MIDDLE OF A WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON

Some noon-hour stuff as yours truly gives his head a shake after writing 15 NHL team previews last night:

• Just an update on the NL MVP debate: Baseball-Reference.com has the 2006 final stats up: Albert Pujols led the National League with an adjusted OPS+ of 180, meaning he hit 80% better than the league average. Ryan Howard was a distant second at 170, while Carlos Beltran was fifth at 153 (but remember, he steals bases and plays a key defensive position). Anyone still think Howard should be MVP?
• Only two days until the Trailer Park Boys movie opens. Yours truly plans to see it next Tuesday.
• Leafs and Senators tonight and tomorrow. Yours truly has the evening free... live blogging may be in store.
• Hometown Breakdown note: the Kingston Frontenacs won't have goalie Danny Taylor back for an overage season -- he'll be playing for the L.A. Kings' farm club affiliate in Bakersfield. (Yes, the East Coast Hockey League has a team in Bakersfield. Don't ask.)
• MLB playoffs: The teams yours truly would like to see in the World Series, the Twins and Padres, both ate it big-time at home in Game 1 of their playoff series yesterday. The Twins never lose at home when Johan Santana is pitching; they lost. As for the Padres, they're relying on a 43-year-old pitcher with 104% body fat (hey, no eating in the tank, Boomer!) to pull them even against the Cardinals. The Padres should be fine if they even it up today. Their Game 3 starter, Chris Young, was 6-0 with a 2.41 ERA away from Petro Park in the regular season.
  
  To be honest, the main reasons for wanting a Twins-Padres World Series are a) no New York teams and b) the chance to imagine a baseball game between the characters from Fargo and Anchorman. Which character would make a better manager, Marge Gunderson or Ed Harken?
• From Deadspin, possibly the best field-goal block ever. By the way, when playing Madden, have you ever lined up offside so just once, you could hear the digitized Al Michaels say "blocked kick"? Me neither.
• Count on Bill Simmons for a reference to the "bareback riding" scene in Private School. Whatever happened to Betsy Russell, anyways?

Back with more later. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.