AL East

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<![endif]--> Before 2004, the Red Sox notoriously chased the Yankees for the top spot in the American League East for almost a century.

Then, Dave Roberts stole second base in Game Four of the 2004 ALCS, and the rest was history. Literally.

This year, Toronto has had to deal with more injuries and problems than usual.

Stay there for a moment, I need to unfurl my list and get my reading glasses.

Shawn Marcum, Dustin McGowan, Jesse Litsch have become casualties of the rotation. B.J. Ryan has been having troubles, and the Jays bullpen has been reshaped accordingly.

Rookies Brett Cecil and Bobby Ray were chased from the rotation, getting rocked and injured in the process. Ricky Romero and Scott Richmond have had their share of struggles lately. 

Like most reasonable people in the good old United States of America, I marvel at the utter stupidity, egregious arrogance, and incredible greed of some of our most cherished professional athletes.  At the same time, I'm disgusted by some members of the media who lack either the knowledge, integrity, or tact required to be admirable journalists.

That covers two of the three branches of the sports universe.  It also covers the two most trivial ones.

All Ted Williams ever wanted growing up was to be known as the greatest hitter of all-time.

In a career that spanned four decades, Williams left little room for argument in regards to that discussion.

The Splendid Splinter had a career batting average of .344, ranking him tied for seventh all-time in the major leagues.

Williams also hit 521 career home runs, won the American League Triple Crown twice, and was the last player in baseball to hit .400 when he accomplished the feat in 1941.

How do you personify a winning team?

How do you take a run, say a 17-5 run, and choose the one or two things that stand out in this run more than anything else?

Good pitching and clutch hitting win games, but individual games mean little until you look at the overall context. Is it one win among 20 losses, or one loss among 20 wins? What stands out, from game to game to game?

I was watching today’s game while at work and boy-oh-boy was it packed with action.  We saw Jim Leyland get himself tossed, that’s always fun.  We saw Miguel Cabrera, the AL MVP up to this point in the season, pull his hamstring and have to leave the game.  Neither of those things is terribly unique, though.  What was unique was the performance of Dontrelle Willis.