Ten Thoughts:

- A glimpse of the future: Jacoby Ellsbury had 2 hits, 2 walks and scored from second on a wild pitch in last night's victory over Texas.

- Alex Rodriguez got $200,000 in All-Star bonuses from the Yankees: $100K for making the team and $100K for getting the most votes in the AL fan voting. Now maybe I'm confused, but if you are making $27 million already (A-Rod's 2007 base salary), shouldn't you be expected to make the All-Star team?

- Teams I thought would be better than they are so far this year: Cardinals, Rangers, White Sox, Yankees.

- No, I haven't bought an iPhone. Two reasons: (1) My current contract with Verizon still has 18 months to run and I don't want to pay the cancellation fee. (2) I'm willing to wait for iPhone 2.0, which will no doubt be cheaper and more capable. Let them work out the bugs on someone else.

- That said, if the next generation iPod has the touch screen interface, I'll buy one of those. I'll be the first one in line at the Apple Store if it includes the Wi-Fi Web browsing capability (basically, an iPhone without the phone).

- Ratatouille is a fantastic movie. We saw it Friday night and people in the full theater actually applauded when it was over. Just as good was the Pixar short that proceded it, Lifted. However, a kitchen full of rats, even animated ones, still freaks me out a bit.

- I'm growing less and less convinced that Danny Ainge knows what he's doing. Ray Allen is a good player, but he's on the downward side of his career. And isn't he pretty much the same player Paul Pierce is?

- 500 home runs isn't the automatic ticket to the Hall of Fame that it used to be. Is Jim Thome a Hall of Famer? I don't think so, even though he'll probably make it to 500 homers this year or next. I think you need to be a dominant player and recognized as one of the best at your position for an extended period of time. Did Thome meet either of those qualifications?

- Frank Thomas belongs in, though. He was a 2-time MVP and certainly qualified as one of the top first basemen in baseball for about a decade. His 500 (clean) home runs are worth more to me than Sammy Sosa's 600.

- Have a happy and safe 4th of July!