Baseball

Somebody get on the phone to the Governor General Michelle Jean and tell her to give Ricky Romero an honourary Canadian citizenship, because he did this fair nation proud today.

I'm not a guy who enjoys dogging Joe Girardi, not in the least bit possible.

I love supporting him, even when people question every little decision he makes when the Yankees lose games.

Being the manager in New York isn't a piece of cake, and Girardi seems to handle the pressure well.

People tend to forget it is only his second year managing.

Alright praise time over, time to get down to my first real criticism of an in-game move by the Yankee skipper.

This is an open letter to the Seattle Mariners front office with a realistic list of moves that need to be made whether that be trades, call ups, free agent signings etc.

The reason I have included the word realistic is because this will not include dreams like Ronny Cedeno to the Cardinals for Albert Pujols. No, all of the moves will be realistic.

With All-Star fan balloting wrapping up tomorrow, I figured it was time to take a look at which Brewers should be making the trip to St. Louis for the mid-summer classic.

By my estimation, the Brewers will have four players in this year's game.

Rickie Weeks very likely would have made the team if injury hadn't cut his season short on May 17.

Mike Cameron also would have been a strong candidate if he would have maintained the numbers he put up in April. Cameron will have to hold out hope for a Gold Glove at the end of the season instead.

The series trend of low-scoring games continued on Wednesday afternoon in the rubber match between the Los Angeles Dodgers (50-29) and Colorado Rockies (41-37).

The Dodgers were unable to give Clayton Kershaw any run support, but still became the first team in the Majors to reach 50 wins.

Rafael Furcal singled home the lone run of the game in the bottom of the eighth inning to give the Dodgers a 1-0 win.

Kershaw hurled five innings of one-hit ball without allowing a run, but left the game in a scoreless tie.

A nice sunny day game and a victory—that’s all the Dodgers needed before the long road trip before the All-Star Break. It also made the Dodgers the first team to 50 wins this season, with the second place Giants trailing by 6.5 games in the National League west division.

Wednesday's victory started with Rafael Furcal's pinch-hit RBI single in the eighth inning, which led to the Dodgers beating the Colorado Rockies, 1-0, in the final game of Manny Ramirez's 50-game drug suspension.

I'll tell you what, although watching Albert Pujols hit two gigantic bombs last night was exciting, I would still much rather watch Jeremy Affeldt's intense celebrations after clutch double plays.

And I'll tell you another thing: Nobody would have predicted that come the dawn of July, the team with the second-best winning percentage in the National League would be 26th in runs scored, third to last (28th) in home runs, and dead last in walks.

However, for as putrid as those numbers may seem, the Giants would be in the playoffs if the season ended today.

As the 2009, Non-waiver trade deadline quickly approaches many teams scurry around to find that extra player or two that can put their team over the edge and on pace to play in October.

That July 31st deadline has brought in Kyle Farnsworth and Sean Casey over the past few season for the Detroit Tigers.

This season, the Tigers look to add a solid bat to the middle or bottom third of an already pretty stacked lineup.

On paper the Rockies just lost a series with the Dodgers after a 1-0 pitchers duel where Jason Hammel came out on the wrong end.

However, after a winning road trip and a hard-fought series against the team with the best record in the Major Leagues, the Rockies should head back to Coors Field with a little more confidence.

Michael Cuddyer said it best when he described the baseball season recently.

"The first forty games you look to keep close, the next eighty or so you look to pull ahead, and the final forty you look to hold that lead."

The first phase of the season was successful for Minnesota. They stuck right in the race through the first forty games, staying within within four games or so of first place in the American League Central.