Anything else on?

Jason Michael Barker

And I thought the lull before the All-Star break was bad.

Like a small child who was so excited to get out of school, but now doesn't know what to do with himself during summer vacation, I'm bored. Not bored with summer like little Timmy, but bored with baseball. For the first time since the strike, my Seattle Mariners aren't in a pennant race (some fans felt otherwise until the trade of Randy Johnson, but trust me, the M's haven't been in it all year). I've waited all season to see what sort of plentiful bounty the Mariners would receive in exchange for Johnson's services, but frankly, three players from Houston's farm system aren't all that exciting.

Don't get me wrong - I actually like the trade, or the potential of it, but I won't get to see Carlos Guillen, Freddy Garcia or Mr. PTBNL for awhile. I was looking forward to seeing Brian Giles in left field, or Mike Lowell at third, or Ismael Valdes on the mound. Instead of watching the games, I have to check the Tacoma Rainiers' box scores to see how the newest Mariners are doing. And oh yeah, Russ Davis is still at third, and he's still making errors.

OK, so maybe the baseball scene in Seattle is a little down right now. Big deal. I'm a baseball fan, not just a fan of baseball in Seattle, right? That would solve all of my problems, except baseball around the rest of the country doesn't seem all that exciting either.

Where are the pennant races? The Yankees lead the AL East by 15 games. Cleveland and San Diego lead their divisions by ten and eleven games respectively. The Braves have a 14.5 game lead on the second-place New York Mets. In the NL Central, the Astros lead the Cubs by four and a half, but Houston's addition of Randy Johnson has all but ended that race. The AL wild card race is equally over, with the Red Sox holding a six and a half game lead over the Anaheim "Do-Nothing" Angels.

For my money, there are two pennant races this season: the AL West, and the NL wild card. However, the AL West is a race in name only. Despite leading the Angels by just half a game, the Rangers have solidified themselves as the clear favorite with their acquisitions of Todd Stottlemyre, Todd Zeile and Royce Clayton. They've had the offense, and now they've got the pitching and defense to go along with it.

That leaves the Chicago Cubs, everyone's sentimental favorite, led by phenom Kerry Wood and sluggin' Sammy Sosa. The Cubbies lead the Giants by a game and a half, the Mets by three, and the Dodgers by four and a half. My money is on the Dodgers, who have been playing well of late and did the most to improve themselves for the wild card drive. They had to gut their farm system to do it, but LA added a solid starting pitcher in Carlos Perez as well as getting rid of 2B/OF Wilton Guererro. Translated, Guererro's full name means "He who makes outs."

What about the home run race, I hear you asking? I've had enough of it, to be honest. I'm tired of FOX cutting away to the at-bats of Sosa and Greg Vaughn when I'm trying to watch a game. No fewer than 50 other things could have happened in sports on a given day, yet ESPN insists on running clips of Mark McGwire striking out three times against the Phillies as the lead story on SportsCenter. Yawn.

Don't get me wrong, I still love baseball, whether in person, on TV or on radio. But until the playoffs start, there just isn't a whole lot to be excited about unless you're a fan of one of the handful of teams actually in a pennant race, a fan of the Yankees/Braves/etc. looking forward to the postseason, or an Astros fan who's excited about the Big Unit pitching every fifth day.

If you're one of those fans, good for you. If not, try to hang in there. The playoffs are just two months away, and then the real fun begins. At least until the Yankees go 11-0.

Jason Michael Barker just finished working on a book entitled "Buffet Table: The Life and Times of Chris Bosio." To purchase, send check or money order for $19.95 to jmb@strikethree.com. The first 100 buyers receive a limited edition bucket of fried chicken, autographed by "The Boz" himself.