no real point in hoping for a winner, so there are other things you have to get riled up about.

And it's doubly hard as a fan base to find things other than wins to really be passionate about as a united group.