BASEBALL: San Diego at Los Angeles

Today should be a fun day for baseball. And the best part is that I don't even care about the Yankees-Red Sox series. Who would have thought a mere 6 weeks ago that this mid-September series would be meaningless in everyway for both teams? In fairness, maybe Josh Beckett can pick up his 15th win while improving on his lackluster 5.09 ERA! Elsewhere, 5 pitchers having won a total of 15 Cy Young Awards go tonight including Greg Maddux, Roy Halliday, Pedro Martinez, Johan Santana, and Roger Clemens. The Oakland-White Sox series this weekend should be interesting. I still expect Oakland to hold onto the AL West and a sweep here could leave the defending champs home come October. However, we move down the Southern California coast to sunny LA in order to find today's TOTW.

The Dodgers and Padres begin a critical 3 game series that will go a long way in crowning a division champ in the NL West. LA still sits in 1st place, but they are now only 1/2 game ahead of San Diego. The pitching matchup in this game should be fun. The ageless Greg "Mad Dog" Maddux faces the very-much-aged and beer-bellied David "Boomer" Wells. Not that long ago, these pitchers were both enduring sub-par seasons for bad teams well out of the playoff hunt. But a couple of late trades changed all that and now they surprisingly meet in SoCal with the NL West title on the line.

My pick: Los Angeles. The Dodgers are a better team and have a nice mix of youth and experience. I'm happy to see Maddux looking better again. I still think he provided the best decade of pure pitching that I've seen in my lifetime during the 1990s. Both Pedro and the Rocket may have better numbers, but they always had heat and nastier stuff to bully hitters with. Maddux just beat you with a stare, a quick delivery, and pinpoint control. There were few better nights of baseball in my life than sitting behind homeplate watching the Braves win 2-1 in 1:55 with Maddux throwing an 8 inning shutout and looking like a surgeon at work.

Here's starlet Lindsey Lohan before and after the drugs partying diet. She's still hot either way. But sometimes I wish these celebrities didn't think eating was an optional part of life. Ok, I admit I may be a little jealous!