Reads of the Day

On the serious-side, we have Nothing much to celebrate by Kathleen Parker which is a keeper.

For those who aren't keeping track (shame on you!!) 20 days 'til Opening Day (which really should be a Federal Holiday--everything save hospitals and bars should be closed) 2 good articles:

• Boone's one small step turned game upside down
  

As world-changing figures go, Aaron Boone may not be quite up there with Edison or Einstein. Or even Lennon and McCartney.

But Aaron Boone has left his mark, all right, even if he didn't mean to. He didn't mean to change what he changed: The Yankees. The Red Sox. A-Rod. The Curse. Not all of it. Not any of it.

Aaron Boone probably woudn't be an Indian today had it not been for his fateful night of hoops.
All he meant to do, on an innocent Friday night in January 2004, was play a little pickup basketball — not set off a chain of events that would one day send Curt Schilling's sock to the Hall of Fame.

• The Great Message Committee by George Will--Will gets to combine Baseball and Politics--his two passions into one column--who could ask for anything more? Two snippets

But to be fair to Waxman, he is a liberal representing Beverly Hills and Hollywood, so he is not expected to have a lick of sense regarding the limits of government, and he rarely sees a human activity that he does not think merits increased federal supervision.

Canseco says that during spring training 2001, when playing for the Angels against the Mariners and their second baseman Bret Boone, ``I hit a double, and when I got out there to second base I got a good look at Boone. I couldn't believe my eyes. He was enormous. `Oh my God,' I said to him. `What have you been doing?' `Shhh,' he said. `Don't tell anybody.''' But in five Angels-Mariners games that spring, Canseco never reached second base.