Bad news, everywhere I cheer.

My beloved Cleveland Indians have fallen back into second place. They’re a pretty good team, as I pointed out last January, when I put the over/under at 88 wins just by looking at the roster, but two good starting pitchers and five good position guys do not a title make. There are days where four guys in the lineup would fit nicely in AAA. As long as the GM seems to think he can improve the team by adding the aging Trot Nixon and David Dellucci… well, lower your expectations.

Travis Hafner, so recently the team’s best hitter, seems to have developed a hole in his strike zone. Watch his next swing at breaking stuff low and inside from righthanders. That’s a swing and a miss now. Didn’t used to be.

Fwiw, and I hate this: I also wouldn’t be surprised to see C.C. Sabathia, the team’s best homegrown pitcher in three decades, start breaking down in the next few years. Historically, pitchers who throw a ton of innings from a young age begin mechanically failing much sooner than guys who eased into 200 innings a year in their mid-20s. Look up Nolan Ryan’s early career numbers, or Kenny Rogers’, or or Randy Johnson’s. All pitched surprisingly few innings before the age of 25. Then compare to Dwight Gooden, Mark Fidrych, Gary Nolan, Don Gullett, fastballers whose careers fell apart way too soon. Those guys threw 250 innings a season early on, and their arms basically fell off later. Sabathia has never thrown 250, but he’s been around 200 every year since age 20. Not the poster boy for the syndrome by any means, but since he’s never in particularly great physical shape, he may be at higher risk now than most pitchers his age.

This is the Starters Paradox: if you want to be great when you’re 40, suck when you’re 20.

Then I open the paper today, and now my favorite soccer player is leaving my favorite soccer team. Thierry Henry is reportedly leaving Arsenal to go play alongside Ronaldinho at Barcelona. So soccer is going to be less exciting in two leagues this year.

Supposedly this gives Barca a fantastic attack, but Real Madrid tried something similar not long ago and discovered there was only one ball on the field. Same thing when the Lakers had Kobe, Shaq, Payton, Malone, and the ghost of Stu Sutcliffe on bass. There’s still just one ball. I’ll keep cheering for the Gooners, but, well, arrrrgh.

And in rugby, I’m starting to think the upcoming world cup will just be a coronation of New Zealand the same way the cricket world cup was a coronation of Australia. Here’s how deep New Zealand is: last week, in the Pacific Nations Cup, the New Zealand B-team (the "Junior All Blacks") played the Aussie B-team ("Australia A"). The result? 50-0. And it wasn’t even that close; it was 38-0 at halftime. Basically, when New Zealand have an injury, there’s a whole second first-class squad to dip into. The thing is months away, and looking at the teams, I’d put money on NZ over maybe South Africa in the final. South Africa will surprise.

Come to think of it, those two played in the Tri-Nations overnight. This is why future archaeologists will believe we all worshipped a god named TiVo, with altars in every living room. [Update: NZ won, 26-21. The Boks dominated early, but the Kiwis’ more experienced bench took over in the last 30 minutes. Like clockwork.]

Enjoy your weekend.