There's A First Time For Everything.

We're about to experience quite a few "firsts" in the upcoming days and weeks. And people say baseball isn't exciting.

Twins catcher Joe Mauer will be making his first start at first base this season, seeing as Justin Morneau will be out for a few more weeks or months with yet another injury. Mauer, who is also injury prone, is taking the start in the infield because the Twins brass is still cautious about his legs, and therefore want to give him as many breaks from crouching behind the plate as possible, but prefer to keep his bat in the lineup as much as possible. We here at TBF feel this is actually a great move: it not only gives Mauer a chance to show off some of that hotshot talent that we've only seen flashes of since his 2009 MVP season, but also could help the struggling Twins gain some ground in the standings, even though they're pretty deeply entrenched in the AL Central cellar.

Even though star centerfielder Andrew McCutchen got robbed of his first All-Star appearance this season (something he most certainly deserved), 2011 is the first year since 1992 that the Pirates have finished the first half with a winning record, and the first time since 1999 that they've been over .500 this late in the season at all. Although many are skeptical about whether or not they can keep this level of performance up, but considering that they're somehow beating the Cubs, Astros, AND Reds, and are only trailing the Brewers and Cardinals by 2 games, it wouldn't be surprising to see them in the postseason. Well, it would be, but you get the idea.

Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter is only 3 hits away from 3,000, which would make him the first Yankee (28th player in history) to reach this milestone. I don't even really need to go into why this one is special, do I? Suffice it to say, a certain writer of this blog will be overly jubilant on the day it finally comes to fruition (and expect the most gushing blog post about Jeter that you've ever seen).

And, for the first time, we'll end a post way earlier than usual, and without mentioning our immense dislike for the Red Sox/Roy Oswalt.