Etc., etc. edition

1—Obviously if I had unlimited resources and a public relations problem to solve I wouldn't turn to the architect of George W. Bush and Mark McGwire's images, but then I'm not Tiger Woods. Take this as further evidence that being able to hit a ball with a stick doesn't correlate to having the sense God gives to gnats and turnips.

2—Google Maps' new bike routing feature is neat in theory—hard to think of too many things that have the potential to get more people on bicycles—but buggy as hell, as I discovered when I tried out a few destinations. It loves dead ends and highly trafficked roads. I'm sure the kinks will be worked out in time, but for now it may be actively dangerous to rely on its suggestions in unfamilar areas.

3—At risk of repeating myself, while I'm not big on witch hunts, if a client of a doctor accused of dope peddling develops an illness specialists think might be associated with dope use it isn't, contra Craig Calcaterra, out of bounds to juxtapose those two facts in a news article.

4—Count me as another mystified by Ron Gardenhire haters. The man has won five flags in eight years and came within two runs of another the year after trading the best pitcher in baseball for cashews and almonds, and it isn't as if the division has been terrible. There are other managers I might rather have depending on the makeup of the team (Joe Maddon, Ozzie Guillen and Joe Torre come to mind), but I think the only one I'd definitely prefer in all circumstances would be Mike Scioscia. One thing Gardenhire doesn't get enough credit for, by the way, is the way his stars tend to reach their full potential. There's a tendency to not give the manager credit when players like Joe Mauer and Johan Santana become as good as they could possibly be, and it's a bit absurd. There's a big difference between a guy with a five per cent chance of being as good as Johnny Bench and a guy who's actually as good as Johnny Bench.