Idle Thoughts, while waiting for the Sun to make a shot, someone to unearth the last name of Brazilian futbol player "Fred" and the Yankees' impending 22-game win streak:

• Mr. Idle, Mr. I to his close friends, has a public service announcement for ESPN:

Great coverage of the World Cup, worldwide leader.

But perhaps you need to rethink "BRA" as the abbreviation for Brazil.

"BRA" forces Mr. I's mind to wander.

Like thinking in a close game, "Can BRA hold up?"

Or "BRA got a couple of bounces today."

Maybe we could go to "BRZ" instead.

• Mr. I hasn't heard much about the Charles W. Morgan lately.

So what's going on?

Inquiring minds want to know.

• Note to New London's new superintendent of schools:

You will be held to Nick Fischer's standards.

He did one hell of a job here.

So you'll pardon Mr. I for withholding any gushing until the work begins.

• Mad props to Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon, who paid homage to Tommy Tutone with his lineup Thursday night.

By position, the lineup read "8-6-7-5-3-0-9."

(If you don't get this, call Jenny.)

• Mr. I went a good 44 years without ever hearing the term "run differential" in baseball.

Now they talk about it like it's more important than a pancreas.

How did we survive before sabermetrics?

• Speaking of: Michael Kay said the other night there's a metric for framing pitches.

Of course there is.

And it must be foolproof.

Because the numbers say so.

• Seems a bit provincial of us to kill the soccer folks who overdose on soccer terms.

What must they think watching, like, Monday Night Football and hearing Jon Gruden bloviate about nickel packages, Tampa Twos and sluggo routes?

• This is Mr. I's favorite time of year.

It's L.L.P.P.T. (Little League Psycho Parent Time.)

First complaint came in the other day, the same day we ran a 15-inch story on Mystic Little League softball's district title.

Did you all know The Day hates Mystic and Groton, always has and always will?

• If you don't follow Joke Blogger on Twitter, your life is not as fulfilled as it could be.

From last week:

Here are my three unwritten rules:

1.

2.

3.

• Another note to ESPN:

Mr. I has heard daffodils share more insight than Bill Simmons.

He's got to go.

• That guy Suarez should remember that he bit an Italian.

As Archie Bunker said of us: "Them people are famous for two things: spaghetti and revenge."

• Mr. I is having his doubts that Alfonso Soriano will ever hit a pitch that moves.

• Congrats to former St. Thomas More basketball player Gabe Levin (nephew of the great Jay Levin, New London's former mayor) on his transfer to Marquette.

Gabe was playing at Loyola Marymount.

Now we get to see him when Marquette plays at Providence next year.

• Can we just get Ian Darke to broadcast everything?

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro.