Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has a question for you all… Does anyone make gum with sugar in it any more? Your Maximum Leader was at a convenience store yesterday and decided to pick himself up a pack of gum. He noticed that almost every package he considered was sugarfree. He didn’t notice any “sugared” gum for sale. Does anyone still make it? He’s sure some company does. He just doesn’t know which. Hummm…

Your Maximum Leader is considering dumping comments. This is not a reflection on any of his regular readers. But he’s been spending lots of time deleting spam comments from the site. Although he hasn’t counted them, he is sure there are 10 spam comments for every 1 legit comment. It is pissing your Maximum Leader off.

Did your Maximum Leader mention he was at the 10-9 San Diego Padres victory over his beloved Washington Nationals? He was there with almost all of his extended family. The whole villainous group numbered some 25 people. We were hoping for a Nats victory… But instead saw a 7-1 lead over the Padres disintegrate late in the game and disappear completely when pinch hitter Mike Piazza knocked one out of the park. Oy!

Speaking of the Nationals. The new owners are going to be doing a “grand reopening” of RFK stadium. They will be lowering some ticket prices. Installing more and better vendors in the stadium. And giving stadium employees customer service training… Your Maximum Leader doesn’t know if he’d be able to handle friendly, efficient stadium employees… It would be too dramatic a change.

Speaking of the Nationals… The Post has a nice peice on Alfonso Soriano up. It hints that he would like to stay in Washington. If that is the case, your Maximum Leader thinks it is wonderful. Improbable that he will, but wonderful that he would like to stay. Soriano is the type of player a manager could build a team with. But the Lerner’s long-term strategy of team-building means that Soriano (aged 30) would be well past his prime when the team should become competitive. If Soriano wants to win a World Series, or if he even wants to make the money he is capable of making; he will either push to be traded by the trade deadline or will entertai free-agent offers for next season. Unfortunately, it is a rare player who will sacrifice the possibility of a title and/or money to settle down and become a fixture in one city. Your Maximum Leader would love to see Soriano remain a National, but he wouldn’t have hard feelings if Soriano left DC.

Carry on.