51

In the words of Richard Nixon, I'm tan, rested, and ready. I'm back from the beach after a relaxing week during which I played golf four times and read three books, including Sox and the City by Richard Roeper -- a good read if you're a Sox fan, but probably not all that interesting to the rest of mankind. (Thanks to Update reader Jenny Koza for the thoughtful gift of the book!)

I figure Jerry Reinsdorf should pay me to take vacations, given the Sox won eight of 11 while I was gone. (I told you in advance that Update entries would be spotty, but the horrors of dial-up internet connections prevented me from achieving even that low-level of reporting.) The Good Guys took two out of three from the Blue Jays and Yankees, swept the Tigers, dropped the makeup game to the Angels, and obliterated the Royals in last night's series opener. All this success left the Sox only 5.5 games behind Detroit and sliced the Magic Number to 51 from 64. The team has a three-game lead over the Red Sox and Twins in the Wild Card race and a Wild Card Magic Number of 43. They're playing over .600 ball again and are tied (with the Mets) for the second-best record in baseball.

Four Sox players are on pace to hit at least 35 homers: Jim Thome, currently at 36; Jermaine Dye, 31; Paul Konerko, 27; and Joe Crede, 25. The starting pitchers have turned it around and are in double-figure wins and on pace to win at least 15 games -- Jon Garland, currently at 13; Jose Contreras, Freddy Garcia, and Javier Vazquez, 11 -- or in Mark Buehrle's case, knocking on the door with 9. Bad Bobby Jenks has 33 saves and three wins and is on pace for 45 and 4, respectively.

The fans have stepped up as well. The Sox now have drawn over 450,000 more fans this year than through the same number of games in 2005. And, with last night's game, the Sox have drawn 25,840 more fans this year than the Cubs! (Okay, the Sox have played five more home games, but to even approach the hallowed Paper Boys in attendance is a huge sea change.)

Life looks good right now. If we can take care of business against KC and if the Red Sox can do some damage against the Tigers, then this will really get interesting. Go Sox!