Switching to a more amiable topic: baseball. Well, more amiable usually. I said to Tamar yesterday that the baseball gods are p**sing on me. I think you know who my two favorite players are. Ryan Braun is now a pariah, probably for the rest of his career, and Tim Lincecum is getting rocked every time out. He has started three times and has as many bad starts as he normally has in a season.

I wish I could have given Braun some advice last fall. He would be a lot better off now. As it is everyone thinks he is guilty and got off on a technicality. It would have been far better IMO to take the 50 game suspension, admit he was doping with whatever it was, and say he made a mistake. He could go around, on his own dime, telling young athletes I was wrong and please don't make the same mistake I did. People will forgive someone who admits they were wrong and is repentant. What they don't like is a liar.

While eating my dinner one night last week I watched some of the Brewers' road opener at Wrigley Field. Braun was booed and mocked mercilessly. As you know, he was previously one of the most popular players in baseball, the golden child. This was a whole new ballgame. The camera caught one sign with pictures of Braun and Barry Bonds and the caption "Two of a kind." This is going to be the rest of his career if he doesn't repent.

Lincecum, I haven't turned on him, he is just getting knocked around. I have to think there is something wrong with his arm. People have always said his pitching motion is so unorthodox it's inevitable that he will have arm trouble. For sure it isn't normal for a guy who weighs 160 or 170 to throw the ball close to 100 mph. The Freak, they call him. Unfortunately he doesn't play for a manager who coddles his pitchers. I am FURIOUS at Bruce Bochy. The other night he put closer Brian Wilson (no, not that one) out there back to back in early April, throwing 32 pitches in the second game. Guess what? His arm is blown and he is gone for the season, at least. Managerial malpractice.

We should figure out a way to take in a game one of these days. Maybe even a minor league game. I could go for a weekend road trip sometime this summer. Maybe if we play our cards right we can talk Tamar (and others) into it. Tamar and I have batted around the idea of taking in a game at Miller Park or Citizens Bank Park. (Ballpark names have lost their poetry, but never mind). They both have the same incredibly cool tradition at Sunday afternoon home games. Kids whose names are drawn by lottery stand next to the position players for the national anthem. Their names and home towns are announced. Can you imagine how cool that is if you're a 10 year old kid, standing on the field next to Ryan Howard or whoever?