I spent this past weekend strolling the tree-lined pathways on the campus of the University of North Carolina, indulging in some of Chapel Hill's numerous eating hot spots, and, of course, watching baseball.

Make no mistake, UNC is a basketball school. From Jordan to Perkins, Fox to Carter, many notable ballers have worn the Carolina blue that continues to unequivocally engulf the entire region.

Peruse Franklin Street in June, when school is out and we are about as far as we can get from college basketball season, and you would be beleaguered to find one shop not adorned with basketball shirts and jerseys.

Carolina basketball is and always will be the alpha dog in Chapel Hill.

But there's another program rising to the elite level, and that is Carolina baseball. The Tar Heels don't spring to mind when you think of the college baseball giants - the Texases, Southern Californias, and Louisiana States of the world - but they are carving out their own path into the annals of college baseball history, at a time when not many outside of Chapel Hill are looking.

The Tar Heels, college baseball's No. 4 national seed, hosted the East Carolina Pirates last weekend in the NCAA Super Regionals, and promptly beat them Saturday and Sunday to advance to the College World Series, which will begin Saturday in Omaha, Nebraska.

Only eight teams reach Omaha each spring, a dream that is shared by few and envied by many. One trip to Omaha makes a college career officially one worth cherishing.

So pardon this group of Carolina seniors if they pinch themselves over the next two weeks.

This is the fourth straight CWS appearance for head coach Mike Fox and his Tar Heels, becoming the first Atlantic Coast Conference team to accomplish such a feat.

Also with the newest Omaha trip, UNC became the first ACC school ever to reach a bowl game, the men's Final Four, and the College World Series in the same season. Not bad for an athletic department defined solely by the hardwood.

Where did the Tar Heels come from? That question is left without an answer as Fox wraps up his 11th season in Chapel Hill.

What is no mystery, though, is that all great programs have the ability to recruit the nation's top talents, and that is where Fox excels.

Twenty-seven of Fox's former Tar Heels are currently playing professional baseball, most notably Andrew Miller of the Florida Marlins, Daniel Bard of the Boston Red Sox, and Chris Iannetta of the Colorado Rockies.

Life as an elite program can be difficult at times, especially when signing a handful of the best high school prospects. UNC gets to handpick many of the best players around the country, true, but it is also reality that many of those players never make it to campus, and sign a professional contract out of high school instead.

If it weren't for college baseball's rule that requires players who enroll at a university to stay put for three seasons, sustaining any type of national pedigree may be virtually impossible.

This year's team will presumably lose multiple impact players. Junior first baseman Dustin Ackley is long gone, as he is regarded as the best hitter in this year's draft and is somewhat of a lock to be selected by the Seattle Mariners with the second overall pick in Tuesday's MLB Amateur Draft.

Ackley draws Chase Utley comparisons. If you have seen him play, you know why, and if you haven't, that's all you need to know.

Carolina's ace, Alex White, had an inconsistent junior season, but is still likely to be popped within the first 12-15 picks as his fastball and slider both grade as major league caliber pitches, and the right hander is closer to the big leagues than any of the acclaimed high school hurlers.

Third baseman Kyle Seager, who went 5-for-9 over the weekend, is also a junior and is expected to be drafted in the first few rounds. Throw in senior Adam Warren, Carolina's No. 2 starting pitcher, and that's a lot of talent leaving the club.

Of course, high school outfielder/quarterback Donovan Tate, who is signed to play both sports at UNC (expected to be a Top 10 pick), and Jacob Turner, a flame-thrower from St. Louis (expected to go in Top 15), probably won't ever know what a dorm room is.

There's hope for Coach Fox, though, as both players are represented by Scott Boras and will most likely come with steep price tags, which could scare off many teams as was the case in the 2007 draft with Rick Porcello, a UNC signee who was regarded as the top high school arm in the draft but fell to the Detroit Tigers with the 27th pick due to bonus demands (only to sign for richest high school contract ever, worth a total of $11.1 M, and is now pitching in the big leagues at 20 years old).

But losing recruits to the draft is like having such an amount of wealth that you don't know how to efficiently invest all of it in different markets. It's a good problem to have.

Any player would be lucky to spend three or four years in Chapel Hill playing in Boshamer Stadium - undoubtedly one of the nation's most scenic and prestigious facilities - with the opportunity to reach college baseball's ultimate stage.

Fox has not won it all during his time in Carolina, coming close twice in '06 and '07, but that remains the only thing the Tar Heels haven't done in his tenure.

The fact that the Texas Longhorns have won two rings under Auggie Garrido in the past eight seasons, and are vying for a third this year, should put them at the top of the national pecking order, for now.

But USC hasn't been relevant since their national championship in '98, and Cal State Fullerton is the only other perennial powerhouse that has shown the capability of consistently returning to national prominence, winning it all in 2004.

Considering the routine June trips to the Midwest for North Carolina, if the Tar Heels finally win the ring this season, that will cap a resume that begs to be labeled a dynasty as we welcome the next decade of great programs.

Teddy Mitrosilis is a staff writer for Around The Majors. He also writes for Bleacher Report. You can reach him at tm4000@yahoo.com.

My eyes were jolted wide open weeks before that laser barrage on Yankee Stadium last summer that culminated Josh Hamilton's rise back to baseball glory.

I leaned back in my chair about 10 rows above the visitor's on-deck circle at Angel Stadium last spring, approximately 90 minutes before first pitch, and I was mesmerized.

I was mesmerize by the sound, the speed, the power, the rhythm, the flight, and, ultimately, the landing.

Let me tell you, even in this day of suppressed savings accounts and preposterously-priced sports tickets, watching Hamilton take batting practice is easily worth the price of your ticket. If you get to enjoy a great ballgame too, well, that's just dessert.

It was that day I realized how special Josh Hamilton really is, and what he means to the Texas Rangers. There was nobody else like him in that batting cage. Balls were coming off his bat like sticks of dynamite drunk on kerosene, Hamilton's toothpick bat (at least that's what it looked like resting in his hands) providing the ignite.

The force with which Hamilton hit the ball was tantalizing as it was adorned with such grace and fluidity. Regular men aren't made to hit baseballs like that, but is clear that there is nothing regular about Hamilton.

He was making the rest of his big league teammates look like the scrawny sophomore on your high school team, feebly slapping balls around the diamond. The only one to come close to Hamilton's power was Chris Davis. And when I say close, I mean like the difference between black and white and Blu-ray. So, really, not that close.

But as the Texas Rangers enjoy a 4.5 game lead over the Los Angeles Angels in the American League West, the club was gut-punched by Tuesday's news that Hamilton has been put on the disabled list with an injury that has been referred to as both an abdominal strain and a sports hernia, largely the same thing.

Given Texas' typical array of pitching woes, we could say that they are always dating Ms. Bleak but now, with Hamilton's absence, appear to be engaged to Ms. Doom.

Hamilton had an MRI and was examined by Dr. John Preskitt, according to reports, but the prognosis of Hamilton's injury still remains unclear. The best case scenario is that Hamilton misses two weeks, and is back in the Rangers' lineup by the end of June.

The worst case scenario, which would include hernia surgery, is that Hamilton misses two months and then takes a couple weeks to regain his normal form, time that Texas doesn't necessarily have considering their indelible history of wilting under the Arlington summer heat. Will Texas still be floating above the surface in late August or early September? Too early to know.

Hamilton has already been marred by injury this season after enjoying a monstrous 2008 season that fully welcomed him back to baseball, and sanity, after his thoroughly-documented fight with drug and alcohol addiction.

Hamilton missed about two weeks of play, beginning in late April, after straining his rib cage crashing into a wall in Toronto. Coincidentally, Hamilton first hurt his groin, which morphed into his current abdominal pains, making a highlight catch against the outfield wall against the Angels on May 17.

It's not that the Rangers can't win without Hamilton, because they still are one of baseball's best offenses without him. The Rangers rank first in the A.L. in home runs, despite the fact that Hamilton has hit only six, and rank fifth in runs

But there isn't enough reason to believe that Texas can remain such a potent offense when they are away from their home digs. Chris Davis, who has contributed 12 home runs, is hitting .189 and has struck out in nearly half of his at-bats.

Hank Blalock has 12 bombs on the year, but his .293 OBP reeks of his perpetual disagreement with Ball Four.

It is clear that the Rangers will always live and die with the long ball, but what happens when these aforementioned names hit power droughts sometime over the summer, which will inevitably happen? They don't offer anything else to the offense.

That leaves Ian Kinsler and Michael Young with the bulk of the responsibility, and that's not enough. Both tremendous players, but no lineup can survive on two guys.

Nelson Cruz has had a wonderful first half thus far, he of the .959 OPS, but we need to see more of him before we can say with any certainty that he is a trustworthy cog in Texas' attack.

The Rangers have gotten here without Hamilton, partly due to the rest of the A.L. West's ineptitude, but they cannot finish the season on top without Hamilton raking in the middle of the order like the elite hitter that he is.

It won't happen.

The pitching staff, led by team president Nolan Ryan and pitching coach Mike Maddux, has shown a more aggressive mentality on the mound than in prior seasons. The Rangers hurlers don't appear to be afraid of contact like they have in the past, but they still only rank in the middle of the pack in the A.L. in earned runs.

Texas' pitching staff has always been the kid with asthma trudging along at the back of the race. For the first time in a long time, it appears that they may have enough guidance and enough talent (if you don't know who Neftali Feliz is yet, you will soon) to keep pace with rest of the runners.

And that's the thing about these Rangers. They have a chance to do something, a chance to put that first building block in place for the future of the franchise.

I can still see all of those rainbows that Hamilton hit on that sunny day in Anaheim, well before the camera lights went on.

Hamilton's blasts were touching down in far-reaching crannies of the bleachers that most ball seekers didn't even imagine of searching.

Hopefully for the Rangers, while Hamilton is nursing his hernia back to health, they don't land in the quite familiar cold crannies of the pennant race.

Teddy Mitrosilis is a staff write for Around The Majors. He also writes for Bleacher Report. You can reach him at tm4000@yahoo.com.

In this era of crazed puppet ad campaigns and potential dynasties derailed primarily by feuds and dollars, it is refreshing to see a star who truly loves his city.

A star who wants to drive his city, who wants to elevate the popularity and history of his city as a token of appreciation for his ever-swelling fame and fortune.

No, America isn't going to be treated to The Great Debate that is Kobe versus LeBron - which has taken on such intemperance that it feels like a corporate pitch more than a competitive rivalry - but we will be treated to our first real taste of Dwight Howard in the national spotlight, and that is no consolation prize.

The Orlando Magic have been dubbed as an Eastern beast for a while now, but nobody outside of the Orlando locker room conceded that the Magic had any plausible chance to knock King James off his heralded throne in the Eastern Conference Finals, underestimating the power of belief in your teammates.

Howard is unequivocally the most dominant big man in the NBA today - apologies to Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan, et al. - and he isn't close to operating in first gear, relying on brute strength to create the bulk of his scoring opportunities instead of possessing a distinct low-post move.

But this version of Howard reminds me of a former Orlando center who didn't have a go-to shot, some fella who goes by Shaq. I think that career worked out all right.

We like to force current superstars into the molds of past legends, if only for comparison sake, but lets not be so hasty with Howard.

Why? Because Howard has a chance to do more than O'Neal ever did in Orlando, and that's not suggesting that Howard will have a more illustrious career than O'Neal, who will retire as one of the Top-10 big men ever, and one of the 50 greatest NBA players in history.

To place such burdens of eminence on the shoulders of Howard, as broad and impressive as they are, is irresponsible and unfair. But what Howard can do that O'Neal never did, is stamp his name as a pillar of Orlando, a guy the city can claim as its own.

The Shaq hysteria was short-lived in Orlando, beginning with the selection of O'Neal first overall in the 1992 draft. O'Neal teamed with Penny Hardaway and Horace Grant to take the Magic to their first NBA Finals in franchise history in '95, one that ended gruesomely in a sweep by Olajuwon's Houston Rockets.

Orlando returned to the Eastern Conference Finals in '96, but were dismantled by Jordan and the Bulls, and O'Neal promptly bolted for Los Angeles as a free-agent that summer. That was that; Shaq will forever be remembered as a Hollywood guy.

But here's Howard, preparing for his first NBA Finals appearance at only 23 years old, and only beginning to take advantage of his unfathomable amount of talent and athleticism.

Howard has four years remaining on his current contract, but he is dreaming of much more than that.

"You know what? I'll be here as long as the fans want me to be here," Howard told the Orlando Sentinel. "I tell my friends this: I want to stay here. It will be based upon the city. We want the support of our fans. That's what carries us, that's what inspires us, that's what keeps us motivated."

If that's the case, Howard shouldn't be going anywhere.

Magic general manager Otis Smith is going to have to pony up the dollars to keep one of the game's brightest smiles in Magic blue, but given Howard's production, the inevitable growth of his game, and his willingness to embrace the city and take partial responsibility for its direction, how could he not make that financial commitment?

"You want to feel loved. That's the biggest thing. I show my love to the community. I show my love to this city by stepping on the floor every night and playing as hard as I can. That's all we want back," said Howard.

And I would say that Orlando's fans have given their love to Howard and his teammates, and then some. Amway Arena has been a guillotine for opposing teams, as the Magic have gone 7-2 at home in the playoffs in front a regularly boisterous, white-towel waving crowd.

Much of the Orlando's run should be credited to the supporting cast around Howard - including Rashard Lewis, Hedo Turkoglu, Mickael Pietrus, and Rafer Alston - but Howard is the glowing ember that ignites this entire inferno.

Howard was named the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year for the '08-'09 season, and the playoffs have become merely his coming out party. In the post season, Howard is averaging 21.7 points, 15.4 rebounds, and 2.2 blocks per game.

This interior dominance isn't new, as Howard has been terrorizing the paint since his entrance into the league, but it is time that Howard is recognized as The Franchise in Orlando, a rightful owner of a place among basketball's next generation of brand bearers.

You don't let guys like Howard slip through your fingertips and into the abyss of our nation's most frenzied media markets.

When you have a guy who is the youngest player in NBA history to 3,000, 4,000, and 5,000 rebounds, you cherish him.

When you have a guy who is the youngest player in NBA history to lead the league in rebounds and blocks, you defend him.

When you have a guy who is the youngest player in NBA history to average a double-double, you swear by him.

"My responsibility is to my family first, then the organization and then my city. I will never turn my back on this city as long as they don't turn their back on me," said Howard.

"I've always wanted to see Orlando on top because we've always been overlooked -- not just as a basketball franchise -- but as a city. I do a lot for the community, especially in the African-American community, because of what goes on. I try to do my best."

"So I love this place. I want to stay here."

There is a new Superman in Orlando.

If the Magic play this one right, there will never be a departure, and no love will be lost.

You can reach Teddy Mitrosilis at tm4000@yahoo.com.

For years now, Major League Baseball has pushed its All Star Game - the Midsummer Classic - as the ultimate showcase of the game's best players. While that is not exactly a preposterous statement, it is at best a fallacious one.

If that weren't true, we wouldn't have the bevy of "Most Snubbed" debates every time balloting rolls around that we do. We quickly realize that the most popular players are getting their names punched while some of the best (at least in that given year) players are being left at home.

I'm not criticizing the All Star Game, necessarily, but it is time to be honest about what it is and what it represents. It's a showcase of the biggest names, the most marketable faces, and is a cash cow of marvelous proportions. The event is more about publicizing and growing the game than awarding the most deserving players of the year.

Fine. I'm cool with that, because the stars need to be ambassadors of the game and all of that. I get it. If baseball is going to truly put on an event for the fans, the main attractions need to be there.

There's nothing worse than going to Disneyland and learning that Space Mountain and Splash Mountain are under construction. The All Star Game works on the same principle.

But with word on the streets of Hollywood that Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Manny Ramirez currently sits fourth among National League outfielders in All Star votes, the reactions in the living rooms of America shouldn't be so negligent.

With Ramirez missing 50 games in the first half due to his steroid suspension, is there any excuse out there that can be made for voting him into the All Star Game?

I say no, but as my inbox continues to flood daily with "Vote For Manny!!!!" threads, it is apparent that there is a group of fans out there with an agenda.

Except what's the agenda? It just seems like nothing but a stupid idea to me.

Voting Ramirez into the All Star Game won't be some slap in the face for Commissioner Bud Selig. It will only push the Commish closer and closer to withdrawing the majority vote from the fans.

Voting Ramirez into the All Star Game won't prove that baseball has lost all control. It will only proclaim that there is a large assortment of fans who care nothing about the integrity of the sport, which is as disgusting as any steroid abusing player.

A major shortcoming is that we use the All Star Game as a tool of evaluation when it comes time to flash the high-beams on a player's career. If the All Star Game is as trivial as it has proven to be, how can that be part of any Hall Of Fame case made for any player pre-induction? It can't be, but it still is.

We act like making 5 All Star Games is an incredible achievement - and in many ways, it certainly is - but who really cares when we know that the largest fan bases (directly related to cities with larger populations) will vote 20 times per day for their hometown boy?

We as fans have made it clear that we are incapable of selecting ballplayers to the All Star Game based on merit, so therefore it is time that MLB makes some changes with its summer festival.

First off, do away with the rule that requires every team to send a representative. I'm sorry, but if you are a team that doesn't have one player who is worthy of earning an All Star selection at his position, maybe you should ... get better players?

In all likelihood, every club has at least one player who is worthy of playing in the game, so this shouldn't be a common predicament.

But if you are getting boat-raced in your division, can't put enough exciting talent on the field to sell tickets, and can't produce a product entertaining enough to create any sort of buzz throughout your community, I don't want to hear it. The Virgin Islands awaits all twenty-five members of your team for a few days. The sunscreen is on us.

For the actual festivities, the All Star Game needs to be a two-day event, and I'm not counting the celebrity softball game as part of this.

The celebrity softball game is like a stale, oversized hotdog bun that splits in half at first bite, leaving you with too much bread, too little hotdog, and mustard on your lap. It's utterly useless, if not painfully annoying.

Moving on.

The Home Run Derby needs to be shortened and be part of an entire Skills Contest. The NFL and NBA both have skills contests in their All Star festivities, and they work wonderfully. The Derby would be like the Dunk Contest, the encore lurking at the end of a great show.

The Skills Contest is where fans are encouraged to play favorites and vote for whomever they wish to see compete. The events of the Skills Contest could even be left up for the fans to vote on, if they wish.

Want to see the best outfield arms in one big throw-off? We can make that happen. Want to see the best hands in the middle of the infield make Web Gem after Web Gem? We can make that happen.

How about a contest where the players, representing specific sections of the crowd, attempt to land bunts on designated areas of the infield grass, all worth a certain prize for their sections? We can make that happen.

If you have an idea, and it is remotely fathomable, pass it along and Major League Baseball can consider it for fan voting for the Skills Contest.

That's that. The actual game itself needs to be reserved for the players who deserve to be in it, whether that is superstar Derek Jeter or rookie Adam Jones. If we want the All Star Game to mean anything, it just has to be that way.

We can still allow the fans to vote for the All Star Game - thus giving them the opportunity to actually get it right - but have a MLB administered panel in place to make any necessary corrections.

For instance, if voting ended this week and Boston's Dustin Pedroia was voted the starting second baseman for the American League over Toronto's Aaron Hill, the panel would step in and correct that popularity-induced misfire.

If not, trash the game - since it's irrelevant - save the exhibition inning on the pitchers' arms (you know, the one where his organization could care less if he performs well as long as he makes it out of the game healthy and intact for the second half), and come up with something else that involves the players and is fun for the fans.

Like a wiffle ball game, where everybody plays but position players have to pitch (since no team is letting their ace sling a wiffle ball around).

I know, that's a crazy, if not absurd, idea, but so is cheating a guy who has had a great first half out of playing in the real game because he spent 7 years in the minors, isn't endorsed by Nike, and plays on the Pirates, and therefore not many people have heard of him.

Whatever it is, we need to do something or else the All Star Game is soon going to take on the life of the Pro Bowl.

Yeah, there's cemeteries livelier than that.

Teddy Mitrosilis is a staff writer for Around The Majors. You can reach him at tm4000@yahoo.com.

Perched atop baseball's high chair is a commissioner, players' union, and collection of affluent owners that are proud of how far Major League Baseball has come since the league hammered out a substantial revenue sharing deal during collective bargaining in 2002.

In October 2006, Selig and Donald Fehr, head of the players' association, announced that the league and union reached a five-year labor agreement that will ensure baseball is played without stoppage through the 2011 season.

These agreements have been imperative for MLB to continue to build its brand while supplying the loyal fans of America an entertaining product that they can feel eager to support to unconditional lengths, fiscally and emotionally.

The byproduct of these movements have been an ubiquitous increase in parity and a tantalizingly competitive landscape during the last five years. Both beautiful things.

With the Phillies, Red Sox, Cardinals, and White Sox winning the last four World Series, and the Rays, Rockies, Tigers, and Astros being their counterparts, it is obvious that homegrown talent is the preferred path to success, and the loot is becoming more of a moot point.

The sheer irrelevance of the economically powerful Yankees in October during the better part of this decade is enough in itself to solidify that point.

Okay, that much we know. We know what it means to the spirit of fans when the majority of ball clubs have a legitimate chance to compete for a title at the outset of a season.

But what we also know is that it takes much more than a fat bankroll to roll through October and size up a city for championship rings, so I'm not ready to sympathize for poorly-ran, small market clubs that can't come within a Babe Ruth long ball of postseason play.

And, to be honest, there is a major void in the sport when the power houses at the top of the food web aren't battling each other for playoff spots and playoff victories.

I've enjoyed every underdog story that has erupted onto the national scene in recent years including the improbable run of the '08 Rays only to fall to a championship-starved city of Philadelphia; the resurgence of Kenny Rogers and emergence of Justin Verlander in '06; 'Rocktober' in '07; and the most memorable moment for a White Sox franchise, that has been historically paralyzed by Shoeless Joe Jackson and the rest of his 1919 Black Sox gang, in '05.

But for us to enjoy the most entertaining league possible, from top to bottom, there has to be a level of elite teams, a level of contending teams, and a level of teams that are reading fantasy football magazines instead of scouting reports come September.

That will surely infuriate the fans that don't usually get to buy playoff seats, but there has to be some sacrificial being for the betterment of any league. And putrid franchises CAN become contenders with the right process; you don't need to look any further than Tampa Bay.

That is why I couldn't be more excited that the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox appear to be strong and waltzing down the same collision course destined for autumn.

Ever since Dave Roberts swiped a precious bag on a cool evening in Fenway in October '04, and the Red Sox completed The Comeback against Pedro's self-proclaimed 'Daddy', the Yanks have been busy scuba diving on the bottom of the Hudson River while Boston has been building its empire sans its legendary foil.

I'm sorry, but baseball has not been better for this. You don't have to be emotionally invested in either one of these clubs - you can hate them, if anything - but the dramatic theater that they provide is second to none. Rivalries, especially one as storied as NY-BOS, create a galvanizing buzz throughout the entire world of sport.

Playoff baseball has not been more exciting since the days of grilling Grady Little and exalting Aaron Boone. They just haven't, and that's because every great playoff needs  a little history.

Don't get this twisted. I'm not proposing that it would be good for baseball if the Red Sox and Yankees appeared in 10 of the next 12 World Series and won eight of them combined. That is NOT what I'm saying.

What is important, is their presence and relevance in October, for two distinct reasons.

First, having the behemoths in the playoffs is great for the fans. Well, how could this be great for fans that don't root for the Yankees and Red Sox, you ask? Simple.

Without the Yankees, what would be the crowning moment of the Florida Marlins franchise? A hyperventilating collapse of Jose Mesa?

Without New York, how sweet is October '01 for the Arizona Diamondbacks and their fans? Not nearly as tasty, right? Of course not, because they are the official slayers of the Bronx stranglehold on October. Their World Series title sucked the magic out of the majestic, and launched this whole era of even competitiveness (yeah ... I made that phrase up).

Without the Red Sox pushing the Tampa Bay Rays to reach for the ultimate prize, would they have even gotten to the World Series last year? I think so, but you can't say that playing the Seattle Mariners in the ALCS would be as appealing to them as kicking the snot out of Boston, the bad boys they brawled with only months earlier.

One of the best games I have ever watched was Josh Beckett's impersonation of Tiger Woods' "Hello World" moment - Game 6 of the '03 Fall Classic. A baby-faced Beckett hurled a complete game in Yankee Stadium to clinch the second title for the upstart Marlins, tagging Jorge Posada for the final out of the game and giving the finger to New York history in the process.

Second, having storied franchises clash in October grows the game of baseball nationally and globally because those are the only games that will draw in the casual fan.

A baseball junkie, like myself, would become engulfed in any playoff series, because that's what we fanatics live for. But a man who is merely looking for a little entertainment to hold him over until his Sunday NFL binge is not going to worship a series like Rays-Phillies, especially when the teams have to trudge through a Nile River's worth of water to play.

It ain't happening. But Sabathia versus Beckett in Fenway, winner goes to the World Series? People are pausing their schedules for that.

I hear you fans in Atlanta and Chicago and Phoenix, but don't tell me you wouldn't watch. If you were truly a sports fan, you would. You just would.

And, ultimately, that is why I am giddy looking at the standings and seeing the Yankees and Red Sox atop the A.L. East as we close in on June. A remarkable summer is being assembled, and that is how it should be for baseball.

Really, I don't care who wins. I prefer some teams more than others, but I root for epic stories, performances, and games.

There will come a time - probably soon - when the Blue Jays (I plead guilty to premature praising), Orioles, Royals, Tigers, Rangers, and others, will be competing for their moment on the biggest stage, and they need the powerhouses in place to fully seize the spotlight.

Without the alpha dogs, there are no hungry, undersized fighters that we all can relate to and cheer for.

One servant's ascent to glory is accompanied by one king's fall from grace.

Teddy Mitrosilis is a staff writer for Around The Majors. You can reach him at tm4000@yahoo.com.