JAYS REALLY MISSED CHACIN, MAN

Stuff you may have missed while getting cards and letters from people you don't even know.

• Now that it's all over but the crying, it was a little bittersweet to see the Blue Jays beat the L.A. Angels 2-1 last night with Gustavo Chacin throwing seven strong innings for his second straight win. Chacin has given up just 10 hits and two earned runs in his past 18 1/3 innings. His presence alone during the 2½ months he was out with elbow problems wouldn't have made up 11 games on the Yankees, of course.
• Cool Standings is projecting the Minnesota Twins (currently a half-game ahead) to hold off the Chicago White Sox for the American League wild-card berth. (That's assuming they can't catch the Tigers for the division flag.) As noted earlier, it goes back to scheduling, specifically games against lowly Kansas City: The White Sox don't play the Royals again, but the Twins host K.C. for a four-game series in the final week before.
  
  As for the NL, don't be surprised if the wild-card spot goes to the Phillies (currently 1½ games behind San Diego), although it's more likely to be the consolation prize for the second-place team in the NL West.
• Speaking of the Phillies, Ryan Howard's big bat (56 homers, 138 RBI and an on-base plus slugging of 1093) is getting him a lot of hype as a possible National League MVP, although Hardball Times' Win Shares (through last Monday) only sees him as the eighth-most valuable player in the NL, up a couple notches from the last time. Mets centre-fielder Carlos Beltran has been the better player over the course of the season.
• To prevent accusations of sexism, the Associated Press story on U.S. Open men's final should include a paragraph on what Roger Federer and Andy Roddick are wearing, since the AP writer did it for the women's final. It's only fair.
• Martina Navrátilová did claim the mixed doubles title (her 59th Grand Slam win) in her final competitive match. That final didn't end until after 11 p.m. ET, so there's a chance the greatest women's player ever didn't have her final match even acknowledged in many major newspapers.
  
  One wire story mentioned how many titles Martina won playing doubles with partners such as Billie Jean King and Chris Evert. It was actually Pam Shriver with whom Navrátilová had her greatest successes in women's doubles. (Martina won a total of five Grand Slam doubles titles playing with either Evert and King. She and Shriver won 20 together, including a Grand Slam in 1984.)

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.