The San Francisco Bay Area is a ‘Two-Team Town’ for all intents and purposes. You’ve got the San Francisco Giants in downtown San Fran and then you’ve got the Oakland A’s just on the other side of the bay. The distance is similar to that of Queens to Brooklyn, I’d imagine — maybe a little closer.

First off, it’s strange to be on west coast time. By the time you’ve left work the vast majority of teams have already played (some as early as 10:05am PST for the 1:05p starts) and there’s possibly only a few games left: LAA, LAD, SF, OAK, SD & SEA. Most of these teams play eachother, so that really means that there’s about 3 games left by 7:05 PST. It’s nice to watch (or listen) to the games at work via MLB.tv — because I feel like I can keep closer tabs on what’s going on. Especially being in a Fantasy League for the first time in years.

But the time difference aside, I actually enjoy the baseball here in the SF Bay area. It’s the opposite of New York where the American League Yankees dominate the headlines and water cooler gossip. Out here, the National League Giants are the focus of conversation and the A’s are an afterthought. The Giants are televised nearly every night whereas the A’s are a little harder to find. It’s nice to watch the Giants… watch HD quality baseball of two teams you could care less about. The ambivalence is relaxing. I’ve even found myself tuning into some Giants games during the day just to stay in touch with baseball.

Don’t worry, I am not going to turn into a Giants fan. The Sox are my pride & joy and I’m not getting involved with any team that does business with the likes of Barry Bonds. Most people feel the same here as well. I often hear “Yeah, I love the Giants.. but I hate Bonds.”

It’s nice having baseball on during the day. Kinda like the nice change with Sunday Morning Football. I’m not quite sure how I feel about the 8:05am start for Marathon Monday.. but apart from that, it’s ok. Besides, I’ve got one Sox fan neighbor in the cube next door, two on the floor above — and even better — not a Yankees fan in sight. I love this place.

Word on the street is that Trot Nixon has signed a one-year contract with the Cleveland Indians for $3 Million. Despite sitting out half of the regular season with a [insert body party here] injury, he has become a staple of the Boston Red Sox organization for the past ten seasons.

So long Number Seven. You will be missed.

Just a quick note that Doug “Chicken Parm” Mirabelli has hit a home run in each of his last three games, the first such streak of his career. Tonight, he is expected to start and catch for Curt Schilling, so let’s hope his streak continues.

On a final, somewhat bummed out note, I have to say that Dougie has been much, much less of a mystery in his second tour of duty with Boston. In his first, he was a teammate-bullying cult figure who inspired one of the funniest things I’ve ever read in my life. Yet this year, the media is seeking him out a lot more and we’re learning more about his feelings, admitting he was “nervous” catching Tim Wakefield again. He’s even sought out a “performance enhancement counselor.” Despite the loss of the illusion, Doug is back with a vengeance and in position to set a new single-season career high for home runs. Of course, he knows, I know, LTJ knows, and Captain Larby knows that he hit home run #10 that day at SkyDome. The City of Toronto is lucky that Doug didn’t go ninja on them and use the CN Tower to wipe out scores of people at once.