It's Saturday morning, September 13th, and I'm not sure but this could be a record: 21 MLB games will be played today. Due to 6 rainouts last night (1 because of Ike evacuations) there will be 5 make-ups as doubleheaders today because of the rainout last night and another make-up from a month ago (Sox-Jays). Throw in College Football and Sportscenter won't have any time for their homo puff pieces and will have just tons and tons of sports to report. It'll be like the mid-90's all over again!

Ugh. This was almost ready to go and then Brady’s knee got Gillooly’d by Bernard Pollack and I couldn’t think about football until now. By the way, love the consistency of the NFL – Vince Wilfork gets pushed into J.P. Losman in last season's opener and got flagged and fined; Pollack hits the reigning MVP below the knee and gets nothing. Anyway, I’m amazed by the amount of glee all the Patriots’ ‘Haters’ have shown to Brady’s injury and look forward to an exciting season.

Thank heavens we're done with the boring, pointless and mostly unnecessary preseason (like 1 or 2 games wouldn't suffice?) and we can finally move on to the real games. This is going to be a quick preview of the season and predictions of each team's final standings.

AFC East

The AFC or Alpha dog Football Conference is where all the parity talk in the NFL flies right out the window. Pencil in the Pats, Chargers and Colts. The rest of the teams comprise the beta dogs (well except for KC they could be best summed up as the three legged dog that urinates blood and lives in a gutter), and these teams will fight for the meager scraps left come playoff time.

Well, we're back from the break with some extended action......
MLB is in full swing as we enter August. Every division east of the Grand Canyon is hotter than a whore in church as no more than three games separate first and second in five of the six divisions.
-In the AL East, the Rays are holding on for dear life as the Sox methodically work towards first and the white-hot Yankees right themselves from their early struggles.
-The NL East is up for grabs as the Mets just put their claim on the division lead in taking two of three from Philly, meanwhile Florida refuses to go away.
-In the AL Central, the White Sox continue to slug their way through the division with a league-leading 143 HR, but the clutch hitting of the Twins has kept them in the race and now the resurgent Tigers look to put their paw print on the division.
-The NL Central hosts two of the best teams in the NL. The Cubs currently have the upper hand, but the Brewers are chugging along since CC joined the fray. Don't count out the Cardinals as they still have Pujols and who knows what impact the impending returns of Carpenter and Wainwright will have.
-The AL West has long been in the grasp of the Angels and while the Rangers and A's have made some noise, the true test will be to see if the Angels can secure home field advantage throughout the playoffs and maximize their use of that stupid monkey.
-And that brings us to the much maligned NL West, where the only thing hot in this division is the chimichangas they serve on the Mexican border. The putrid-ness of the division has allowed the fan favorite Rockies to make an appearance and their slim grasp of hope for a division title could quite possibly be the only exciting thing to come out of it.

Well, we’ve reached the 2008 All-Star Break and we have a new #1. As good as the AL East is, none of those teams have a winning road record, so something has to be said for the outstanding performance of the Angels on the road (31-18). You can check out the JBB (Just Before the Break) Awards written for this site here. And we hope you caught Josh Hamilton’s performance in the Home Run Derby – truly the greatest performance ever by a silver medalist!

1.
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim 57-38 (2)
-(4-3) K-Rod saved four more games (and blew one in dramatic fashion) this past week as the Angels took 4 out of the 7 on the road against their chief division rivals. No team in baseball has a bigger division lead and no team handles the pressures of playing on the road better (no AL team is above .500 on the road except them, at 31-18). They host the Red Sox right after the break which should be a good gauge for both teams as to where they are.

With a few games left before the All-Star break, let’s hand out some awards for the first half of a surprising baseball season. I figured I’d get this out in the open before 42 different writers for ESPN, CBS, FOX & Yahoo write on the same subject during the break. So with 3 games to go this weekend and then the Yankee Wet Dream of an All-Star Game, here are the 1st annual Just Before the Break Awards, or the JBBs.

AL JBB MVP: Josh Hamilton, Rangers (.309, 21 HR, 91 RBI)

The Rays have pushed themselves into the realm of the elite and they aren't getting it done by chance. Chew on this...The AL East has a + 195 run differential! Every team has scored more runs than they've allowed, and in the era of the unbalanced schedule that means the Rays have had their hands full. I mean compare that to the atrocious first place D-Backs division and its -185 run differential!

1.
Tampa Bay Rays 55-32 (1)
-(6-0) Break up the Rays! Without a doubt they are the story of the year, even if they were to collapse and fade now. But with they're solid starting pitching and young spunky lineup, they look like they've shaped to hang around. Evan Longoria has also emerged as a big-time front runner for rookie of the year.

Joba Chamberlain – The 22 year old pitching phenom of the New York Yankees. His mound presence is unequaled amongst pitchers in his age group.

Terminator- A cybernetic organism from the future hell bent on the assassination of the only threat to its existence….Sarah Connor.

Jobinator- A pitcher of pure domination and the future of his franchise, and with a steely calm collective cool he’s hell bent on the destruction of the main threat to his teams advancement….The Boston Red Sox.

The Target- Defending world champion Boston Red Sox.

A-Rod is reportedly separating from his wife of 5 years. This isn’t a surprise to most as his stripper quests have been repeatedly broadcasted nation wide, but what is surprising are all the rumors surrounding his latest fling. He’s been seen all about town with the one and only Madonna! She’s turning 50 in a month and a half! While I wouldn’t be immune to her overpowering sexuality a guy like A-Rod probably has the pick of the choicest girls of every city he visits.