YEAH, BUT LOOK AT THE WAY HE'S WEARING HIS HAT!

Some quick hitters, tearing off four yards and a cloud of dust.

• Congratulations to University of Tennessee right-hander Luke Hochevar for being selected No. 1 in the major-league baseball draft. Now learn how to wear a hat and qualify for free agency as fast as possible so you can get yourself off the Kansas City Royals.
• So it goes: just as the Blue Jays have (briefly) skidded off the road, Albert Chen of Sports Illustrated proclaims Vernon Wells "the best center fielder in the American League." Lesson: it's never as bad as it seems when it's going bad, just as it's never as good as it seems when it's going well.
  
  It kind of came as a surprise to see Wells get the S.I. feature treatment. He's off to a great start, but Alex Rios, as the New New Thing, has overshadowed Wells somewhat.
  
  Here's two changes in Wells' hitting this season. In the past, if you had two strikes on him, you could (a) climb the ladder with a high fastball, or (b) throw something low and breaking away, like a slider or tailing fastball. And 9 times out of 10, the result for (a) would be a pop-up and for (b) it would be a strikeout.
• "I'd like to thank you, Lord for my two beautiful sons, Walker, and Texas Ranger." Here's a Talledega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby trailer.
• There was no intention to pile on Br-rrrr-i-an Wil-li-ams this morning; the scorn's directed entirely at the CBC and its outmoded broadcast model. As for Br-rrrr-i-an, he's an object of scorn, but he's my object of scorn. That's a key difference.
• Thanks to the Toronto Star's Chris Young, who has added Out of Left Field to his blogroll.
• Generally in sports reporting, game newspaper stories ("gamers") don't generate much buzz; features and investigative pieces get honoured come award time. If you want to see a great example of someone capturing the spirit of the thing, read Chris Stevenson's account of Brad Fritsch becoming the first Ottawa-area golfer to qualify for the U.S. Open. (Full disclosure: I work at the Ottawa Sun in my day job, but I would say this regardless of which papers were involved.)
• Riding the bus to work yesterday, I overheard a child, maybe four or five years old, singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. Which was pause to wonder: haven't there been any new nursery rhymes in the last 50 years? Or is it all just remakes, like Hollywood?

That's all for now. Look for a a live blog for Games 2 and 3 of the Stanley Cup final tomorrow and this weekend. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.