Now that Texas is four games out of any kind of playoff spot, with roughly a month to go in the season, there are two schools of thought. One, obviously, is that they’re screwed. “Thanks for playing, the home version of our game is waiting for you at will call, see ya in the spring! And please try not to over-achieve again next year!” Not that they’ve played all that bad in the past couple weeks, they had the longest win streak in the bigs going not too long ago, but now with a month left, and a bunch of games where Oakland plays Anaheim and they cancel each other out, four games might be too much.

On the other hand, Texas also gets in on those Oakland and Anaheim games, many of which are at home in Arlington, and a hot streak down the stretch could make up some ground in a hurry. If only Boston would hurry up and remember they’re supposed to choke, it would clear things up a little bit more.

At the very least, they kept it interesting until football season got here, and if all goes well (which, in fact, includes pigs flying), the Browns will keep it interesting until a few weeks before spring training opens up.

Of course, if the NHL would just get off its ass and negotiate a little, that little thing they like to call a “season” would be nice to have from the fall into the spring, too.

One more baseball note, 8 days after turning “46”, Julio Franco is now hitting .304. Sure, he’s only got about half the PA’s needed to qualify for a batting title, but that’s an old man hitting over .300, keeping his career average at or slightly above the .300 mark. Not too shabby.