Rocket Returns

At approximately 8:07 this evening, Roger Clemens will throw his first pitch of the 2006 major league season. With that so begins the Houston Astros race for the playoffs. Currently, the Astros are 6 games behind 1st place St. Louis, and 2 games back of the 2nd place Cincinnati Reds, who also occupy the league's "wild card" slot right now.

Can the Astros make the playoffs? Most definitely. Brad Lidge seems to be back to normal, and it's possible that the return of Roger will help straighten out that entire rotation, especially Andy Pettitte and Roy Oswalt.

When you look at the National League, there's only two teams that have played with enough consistency for one to confidently predict them to make the post-season: The New York Mets and the St. Louis Cardinals.

Beyond that, the door is wide open. And the playoff chase looks as though it's going to be real fun to watch, as eight teams are separated by just 4 games.

Compare that to the American League, where the current Wild Card team (Chicago) has the 2nd best record in all of baseball right now, and has a 5.5 game lead over the 2nd place team (the Yankees) in the Wild Card standings.

Tonight's Marquee Matchup

Well, this is an obvious one, isn't it? ESPN has the return of Roger Clemens tonight, as his Astros face the Twins at 8pm tonight. Twins phenom Francisco Liriano counters for the Twins, so runs could be scarce in Houston tonight.

For the night owls, Mariners ace Felix Hernandez pitches against Derek Lowe and the Los Angeles Dodgers of Los Angeles. Seattle has won 5 straight, and are now just 3.5 games behind Oakland in the AL West.

Here Today, Ghana Tomorrow

The USA's dream of advancing to Round 2 of the World Cup ended this morning. The US needed a win over Ghana, as well as an Italy win over the Czechs. Italy did their part to help the US by winning their match 2-0, but the US were unable to help themselves, losing 2-1 to a 3rd world country.

How a country of 300 million people and unlimited financial resources can't muster up 11 decent soccer players is baffling. Despite the US being sent home, hopefully the television ratings and overall interest in the World Cap won't drop off here in the US. Some of the potential matchups in the one-and-done elimination rounds are tremendous.

The Ozzie Guillen Issue

I've already discussed how classless Ozzie Guillen was last week for dressing down rookie P Sean Tracey after the kid failed to bean Hank Blalock. And once again, Ozzie Guillen's actions are drawing fire, and this time, Ozzie needs to be disciplined. Harshly.

After his ignorant comments last spring (comparing homosexuals to child molesters), his comments this week (referred to Chicago Sun-Times columnist Jay Mariotti as a "fag") warrant some form of punishment. Whether it be a hefty fine or a suspension, that's up to either the Chicago White Sox or Major League Baseball to decide.

The league was swift to deal with ignorant comments made by Marge Schott, John Rocker, and it should be quick to stifle Ozzie Guillen.