So, here’s an abbreviated Tuesday Twitter Faves…at least it isn’t on Wednesday this week, ok?!?

Think how the season ticket holders feel, Kei Kamara…

game was fun but not sure i will be goin to another sorry Astros

Aww, is Scott Hamilton in love?

When do you know?… I mean know for sure!

Chad OchoCinco-Always Good For A WTF…

WAMW=wish a mothafu#% would , dare somebody to try you today without words just by the expression on yo face, good luck,todays word:WAMW

Pickup Lines That Blow Hard, A Soliloquy By Shelden Williams (But At Least He Knows It)

boy: girl do u like water? girl: yes boy: than we already have something in common cuz my body is 75% water

sex is a killer….wanna die happy?

And we’ll leave you for tonight with a You Know You’re Addicted When (by Shelden, again.)

Got kicked off twitter for tweeting to much in a short period of time so im goin to bed nite yall

Or, as it recently seems, you might remember him as the guy who tipped pitches when he was in the field, but only to Dominican players.  (Tejada’s Dominican.) Apparently when he was with the Orioles, the guy’s own teammates felt he didn’t field easy ground balls off the bats of Dominican players, and that batters could see which way the pitch was headed by the way Tejada moved.

Johnny Damon tried to defend him against these allegations, basically by saying he’s such a crappy fielder that…only…Dominican guys…pick up on his cues…no, really….”

Tejada’s even admitted to injecting Palmeiro with “B-12.”  Honestly, given all these different allegations, we’re not even sure why this guy’s still playing, even though we do enjoy watching him.  He’s enjoyed something of a little renaissance with the Astros.  Is it time for that to end, in the name of the game?

Saturday’s ’s gimmick is Faith and Family Night.  It’ll feature a pregame concert by Christian rock band Mercy Me.  Furthermore, fans are exhorted to arrive early to hear testimony from Lance Berkman before the concert.

Before we really write about this, we want to be clear…we admire anyone who is willing to share his or her faith, no matter what religion is espoused.  However, we’re really taken aback by the idea that a baseball game is the correct forum for any kind of planned religious testimony.

Many baseball players are very strong Christians–in part probaly because many come from the South, where some denominations are hugely influential and common in the general culture.  But we live in a country that has benefitted, in the minds of most and certainly of UPH, from separation of church and state.

If baseball is America’s Pastime and America’s a country without an official religion, it seems incongruous to mix a specific religion so directly into a secular public forum.

Of course, it’s true that one could skip the event and just show up for the game.  But as far as we can tell, promotions meant to bring people to enjoy America’s pastime should be engaging for and inclusive of as many of those Americans as possible.  You wouldn’t have a boys-only promotion, or a White’s-only promotion: even if other people are ostensibly welcome, it’s the sad truth that groups tend to self seggregate: not something we should be encouraging.  If someone’s going to be the only African-American at pregame festivities, or the only Jew, or the only woman, that someone is going to feel awkward and left out.  That shouldn’t be something the Houston Astros, or anyone other team, encourages as an organization.  One athlete sharing his personal experience? All for it.  A team getting behind it as a promotion, definitely not so much.

That’s our two cents.  What’s yours?

Pudge Rodriguez is headed back to Arlington to lend his bat and leadership to the Rangers. Rodriguez, who has been with the Astros, is batting only .251 this year in 93 games, but his veteran presence will provide depth and a soothing influence in the playoff run, where  Texas doesn’t usually find itself.

We said it last week, and we’ll say it again.  The Rangers are playoff-bound.

As for the Astros, they–finally–are picking up a couple of prospects…no word yet on names.  We’ll check that out later for our Houston readers.

Attendance issues are all over the place in professional sports right now.  With the economy in the tank, football playoffs, which–unlike baseball playoffs–all but automatically sell out, had trouble last year.  Nothing’s gotten any better, even though the economy shows signs of slight recovery.

In baseball, the Houston Astros have stopped playing “guess the attendence figure” because the stadiums are so empty.  (They’ve also stopped having the racing Hummer H2 videos on the screen inbetween innings, but separate story, that.)  They’re offering promotions out the wazoo and still can’t put anyone in the seats.  That’s despite the fact that, even with a terrible run of bad injuries, the Astros are sorta-kinda in contention.  (As we mentioned yesterday, we wouldn’t call it that if they didn’t manage to hoist themselves into the race every. single. year.)

Meanwhile, though, it isn’t just teams with little shot to be important.  The San Diego Chargers–yes, the ones who made a serious playoff run last year–can’t sell their tickets, even though they sold out all their games last year.  They can’t sell their luxury boxes either.

Now, the economy is most of the problem here, but that raises a point: are leagues perhaps going to get smaller? Might league ownership, a la the Milwaukee Brewers, be the only answer for some teams?  The most interesting one, to UPH, is whether or not this puts enough added pressure on teams to perform that it begins to play into the other issues facing sports right now.

For example, if a team might leave a city…the mayor will care, right? All that lost revenue.  How much would he care? Enough to subsidize a team personally, or with city money? Enough to overlook problems, such as gambling or athlete bad behavior in town?  These questions are the ones looming.  What, exactly, happens now?

NL East

The Phillies just lost three games and are still four games up in this race, but they’ve been up and down all year.  We think that the roller-coaster ride has made them tough enough to stick this race out.  Pedro Martinez is coming to this club, and he’s a playoff persona to be reckoned with even outside of his pitching.  The addition can fire up a team that has at times lacked fire.  We think they’ve got it.

NL Central

Sure, St. Louis is leading, and they have Pujols.  We know that, we get it, he’s perhaps the most purely talented player of all time, etc. etc.  The Cubs have a homestand coming up in which they have to play the Phillies for three.  If they get through that, they get Pittsburgh and then San Diego, and we’d love to think they’ll take advantage and take some steps to actually winning a World Series for once in their poor, benighted lives, but winning the NL Central this year just ain’t to be for the Cubs, much as we hate to agree with Cards fans.  St. Louis’ schedule for the rest of August features two sets of games with the Padres and some tilts against the Nationals.  They spend much of the rest of the year playing Pittsburgh and Houston, guys. You just can’t bet against the Cards, here. Even if you really, really want to.

NL West

The Dodgers started off the year with a fabulous record and a big, silly scandal.  Now, the scandal is over and they’re playing better ball, percentage-wise, than any team in baseball not in pinstripes.  However, they have a lot of big series coming up: Chicago, St. Louis, and Colorado for the rest of this month.  We think they’ll come through, though–in part because September is such smooth sailing.  They’ll be happy to see the Pirates, Diamondbacks and Nationals, and they’ll run away with the division, no matter how often Troy Tulowitski hits for the cycle.  End of debate.

NL Wild Card

Every year, the Astros make a run for the wild card that is miraculous in nature and takes place after the All Star break.   This year, they came roaring out of the break…and then went back to playing their usual .500 ball.  Let’s be honest: if they hadn’t made a run in each of the past few years, they wouldn’t even be in this paragraph.  Moving on.  Colorado, San Francisco, and the Cubs are the real contenders here.   We’re giving a very slight edge to the Giants–they’re hungry, which we feel is key in wild card races, they’ve got Lincecum, and even Zito is settling in.  Also, Randy Winn is playing for them.  We didn’t know he was still alive, but since he is, his veteran presence will do a lot for some of the young ‘uns.  Giants it is.