1: Best Matchup of the Week
New York Yankees at Seattle: Friday through Sunday

There is a question that plagues me: what if Chuck Knoblauch had never developed his throwing problem? Would he still be the second baseman for the Yankees? If so, where would that leave Alfonso Soriano? Would he join the long line of Yankee prospects who were traded somewhere else? I think that is the likely scenario, that Soriano would have been shipped out in exchange for someone the Yankees felt they could not live without. His success may give hope to other Yankee prospects waiting their turn. It might be surmised that his promising rookie season helped pave the way for Nick Johnson getting a shot this season. While it would seem that a team with a legitimate shot at winning it all every year doesn't have the time or patience to bring along a rookie, I would argue that dropping one in amongst a talented lineup is a good place to bring one along. Since there is not a great burden to provide a significant portion of the offense, the pressure is bound to be lessened.

2: The Boo, Jeer & Hiss Matchup of the Week
St. Louis at Philadelphia: Friday through Sunday

There is no doubt in my mind that this weekend -- perhaps like no time ever before in history -- Philadelphia will live up to its well-deserved reputation as "the City of Brotherly Love." When Scott Rolen and J.D. Drew arrive in town with the Cardinals there will be an outpouring of warmth and good cheer not seen on these shores since the astronauts returned from Mars -- or wherever it was they went -- back in the early '60s. If an entire city could somehow figure out how to have a group hug with two men, then, by gum, that's what you will see at Veterans Stadium for three straight days beginning on Friday.

Time for my medication ... hey, what is this stuff? "Hapydol?" I'm not supposed to be on Hapydol! I'm supposed to be taking an allergy prescription. Let me reread what I just wrote....oh no! That's the Hapydol talking all right. Here's what I should have written:

If you, like Sergeant Oddball's (Donald Sutherland) tank crewman Moriarity (Gavin McLeod) in the classic film "Kelly's Heroes", are "always with the negative waves," then you simply must make your way to the City of Brotherly Love this weekend to see the return of Scott Rolen and perennial Philly Phave J.D. Drew, both bedecked in Cardinal red rather than the Phillie maroon (or whatever you call that color of theirs) to which they were rightly born. Some of the words that will help describe the scene there are angst, agita, antagonism, animosity, anguish, anxiety -- and those are just the a's. If science could harness negative energy and use it to run the furnaces at orphanages, there'd be a lot of warmer lonely little children come this winter.

3: The Road/Home Extreme Mismatchup of the Week
Colorado at Atlanta: Friday though Sunday

The Rockies have the worst road offense in the majors, averaging just 3.27 runs per game while dressing out of suitcases. On the other hand, the Braves have a 2.97 home team ERA. (It's a remarkably similar 2.95 on the road. On the other side of the dial, they've scored almost a half-run per game more at home than on the road.)

So, what then is the over/under for total Rox runs in this series? I guess we'd have to put it at nine, right? They only scored 12 in three games in Coors Field against the Braves back in May, so nine might even be a bit ambitious, although they will miss facing Tom Glavine.

4: The Get Out of My Way Matchup of the Week
Houston at Cincinnati: Friday through Sunday

Very quietly, Aaron Boone has put himself in a position to join the 30-30 club. Soriano is getting a lot of attention for doing the same thing, but something we may have expected based upon his rookie year. Boone, on the other hand, is 29 years old and has not shown any previous indication of being someone who might be capable of club membership. His previous career highs in the power/speed categories were 14 home runs and 17 steals. Even that 17 is something of an anomaly, as his second-highest total was six, which he'd done three times. Of course, he's never had the opportunity to play this much before, only getting enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting title once in his career (1999).

5: The Best National League Matchup of the Week
San Francisco at Atlanta: Tuesday through Thursday

I have counted the number of words dedicated to Barry Bonds' 600th home run and it comes to 1.136 million. What then, do I hope to add to that? I'll just say this: in spite of everything that has happened in terms of the changing nature of the game (read into that what you will), this is still an incredible feat. Think of all of those who never got there for whatever reasons and it becomes that much more impressive. There is talk that at some point in the future, 600 home runs won't mean as much as it once did. The next group of players that has enough home runs and is young enough to go for it illustrates that, in spite of appearances, there are a lot of things that can go wrong on the way to immortality:

Sammy Sosa (489) seems like a lock. He's making noise about leaving Wrigley at the end of 2003, but, unless he lands in Comerica Park -- and he'd be running counter to the level of sophistication he's shown if he did so -- he should be able to waltze his way to 600.

Ken Griffey Jr. (465) looked like a mortal lock for 700 or even 800 not all that long ago. Now, 600 seems like a stretch, given his current state of affairs. Once he gets back to being himself, though -- even an older, talent-eroded version of himself -- he could close that gap inside of four years.

Juan Gonzalez (405) reached 350 in good order, but has been slowed since his move to Detroit in 2000. Now, 500 looks pretty far away, but that's because he's been injured most of the year and the longer a player stays injured (like Griffey), the more we lose sight of what it is that put them in such high esteem to begin with. Griffey is the living embodiment of that.

6: The Worst Matchup of the Week
Kansas City at Tampa Bay: Friday through Sunday

This might be the biggest thing to hit Florida since the real estate boom of the 1920s. The Royals playing the Devil Rays! If you haven't already done so, call your cable company or satellite provider and get yourself a baseball package so you can tune in all three games. Do you hate yourself that much that you would continue to deny yourself all that life has to offer?

"One for the Ages"

You can talk of meetings great and known
Way back in olden days
But all of them must step aside
When the Royals meet the Rays

War Admiral and Seabiscuit?
Mere mules when they compare
To the thoroughbreds who'll run
the course down in the D-Rays lair.

Schmelling versus Louis?
Bantams both they be
When weighed against the pugilists
of Tampa and K.C.

Nicklaus versus Palmer?
Just weekend duffers they
When measured up to those
who'll fight down in Tampa Bay

Think of battles epic
Like Stalingrad and the Bulge
Just skirmishes when put beside
What these teams shall indulge.

You can crow of showdowns from the past
But all will come up short
When K.C. wrestles Tampa Bay
Now that, good friend, is sport!

7: The Can't We All Just Get Along? Matchup of the Week
Los Angeles at New York Mets: Friday through Sunday

Here's a pay TV event I would probably plunk down 50 bucks to see: Mets owners Nelson Doubleday and Fred Wilpon having their difference of opinion worked out on one of those low-rent syndicated courtroom shows. You know the ones I mean, where we in the middle and upper class can snicker as those from the lower orders argue over paltry personal loans and property damage claims against neighbors. That's why we keep the poor around, for the collective amusement of the nation. Think about how many television programs exist merely to showcase the lowest rung beating its head against the wall of American life. (Without the poor, where would "Cops" be? When is the last time they put a camera in a squad car in Shaker Heights, Ohio?)

Anyway, seeing Doubleday (whose ancestor invented the very game in a parallel universe) and Wilpon arguing before Judge Judy would be primo. What would she say by way of arbitration? Probably something like this: "No team that charges five dollars for a bottle of water is undervalued. Now get the hell out of my courtroom."

8: The Biggest Mismatchup of the Week
New York Yankees at Kansas City: Tuesday through Thursday

What, exactly, does the difference in payrolls buy you?

ERA: New York 4.14, Kansas City 5.07
Runs per game: New York 5.86, Kansas City 4.50

The Yankees OPS' is also over 100 points higher than that of the Royals.

As Jason Grimsley said last week when the Royals took one of their three games in Yankee Stadium: "They have the best lineup, great pitching and a great ballclub. We're just the Kansas City Royals."

9: The Origin of the Species Matchup of the Week
Cleveland at Anaheim: Friday through Sunday

By now you are all familiar with the Angels' Rally Monkey, the film clip of the little simian they trot out in late innings to inspire the team to victory. The Rally Monkey is clearly on Hapydol or some other such drug, because he seems a tad overly enthusiastic about things. The Angels have produced some good results in the wake of a Rally Monkey appearance and it reminds me of a few other sports intangibles of strange origin. Here are a few:

Kate Smith singing "God Bless America." Didn't the Philadelphia Flyers have an incredible record when they brought the late Miss Smith onto the ice to sing this prior to games back in the early '70s?

Notre Dame's football team wearing green jerseys. They only trot them out once in a great while and the team usually responds with a victory, right?

Forcing the Cowboys to wear their dark jerseys. At one time, they had a much worse winning percentage in dark and teams would opt to play in white at home just to force them to wear deep blue.

There are others, I'm sure, but the thing about Hapydol is that it subverts the memory. Here's the tricky question with these phenomena: how much is too much? If a school or a franchise goes to the well too often, don't they run the risk of taking something special and making it routine? And, what if this trick suddenly stops working -- what is the strategy that should be followed to keep it fresh and functioning -- if there even is one?

And, most importantly, what should we call these phenomena?

How about "coincidences?"

Pretty catchy, huh?

10: The Mystery Matchup of the Week
? at ?, ? through ?

Team A: has never beaten Team B in the playoffs. They once won the World Series with the fewest wins of any World Championship team in a non-strike or war-shortened season.

Team B: tore off 18 straight .500-plus seasons in the not too distant past but hasn't had one since early in the second Clinton Administration. They are the third major-league team to bear their name.

Last week's Mystery Matchup: Florida at Houston. The Marlins took their name from the Miami Marlins of the International League and took an infamously precipitous drop after their World Championship season of 1997. The Astros are on their third stadium (Colt Stadium 1962-64, Astrodome 1965-99, Enron/Astros/Minute Maid 2000-) and changed their names from Colt .45s to Astros to coincide with the move to the Astrodome. Had it survived to modern times, Colt .45s would have been shortened to Colts, no doubt, much as the Washington Bullets became the Wizards.

11: The Best Pitching Matchup of the (Early Part) of the Week
Derek Lowe vs. Jamie Moyer: Wednesday

The debate is on in Boston. Who is having the better season, Derek Lowe or Pedro Martinez? Across the board, their numbers (IP, ERA, starts, support, WHIP) are quite close. Personally, I'm always going to take the strikeout pitcher over the finesse guy, so I'd have to go with Martinez, since he has more than twice as many K's as does Lowe in a like number of innings.

If the Red Sox can get to the postseason (and yes, I know that I said they were a lock for it back when they were 35-15), you have to like their chances in a short series with the one-two Lowetinez punch. We saw last year that a team can go places with two great pitchers. Whether or not Martinez can keep up with the kind of schedule the Diamondbacks duo went with in last year's postseason remains to be seen.

12: The Old School Matchup of the Week
St. Louis at Pittsburgh: Monday through Thursday

The union would never stand for this: 100 years ago this week, the 1903 Pirates were in the midst of a grueling 28-game road trip that was interrupted by just one home game against these very same Cardinals. Imagine a modern schedule that included a 12-game trip that went out west, and then, while heading to another 16 away games in the east, contained a one-game layover at home. I suppose it could happen as MLB continues to try to shoehorn interleague play into the mix.

One of the great things about baseball is its continuity. Long before I was born, when the Cardinals would win handily, the newspaper headlines would say they had "decked" whoever it was they had vanquished. And so it goes. The headline in today's New York Post reads, sure enough, "Cards Deck Mets." One hundred years years from now -- regardless of the progress of media and what form it takes -- occasional St. Louis Cardinals game stories will still be using "deck" as a victory-describing verb.

13: The Class of '69 Matchup of the Week
San Diego at Montreal: Friday through Sunday

Check out ESPN Insider for the not-so-happy history of these expansion brothers.

Jim Baker's 'Baker's Dozen' column appears on Mondays during the baseball season. He also writes Monday through Friday for ESPN Insider. He can be reached at jimbakerespn@yahoo.com.