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You all should be in a good mood this morning because the Chicago Cubs are all alone in first place. The magic number is down to 161.
- In case you haven't heard, Yu Darvish had a perfect game broken up with two outs in the ninth inning. It was broken up by former Cubs farmhand Marwin Gonzalez. It was even against the Astros, who were averaging eight runs a game coming into last night's game. OK, even though it was against the Astros, David Schoenfield of ESPN.com thinks this is a sign that Darvish is becoming one of the elite pitchers in the game.
- It wasn't with two out in the ninth. In fact, it was with one out in the fourth. But John Jaso broke up Felix Hernandez's perfect game on the day King Felix presented him with a new Rolex as a gift for catching his perfect game last year. Hernandez's response? "I was going to say 'Dude, what time is it?'"
- Robinson Cano fired his agent, Scott Boras, and is now represented by a new agency headed by Jay-Z. The immediate impact of this move is that 99 middle-aged journalists all made "99 Problems" jokes and thought they were the only one who thought of it.
- Yahoo!'s Jeff Passan thinks Cano's move is a big win for the Yankees. (And yes, he made a "99 Problems" joke.) On the other hand, SBNation's own Steven Goldman thinks that Scott Boras might have saved the Yankees from the curse of signing an aging Cano to a Alex Rodriguez-type crippling contract. (Goldman did not make a "99 Problems" crack. I'm proud to write for SBNation.)
- Elvis Andrus's big contract with the Rangers means that Ian Kinsler is going to have to move soon. Whether it's to first base or another team is yet to be determined.
- Scott Kazmir's comeback has taken a detour as he's likely heading to the disabled list before he even throws a pitch. If you're surprised by this, you were probably surprised by the ending of Argo.
- The Cardinals have at least seven storylines to follow this year.
- New Dodgers ownership is not high on restraint or understatement.
- It's time for the Blue Jays and their fans to stop living in the past and start creating new memories.
- Greg Cote of the Miami Herald thinks Miamians need to support the Marlins. Not for the current ownership, which he believes will go away one day, but to support baseball in Miami for generations to come.
- Jonny Venters got a plasma injection and is going to avoid surgery for now.
- C.J. Wilson and Josh Hamilton have good heads on their shoulders. Sorry, that should read they have good Head and Shoulders.
- Troy Tulowitzki, like Sedaka, is back.
- Stephen Nohlgren of the Tampa Bay Times found fans who like Tropicana Field.
- You've all seen the rosin bag exploding on A.J. Burnett since it happened in the Cubs opening game. There is a lot of speculation that it was an April Fools joke, but if it was, no one is claiming it. Still, Burnett has a reputation as a "pie-er." There is no shortage of suspects who might want to get him back.
- The Nationals 2013 season might as well be written by Charles Dickens, since it's all about Great Expectations.
- The White Sox will host MLB's annual Civil Rights Game.
- The Giants almost always start the season on the road, and that's the way they like it.
- Bloomberg has a good look at the origins of baseball's anti-trust issues. It all starts with Ty Cobb.
- I should have mentioned this earlier, but FanGraphs and Baseball-Reference have come to agreement on the definition of "replacement value." This won't eliminate the difference between the two sites on WAR, because they still use different formulas, but it should greatly reduce the difference between the two sites.
The Iowa Hawkeyes Men's Basketball Team is going to the NIT Championship Game after beating Maryland, 71-60 in the semi-finals. They'll take on Baylor on Thursday. You can laugh at the "Not-Invited Tournament," but only three teams (there's that CBI thing) get to end the season on a win and the Hawkeyes have a chance to be one of them.
And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster, because at worst the Cubs will still be a .500 ballclub!