Cubs' catcher Michael Barrett has never had two good offensive seasons in a row (defined as providing league average offense, which is good for a catcher). If he keeps up this year's performance, he will do just that. It will also be the first time since Jody Davis in 1982-84 that a Cubs catcher provided league average offense in consecutive seasons.

According to a quote from Mark Prior's USC graduation speech last year:

"Having a degree from USC is a major accomplishment for me, as well as it should be for you. (USC Associate) Dean Ellis alluded to the fact that I'm only one of 17 current major leaguers with a college degree."

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story...

A newspaper looked into the issue, and found 42 actual college graduates in major league baseball.

Degree of difficulty
Draft system makes college grads rare in MLB
by John Shea

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...

List of MLB degree holders:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...

Somehow as a fan of Douglas Adams books, I find it interesting that the MLB grad number turned out to be 42.

With a day off today for the Cubs I'd like to open the floor to the importance of leadership on a team. First, let's look at the two other "major" professional team sports, basketball and football (hockey, alas poor hockey, I knew it somewhat).

Teamwork is vital in basketball. We have all experienced being on a team with someone who thinks he is a "hotshot", where the other players on the team eventually lose interest while watching the hotshot continue to shoot on his own. This past NBA championship showcased two teams that played together on defense and had several offensive weapons. The leadership comes when it is crunch time and a guy like a Duncan, Jordan, Bird, or Shaq takes it upon himself to do whatever it takes.

Football is split, in that you have leaders for both offense and defense. The quarterback is the natural leader for the offense, since he starts each play and delivers the ball. If he does not show leadership, then the rest of the team that does not touch the ball (but is working in the trenches) tends to slack off. Of course, last year's Bears team is a prime example of things going bad.

... making my swing a little shorter. It got out of whack. It was pretty long. That's really the only thing.

-- Corey Patterson, explaining why he expects to be back with the big-league club sooner rather than later.

My take: Corey, you could have the shortest, quickest swing in baseball, but it won't help you hit balls in the dirt or over your head.