ARLINGTON, Texas -- It's just too risky to miss one of Josh Hamilton's at-bats right now.

The Texas Rangers slugger is capable of doing things rarely done in this game every time he steps to home plate. Why wouldn't you watch every swing?



"It's a show getting to come watch him every day," first baseman Mitch Moreland said.

For the first time since his historic four-homer game in Baltimore on Tuesday, the hometown fans got a chance to see the show for themselves. And Hamilton gave them a taste of what his week has been like in the Rangers' 10-3 win over the Los Angeles Angels.


Hamilton belted two more home runs -- one of the high-arching variety and the other a line-drive shot -- to give him 17 on the season. He's just the third player since 1918 (according to baseball-reference.com) to hit 17 homers in his club's first 33 games of the season. And remember: Hamilton missed three games in Toronto with a stiff back. He has hit the 17 homers in just 30 games.

But he has hit eight of those homers in his last 18 at-bats (five games) in a remarkable display of power. The only thing that has slowed him this week is Mother Nature, though the rain hasn't dampened his hot bat. Of course, opposing managers may try to slow him by walking him more. But that comes with a big risk too, as you face the power of Adrian Beltre, not to mention the rest of a deep lineup after that.

"He's the most gifted player in the game," teammate Michael Young said. "He's capable of doing things like this. So obviously, we want it to last as long as possible."

With every at-bat, Hamilton's stock is soaring as he competes in the final year of his contract. It's a reminder of what he can do when he's healthy and feeling good at the plate.

Hamilton, who briefly answered a question or two before heading home to get some rest before an early game Saturday, said he felt good and was touched by the standing ovation he received. The Rangers played a video montage of Hamilton's four-homer game from Tuesday and showed him on the videoboard. The crowd of 48,201 stood and cheered and Hamilton tipped his glove.

"That was cool," Hamilton said. "You don't know what to do in that instance because it's in the middle of the game. But I appreciate the fans."

Hamilton's week has impressed his teammates, though many of them have repeatedly said he has the ability to do things that most people in the game can't.

"He's as locked in as I've ever seen him," Moreland said. "He's done some pretty unbelievable stuff on the field and it just continues. Hopefully, he can keep it going. It's good to have that guy in the middle of your lineup."

Moreland hit a home run to right field as well. So was he trying to match Hamilton?

"I've got about 10 more to hit in the next two games to match him," Moreland said, laughing.

Hamilton is the first player to hit seven home runs over a four-game stretch since the Dodgers' Hee Seop Choi (June 10-14, 2005). He has 40 RBIs through his club's first 33 games, second in club history to Juan Gonzalez's 42 in 1998. Just a reminder: Gonzalez had a crazy 157 RBIs in 154 games that season in winning his second AL MVP Award.

Sound familiar? Hamilton would win the Triple Crown if the season ended today. He leads the American League in batting average (.407), homers (17) and RBIs (40). And, not surprisingly, he's tops in the intentional walk category at five.

He's putting up the kind of numbers needed to win his second AL MVP Award. In the process, he's got everyone's attention when he steps to the plate. He's must-see TV. Don't miss it.

http://espn.go.com/blog/dallas/texas-rangers/post?id=4883335

Edge Of Darkness,Dance again by John Rowland

When I write about John Rowland, I know I'm out on a creaky limb and that some people will say: "You just hate the guy because he has your old radio time slot." I can say two things. The first is that what I feel about Rowland today is what I felt circa 1994 when I playfully started calling him "the Prince of Darkness" on the radio. I've been told on good authority that this started to get on his nerves when a little kid at a country fair tugged his mother's sleeve and said, "Look, Mom! It's the Prince of Darkness." The second is that I need things to write about in order to stay employed and Rowland has been a figure of Rooseveltian amplitude. He has kept me working over the years, and I am not an ingrate. Last week he was the gift that keeps on giving as news slowly trickled out — as it so often does from Castle Rowland — about how he had once again done those these things which he ought not to have done. Specifically, he had been doing work for the Republican congressional campaign of Lisa Wilson-Foley. But then the campaign assured us he received no pay. His radio employer, WTIC-AM, assured us that they had been assured that he received no pay and that he would not discuss that congressional race on the air. But then it turned out that Rowland had received pay until quite recently from a company Wilson-Foley's husband presides over. But then it turned out that, two years ago, Rowland had approached a different candidate in the same district and offered to work for him and suggested being paid through a nonprofit animal shelter founded by that candidate. I know! It's like a LeCarre novel, right? Clearly, they let him out too early. Sending John Rowland to prison for 10 months is like sending Lindsay Lohan to rehab for an afternoon. They didn't really give him enough time to reform himself. On Wednesday, after the threat of a complaint to the Federal Election Commission, the Wilson-Foley campaign released Rowland's contract with Foley's company, which paid him $30,000 over six months. To believe that this was not a surreptitious way of paying him for campaign work, you have to believe that a) he knows something running a short-term nursing home company that it does not know about itself and b) that the resemblance between this and the pay-me-through-your-animal-shelter scheme he proposed to Mark Greenberg in 2010 is purely a coincidence. Now consider the claim that Rowland, while under this contract that nobody knew about, did not talk about the campaign on the air. Wilson-Foley's strongest rival for the nomination is state Sen. Andrew Roraback. During this period, on his radio show, Rowland beat Roraback like a rented mule. On one occasion, he invited Roraback on as a guest and then berated him. When you book a radio guest, you usually get his cellphone number. Rowland in ensuing weeks took to flogging Roraback for his stance on the death penalty and then — wait for it — gave out Roraback's cellphone number on the air so that especially angry people could call him. In recent days, it has dawned on Roraback that he was attacked simultaneously by Wilson-Foley and Rowland in pretty much identical ways while Rowland was being paid by Wilson-Foley's husband. "There was no disclosure," he told me. "Had I known that the governor was in the employ of my opponent's husband, I might have been better prepared for what was in the offing." Way back in 1994, some fine reporters discovered some contracts Rowland got right after leaving the very congressional seat Wilson-Foley is now seeking. The contracts were from defense companies, and it was very hard to figure out whether they were paying Rowland to lobby (which was illegal) or, really, what he was doing for them. It has happened again and again since that time, often providing government investigators and journalists with the sense that they are in the hall of mirrors shoot-out at the end of "Lady from Shanghai." I write this with a smile. Welcome back, sweet prince. It's as if you were never gone.

 http://articles.courant.com/2012-04-27/news/hc-op-mcenroe-rowland-contract-wilson-foley-suspic-20120427_1_john-rowland-rowland-today-wilson-foley-campaign

Megan Fox 2012 april

Here are some high quality Megan Fox photo shoot outtakes from the April 2012 edition of Cosmopolitan magazine in which Megan graced the cover and filled the pages therein. Enjoy!

www.megansafox.com