Brownie Points: No need for the heimlich

Relax folks. The Diamondbacks are what they are: a very young, very streaky team that’s trying to win a division with a .250 team batting average and no legitimate star.

Are the kids feeling the pressure? Sure, it’s all new and it’s not Double-A ball anymore.

But when you get three great starts from Livan Hernandez, Micah Owings and Doug Davis in a showdown series in San Diego (what’s the deal with that slacker Brandon Webb?), your team isn’t choking down the stretch.

This stuff happens to a lot of teams, teams with heavy payrolls stocked with veterans:

• Are the Red Sox choking? While Terry Francona was being strip-searched by the MLB fashion police during a game, Boston was undressed by the Yankees.

But fear not, Boston conspiracy theorists. The Red Sox still have a fat lead and plenty of games against the Orioles and Devil Rays (13 of the final 28) to cruise home a winner.

And now, thanks to a pair of wayward 98 mph pitches by Yankee rookie Joba Chamberlain, Boston has even more ammunition for New York’s upcoming visit to Fenway Park.

• Are the Mets choking? They lost four straight to the Phillies, losing one game on an interference call and losing an 11-10 heartbreaker Thursday after rallying from 5-0 and 8-5 down only to blow a 10-9 lead in the ninth.

It stood to reason the erratic D-Backs would have at least one hiccup left in them. The bullpen is beginning to show wear. But this is a lukewarm division and will keep them in the thick of it to the end.

QUICK HITTERS

• A new ad campaign for the Dallas Stars includes billboards that state, “The only thing our refs shave is the ice.” Is that how bad things have gotten for the NHL? You can’t sell your own sport, so attack the NBA’s problems in hopes of attracting a few stray fans?

NBA spin doctors are hard at work at a response. The early prototype: “Our games are on ESPN, not “The Cycling Channel.”

• Ex-Mountain View High School coach Bernie Busken, who according to his bio on the Western New Mexico football Web site “achieved legendary status in the prep ranks of Arizona,” got off to a rocky start as head coach of the Mustangs with a 47-0 loss at Northern Arizona on Thursday.

• Item: Jacksonville Jaguars coach Jack Del Rio backs Byron Leftwich as his starting quarterback for six months, then suddenly switches to David Garrard.

Someone refresh my memory. Who is the offensive coordinator down in Jacksonville? Did Garrard’s dad have anything to do with this? Is Leftwich transferring to Nebraska?

• Phil Gone-er is history in Houston and Ozzie Guillen will follow — as soon as general manager Ken Williams can get Guillen to stop ripping and cursing his Chicago White Sox long enough to set up a meeting. Amazingly, Garner and Guillen met in the 2005 World Series.

• Prescott Valley’s Arizona Sundogs — otherwise known as the state’s only winning professional hockey team — have signed a one-year affiliation agreement with the Coyotes. This, of course, means a few steak dinners for Coyotes front-office types at Murphy’s in Prescott, and, just maybe, a Wayne Gretzky appearance for the Sundogs at Tim’s Toyota Center.

THE HIGH FIVE

Five changes you'll likely notice about ASU football under Dennis Erickson:

FIVE It’s no longer illegal to win in California.

FOUR A much better quality of on-field trash talking

THREE Coach knows that TNT national games are broadcast back to Arizona.

TWO Tempe-embedded NCAA investigators who “just happen to be in the neighborhood.”

ONE Training camp at the Orange Bowl next fall. (Just kidding, Tontozona worshipers)