With the heat wave we’re under, the stream of consciousness is almost dry, but here’s some thoughts from the past week.

First, thank you to whomever first said “The heat hasn’t been this bad in Dallas since the NBA playoffs.” It’s not baseball, but it will annoy a few people I know from Miami.

Random fact – The starting pitcher chooses his team’s uniform for the game. We were actually told this about a month ago when my wife was sewing names on jerseys and asked which color jerseys needed to be done first. She was told, “We don’t know.” Apparently, the team doesn’t know until just before game time every day. I had just been alternating caps (red and black) at the beginning of the season, but it evidently was pure chance that I was usually wearing the same as the team. In fact, I was told most of the players don’t like the red hat. Who knew?

I asked one of the pitchers I know this week and he verified it. Since he’s not an AirHog this season (yet), it’s not just a Grand Prairie tradition. I always assumed there were home and away jerseys, but apparently, there are uniforms and the pitcher picks one (except on special jersey nights.)

The reason I brought this up is that Dallas has now had 33 days of 100+ temperatures this summer. The first pitcher who declares “shorts and t-shirts” as the uniform will be a hero for his team.

This also means Amarillo must only have one uniform because I can’t believe every one of their pitchers would choose that god-awful yellow jersey with the road-stripe pants every freakin’ night.

Random thought – I will never talk about someone’s hitting again, since it might affect the team’s won-lost record immediately after I publish it. I assumed it would have no effect, since about three people read this, and one of them is me, but I should have known. My apologies.

Random thought – I still haven’t decided when you can start talking about a magic number. I think once it’s 10 or below you can start talking about it. Of course, to know if you can talk about it, you have to calculate it, so if you figure it out [for the American Association, it’s 101 – (first place team’s wins) – (second place team’s losses)], and it’s more than ten, just keep it to yourself.

Random Thought – We had an old fart (I can say that – I’m one) umpire the other night and everyone seemed to agree with his calls at the plate, at least a much higher percentage than normal. The differences between him and other umps? He was older. He seemed more experienced. Most importantly, he made the call. You’re out. It’s a strike. Sit down. Shut up. If all the umpires had the same confidence level when making a call, there would be less hated umpires in the league. Maybe.

Random Thought – It’s 112 degrees in my back yard and almost time to head to QTP. I wonder how the players would feel about naked spectators?