The Bengay Game

No, dangit, not that Ben Gay, I mean the analgesic cream. However, I do wonder -- if you had that as your name, wouldn't you try and alter it to Benjamin Gay or something? It's too bad he didn't become a star in the NFL, because who knows to what lengths Pfizer would have gone to get Ben Gay the football player to endorse their product.

Smacks of a missed opportunity.

Back from the land of Tangent I bring you news of a great victory -- a complete annihilation of the opposition, down to their last mean molecule. 11-4 Giants.

...and yet, Armando Benitez still managed to suck. Two baserunners allowed in a single inning of work.

Neither here nor there, though, as the story revolves around a few successful players, a couple of whom I'd like to recognize post-haste: Steve Finley, and Steve Kline. It's the Steve Show, folks, and I'm your host, Steve Stevenson.

Finley became the 6th player in major league history to have 300 home runs and 300 steals in yesterday's game (the others are Barry Bonds, Bobby Bonds, Willie Mays, Andre Dawson, and Reggie Sanders).

This is an odd pairing for me: Sanders and Finley both achieved their feats while playing for my two favorite ballclubs in the Royals and Giants, but both are anything but long-tenured -- the two of them are in their first year with the teams (Sanders a bit of an odd case, as he did play for the Giants as well as the Royals).

It's a huge achievement, and attests to both players' consistency, longevity, and all around prowess...five-toolish players, one might call them.

Congrats, gents.

Kline is a bit of a comebacker -- I should have mentioned the job he's been doing a while back, but neglected to. After last night's action, he's running a 2.21 ERA and a 1.23 WHIP, both pretty darn good, and the thing I like best -- no home runs allowed. He seems to have been a very solid acquisition by Brian Sabean (there, I said it).

In any case, the aforementioned 11-4 win over the DBacks was a nice win to have -- I can't help but think a blowout win after a losing streak has got to be better for morale than a squeaker, but I suppose we'll have to see if any momentum's being built in today's game, with it's oddly scheduled start time.

Oh, and by the way -- Omar Vizquel needs to be in the All-Star game, starting at shortstop...period. Let's make it happen.

Vote.