Opinion

On May 12, 2010, the Los Angeles Dodgers celebrated their first sweep of the season, defeating the Arizona Diamondback in a three-game series.

With the help of six consecutive losses from the stumbling D'backs, coupled with a four-game winning streak of their own, the Dodgers have climbed out of the bottom of the National League West.

The last three games against the D'backs have showcased a potent Dodgers offense headlined by a healthy Manny Ramirez and Andre Ethier, NL Leader in all Triple Crown categories. 

I know it's early and a small sample size. But this shout out to Marlon Byrd goes beyond his early season statistics, which are pretty good by the way.

The man plays the game the right way. He seems to be a genuinely decent human being and a teammate who cares about winning.

In short, he is the opposite of the things many of us dislike about recent Cubs teams.

Sure, the fact that Byrd is hitting .341 with six homers and 24 RBI helps. But it's the way he goes about his business that impresses a cynical, long-time Cubs fan such as myself.

The New York Mets were defeated by the Washington Nationals at Citi Field on Wednesday afternoon by the score of 6-4, thus losing two of their last three and ending their six game home-stand at an even 3-3.

Sure, it was just one series loss. Heck, it was just one game.

But it was the continuation of a rather unsettling trend for the Mets—they have now lost all six of the rubber games they have played in 2010.

Talk about a turnaround.

Just six games ago, the Braves were shut-out by the No. 2 man on the all-time homers allowed list.

Now, they find themselves dumping a high-powered Brewers attack out of a dust pan and into the trash after outscoring the Brew Crew by an unbelievable (keep in mind we're talking about the team ranked next-to-last in runs in the NL coming into this series) 21-run margin over three games. 

Ever since the departure of Carlos Delgado and injury problems to Carlos Beltran, the Mets haven't been able to find the perfect lineup. In 2006, when the Mets won 97 games en route to the NLCS, they had the deepest lineup in the entire National League. It looked like this day-in and day-out:

1. Jose Reyes

2. Paul Lo Duca

3. Carlos Beltran

4. Carlos Delgado

5. David Wright

6. Cliff Floyd

7. Shawn Green

8. Jose Valentin

While there are Boston Red Sox fans who still appreciate David Ortiz for his greatness from 2003-2007, Red Sox Nation is beginning to get fed up with Ortiz's lack of production at the plate in recent years. Ortiz had a slow start last year, but he eventually got it going in the later half of the season and wound up with 28 HR and 99 RBI despite hitting a meager .238 throughout the year. 

Dallas Braden has been all over the media by pitching only the 19^th perfect game in the history of major league baseball on May 9^th, 2010.

The accomplishment rightfully overshadowed a possible code violation, but it should be pointed out.

If anybody should be upset about the Toronto Blue Jays playing a home series in Philadelphia in June, it should be Jim Haslett.

Haslett, who is currently the defensive coordinator for the Washington Redskins, was the head coach of the NFL's New Orleans Saints from 2000-2005, including the season in which the city of New Orleans was rocked by Hurricane Katrina.

While New Orleans was healing and rebuilding, the hometown Saints were finding new places to play, which included three games at Houston's Alamodome and four games at LSU's Tiger Stadium.

We’ve some some pretty horrific Albert Pujols memorabilia in our storied history of St. Louis fan hunting.

Large in part, this fanatical abhorrence is gender-biased.  Outside of a few pink jerseys here and there, our studies show that female Pujols fans tend to stay within traditional affection mechanisms.

That is, until we saw this…

(Hat Tip to Jason for the fan pic)

This just in: Roy Halladay is one of a kind.

He’s been baseball’s best pitcher over the past decade and he’s showing no signs of slowing down. With that said, most major league pitchers can probably improve themselves simply by watching Doc work his mastery on the mound like clockwork.

Halladay’s teammate, Cole Hamels, can probably learn a valuable lesson from Roy, too.