Seriously, outside of New England, is there a single person alive that feels a legendary pitcher who is now past his prime, fat on steroids, and overpaid, getting signed by the Yankees deserves the first 20 minutes of Baseball Tonight? Josh Hancock, pitcher for the current World Champion, dies in a tragic accident (sure, he may have been drunk, but still.), he gets a 2-minute blurb. Roger “Fat Billy from Ohio” Clemens gets signed to a one year deal (which, by the way, isn’t a full year, and will be pro-rated by how many months he plays), and every baseball analyst and their mother has something to say. If he could’ve found a cardboard cut-out of Roger Clemens, I’m pretty sure Peter Gammons would’ve fellated it on national television. I do NOT want to wait until the show is half over to see the highlights from the teams that ACTUALLY HAVE WINNING RECORDS!!! The entire world does not revolve around the AL East.

The AL Central is widely accepted as the toughest division in baseball. Joe Mauer got placed on the 15-day DL yesterday, a HUGE loss for the Twins, and a sure opportunity for the Tigers to put some distance between themselves and the Twins. The Cubs have won 8 of their last 9, and are now a game over .500. The Tigers have won seven in a row, Chris Carpenter is out for the year, Derek Lee is hitting over .400. All of these things would’ve made better lead stories.

But then again, what do I know? I don’t live on the East Coast anymore.