I've been experiencing renewed interest in baseball of late; part of it has to do with the fact that I was attending Rice University (whose baseball team won the NCAA Division I championship in 2003) and the other part of it is probably just due to the fact that I have a job now and can actually afford to catch a couple of ball games here and there. In a roundup of baseball-related news that interests me, Rice will be playing Tulane in New Orleans this weekend in a best-of-three NCAA Super Regional tournament to see who gets to go to Omaha. Tulane is ranked number one in the nation, and as much as I hate to say it, will likely beat Rice. Rice pitching has been solid, although not as good as the 2003 team, but more to the point, the offense has been a little like the Astros in not coming up with runs when they need them (at least when I've been listening to the games). The Cubs host the Red Sox this weekend; the last time they faced each other was in the 1918 World Series, when the Red Sox won in six. I thought the Cubs had turned it around on their west coast road trip, but back at Wrigley them seem to be tanking again. Although they're above .500, they're still seven games behind the Cardinals. And Houston is once again at the bottom of the division... The Yankees have an interesting problem on their hands - too many starting pitchers. They called up Taiwanese pitcher Wang Chien-Ming from the minors about a month ago when Jaret Wright injured his shoulder. Surprisingly, Wang has probably been their most consistent starter of late, among a rotation that includes Randy Johnson, Mike Mussina, Kevin Brown, and Carl Pavano. Wright is scheduled to return to the rotation soon, which would mean that someone would have to be sent down (or tapped to be a reliever). They already have enough problems with a five-man rotation - Randy Johnson insists on pitching on four days rest, and with travel days thrown into the schedule, which of the multi-million dollar pitchers do you choose to skip?