Ed. Note: Written before yesterday's games. Having publishing issues.

What a wonderful time to be a baseball fan. There are all sorts of great stories out there but I'm not sure we're getting enough coverage of them. The public seems to be more interested in what Jessica Simpson is going to wear for the pre-game. . . whatever. . . before tonight's football game. Me, could care less. I'm interested in what's going on at the ball park.

The Astros! Wow, talk about putting it all together. They've been unreal of late winning 12 in a row to take the lead in the hunt for the Wild Card. Not only have they won 12 in a row, they've won 20 of their last 23. Talk about a turnaround. The Astros are a class organization with many class players and I'd love to see them make a run at getting to the World Series. They've always had the hitting but now the pitching has turned it around. Brad Lidge has been lights out.

St. Louis. 93-46. Pujols, Rolen, Edmonds, Walker, Renteria. The team has been fantastic. They were everyone's pick to finish third in the division and they've gone out and posted the best record in the bigs by a healthy margin. They can rake and play fantastic defense. They are going to be a fun team to watch in the playoffs.

Florida. Here we go again. Just when it was starting to look like they were not going to have enough to get into the playoffs they've rattled off 9 in a row. Becket and Burnett have been great of late and the offence keeps chugging. I like the Padres and the Astros more for the Wild Card but they have been plenty impressive. They did it last year so I wouldn't put anything by them yet.

Boston. Talk about getting hot at the right time. Great start to the season. Couple months of .500 play. Then they just went off. Since August 1st they are 28-8. They just mowed down Oakland, Texas and Anaheim going 8-1 in those games. I initially thought the Sox couldn't catch the Yankees because of how strong the Sox schedule was and how weak the Yankee schedule was. But, the tough part is over and now the Sox play Baltimore, Seattle and Tampa the rest of the way. And, oh yeah. The Yankees for 6 games.

We've got another 3 1/2 weeks to go and I'm going to be watching every bit of it.