News item: The NCAA has approved two more football bowl games - including one in Washington - to bring the total number of postseason bowls to 34.
My take: If you're keeping score at home, that means there will now be more bowl-eligible teams next season than participants in the NCAA basketball tournament.
Bonus take: Make you a deal. I'll agree to watch North Texas play in the 2008 equivalent of the Poulan Weed Eater Bowl if the NCAA will agree to a four-team playoff for the national championship.
News item: The Tampa Bay Rays have vaulted to No. 6 in ESPN.com's Major League Baseball power rankings.
My take: Could it be time for the pundits to panic? The unheralded Oakland Athletics are up to No. 2 and the Orioles have gone from 30th to 17th during the first month of the season.
News item: The Orioles have grown weary of the assumption they have been playing over their heads for the first five weeks of the new season.
My take: They've still got quite a bit to prove, but a .500 performance on this 10-game road trip would help cement the notion that they have turned hard in the right direction.
News item: New York Yankees pitcher Phil Hughes is expected to be sidelined for at least two months with a stress fracture in the ninth rib on his right side.
My take: Hank Steinbrenner probably thinks this never would have happened if Hughes pitched more like Jamie Moyer.
News item: The defending National League champion Colorado Rockies have lost young shortstop Troy Tulowitzki at least until the All-Star break with a severe tendon tear in his left quadriceps.
My take: The kid is devastated, but I'm guessing a lot less devastated than he would have been if he had held off on signing that six-year, $31 million contract after his great 2007 season.
News item: Roger Clemens has yet to comment on reports that he carried on a long extramarital affair with country music singer Mindy McCready and also had a relationship with the ex-wife of golfer John Daly.
My take: He's probably smart to wait until this scandal completely shakes out. The way things are going, it wouldn't surprise me if Queen Elizabeth II copped to a couple of rides on Roger's private jet before this is over.
News item: Former Oriole Sidney Ponson pitched eight strong innings Thursday to lead the Texas Rangers to a 2-1 victory over the Kansas City Royals.
