Early Season Surprises

The season is a month old and it's time to look at some of the surprises so far. Certainly the Cleveland Indians, sporting the best record in the American League, are one and it will be fun to see if they can really sustain a run throughout the season. Likewise, the Royals and the Pirates seem less hopeless than usual. On the other side, the painful starts of the Red Sox, Mets and White Sox, bring a perverse sense of pleasure as they prove, once again, that money can't buy championships. Not always.

But the biggest surprise to me is the reemergence of Lance Berkman as a hitter to be reckoned with in his debut with the St. Louis Cardinals. You will remember that the Astros traded Berkman to the Yankees last year where he mostly DH'ed and looked like he was headed for that great dugout in the suburbs. Slow, pudgy, laconic. Who knew, except the Cardinals, that inside that doughy body, there burned a competitive, sleek power hitter who already has as many home runs (ten) as the top three Astros combined? Who is this guy and more importantly where has he been for the last couple of years? What is it about St. Louis that makes it the number one destination for reclamation projects like Berkman? More questions than answers but, so far, Lance Berkman is a great story.