Fans Notebook: Parity Runs wild

Wilkerson's A Hit; Zito Sucks

Has Major League Baseball morphed into the National Football League? Through baseball's opening week, 19 of its 30 teams have 3-3 records. On top of that, there are no undefeated or winless teams left in baseball and only one team with one loss (Houston) and one with one win (N.Y. Mets).

Has Washington outfielder Brad Wilkerson found the perfect time to crawl out from under the rock that once was the Montreal Expos? Wilkerson hit for the second cycle (single, double, triple and homerun) of his career. Some teams have never hit more than one in their entire history. San Diego despite having Tony Gwynn for 20 years have never accomplished the feat.

No matter what the A's and Giants do they seem to instinctively find a common ground. After a strong opening day the Giants looked poised for an exciting season. The A's, on the other hand, couldn't find a clutch hit all day. The next two days found the opposite. After one week, the Bay Area rivals with nearly identical interleague records against each other, have similar records.

Tim Hudson opened with a victory for Atlanta and Mark Mulder threw well for the Cardinals, while Barry Zito hurled two consecutive clunkers. Why did they keep Zito? Because he was the pitcher with by far the lowest trade value...and it keeps dropping!

Since my retirement, I've had some time to watch Cubs' games on the dish. Since childhood, I've also adored the Cubs pinstripe uniforms and shade of blue against the backdrop and shadows of Wrigley Field. The only thing missing is definitely the late, great Harry Caray. Holy Cow!