Pastime

This is total Teo-baiting here.

I'm really a football guy. Ask me about the greatness of Dan Marino, Earl Campbell, or Johnny Unitas, and I'm likely to get all misty eyed. I suggested to my wife, in complete sobriety and seriousness, that "Shula" was an excellent name for our firstborn. (She disagreed and we wisely settled on something else.) So, I loves me some gridiron.

That said, baseball has grown on me in the past few years. Perhaps because I grew up in a town with a triple A ballclub, I never really loved the game. Also, I was not a baseball player; instead, I favored - and played - the brilliant game of lacrosse. (I was terrible at it, but I loved playing it and still love watching it when I can.)

But in the past few years, being in a town with not just a major league team, but a team in the decidedly finer game of NL baseball, I've learned to appreciate the game. And, if I may speak candidly, the Padres have the finest pitching rotation in all of major league baseball: Jake Peavy, Chris Young, David Wells, Greg Maddux, and Justin Germano (with Cla Meredith and Scott Linebrink in middle relief and the incomparable Trevor Hoffman as a closer). Is there a better rotation in all of baseball?

I'll be honest: they can't hit all that well. Adrian Gonzalez is a great hitter and a tremendously underrated player and a few other guys get hot from time to time; but in general, they're not likely to win a lot of 9-7 games.

And I'm watching the All Star game and loving it. Baseball, running unopposed in the summer sporting schedule, is great.