PHOENICIAN WATCH: Meanwhile, Cleveland Plain Dealer culture columnist Michael Heaton reflects on baseball and Phoenician philology:

My mind wandered between innings. I began wondering about the origin of [Cleveland] Indians second baseman's Asdrubal Cabrera first name. According to the Web site Behind the Name, it is the Spanish form of Hasdrubal, which means "Ba'al helps" from the Phoenician azru "help" combined with the name of the god Ba'al. So it means something like "god's helper." So now you know.

Sounds about right.