Some quick thoughts...

How is it the Red Sox can dismantle a solid pitcher like Mark Buehrle and then five games later make a mediocre Roger Clemens look like he's vying for the Cy Young award?

Imponderable - If Indians fans are "on the reservation," Red Sox fans are part of "Red Sox Nation," and Phillies fans are "phanatics," does that make Padres fans "pod people?"

A couple of comments on Peter King...

Peter King this week took issue with the NFL's pre-season, noting that football's exhibition season should be shortened from four weeks to three for several reasons. On ESPN radio this week he noted that the Giants suffered severe injuries in last week's game to four players that were likely to make their roster.

In general, I like Peter King - I don't always agree with him, but he tends to put a lot of thought behind his arguments. This was not one of them.

He talked about how the pre-season should be shortened to three games in order to avoid these injuries, using the Giants as an example. Of course the Giants injuries came in the third game rendering the argument...shall we say impotent?

Personally, I'm one of the few freaks that genuinely likes this time of year. I like to see the guys on the bubble, sometimes find somebody to root for to make the team. I will have my butt parked on my couch tomorrow night with the channel tuned to the NFL network to catch that last Patriots pre-season match-up with the Giants.

Also at SI.com, King listed what he felt were the top 500 players in the NFL - approximately the top 30 percent. Interesting read - 21 of the Patriots 22 starters made the list (T. Brady, Watson, Light, Welker, Moss, Stallworth, Koppen, Neal, Mankins, Maroney, Seymour, Warren, Wilfork, Vrabel, Colvin, Bruschi, A. Thomas, Hobbs, Samuel, Harrison, Wilson). Go over there for the actual rankings.

Little more than a week to kick-off. Can't wait.