1.  Side note to the above photograph: when your catcher sets up on the outside corder, and you see him reaching back towards the inside corner, bad things are about to happen to your team.

2.  Man, you had some good seats Ken! I was way down the 1st base line, in Section 105, though on a 90 degree day, I was glad I was in the shade.

And yeah, I chanted M-V-P! too, though I immediatly turned around to my fiance and said "He shouldn't win it, but its nice to have a hitter good enough to cheer it!"

3.  Oh but hold on now. If we assume Ortiz is not having an ARodian season and won't win the MVP without making the playoffs, who else is there?

Jeter? Damon is that team's real MVP, and adding Abreu was when they started winning.

Jermaine Dye? See Ortiz.

Liriano or Johan? Well they are both on the same team, which one is "most" valuable then?

Seems to me that absent some late-season surprise from the Tigers (Leyland, if anybody, deserves the credit for that one), Frank Thomas could make quite the case for himself this year.

4.  2 I was six sections closer to home plate than you were.

My seats were in the shade today, too, thankfully. From May-August, my seats are in the sunshine. But at the end of August they turn into shade seats.

5.  Good to see that A's fans are enjoying the run. It's been a very frustrating year for the Angels, particularly when they have tried to get a bat (e.g. Konerko) and failed. They're going to need to revamp the offense next year, which is going to be tricky since I think McPherson and Kotchman can still be very good players.

6.  Ken: Any comment on Blanton coming out of the game after 5 IP, 2 ER and only 95 pitches?

7.  3 You're kidding right?

8.  6 I didn't have a problem with it. Blanton wasn't sharp; he seemed to be fighting his mechanics all day; and he was lucky to only have two runs score on him, with all the baserunners he was allowing.

7--3 is probably kidding, but it's also the exact reasoning that some writers actually use, so I suppose it's possible it could actually happen if a bandwagon thing gets rolling.

However, I find it hard to believe that the league's 4th-best DH by the numbers would actually win the award, especially when Ortiz didn't win it last year, mostly because he was a full-time DH.

9.  Since when do the numbers matter though Ken? You of all people should remember 2002 and all of the bandwagoning that won the MVP for Miggy Tejada that year.

And who are these other DHs with numbers better than Frank? Ortiz may well have taken himself out of the debate with his comments the other day (not that the Sawks' starters hadn't taken care of that), Hafner has the highest counting stats but his team could hardly be doing any worse without him, and Thome has Dye in his lineup providing far more protection (.322-42-117) than Nick Swisher (.254-42-86) is to Thomas.

If Frank Thomas puts up a .280-40-110 season, which he is only a couple solid games from doing, those look to me like the kind of nice big counting stats that MVP voters love. Now if only Joe Mauer would go ahead and win that batting title...

10.  Oh, I remember it, but Tejada wasn't a DH.

Ortiz did the same thing last year that Tejada did, with all the dramatic game winners and stuff, but many voters dinged him because he was a DH. There's a bias against DHes, to begin with, and then if you're not even the best DH in the league--just makes me think it's unlikely he'd win. I'm sure he'll get votes, though.