Here's todays news stories...

Oakland finally snapped out of it and beat the Mariners 12-3 just as word filtered down the Angels lost 5-2. Your Magic Number? 0. As in "clinched." As in "playoffs!" ...

Athletics 4, Indians 3- We come to write in praise of the Magic Number. Oh, Magic Number, why do we love thee? It's just so baseball-- simple yet profound. After all, almost every team makes the playoffs in hockey or basketball and football is all about rules and legalisms (Team X will win the division if Team Y loses and Team Z loses but if Team Z wins by less then 4 points and Team Y wins on a Sunday occuring days before a full moon, then Team X wins the division). But not baseball. It has a magic number. Watching the magic number go down and down is one of our favorite moments of the baseball season. And what has this to do with the A's? The magic number is now 5. ...

Not that we watched a lot of football yesterday, but we saw that red haired woman in the Nissan commercial enough times to make us feel like we need to introduce her to our parents. ...

It's looking like one of those pitching kids the Giants have been bragging about for years might be living up to the hype. We're talking about Matt Cain, of course, who won yet another game, 4-0 against the Whale Vagina Padres. We love when the Giants play the Pads because they seem to beat them everytime, even when the Pads are in the midst of a five game winning streak. Anyways, Cain pitched seven innings, gave up one hit (he had a no-no going into the sixth), and no runs. In his past five starts he has given up one earned run in thirty-four innings and an era that was once over seven is now under four. Expect his arm to blow out sometime early next season....

First, onto baseball: The Giants are now on a three-game roll after taking two from the Cubbies and beating the Reds in ten innings Monday. Your Black & Orange hero? Shea Hillenbrand who hit the game-winning home run in extra innings. That trade is suddenly looking less like a total disaster these days. Also of note, the heating up of Barry Bonds who hit numero 730 and has now hit five home runs in his past six starts. That gulp you're hearing is of pitchers in the NL, other teams in the Wild Card hunt, and officials at Major League Baseball now pondering the meaning of a so hot right now Barry. The Giants have now won 15 of 21 and are for the first time in a long while, .500. No, we're not going to go there as of yet but we're starting to disbelieve our disbelief. ...