I've always been a David Wells fan. The San Diego Padres picked him up from the floundering Red Sox last month for their stretch run against the LA Dodgers. It was a good move. Wells is a native of San Diego, pitched there in 2004, and is renowned for his big game and post-season success. Wells considers this his last season, so it was a good match. I'm happy that it looks like he'll go out with yet another playoff appearance.

But last night he was scratched from his scheduled start against the Cardinals due to a flare-up of his gout. Showing no empathy, Manager Bruce Bochy said, "He couldn't pick a worse time to come down with it." The San Diego Padres currently hold a two-game lead over the Dodgers in the NL West with six left to play.

Gout is caused by accumulation of uric acid crystals in joints. Your diet can help, or contribute to, the disease. Some things you shouldn't eat if you're prone to gout: alcohol (especially beer), anchovies (which are sometimes found on large pizzas), offal meats (tongue, tripe [stomach], haggis [sheep stomach], kidney, liver, head cheese), and sweetbread—which isn't as innocent as it sounds. Sweetbread is a dish made of the thymus (neck/throat/gullet sweetbread) or the pancreas (belly/stomach/heart sweetbread) or genitalia of an animal younger than one year old. Yum! I'm not necessarily insinuating that Wells eats this stuff. Well, maybe the pizza and beer.

Get well soon, David! As it stands now, The Padres and the Mets would hook up in the first round of the playoffs. I'll be rooting for Wells.