BASEBALL: the STANDINGS; HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES.

sports-notebook.blogspot.com . . . FOR MORE ANALYSIS, GO TO "MILE HIGH SPORTS RADIO," AM1510 or FM93.7, and to Denver’s best sports blogging team---milehighsports.com. SPORTS NOTEBOOK posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of each week. Ed., Publ., Marvin Leibstone; Copy & Mng. Ed., Gail Kleiner. . . NOTE TO READERS: VACATION PERIOD--- NEXT POSTING, AUGUST 19: . //. . . BASEBALL: the STANDINGS; HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES. . . MLB---THE AL West’s Oakland A’s are atop their division and above both MLB leagues today with 65 wins, the first franchise to have more than 60. Of the five other division leading clubs, the NL West’s L.A. Dodgers and the NL Central’s Milwaukee Brewers are close with their 59 wins each, and the AL East’s Baltimore Orioles have 58 wins, while the NL East’s Washington Nationals and the AL Central’s Detroit Tigers have 57 wins per. And, the AL West’s second place club, the L.A. Angels, they have 63 wins, second best within the AL and re. both leagues. But the Tigers are the most secure among the division number one teams, from a five game edge over second place team, the K.C. Royals. Of the six leading club edges from the top, the A’s is precarious, just two up over the Angels. Most in danger of a drop back are the AL West’s Dodgers, only one win above the S.F. Giants. As for division third place teams, three are above .500, in worst condition the NL West’s 46-58/.447 San Diego Padres, 12 games back of first place and which has more losses and the same low number of wins accrued by the AL Central’s last place team, the 47-57 Minnesota Twins, and two wins less than the AL East’s last place club, the 48-57 Boston Red Sox, a team that’s 10 games back of first place. Best shape third position teams are the NL Central’s 55-49 Pittsburgh Pirates and the AL East’s 54-50 N.Y. Yankees, three and four games back of first respectively. Lowest number of wins to date? That record belongs to the AL West’s last place team, the Texas Rangers---41 wins, a win below fourth position team, the 42-63 Houston Astros, and a win below the NL Central’s last place club, the 42-61 Chicago Cubs. . . Hall of Fame---AMONG this year’s Hall of Fame inductees were several managers and a baseball writer, Roger Angell, highlighting two facets of the game of baseball, that its teams need effective leadership 24/7, and that the game needs a direct line to its fans that is as true as true can be. The year’s chosen inductees seem the perfect manifest for a flight to remembrance of baseball’s greatest practitioners, to their time-capsule: Tony De La Russa, Joe Torre, Bobby Cox, Gregg Maddux, Frank Thomas, Tom Glavine, and writer, Roger Angell. A picture in a Sunday newspaper shows De La Russa, Torre and Cox arm-over-shoulder and smiling comfortably, one beside the other as if a kind of singularity, sort of three-musketeerish, tres amigos; yet afield each had a very different approach to managing a baseball team, and they were highly competitive one against the other, but that newspaper photo reminds that while winning meant a great deal for each of the three managers, at the same time the values of the game meant even more to each. Study their records and it’ll be clear that this holding together of two understandings helped to leverage and upgrade their individual team-standings year-after-year. As for Roger Angell, he’s never had a plate appearance, yet Angell understands baseball as well as any manager or player and so could define and characterize the game as if their surrogate, sure to praise the game’s positive attributes and to lean hard against the negative. Angell connects the dots, he colors in the blanks with the right colors, he’s been a detective unveiling and explaining the mysteries of the game, at the same time an ambassador for baseball and just as much so an ambassador for the game’s fans; he’s been a man in the middle keeping two forces in proper balance---if you love the game of baseball, then read Angell’s books and his New Yorker magazine articles, it’s then you’ll know lots more about why. REMINDER: NEXT POSTING, AUGUST 19 // END/ml.