The Boston Globe's Bob Ryan had a great blog entry about two of my pet peeves in baseball: sliding headfirst and sliding into first base.

Ryan says it much better than I could here, so go read his article, but one of the first things I was taught in Little League was to run through first base, not slide. You get to the base faster by continuing to run than by hitting the dirt. The only time it makes sense to slide into first is if you are trying to avoid a tag.

Enough said. Go read Ryan's piece and see if you agree.

One other thing. What were the Padres thinking when they traded setup man Scott Linebrink to the Brewers for three minor leaguers? The Padres are in the thick of the NL West race, 1 game behind the Dodgers. Linebrink has struggled a bit this year, but he's still a pretty good bridge to Trevor Hoffman. Were they trying to get rid of him while he still had some value? Do they expect they can't reverse his decline? I don't know, but it seems very odd that a contender would trade a guy like Linebrink.