Posted by Teddy Panos, Sun Staff

A few post-Memorial Day thoughts to heat up the unofficial start of summer:

Have to laugh every time one of my fantasy baseball players misses a few games with a strained hamstring, especially after finding out Ray Allen played the entire Orlando series with the same injury. (Guess that explains the sudden loss of shooting touch)

That's nothing compared to hockey players and what they play through. Phil Kessel struggled through two playoff series with a torn rotator cuff and labrum that required an operation. Then there's Mark Recchi, who played most of the Carolina series with kidney stones. He underwent procedures to remove them less than 24-hours before Game-7, and then skated in the series finale. That's tough!

My mom used to deal with kidney stones. Said it was the most painful thing she ever endured, worse than giving birth to me. Of course, she never did say how it compared to the pain of raising me. Hmmmm...

Recently read an online article touting ways to speed up baseball. One suggestion was to have a "pitch clock." I say forget that. Here are two simpler steps:

Hitters aren't allowed to step out of the batter's box unless there's a foul ball or they've been knocked on their behind by a brush back pitch. Mike Hargrove was once dubbed "the human rain delay" for his between pitch antics. In today's game, Hargrove would be "Speedy Gonzalez."

Conversely, pitchers aren't allowed off the mound except to field a ball in play. Is there any need for Dice-K to walk off the hill after a pitch, take the throw from Jason Varitek, remove his glove, take his hat off, wipe the perspiration off his forehead and neck, rub the sweat onto the baseball, dry off his hands on his uniform, then finally step back on the rubber to prepare for the next pitch?

No wonder the guy can't throw strikes. He's like the weekend hacker who has to retrain his muscles to properly swing a golf club after not playing golf for months. Except the time between Matsuzaka's pitches sometimes seems longer than winter.

Guess there's no more argument about whether David Ortiz should be moved out of the 3-hole. The question now is whether he should be moved to the bench, as painful as it is to say that about one of the players most responsible for breaking "The Curse."

Terry Francona's loyalty to veterans is admirable, but at this point, watching Big Papi flail away helplessly in the batter's box is worse torture than anything our intelligence community was doing at Guantanamo. You want to catch Bin Laden? Put away the water board and force Al Qaeda to watch endless TiVo streams of Ortiz at bat with men on base.

What does it say about the state of Indy Car racing in the U.S. when more people remember Helio Castroneves as a former Dancing with the Stars champion than as a 3-time Indy 500 winner? Then again, what does that say about the sad state of American television?

Speaking of reality TV, remember a few years back when I predicted American Idol winner Taylor Hicks was destined for a career singing aboard Carnival cruise ships? (Guess I overestimated his talent...Carnival cruises would be a step up from what Hicks is doing now) Well, I feel safe telling you newest "Idol" Kris Allen will be fortunate if he can afford a boarding pass on a cruise ship.

Seriously, does it hurt that much to hit a note, kid? I haven't seen painful facial contortions like that since Jim Carey's over-the-top role in Ace Ventura.

That's the view from here...how do you see things? Who is the toughest athlete of all-time, in terms of playing through pain? How would you speed up baseball? What should the Sox do with Big Papi? Adam Lambert or Kris Allen?