FanNation

   A few thoughts while finally catching up in the tanning sweepstakes (I was young George Hamilton in the days before I became a nine-to-fiver):

   * Who would've ever thought we'd be knocking on the door of July with Tampa Bay leading the AL East? I didn't, but I won't complain. Last year, the Red Sox were 10 games up at this time and trying to fight off the ennui while on the same 95- to-97-win pace. It's kind of fun to see somebody other than the Yankees welcoming the Sox for a big series with some swagger in their step. Sure, Coco Crisp is sitting out his suspension from the little contretemps in their previous meeting, but there's a lot of old-school WWE heel heat in the Rays' dugout, along with plenty of starting pitching. Ominous sign for the Sox: After today's loss at Houston, they're now 2-10 in one-run games on the road. The soon the 2007 Hideki Okijima returns, the better.

   * After three in Tampa lie four games in New York over the holiday weekend. And the Yankees are following the same script as last season: horrible start, but perking up with the arrival of summer. If they're within five or six games when the wounded starting pitchers start coming back, look out.

   * With Bartolo Colon on the disabled list after a good initial run as Boston's retread  pickup, try not to be envious about Kyle Lohse. The Sox front office kicked his tires before the Cardinals picked him up, and all he's done is go 9-2 (and win his sixth straight start in Boston last weekend).

   * With much regret, we regular NESN viewers bid farewell this weekend (maybe not for long, if the Boston WBZ-4 rumors are true) to SportsDesk monitor and local gossip legend Hazel Mae. Given the hiring trend at NESN, Haze's, shall we say, non-Aryan good looks don't make it with the Red Sox network's braintrust.  

   * As someone who once landed on crutches as the result of a mishap on a miniature golf course, I will remain respectfully silent about Brandon Inge landing on the DL as the result of lifting a pillow...oh wait, who am I kidding? I wasn't getting paid seven figures to retrieve an errant ball down a hill when I slipped on wet grass.

   * Before we start comparing Fresno State's College World Series victory to a school from a one-bid conference winning the NCAA basketball tournament, let's keep in mind that baseball's tournament format, unlike basketball's, allows a team to lose three or four games and still take the national title. That said...what a run, fellas.

   * At least Tiger Woods have one thing in common now. I didn't have the full rebuild like he did (and therefore don't have that big scar to show off at summer parties), but my sister, a lawyer, has seen plenty of cases involving ACL surgery gone bad. Golf's track record with ACL reconstruction needs improvement - Brad Faxon had to have his redone, and his return to the tour is running behind schedule.

   * Golf and cheesecake in the same column? The lady of Agganis Manor is staring at me real funny right now, and I haven't even gotten to Rhode Island's latest pro golfer, Anna Grzebien. Even though she is 1-for-9 making cuts on the LPGA tour this year as a partially exempt pro (she usually has to play qualifiers to get into the field, as she did to get into this weekend's U.S. Open), she is a newly minted member of the Wilhelmina 7, the group of young LPGAers the famed modeling agency has selected to market as safe hetero role models now that Natalie Gulbis has gotten tired of being the It Girl of golf. Anna, I'm rooting for you to make on the tour like Faxon, Billy Andrade, Brett and Dana Quigley, Patrick Sheehan and Brad Adamonis have from our native state, but dammit, at least get your LPGA tour card before you start bucking for a Maxim layout.

   * All right, Bruins, it's your turn. Pats, Red Sox and Celtics within the last seven years, and even the Revolution has become the early '90s Buffalo Bills of pro soccer.

   * Lastly, courtesy of my brother, something Yankee fans will appreciate. The light poles in the parking lot at McCoy Stadium in Pawtucket are festooned with banners saluting PawSox alumni who've gone on to major league success, including Carl Pavano, even though he never pitched for the Red Sox (he was in the package shipped to Montreal for Pedro Martinez after the '97 season). Pavano's banner is located in the handicapped parking section.