Opinion

Something must certainly be wrong here. The Cleveland Indians, nearly a consensus pick to be among the worst teams in American League, have now won seven games in a row. Today's 6-4 victory over the Seattle Mariners pushed their record to 7-2, good for first in the AL Central. Stranger?

The Yankees are like that good-looking high school chick who seems to have it all, but there are always some underlying problems.

With an explosive offense, solid defense and a top-of-the-rotation pitcher in C.C. Sabathia, the Bronx Bombers have everything in place to be penciled in for October, right?

Not just yet.

There is one word to describe the New York Mets bullpen this year: Ugly. Even when they have gotten through innings without giving up a run, they have frequently walked batters, gotten behind in most counts and have thrown more balls than strikes.

Manny Ramirez called it quits this last week, deciding to retire instead of going through an impending MLB drug treatment program.

Sources say that Manny was facing a 100-game suspension due to testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs.

After Friday night's excruciating blown save and subsequent loss, I planned to pen a brief debate on whether or not Ryan Franklin should keep the Cardinals' closer role.

Now, after blowing his second save in as many days, the question is whether or not Tony LaRussa will actually keep going to Franklin in save situations, where he's converted just one of his four chances.

On March 3, 2011, I expressed the belief that the Chicago Cubs must release Carlos Silva. About three weeks later, the Cubs released him.

When Silva learned that he had been released, he laced into pitching coach Mark Riggins and blasted the Cubs.

Last night against the Washington Nationals, Carlos Beltran broke out in a big way. He slugged two home runs against Tom Gorzelanny and scored a third run off of an error to help lead the New York Mets to victory. This is something the team, and fans, need to see more of during the duration of the season.

How did Manny Ramirez fool the baseball world so long? How did he make us believe at times that he actually cared about the team he was playing on? There were times when it seemed Manny genuinely gave a damn about winning, when in fact all he really cared about was himself.

Just when local sportswriters were trying to come up with some new headlines for the Red Sox losing streak, the team came up with a win, negating hours of hard work by writers across the nation.

Pessimistic Sox-haters will say it’s only one game. They may go into another tailspin and the following headlines remain fitting and proper with a horrendous start.

Some of the headlines considered by hard-working sportswriters and editors include:

It was once about scorecards, home runs and hot dogs. Bobbleheads, mascots and funny-smelling urinals at Wrigley Field.

Fan giveaways, thousands of identical Derek Jeter jerseys, and the odd "Kiss Cam" that would pair two swamp ogres and force them to smooch.

Baseball used to be about all of those things. It was fun. It was part of the game. A tradition that had withstood the test of time.

A testament that could draw a smile from Babe Ruth himself. Baseball was always warm and fuzzy.