Sports: After he was fired, a NYT sportswriter had this to say about Steve Philips: "Phillips was good as a general manager, but overrated. In fact, he has been overrated throughout his career. He was an infielder drafted by the Mets in 1981 - ahead of Roger Clemens. Clemens goes for his 300th victory today, and Phillips ends a so-so front-office career with the Mets by being fired." Well, comparing him to Clemens (fourth time the charm for 300, Roger?) is a bit much, but his firing is past due. In point of fact, he should have gone along with Valentine, because bad moves (i.e. overpaid players prone to injury or subpar performance) over the last few years was surely equally to blame as managing for their problems. I would add coaching, since the decrease of defense alone since 1999 cannot be solely blamed on personnel alone. Anyway, Philips is gone ... what will they do next? Who will they get rid of? I don't know but I think Seo, Wiggington, Reyes (announcers were drooling over this twenty year old prospect as he got a chance in the Texas series ... Texas Rangers), and not much more are untouchable imho.

Yes, it's interleague play, so the Mets weren't playing the Astros, the Yanks were. This, along with the bad omen of Jeff Weaver getting another start, meant it was they who were due to be no-hit. This last happened in the 1950s, but the impressive thing is that six pitchers were involved. After their ace lasted but an inning because of injury, the Yanks must have felt the Astros were in trouble. Instead, it was the Yanks who were in trouble, even against a couple middle relievers whose ERA were far from scary. Mets refugee Octavio Dotel ... who struck out four in the eighth because of a passed ball [the game also had an error, a hit by a pitch, and three walks ... once a combination of all three led to the bases loaded; the count went to 3-0, Posada missed a sign, and swung ... that took care of that threat] ... now not hitting him was not too bad. Not hitting a guy with an ERA of over 5 was a bit more problematic. Have no fear ... they came back from behind (against some of these same pitchers) ... and won the series. And the Red Sox lost, so the Yanks (again) were on top by .5. Be a lot of back and forth, I bet.

btw: below I had some strong things to say about Sosa, who is currently serving a seven day suspension (originally it was eight). Some argued such thoughts are exaggerated. Well, talk about him leaving baseball might have been a tad bit much, but I don't have much sympathy for the guy. He cheated and some of the abuse from sportswriters is influenced by those who know things about him that makes him not quite as great of a guy as some make him out to be. I put that aside, I don't know the details ... I just think the guy has a higher standard to meet, and if he wants the public to think he is just your typical ball player, one who you know cheats now and then, good for him. It just knocks him down a few pegs in my opinion, and probably in many others as well. If he didn't know that there was a risk of that, that corking was even more stupid than it was originally thought.

Other: A review on a book on legal writing piqued my interest, since the review promoted general goals of argument and rhetoric, which has broad value.