Scott Miller

John Lackey and Kelvim Escobar combined for 37 victories last season, so when they both went onto the disabled list to start the season, there was every reason for the Los Angeles Angels to cough, wheeze and sputter for the season's first several weeks.

So what happens? Left-hander Joe Saunders and righty Ervin Santana each start 5-0, matching Frank Tanana (1978) as the only Angels ever to go 5-0 in the month of April.

More impressive, it's only the second time in major-league history, according to Elias Sports Bureau research, that one team has had a pair of pitchers go 5-0 or better in the month of April. The only other time: Aaron Sele and Rick Helling did it for the 1998 Texas Rangers.

Who, no coincidence, wound up winning the AL West that season.

"We have to keep going, keep it up," Santana said after knocking off Oakland on Wednesday to go 5-0. "I'm 300 percent, 500 percent positive that I can do better."

Santana's math may be a tad off, but he was smiling as he said it and his point was made.

"Joe and Ervin have kind of matched each other pitch for pitch," Angels manager Mike Scioscia says. "They've really been the lead dogs for our rotation."

And the woofing is only going to get louder. While Saunders takes his 5-0 record into Sunday's series finale against Baltimore, Lackey will make his third injury-rehabilitation start for Rancho Cucamonga Quakes -- also on Sunday afternoon. So far, so good with Lackey, and the Angels have him tentatively scheduled to rejoin their rotation on May 14 in Kansas City.

If you picked one player whose long-term absence would cripple the Colorado Rockies, it wouldn't be 2007 Most Valuable Player candidate Matt Holliday. Nor would it be face-of-the-franchise first baseman Todd Helton, nor starting pitcher Aaron Cook.

Without question, it would be shortstop Troy Tulowitzki.

And losing him until at least the All-Star break with a torn tendon in his quadriceps is every bit as devastating for the Colorado Rockies as you can imagine.

Tulowitzki isn't simply a flashy glove. He wasn't just a hot Rookie of the Year candidate in '07.

No, in his one season on the job, Tulowitzki emerged as the Rockies' team leader and model player. Manager Clint Hurdle does not hesitate in saying that things turned around for the Rockies in '07 about a month into the season, when Tulowitzki steadied himself, gained some confidence and took off.

He led all NL rookies last season in hits (177), RBI (99), runs (104) and total bases (292). And according to Stats, Inc., his .987 fielding percentage is the best all-time by a rookie shortstop.

The crushing blow for the Rockies, however, is this: Tulowitzki's importance cannot be measured simply in numbers. As a rookie last season, the kid wouldn't hesitate to bark at a teammate if he thought the guy wasn't doing something the way it should be done -- or, worse yet, loafing.

The only thing that might be more rare than a rookie directing traffic in a major-league clubhouse is everybody else listening. That's the true measure of Tulowitzki's value, and how much respect he commands in the Rockies' clubhouse. Even when he was a 22-year-old rookie, the Rockies took their cues from him.

He was off to a rough start this season, hitting only .152 with one homer and 11 RBI. He already had committed two errors after being charged with only 11 in all of 2007.

The ironic thing is that Tulowitzki dropped 10 pounds over the winter, wanting to get lighter because with Kaz Matsui gone, Tulowitzki knew that he probably would spend much of this season batting second.

And always wanting to make sure to do things the right way, Tulowitzki knew that in the No. 2 hole, he would need his legs more. That particular batting slot demands moving runners over, a higher on-base percentage and perhaps even stealing more bags.

Hurdle was impressed not with the results of Tulowitzki's body-sculpting, but with the forethought that went into it. Again, there was his shortstop, anticipating a play, and then making it.

I loved Hurdle's spring quote when, after Tulowitzki made a backhanded glove-flip to second so start a double play, someone asked him whether it wasn't a little too flashy.

"Come on, guys," Hurdle responded. "Let an artist paint. Let a musician play."

He could say this partly because he knows flash is the last thing TUlowitzki is about. As the manager told me during another conversation in Arizona, "He's not about the bling. He's about trying to get outs."

In Tulowitzki's absence, those outs now will become even more difficult for a struggling Rockies club to obtain.

Colorado will miss him dearly. So, too, will baseball fans who appreciate it when a player comes along who pretty much embodies all that is right about the game.

To who?

Why, to the memory of one of the greatest managerial meltdowns in major-league history!

Yes, sports fans, Tuesday is the 25th anniversary of former skipper Lee Elia's all-time classic in Wrigley Field, when he shredded Cubs fans in a profanity-laced tirade that quickly became one of the most bootlegged tapes this side of a Grateful Dead show.

If you haven't heard it yet -- or if you have, but haven't played it in awhile -- it's just one more reason to be thankful for the existence of Youtube. Check Elia's rant out here (be forewarned, it's very R-rated, though exquisitely poetic).

It all started after the Cubs suffered another loss, this one 4-3 to the Dodgers, and some fans tossed beer and hurled insults at Cubs Larry Bowa and Keith Moreland as they came off the field.

"A few moments before, someone was calling MOreland a fat redhead and Bowa a Pygmy shortstop," Elia reminisced last week to the Chicago Sun-Times. "It just set me off."

Uh, yeah.

"We've got all these so-called f------ fans that come out here and say they're Cub fans, who are supposed to be behind you, ripping every f------ thing you do," Elia ranted to reporters on that fateful day. "I tell you one f------ thing, I hope we get f------ hotter than s---. Just to stuff it up them 3,000 f------ people that show up ever f------ day. because if they're the real Chicago f------ fans, they can kiss my f------ ass, right downtown, and print it!"

He went on to note that "85 percent of the world is working, the other 15 percent come out here. A f------ playground for the f------ c----------."

Incredibly, Elia -- whose Cubs were 5-14 at that point, in last place in the NL East -- kept his job for another four months before being fired that August.

All these years later, Elia, now a special assistant to Mariners manager John McLaren and a beloved figure in the Mariners organization, is revisiting the long ago moment that turned him into a sort of cult hero. Through an Illinois-based memorabilia dealer, Elia is selling an autographed baseball that contains a 20-second sound chip in which he parodies his tirade with a positive message to Cubs fans. The ball, which is scheduled to be unveiled Monday at Harry Caray's Restaurant in downtown Chicago, also has the inscription, "And print it!"

Elia, a surivor of prostate cancer, has designated a portion of the proceeds for Chicago Baseball Cancer charities. Best part of all might be that the ball also will come with an mp3 copy of the unedited tirade.

For more information, call 1-800-581-8661 or go to www.leeunplugged.com.

Likes: Umpire Kerwin Danley released from the hospital. What a scary moment Saturday night, when he was drilled with Brad Penny's mid-90s fastball and he lost consciousness. And  what a blessing that he wasn't seriously hurt. ... Tampa Bay in first place, even if the Rays are tied. What a thing in the AL East in the final days of April. ... The Lee Elia rant. I've had a copy of the tape for years, and it is just so staggeringly entertaining. And to think how times have changed: That happened today, it would be all over ESPN, CNN, other assorted cable channels, the Internet, national radio, etc., within the hour. Back then, one radio guy who was in Elia's office had his tape recorder, and it went out on a Chicago radio station and then those in the inner circle of the Chicago media got themselves tapes of it, and it spread from there.

Dislikes: That one of the Cleveland Indians -- Grady Sizemore? C.C. Sabathia? Fausto Carmona? -- has yet to show up at a Cavaliers NBA playoff game wearing a Washington Wizards cap. You may recall Cavaliers star LeBron James showing up at Jacobs Field during the Cleveland-New York playoffs last fall wearing a Yankees cap?

Rock 'N' Roll Lyric of the Day:

"She's like so whatever
"You can do so much better
"I think we should get together now
"And that's what everyone's talking about"

-- Avril Lavigne, Girlfriend

Brandon Webb is 5-0 with a 2.31 ERA, Micah Owings is 4-0 with a 2.42 ERA and