Christine's new favorite former Phillie

Christine likes horses. They're definitely among her top five favorite animals.

Christine loves the Phillies. They're definitely among her top five favorite baseball teams. OK, they're her most favorite team.

So, clearly she was happy to read about former Phillie Dan Plesac and how he saved his former racehorse from the slaughterhouse. Plesac learned the racehorse he owned 12 years ago, Captain Zoom, who is presumably a fan of both the Phillies and fillies, was ailing. Plesac decided to pitch in and provide a better retirement:

"We can come up with a million excuses not to do things," Plesac said. "I couldn't have gone to bed at night knowing that I came up with a lame excuse not to take him."

The only sad part of this tale for Christine is that on our last two trips - Savannah and Lancaster - we took horse-drawn tours. In Savannah, she noticed one horse kept pulling his cart with his head down, as if he were downtrodden.

I had assured her that the horses were well taken care of, but the story says part of Captain Zoom's suffering came from pulling an Amish buggy:

He had marks from a harness collar around his neck. He also had lacerations all over his body from what appeared to be a fall on the road and fights in the pasture.

But thanks to the former Phillie, he won't have to worry about that anymore:

"When I look at him out there eating grass, all I can think is, 'You hit the lottery, big boy,'" Plesac said. "We both did."

Incidentally, the story appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer. It was written by a freelancer, Nicole Kraft, executive editor of Hoof Beats Magazine - a publication of the United States Trotting Association. Who else would write a horse-centric story about Dan Plesac?

Awkward transition: Dan Plesac works for MLB Network. He was an All-Star from 1987-1989. All weekend, the network has been running marathons of All-Star games.

I can think of only two words: Thank you.

Christine aptly described it as TV crack for me, and it's so true. I saw Ricky Bottalico represent the Phillies at Veterans Stadium's last All-Star game in 1996, Bob Costas say that Alex Rodriguez can still grow into his body, and how the biggest stars of my youth don't look so big compared with the stars of today.

I wonder why? Christine also wondered why the 2002 All-Star game wasn't in MLB's rotation.

Other than that omission, this was the perfect use of the year-old network. This is supposed to be what ESPN Classic is for, but that channel lost its way with poker, bowling and rodeo. Although the late-night cheesy professional wrestling is a nice touch.