As we learned in the most recent All-Davis Hall of Names feature, we've now covered the six most common American surnames in our quest for the best baseball name ... now we move on to #7, and this, with all due respect to Geoffrey Chaucer, is truly "A Miller's Tale."

A total of 81 men named Miller have made it to the bigs as of this writing -- that actually well outpaces the 61 Davises, so I guess statistically you have a better chance of making the bigs if you're a Miller than a Davis, even though the latter is higher up on the most-common American names list -- ah, but no less than nine Davises have made major league All-Star teams, with another pre-All-Star-era player enshrined in Cooperstown, while the Millers have produced no Hall of Famers and just three All-Stars.

Five billion points to the Bauxite who can name all three of those All-Star Millers without clicking through to the full story first; you're on your honor here.

Well, let's clarify ... there's is, sort of anyway, one Miller in Cooperstown ...

Dave Bush was outstanding, not that it did him any good. He pitched his second complete game of the season, and lost this one as well.

The Jays couldn't get many people on base. When they did, they kept hitting into double plays. Rios, Johnson, and Hillenbrand were the rally-killers today. It actually hasn't been a team-wide problem. Only four men in the majors have hit into more DPs than Hillenbrand, but the team itself is middle of the pack.

Or they were before today's game....

I had slumps that lasted into the winter.
-- Bob Uecker

Baltimore loses 12-0. Bluefield loses 9-0. Oh well. At least David Newhan is out of Ottawa. A 4-2 Friday night for the affiliates.

The key to winning baseball games is pitching, fundamentals, and three run homers.
-- Earl Weaver

Josh Towers provided the pitching, throwing his first shutout as a Blue Jay and the second of his career. Alex Rios and Gregg Zaun hit the three-run homers. Zaun drove in five runs, Koskie and Hillenbrand also went deep... oh, it was brutal. And deeply, fundamentally satisfying.

Hall of Names Candidates in Review ...
... and Playing for the Davis Cup

Auld Will the Bard once noted, "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." Though perhaps in baseball terms, we would simply say "That which we call a Rose by any other name would still be Pete."

Anyway, I recently found myself scanning the list of the most common surnames (family names, last names, whatever you want to call them) in the United States, birthplace not only of shloads of people with these names, but of the Great Game of baseball itself. According to the good folks over at InfoPlease, these are the most commone surnames in the U.S. right now:

It's do-or-die time for the ornithologically inclined AL East rivals this weekend. Thanks largely to a visit from Tampa Bay, the Orioles have slowed their spiral into oblivion -- at least momentarily.

The O's have been suffering from some awful outings from their starting rotation and some prolonged slumps from their batting order. That's the good news for the Jays. The bad news is, this remains a club that can score runs in bunches -- and a club frankly due for some breaks. Read on for details.

This week's Scout features a season debut on Saturday, a left-on-base bonanza and a GM team that may shrink in size -- from two to zero -- unless the club continues to rebound. Oh yeah, and some guy named Palmeiro should be playing first tonight.

On to the Advance Scout!

Look here. The calendar tells me that it's August, which means that it's 3 months until Rule 5 draft. It was a non-event last year, with the exception of Kansas City's selection of Andy Sisco, but who knows what this year holds.

He held the scary Detroit Tigers offense to one lonely run, and that earns Scott Downs photo of the day honors:

Everything looks nicer when you win. The girls are prettier. The cigars taste better. The trees are greener.
-- Billy Martin

I have a confession to make: I slept through most of this game. Thanks to the miracle of technology I am watching it right now, but let me relate to you my chronology:

The farm affiliates went 3-3 on the evening with a 9th inning Doubleday uprising being the highlight.

Jays win 2-1 on a first inning homer by Frank Catalanotto and an unexpectedly great pitching performance from Scott Downs.

In honor of his walk-off performance last night, here's Orlando Hudson watching the trajectory of one of his hits:

The best thing about baseball is that you can do something about yesterday tomorrow.
-- Manny Trillo