Observations of the day

(1) This is just a new father's wonderment.

In chemistry class I learned that gas will fill the volume of its container, the question of the amount of the gas is answered by evaluating the density of the gas in that container. Thus a diver's air tank is "full" of air unless there is basically no air in it, but the density of the air (measured by air pressure) tells how much remains.

In babies, the density of gastronomical gases is thicker than Jupiter's atmosphere. How else can a little package unleash flatulence that sounds like either a Whoopie! cushion or some comedic gag from a raunchy movie?

And oh yeah, that claim that baby poo has no smell if he feeds straight from mother nature's tap is rubbish. Either that, or the purveyors of such tripe have no olfactory senses.

(2) Speaking of poo -- how 'bout them Yankees? Forget the three-game hiccup where they swept the RedSawx. The real Yankees are somewhere between the team that routed the Tampas and Torontos and the team that got whupped by Detroit, Baltimore (twice over) and Tampa. Here's some frightening stuff: (a) the Tigers are 13-27 since the break if you discount their 3-1 series win over the Yankees; (b) the Mariners broke a 9-game loser yesterday by whipping the Yanks; (c) the Yanks have ONE win from anyone other than Pettitte, Clemens or Wang in their last 20 games; (d) the Yanks' last four losses have been by a combined 40-4 score; (e) the Yanks, despite baseball's best offense, have scored more than 5 runs in a game just once in their past nine.

Oh yeah, Clemens is undergoing an MRI on his right elbow. All too often, that's the prelude to Tommy John surgery. If Clemens has any type of ligament damage, his career is over.

(3) Here's the question of the day -- can Phil Hughes be corrected like Ted Lilly was? When Lilly went to Toronto, the BloJs spotted something in his delivery. They corrected it by shifting the landing spot for his right leg closer to his body -- he was better able to keep the ball down and increased his velocity. Hughes has been basically a flyball-only pitcher since his return from the DL. His velocity is 90-92, not 93-95 as it had been. Is he failing the same way Lilly did? If so, can he correct it? The Monk believes Hughes will be HUGE in the near future (some Yankee homer ran the numbers for star pitchers like Maddux, Clemens, Palmer, when they were sub-23 and then 23-plus and found that age was a turning point -- Phil Franchise is 21), but guidance is necessary now.