• Who would've thunk it? The Rangers won more games than the Phillies. Randy Johnson could have won every one of his 35 starts, and the Diamondbacks still wouldn't have even challenged for a wild-card berth. Jason Giambi hit .213 for the season, 90 points lower than his career batting average entering 2004.

• Say goodbye to NFL parity. The Patriots, Colts, Eagles and Seahawks have simply been dominant. The Buccaneers, 49ers and Dolphins are simply horrid. And that's not even counting all of the unbeatens (Falcons, Jets) and winless (Bills, Chiefs).

• Hall of Fame resumé for the retiring Edgar Martinez, the best designated hitter ever: .312 BA, 309 HR, 1259 RBI, 1216 R, seven All-Star Games, two batting titles, six 100-RBI seasons. Very similar to Will Clark, who retired with a .303 BA, 284 HR, 1205 RBI, 1186 R and six All-Star Games. Knocks against both: no rings, neither were regulars among top-10 MVP vote-getters. Martinez finished third in 1995 and sixth in 2000. Clark won the 1989 NL MVP.

• Single tickets to a potential Game 1 of the ALCS at Yankee Stadium were still available on Ticketmaster.com Sunday. If you wanted to pay $82 ($65 + $17 in extra charges) for what is normally an $18 upper deck seat. I passed. Face value on the same World Series ticket is $140. Throw in a few beers at $8 a clip and you're looking at more than $600 for you and three of your buddies to sit in the nosebleeds. Take that shit to a bar, I say. Or get two years' worth of DirecTV's NFL Sunday Ticket, a ton of booze and get those friends together for 34 weeks of regular-season football.

• Rice scored 63 points in regulation on Saturday and missed covering the spread by more than three touchdowns. San Jose State, a 14½-point underdog, scored 70 in a game that featured 19 touchdowns.

• If the idea of ESPN airing the National Scrabble Championship shocks you, wait till you find out one of the participants had a real, live girlfriend in the crowd.

• Is there anyone alive who considers the Braves anything more than a postseason speed-bump? Seriously, does Vegas take any money at all on this team in October?

• Through four games, Purdue quarterback Kyle Orton has completed nearly 70 percent of his passes for 1,367 yards and 17 touchdowns, has thrown zero interceptions and ran for two scores. Folks, that's sick. His TD-to-INT ratio in those four games — 4-0, 4-0, 5-0 and 4-0. All adds up to a 194.1 passer rating and a monopoly on early season Heisman talk.

Other Sports Links:

• Giambi the Anti-AL MVP — Joel Sherman of the New York Post hands out his baseball awards and finds one for the Yankees' first baseman who can't hit, field or run. He also gives Javier Vazquez the anti-Cy Young for being most disappointing. He's been as unreliable as the cable company.

• 1980 U.S. Hockey Throwback Jerseys — I saw the movie Miracle last week, and I couldn't put it any better than the Washington Post's Mark Jenkins, who wrote, "For moviegoers who think if you've seen one sports flick, you've seen 'em all — well, you've definitely seen this one." On a scale of 1-to-10, I give it a blah. Kurt Russell was great. The hockey action was crisp and legit (they casted hockey players first and actors second), but the rest was predictable and uninspiring.

• Looking For Mr. Really Big — TIME magazine on NBA scouts' search for the next Shaq. And they ain't looking in U.S. urban areas.

• Why Is Barry Such an A-Hole? — Skip Bayless says Bonds does it to drive himself, going so far as to not "meet the widow and children of a 9/11 victim who were going to be honored before a game. Barry said no, he doesn't break his pre-game routine or concentration for anybody."

• Pedro Martinez Featured on Wheaties Box — Lately he reminds more of fried chicken than wheat flakes, but whatever.

• Top Ten Changes for Madden 2006 — Users weigh in on improvements for next year's game.

• Awesome NBA Video Clips — Some of the greatest highlight moves in history, including Vince Carter's amazing dunk over 7-foot-2 Frederic Weis, a 70-foot alley-oop pass from Jason Williams and Tracy McGrady just abusing Kornel David on a slam. Also see a medley of Carter's performance a the 2000 Slam Dunk contest.

• Gary Sheffield's Top Ten on Letterman — Among the Top Ten New York Yankees Strategies For Winning the World Series: "Never swing at the first pitch and always hit the cutoff man. Or some crap like that."

• MLB Postseason Schedule — Both American League series go Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, and Saturday and Sunday, if necessary. The ALCS kicks off next Tuesday night.