A-Rod was No. 1 on Tuesday for the fan who caught the ball, a 15-year-old Yankees devotee from Asheboro, N.C., named Randy Kearns, who was sitting in the lobby of the visitors' clubhouse with his mother and brother, waiting to give the ball to the right-handed-hitting slugger.

The family had driven five hours to see the Yankees, and Kearns caught the ball with his cap.

"This was the first time I've ever seen them," Kearns said of the Yankees. "It was worth the drive."

The Kearns family simply asked to see Rodriguez, who said he was going to give Randy a jersey, a couple of bats and some baseballs in return for the cherished home run ball. They hadn't asked for a thing.

"He just came to our security and volunteered to give the ball back," A-rod said. "That's pretty generous."

Oh, as soon as someone leaves the Phillies I can no longer be bothered to remember what his last name is.

Michael Jordan is playing great for the Braves this year.

Do they have a different Raul?

What is Raul Mondesi up to these days?

And here's the plus for both the parties and their nominees: The candidates aren't required to actually articulate, or even understand, the issues. All they have to do is vote the party line once elected.

"His intellectual shortcomings are obvious," one political observer notes. "We don't know of one project that Raul Mondesi has submitted."
...

The PRD rewarded that decision by backing his campaign for mayor of San Cristobal, surrounding him with a cabal of lawyers and professionals who arrived for a campaign meeting at Mondesi's nightclub and car wash recently wearing crisp white polo shirts with the candidate's name on them. Mondesi, looking as trim and fit as he did during three consecutive 30-home-run seasons with the Dodgers a decade ago, arrived nearly an hour later in a glistening white Mercedes S600, wearing a button-up shirt and a fishing hat and wanting to talk about alleviating poverty.

Most of the people, they don't have anything," said Mondesi, who grew up in crushing circumstances just a few miles away. "I know what they need, how they feel."

Asked for specifics, however, and the closest he comes to a campaign pledge is repeating a desire to build a basketball court in every neighborhood.

"The first thing," said Mondesi, who didn't study beyond grade school, "is to try to show the young people how to play sports."

His advisors quickly jump in, talking up plans to increase tourism, protect the environment and exploit the area's large free-trade zone -- subjects that Mondesi appears to have little grasp of.

Mondesi's nightclub and car wash

typical A-rod. Collecting a HR and winning by 2 when a triple would have been adequate for a one run win.

Mondesi, looking as trim and fit as he did during three consecutive 30-home-run seasons with the Dodgers a decade ago, arrived nearly an hour later in a glistening white Mercedes S600, wearing a button-up shirt and a fishing hat and wanting to talk about alleviating poverty.

The record isn't detailed enough to know how many times Gehrig batted with the bases loaded, right? It'd be fun to know who the alltime leader in grand-slam-percentage is, say with a minimum of 5.

The record isn't detailed enough to know how many times Gehrig batted with the bases loaded, right? It'd be fun to know who the alltime leader in grand-slam-percentage is, say with a minimum of 5.

It started with this "John Milner hit 131 homeruns in his career, of which ten were grand slams. He hit .249/.344/.413 overall and .308/.342/.785 in 80 bases-loaded PA’s. Pretty cool." - Shock

The record isn't detailed enough to know how many times Gehrig batted with the bases loaded, right? It'd be fun to know who the alltime leader in grand-slam-percentage is, say with a minimum of 5.

Home Run Tracker ranks Rodriguez's as the third hardest hit homer of the year.