Good Reads:

Red Sox Magic Number to clinch a Wild Card tie is 6. Seems like the magic number has barely been mention this year. Maybe that's because they're still alive (although barely now) in the A.L. East race.

Somehow Pedro gets a Wheaties box now? He's had a good year, but not his best. Timing seems odd but...

Bob Ryan writes a solid Curt Schilling column, although I'm guess he cringes if he sees that Web site headline "The 'W' he gets for this is: Wow." Ugh.

Thomas Boswell says the Expos to D.C. is close, but lays out some of the potential problems. I'm curious what that team will be named. Would they use the Senators again?

I enjoyed Bill Simmons' look at 61* among his haphazard collection of sports movie columns.

Speaking of Simmons, this story is borrowed from his links. This Cleveland Plain Dealer story about two women fighting for Jeff Garcia feels a little staged to me. Sort of a "Hey Terrell Owens, I'm not gay. See I'm not gay." Either way the kick in the head does seem a little bizarre.

Finally...
I missed this Bill Lyon column earlier this month. I'm including it because I've tried to have the good Lance Armstrong links here since I started this site because I admire Armstrong's accomplishments and I'm inspired by people battling cancer. I'm inferring from his comments below, that Lyon's wife is among those fighting.

"So a person dismounts to rest for a spell, to lie down under a shade tree and try to sort out those things in life whose purposes have eluded his understanding.
And when he gets back on a couple of months later, he gets a brief recounting of what has transpired while the summer slipped past. To wit:
Lance Armstrong, a hero for all time, has won the Tour de France. Again. There really is no story in all of sports like his. One man on a bike, bringing mountains to their knees, leaving in his wake great churning rooster tails of hope.
When Championship No. 6 was official, he stood in that intoxicating boulevard in Paris and took off his cap, on which was written this variation on his name: "Livestrong."

That is his message in a single word, applicable on our playing fields and all other venues of endeavor. Never give up, never give in. Never. Ever.

(Forgive a brief personal aside here: For all of you kind people who have sent along your generous wishes and thoughtful inquiries and prayers, a heartfelt thank you. My roommate of the last 40 years continues to resist and persist with a valor to make you weep. I remind myself regularly that I am married to a middle linebacker.)"