This isn’t exactly how Gerrit Cole wanted it, but the 2011 No.1 overall draft pick finally gets what he thought he deserved a couple of months ago — his first major league start today for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

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Cole will face the visiting San Francisco Giants, plugging a hole in what has been a solid Pirates rotation but has been hit by injuries to Wandy Rodriguez and Jeanmar Gomez.

The former #1 draft pick throws in the high 90s, but he hasn’t been missing bats this season: 47 Ks ...

Confessions of a Fantasy dodger from Brooklyn.

They were yapping and rapping about their Fantasy League. A good shrink might even suggest that they were living in a dream world. Fantasy, dream; what’s the difference?

Off the top it sounded like something I should avoid—y’know, like poison ivy—because I also associate fantasy with silly and I really don’t have time for such nonsense. But slowly and surely I began to realize that these fellows treat fantasy as if it’s reality.

I mean ...

We are OK with Kirk Gibson hitting one of the most famous home runs ever on one steroid (cortisone), but we slam the Hall of Fame door on the face of everybody else who might have used the anabolic kind. Granted, cortisone is not a banned performance enhancer, but it certainly enhanced Gibson’s performance, which wouldn’t have been possible without it. Lost in the shouting of “Cheater!” and “Fraud!” from a pill-popping America is how often athletes have to go through the pharmacy ...