Baseball standings on July 4
 

I don't follow baseball as closely as I did in my youth but I checked the standings today.

On July 4, the Atlanta Braves have the best record in baseball with a record of 57-27. AFter thirteen games, the Braves were 9-4. Tampa Bay, despite starting the season with 13 straight wins, has the second best record in baseball with a record of 57-31.

Every team in the AL East is at .500 or better (Boston is in last place and is 13 games behind) while the top team in the AL Central has a record of 44-43.

The Oakland Athletics have the worst team in baseball with a record of 23-63. They are 28 games out of first place!

The Phillies, who won the NL last year are in third place - 12 games back and the Houston Astros, who won the World Series last year, are 3 games back.

Oakland doesn't care. They will have a new taxpayer subsidized stadium in Las Vegas.

If you are a baseball fan, you might enjoy reading the cover story in the July/August issue of The Atlantic: “How Baseball Saved Itself” by Mark Leibovich. “Inside the desperate effort to rescue America’s pastime from irrelevance.”

— trying to keep games from being so looooong…….

“Candlesticks always make a nice gift.”

Boomer

The Mets have the highest payroll in MLB ($353 million) and the Yankees have the second highest payroll ($277 million).

The Mets are in next to last place in their division and are 18.5 games out of first place. The Yankees are tied with the Red Sox for last place in their division. They are 9 games out of first place.