If you’re not into Twitter, I get it. It can be a little much at times.

Anyone dying young is terribly sad, but the story about Greg Halman hurts my soul.

Just wanted to point out that David Freese, who recently earned the World Series MVP award after driving in 21 RBIs in 18 postseason games for the St. Louis Cardinals, made his way through the Northwest League at one point.

Got an e-mail from Ken Roberts, the Dust Devils all-star reliever today.

One of the biggest cliches in the sports handbook is 'They've got nothing to be ashamed of.'

The Tri-City Dust Devils got exactly what they needed today.

Here it is, Dust Devils and Canadians face off for the whole shebang over the next few days.

With a win tonight, the Tri-City Dust Devils would win their first-ever playoff series. They looked awfully good during a 6-0 win over the Boise Hawks last night at Memorial Stadium.

Getting an early start on today's NWL Divisional Series blog between the Tri-City Dust Devils and Boise Hawks.

Final game of the regular seaso, and it's one beautiful night here at Gesa Stadium. Healthy breeze blowing out to left center field, so don't be surprised if we see a home run or two

Here's a quick Dust Devils alumni update: Russell Wilson, who played second base here in 2010 before heading back to the North Carolina State football team, where he started at quarterback.

Congratulations to Dust Devils manager Freddie Ocasio for earning his second Northwest League manager of the year honor!!

Tri-City 2, Salem-Keizer 1 FINAL: Jordan Ribera reached on an infield single with one out, after Jaron Shepherd pinch-ran, he moved to second on a wild pitch that struck out Leo Reyes.

Kind of a slim crowd tonight, which is a shame. Even with the Northwest League's best team (the Dust Devils are tied with Eugene for the league's best record) you'd think people would choose good baseball over a seen-one-seen-em-all county fair.

Another beautiful day at Gesa Stadium, and here I am getting paid to watch baseball. Rough life, I know.

Wanted to give a little tip of the hat to some Dust Devils statistical leaders before we get going.

Once in a while, you get a nice little surprise that just makes your day.

Good to be back at Gesa Stadium after a long, eight-day road trip!! Hard to believe there's only

It's Heath Harshman's last day in the press box today before he heads back to school at Washington State. He's one of my favorite people. Granted, mostly it's because he provides us with food and drink up here, but aside from that, he's been the best media relations coordinator I can remember.

I started the day right, winning the annual Dust Devils media long ball event.

The Tri-City Dust Devils are on one of the more amazing runs I've ever seen as far as pitching is concerned. Over the last nine games, they have recorded five shutouts. The pitching has always been good here for as long as I can remember, but this is an exceptional statistic.

The Columbia River has calmed down after a wild day at the boat races. Congratulations to Dave Villwock on yet another Columbia Cup title.

Before I left the office for Gesa Stadium, I put together some Northwest League stats for tomorrow's paper. I'm used to seeing Tri-City pitching staff at the top of the league, and this year is no different. The Dust Devils have the lowest team ERA in the league at 3.22, and also have allowed the fewest walks in the league at 133 — an average of 3.2 a game.

When people ask me what it's like to be a sportswriter, I tell them that I get paid to watch sports for a living.

It was my mom's birthday today — she turned 69 today — and she is capping it with a trip to Gesa Stadium. She loves coming out, and the Dust Devils staff treats her like a queen, which makes me very happy.

Interesting note regarding tonight's pitchers: Tri-City starter Chris Jensen, the Colorado Rockies' sixth-round draft pick out of University of San Diego, is making his professional debut. He's going against another rookie — Vancouver's Kramer Champlin — making his Northwest League debut.

Freddie Ocasio and I often talk about our favorite show, AMC's Breaking Bad, in the clubhouse. Season four just premiered, but Freddie has a difficult time catching the show, since most of the games go well into the evening.

Holy Pat Benatar!! It's 80's night out here at Gesa Stadium, and we've got some quite colorful and creative outfits tonight.

I'm starting to like the little Hacienda del Sol booth on the main concourse at Gesa Stadium.

Hotter than a Texas grill out here.

I stepped into Dust Devils trainer Andy Stover's office after the second game of this series, and was surprised to see it completely empty.

When I walked into Gesa Stadium tonight, I saw Derrell Ebert wearing a short-sleeve dress shirt, a particularly hokey pair of glasses and sandals with socks.

Beautiful night for a game at Gesa Stadium. Not a cloud in the sky and there's a panoramic view of the Nine Canyon hills to the south.

I'm back after a two-day break. Craig Craker did a fine job in my stead and got to see some exciting baseball – three Dust Devils home runs, including a grand slam by Brian Humphries, as they ran their winning streak to three games.

Dust Devils looking to rebound after a tough 3-2 loss to Boise last night. They got close, scoring a run in the ninth but couldn't complete the comeback.

Three innings in, and we're still scoreless.

It's the first day of summer, so it's a perfect time for the Dust Devils' only day game of the year. Not a cloud in the sky and the field temperature is somewhere between the high 70s and low 80s. Still plenty of room if you can take an extended lunch. Nothing like a little afternoon baseball.

Beautiful Father's Day today after kind of a rough, rainy Saturday night. The skies are clear and a nice breeze is blowing from right to left field.

I'm starting this a few minutes before the stroke of midnight, so it's technically not Father's Day yet, but I wanted to give a shout out to all the fathers out there.

A slightly rainy afternoon has kept a possible sellout crowd away, but still a good turnout for Game 2.

Here we go with a brand new Northwest League season. It all starts tonight with the Tri-City Dust Devils and defending NWL champion Everett AquaSox at Gesa Stadium. A sellout crowd is expected, and a nice tribute to the late Dave Lemak will precede the game.

So I ran into Dominic Altobelli on Dust Devils media day. Actually, I didn’t recognize him at first, sad to say.

I wanted to make sure I took care of a little favor for Dust Devils pitching coach Dave Burba.

I wandered by Gesa Stadium today to chat with Dust Devils VP and GM Derrell Ebert for a story on stadium improvements. He showed me around, and I was truly impressed with the new field-level seating down the first- and third-base lines.

Dust Devils manager Fred Ocasio was splashing around in the pool with his son when I called him today. It was his last day at his home in Tucson, Ariz., before he departed for Tri-Cities the next day.

I wrote just a few days ago that Juan Nicasio was making his major league debut against the St. Louis Cardinals. But what I didn't know at the time was that Bruce Billings, the Dust Devils ace who led the Northwest League in strikeouts in 2007, also made his big league debut two days before against the Redbirds.

It's coming up on the Dust Devils 2011 season, so it's time to start getting excited about the 2011 First-Year Player Draft, which begins June 6 in Secaucus, N.J. The Colorado Rockies — the Dust Devils' parent club — has the 20th pick this year.

I’ve been keeping an eye on the newsmakers coming out of Colorado Rockies spring camp in Tucson, Ariz., and I’m noticing quite a few familiar names included in the daily capsules.

I was interested to find out more about the Tri-City Dust Devils' newest hire — radio play-by-play man Jason Schwartz, a recent graduate of USC's broadcast journalism school — so I took to the web to see what I could see.

Credit to the Herald's online managing editor Eric Degerman, for passing this along: