Have you seen a better catch to preserve a perfect game? Our Town’s Mark Buehrle, the beneficiary of this great play, was sure impressed.

White Sox center fielder DeWayne Wise entered the fray as a defensive replacement. As he noted after the game, the ball always seems to find defensive replacements.

Sure enough, Rays hitter Gabe Kapler launched a ninth-inning bomb to left-center field. Wise knew the ball was headed to the wall or beyond. He back in time, made the leap and snagged the ball at the top of the wall.

As he hit the wall, the ball popped lose and Wise had to bare-hand it as he came down. Wow.

Buehrle gave Wise a nod, then calmly finished off his gem. Then he got a call from White Sox fan Barack Obama.

This was a great day for one of the good guys in sports.

MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE

Questions to ponder while wondering why the Cards would pay a high price to rent Matt Holliday for the rest of the season:

• Isn’t it interesting how Rick Ankiel finally hit a homer right after Chris Duncan got traded – and right as trade talks for Matt Holliday heated up again?
• Now that he is freed from the Angry Fans and media vendettas in greater St. Louis, will Duncan resume hitting homers like he did earlier in his major league career?
• Rather than trade Brett Wallace for Holliday, why don’t the Cards just summon Wallace from Memphis and let him hit?
• Now that Mitchell Boggs has won three consecutive starts — allowing just one run in 21 innings — isn’t he worth a look in the Cards rotation?
• Michael Vick refuted reports of a recent strip club adventure, but can he deny this transgression?
• Who knew that Shawne Merriman had a sense of humor?
• With the NFL Draft expanding to three days, is Mel Kiper Jr. already in training for that marathon?

WHY A BALLPLAYER WOULD JUICE UP

Here is a full confession, via the Chicago Sun-Times.

JOE FLACCO LIKES TO SHOW OFF

Let’s see if this skills translates into Ravens victories this season.

QUIPS ‘R US

Here is what the nation’s leading sports pundits have been writing:

Mark Kriegel, FoxSports.com: “Based on what I saw at the All-Star Game, I feel safe declaring that the steroid era is finally over. I mean, LL Cool J was bigger than any of the ballplayers.”

David Whitley, FanHouse: “As for ESPN, you can’t blame the network for turning (Erin) Andrews into a star. You can laugh when the TV executives say they value hard-nosed women reporters over tele-babes. Not all of ESPN’s women are Playboy material, but you won’t see a female Hank Goldberg anchoring SportsCenter anytime soon. Andrews is the sexy red cape ESPN waved in front of its snorting male-bull demographic. We shouldn’t be shocked that some animal finally got tired of stomping its hooves and actually charged. Maybe that’s not a good analogy since a bull would at least face its victim head-on.”

Jerry Crowe, Los Angeles Times: “If Tom Watson can challenge for a major championship at age 59, so presumably could Tiger Woods, which means Woods still has 26 more years to win the additional five majors he needs to break Jack Nicklaus‘ all-time record.”

Scott Ostler, San Francisco Chronicle: “Terrell Owens, with his nude poster, seems to be following the Dennis Rodman career arc.”

Dan Daly, Washington Times: “It always struck me as a bit far-fetched that (Lenny) Dykstra, the erstwhile Mets and Phillies hellion, was an entrepreneurial genius - though he was portrayed that way on Bryant Gumbel’s HBO show. Lenny Dykstra, investment savant? How about Lenny Dykstra, owner of a Chewing Tobacco Recycling Plant in Hackensack?”

Clay Travis, FanHouse: “We already knew Tim Tebow had the ability to kill a man with a forearm and get popcorn to pop by staring at kernels, now he’s given yet another example of his superhuman powers. The most popular player in SEC history is saving himself for marriage. Unbelievable. I asked him this afternoon, and he didn’t even blink before responding. He handled it masterfully, deftly. He even said he wasn’t surprised to get the question. Talk about unflappable.”

MEGAPHONE

“I think it would bother anybody, but what can you do? Nobody is really doing anything to address what steroids did to the game, what it did to the game’s records. As far as I’m concerned, Hank Aaron is the all-time home run champ, and Roger Maris should still have the [single-season] record at 61, but Barry Bonds is the name you see in the record book.”

Former Twins slugger Harmon Killebrew, after Manny Ramirez passed Mickey Mantle on the all-time home run list.