UP AT 6: BETTER LIVING THROUGH CHEMISTRY

What you might have missed as you beat someone with his own pair of Crocs.

• Hall of Famer Johnny Bench (pictured) tells the AP in a response to a question about Barry Bonds, "If I could take HGH, I would in a heartbeat because I want to live longer."
  
  Johnny Bench is also 59 years old and has a one-year-old son. He's gone from the Big Red Machine to the little blue pill.
• Cubs trade for veteran catcher Jason Kendall. Too bad. It was going to be fun to see if they could win the National League Central with a group of catchers who were slugging about a combined .250. There's something noble about a team that willingly accepts a handicap, then still goes out and wins. Now the Cubs have a catcher who can actually hit and throw, and that's no fun.
• SI.com's Peter King has drunk the Honululu-blue Kool-Aid with regard to the Detroit Lions: "This is the year they make a quantum leap." Laugh once and get out of your system, Sager, since overconfidence could cost the Vikings a 5-11 final record.
• Port Dover, Ont.'s Megan Timpf, whom one of us used to cover on our old Simcoe Reformer beat, contributed a RBI single Monday to help Canada beat China and collect bronze medals at the women's fastpitch World Cup in Oklahoma City.