It sure has been great having baseball back.

As always, the long winter left us waiting in great anticipation for the return of the thump of the glove and the crack of the bat. Spring has sprung and the Boston Red Sox – along with MLB’s 29 other teams – have taken the field.

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Well, this probably shouldn't come as a surprise.

The Boston Red Sox are in the thick of things in the American League playoff race as of the end of August, they sat two games behind the Blue Jays for the division lead and two games ahead of the Orioles and Tigers for the first wild card spot. They are very much in contention.

Outfielder becomes 30th to reach MLB milestone

With a triple off the wall at Coors Field in Denver, Ichiro Suzuki became the latest and perhaps the most unlikely member of Major League Baseball's exclusive 3,000 hit club; unlikely not because of his talents he has always shown himself more than capable of racking up base hits but because of his circumstances.

By the time you read this, the major league baseball trading deadline will have come and gone, the 'experts' will have weighed in on the winners and losers, and the Red Sox will likely find new ways to disappoint fans down the stretch. New Red Sox boss Dave Dombrowski has been proactive both in the offseason and in advance of the deadline but while he may have made some good deals, Double-D has a way to go to join the ranks of truly memorable trades that I've assembled in my unscientific list of the greatest moves in the history of the game.

Trade deadline thoughts

Things certainly heated up in a big way at the Major League Baseball trading deadline.

In one of the most active periods perhaps THE most active - in the history of the deadline, a whole lot of teams made some major changes to their squads; some were aiming for a championship today, while others were looking down the road and building for tomorrow.

And the rollercoaster ride continues.

The Red Sox have had an OK July in terms of their record; they remain solidly in the playoff hunt despite the unexpected competitiveness at the top of the AL East. They've won more than they've lost for the month, though they certainly missed opportunities to have a much better stretch.

What goes up must come down.

That's the unfortunate reality faced by the Boston Red Sox, whose white-hot month of May essentially ensured that June was going to be a letdown to some degree. The team just couldn't be expected to maintain that level of production for a full season.