The Phillies are in first place!!! Last year the Phillies weren't in first place until the 160th game of the season. Last year, the Phils won the Eastern Division after a horrific start. Each of the two previous years, they came within one game of the playoffs after horrible Aprils. This year they've made a strong beginning! The starting pitching has been good. The bullpen has jelled. The closer, Brad Lidge, has been sensational. They're winning even without Jimmy Rollins, last year's MVP, who's on the DL. Shane Victorino, their starting center fielder has just come back from the DL. Ryan Howard is just now getting warmed up. Can this be THE year?

My wife, Patty, is not much of a baseball fan. That means that she is much more objective than I am about all of this. This morning, when I opened the sports page and poked my finger at the baseball standings and said, "Look at who's in first place!!!!"; she simply looked up with a raised eyebrow and said, "That's unusual!"

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Did you know that it is exactly 55.21 miles from the current Virginia state capitol building in Richmond to the reconstructed Colonial Capitol building in Williamsburg? Yesterday, I rode that distance on my bicycle, following the reading in Richmond of the governor's proclamation that May is Bike Month in our Commonwealth. There were riders from several cities' bike clubs there to hear the reading, who were then given little reproduction proclamations to take back home. (I've taped mine to my office door!)

The morning began at 7:00 AM, when we representatives of the Williamsburg Area Bicyclists gathered at the Rec Center to put our bikes into a truck and then to pile into a van to go to Richmond. Everyone else on the ride returned directly to the Rec Center upon return to Williamsburg, to get their cars. But I thought it would be most appropriate to ride from one capitol building to the other with my little reproduction proclamation. Of course, that meant I had to ride another five miles to get back to the Rec Center to retrieve my car, so my odometer was turning over to 60 as I pedaled into the parking lot!