I wonder if King Kaufman used to tune into the King Biscuit Flour Hour. It was a radio show we heard hear in near Gainesville.

Was he involved with the show? Is he one of those San Francisco hippies from way back when?

I guess that would be a good excuse for hating the Yankees the way he does. I know how the press gets down on Arod, but doesn't the national press and ESPN hammer him again and again about his salary. They are so upset that a ballplayer has that kind of money to give to the Democratic Party or Tsunami relief or to build alternative businesses instead of George Steinbrenner of some other richer than God owner of a baseball club (Ted Turner for instance).

So, the New York press. Who are they, really? The Times, The Daily News or Newsday and the Long Island Press? Oh, some cats on channel 5 or 4 or 2 or 7. Yeah, you see, I used to live up there. Dick Young was the guy who moaned and groaned while the Yankees fell from glory and into the basement. People try to say that had something to do with the end of the war or the desegregation of our schools. Can that possibly be right?

I think Arod is going to be allright. He could not get a hit against these pathetic White Sox. Jeter isn't hitting have you noticed. This year I have often seen Jeter get on and then the Rodriguez home run. I heard long ago those guys were friends. In Jeter's book about living the dream he said people often mistook him for Arod as he met fans around the country. I still find it hard to believe Jeter is older than Arod, or older than anybody really.

Arod is sure playing a hot third base though. I wonder if it is because he just came out of Baltimore that some of the plays he's made look so Brooks Robinson? Yeah, I guess that's it, but he made a diving stop the other night that was the best play at third I've ever seen him make and I hope he makes more of those. BR was one of the really great ones. He made you not care that the Yanks had finished a dead last in 1966. He played that well.

One of my favorite observations about baseball came from Bob Costas. It went something along these lines:

"In most sports, the pivotal moments are played out by the all-stars. Montana goes to Rice on third down with a minute to go. The Oilers/Kings would give the puck to Gretsky in the waning moments. The Bulls would run everything through Jordan during crunch time. Only in baseball does the crucial moment in a thrilling game or series regularly come down to two nobodies, a back-up catcher, a B+ relief pitching prospect, facing off in extra innings with the game on the line."

Its absolutely true. In other sports you can keep running everything through that star (Iverson and Lebron are two names that easily come to mind as players who carried their teams to the championship), but in baseball, the eighth batter is going to bat every eighth time, and in the national league, you're always going to have to look for a pinch hitter every time the reliever's spot comes up. Its one of the things to love about baseball, and you're right, King, it separates the winners from the losers in September and October.

Stan Papi will rise from his rocking chair, and propel the BoSox! If you are too young to understand this reference, that's a good thing. Stan Papi and I are getting old.

P.S. "junior413 Actually if we had 9 fingers we would be anticipating homerun number 600.

Really? Why?"

One Answer: 600 divided by 9 (in base 10) = 66.6666666..., the Number Of The Beast!

crumley You missed the biggest trade yesterday. Kevin Garnett for half the Celtics team!

king Mentioned it Monday, and I'll talk about it some more at some point, but you can't make me really care about the NBA in August. It's hard enough from October to March.

Was the rumor out already on Monday? Somehow I missed it in your column and elsewhere till Tuesday.

Anyway, I hear you on the NBA in August, I have the same problem. Of course, most years I have the same problem with baseball in August.

I am sure you were jonesing to do a pure baseball column after the long layoff.

While I think jrb_22 got at junior413's point, I think an even better example would have been if we had eight fingers. (9 fingers doesn't seem too likely unless we had three hands. And if we had three hands, baseball would probably be a very different game.) 512 (base 10) homeruns would become an astounding 1000 (base 8). People would really go crazy for a number like that.

With apologies to junior413 if I'm explaining incorrectly, I think he's saying that 486 base 10 would be written as 600 in base 9:

600 base 9 (ie 6 * 9^2 + 0 * 9^1 + 0 * 9^0) = 486 base 10 (ie 4 * 10^2 + 8 * 10^1 + 6 * 10^0)

So 500 base 9 would be 5 * 81, or 405 base 10. It's a pretty nerdy thing.

Great to have you back writing, and I love the headline of that section btw; brilliant.

crumley You missed the biggest trade yesterday. Kevin Garnett for half the Celtics team!

Mentioned it Monday, and I'll talk about it some more at some point, but you can't make me really care about the NBA in August. It's hard enough from October to March.

jrootham You almost got this one right. Yes, the bottom of the roster is important, but you missed the reason why. The further down the roster you go the more choices you have amongst players of approximately equal ability. It is correct decisions amongst available options that defines successful general managers.

Yes, except for the fact that you said the exact same thing I did, I can see why you think I got it wrong.

junior413 Actually if we had 9 fingers we would be anticipating homerun number 600.

Really? Why?

pageiger If he [Luis Castillo] can plug the No. 2 spot in the Mets' lineup, Reyes should see better pitches.

Really? You think anybody's going to give in to Jose Reyes out of fear of Luis Castillo? Are we talking about the same Luis Castillo? I'd love to see the math on run expectancy when facing Reyes with the bases empty and Castillo with a runner on first, with the same number of outs.

mattmclain What will be remembered and celebrated in a few years are the deals Texas made.

That statement has a good chance of being right, though it's also possible the prospects will all turn to dust.

tomG76 Isn't there always more movement to come?

Yes, teams can still make trades, but any player on the 40-man roster must clear waivers before he can be dealt. That makes it much more difficult to trade players who have some value, because teams lower in the standings than the team your trading with might claim them, either because they want them, or to scuttle the deal. Deals do still happen, though, and anyone acquired before Sept. 1 is eligible for inclusion on the playoff roster.