The normal progression for a ballplayer is to decrease his average and speed, and increase his power and walks as he ages. A-Rod, who won a batting title at 20, picked up the power relatively early, and then moved to the Ballpark at Arlington, a great home run park, for his peak late 20's years. What is remarkable is how he has continued to hit home runs in Yankee Stadium, a terrible place for a righthander (though see what would have happened if you put him in the configuration it had during DiMaggio's career). Next year, he'll move to the New Yankee, and no one knows what that will mean.

That being said, it's hard to find evidence in his career arc of anything that would stop Alex from getting the record. He has been remarkably consistent and remarkably healthy. He has no particular holes in his game. He plays in the DH league, so he can get a rest without leaving the lineup. By moving from shortstop, he is less likely to get injured breaking up a double play. He hits behind a guy who walks 100 times a year.

As it went by, I said to my wife, "It's Cavalier versus Big Bird: the Gay Musical."

Was a poorly thrown wobbler that was intercepted and kept his team from going to the Super Bowl. To me, that summed the guy up. He made a great show of being all about everything, but he was ultimately too arrogant to keep from throwing up balls like that, because he couldn't fathom the idea that his team could succeed without him being the sole reason for it. That may have played in Peoria, but it never played with me.

Statistics don't bring money in the door. No one pays to go see Troy Tulowitzki play shortstop for the Rockies. They may pay to see the NL champion Rockies (I imagine Coors Field will be full all year), but if one has discretionary income one doesn't go and say "let's go see Troy T. play today" or "let's not go, I understand Tulowitski is taking the day off."

Yet, baseball's salary arbitration rules take statistics and service time and pretty much nothing else into consideration. Result is that you can have a pretty bad team of highly paid players (witness the Cubs, Orioles, Rangers, etc. over the past decade), and they can all demand and get raises.

There's only one baseball player who can demonstrate statistically that he consistently puts money into the owners' pockets by putting bodies in the seats and ratings on the tube, and he can't get a job.

Nicholson Baker gets it. There is no one perfect way to preserve information, and getting rid of one form of information because another is more easily retrievable, as in the case of electronic card catalogs and microfiche of newspaper archives, makes no sense.

Long live curmudgeonhood!

Is that he's never turned into a "Senator." You know what I mean, the kind of way of talking that Dan Quayle and Lloyd Bentsen used with one another, "Senator, . . . ." It's antithetical to the natural rhythms of his speech, and to the way he thinks. So he talks to people, listens to people and makes an impression that way.

John Kerry was nothing but a Senator. John McCain is nothing but a Senator. Hillary Clinton was a Senator before she was ever in the Senate.

Obama will be able to get past all the muck because he can communicate with Americans past it. And when he debates McCain, McCain (who has no instinct himself for the jugular) will be eaten for lunch.