-What a shame Wayne Gretzky didn’t show up at the Phoenix Coyotes training camp. I know there’s all sorts of back room stuff going on but wouldn’t it have been cool if he stood by his team and players? This is going to be one tough year for the Coyotes. I don’t think I’ll be drafting Kyle Turris in my keeper pool.

-The voice of the Detroit Tigers for 42 years, and one of the all-time greats, Ernie Harwell passed away at the age of 91. He had been battling cancer. Harwell’s career spans over five decades - 55 to be exact - which saw him call games for the Brooklyn Dodgers, New York Giants and Baltimore Orioles before moving on to Detroit. His career, naturally, leaves behind a wonderful legacy for baseball.

-With the Phillies, Cardinals, Dodgers, Yankees, Tigers and Angels all sitting in comfortable positions as division leaders and with the Red Sox and Rockies enjoying a decent lead in the wild card race, when was the last time we saw playoff spots wrapped up as early as mid-September? A lot can happen from now until the end of the season (the Rockies hold a 3 1/2 games lead on the Giants) but for now, the classic baseball race leading up to the playoffs is not in the cards for this season.

-After watching the Buffalo Bills play a solid football game against the New England Patriots for 58 minutes, to watch them sink on a brain cramp and lose the game in two minutes was nuts. This sort of stuff seems to happen quite often with the Bills - which begs the question: What did they do to someone in a past life? Are they low on the karma scale or something?

It was no better with the freakish way the Cincinnati Bengals lost to the Denver Broncos. Yeesh.

-Last but not least, here’s my Cy Young award winner: Zack Greinke. Playing on a shitty Kansas City Royals team the guy is 14-8 leads the AL with a 2.14 era and WHIP of 1.065 along with six complete games. He’s at or near the top in nearly all major pitching categories including innings pitched (3rd with 210.1) and strikeouts (2nd with 224). He’s clearly among the best, if not the best pitcher in the American League. I know people will penalize him for not leading his team into the playoffs and that C.C. Sabathia should, not unreasonably, get the nod but it helps that Sabathia plays on a winning team like the Yankees that gives great run support while the Royals average a mere 3.7 runs per game. Not good.

And yes, I do think Joe Mauer should be MVP. Awesone year with the Minnesota Twins. Consider 1st in: BA at a wicked .374, OBP with an amazing .441 and slugging a vicious .610 which gives him a league leading OPS of 1.051. All this as a catcher no less. New York’s Mark Teixeira is too having a great year. It’ll be interesting to see who gets the nod.

-For those interested, keep up with the Eurobasket tournament here.