Have you given yourself a moment just to stare at the NL West standings today? Isn't that 70 next to the Padres' name beautiful? None of the other teams have numbers so pretty.

A feeling started coming over me when the Padres first reached 20 games over .500, and there was the item that this was the first time the Padres had been so far over .500 since the end of the 1998 season. I looked up the details I'd forgotten. The 1998 Padres finished the regular season at 98-64, far more than 20 games over .500, easily the best season record in the history of the franchise. Oh, I get it. This item wasn't saying anything about the 1998 team as much as how none of the teams between 1998 and 2010 accomplished what the 2010 Padres already have done. Yet not all of those teams were ridiculed as no-talent poseurs. Oh, excuse me, replacement-talent poseurs.

I don't remember anyone questioning the right of the 2006 team to win the division. The 2006 team did just that with a final record of 88-74. Do you know that with 45 games to play, the 2010 Padres can match the 2006 team if they go merely 18-27 the rest of the way?

A more interesting possibility is the 1998 record. The 2010 Padres can match the best record in the history of the franchise if they finish this year 28-17. How about that?

At this point I can think of a lot of possibilities for the rest of this year and the playoffs I'd enjoy. If it doesn't turn out as well as that, it will be understandable. The haters are now feeling smug about the Padres getting blown out of the playoffs. Somehow that's the only possibility they see. Well, that can happen, but there's a good shot the haters are wrong again. That's enough for me to feel excited.

In the meantime, isn't that 70 beautiful? Even though it's less than the 75 the Padres finished with last year, which gave so many of us hope that the Padres could be a .500 team again or maybe even somewhat better, this 70 is with 45 games remaining in which to add on to that. Oh, my. It's like a star is being born.