Time flies, and so do home runs

(It?s awfully pretty today. So here are some quick-hitting random Robservations for you. Read one or two, then go outside for a while. You can finish later.)

Remember when 50 home runs was a lot? You might be too young to recall, but there was a big guy named Cecil Fielder who hit 51 home runs in 1990, and he was the most well-known player in the big leagues that season.

It wasn?t that long ago, but let?s look at this year as a comparison.

Most teams in the major leagues have played around 65 games, meaning their roughly 40 percent of the way through their regular season.

Heading into Thursday?s games, Albert Pujols led the bigs with 25 home runs, with National leaguers Adam Dunn and Alfonso Soriano right behind him at 23. In the AL, Jim Thome had 21, while Troy Glaus and Jermaine Dye had 19 each.

All that means Pujols is on pace to hit 62-1/2 homers this year, Dunn and Soriano can keep pace and hit 51 apiece, and even Dye can hit 46 or 47 if he keeps on his current pace.

What does that mean? It means, simply, that the game has changed significantly, even in the last 16 years. More and more balls are flying out of parks.

I wonder how many mornings Hank Aaron wakes up wishing he was 25, and still playing in the bigs with the ballparks and equipment today?s sluggers use.

But I wonder even more how I can have one of the American League?s top three home run hitters on my fantasy team and still be in last place.

? Want to hear a stat that will make you scratch your head and think for a minute? Try this one on for size:

There are eight players from each team on the field in a ?seven-on-seven? football game.

Weird, isn?t it? But since two of them don?t do anything after the snap but take a knee, they still call it seven-on-seven. At least, I guess that?s the reason. Of course, most of those guys get hit in the head a lot, so maybe their counting skills have diminished.

? For some reason that no one has figured out yet, we here in the newsroom of your friendly neighborhood Southern Standard have been subjected to broadcasts of the World Cup soccer championships on our television set for the past few days.

The reason, in all likelihood, is the fact that Duane Sherrill turns the set on, then hides the remote. But that?s just a theory.

At any rate, you can defend soccer until you?re blue in the face if you so choose. But I just don?t see the appeal. It?s tough enough when you?re watching high school kids that you?re actually excited about seeing win; it?s even worse when it?s a bunch of yahoos from other countries running around the pitch.

It?s just my opinion, of course. But to me the most exciting thing about World Cup soccer happens in the first few seconds of the broadcast, when I try to figure out who the teams are by the three-letter abbreviations on the scoreboard on top of the screen. After that, the excitement wanes significantly.

? While you?re out enjoying the weather this weekend, do yourselves a favor and take a kid fishing. I hope everyone got the chance to take advantage of last week?s Free Fishing Day, but I also hope it?s not the last time you carry your little ones to the water this summer.