Tuesday December 23, 2003
 

BASEBALL THOUGHTS

BASKETBALL THOUGHTS

FOOTBALL THOUGHTS

NFL “EXPERT” PICKS

TELEVISION THOUGHTS
 

MORE RANDOM RAMBLINGS

Not a lot going on in the world of sports right now. So today, I’ve got a few baseball notes along with some basketball, football and TV thoughts for you. I hope everyone has a great Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza or whatever you celebrate!

Here is my plan for the rest of this week. Tomorrow (Christmas Eve), I will have a new posting. Thursday (Christmas Day) there will not be a new posting. Friday, I will be doing a Mailbag edition. So, if you would like to rant on anything from the Twins to the Wolves to the Wild to the Vikings to baseball to my writing or anything, send me an e-mail, then check back and see if your thoughts make Friday’s post.
 

BASEBALL THOUGHTS

Twins Winter Caravan

The Twins have set the schedule for their Winter Caravan throughout the region. Check this schedule and see if they’re coming anywhere near you.

Javy Lopez Signs With O’s

Javy Lopez agreed to a 3 year, $22.5 million contract with the Baltimore Orioles. It is a pretty fair deal for both sides. Lopez is 33 years old, getting to the point where catchers begin to tail off. However, he is coming off his best career season. Also, he has shown interest in getting some playing time at 1B, which should help keep his legs fresh. Lopez follows SS Miguel Tejada to the team. It is still assumed that they will sign Vlad Guerrero. But what does this do to Ivan Rodriguez? The Orioles don’t need him now. The Cubs have just signed Michael Barrett for a year, so they still could show interest. But who else would give Pudge the money and the years that he wants?

SELIG BASHING - BUD A BOSOX BACKER?

Tom Hicks has set yet another deadline for the Rangers/Red Sox big trade. Today. This afternoon. Of course, if it doesn’t get done by then, well, I’m sure there will be another deadline in a few weeks and that will continue until the trade is finished.

I was reading The Sporting News’ Ken Rosenthal article last night. In it, he writes that the Red Sox have now “has achieved most-favored nation status under commissioner Bud Selig.” What does this mean? Here are a couple of examples:

If you don't believe it, ask yourself whether Selig would have allowed George Steinbrenner to court Alex Rodriguez if the Yankees and not the Red Sox were trying to trade for the game's best player.

Sox owner John Henry was accorded that privilege. His team's general manager, Theo Epstein, and Rodriguez met with union and major league officials about restructuring A-Rod's contract -- outside the normal timetable and before a trade agreement, the standard prerequisite for such discussions, was in place.

No one wants to hear or read anything more on that deal, so how about these?

At the July 31 trading deadline, Selig allowed the Red Sox to give the Reds $1.2 million -- $200,000 over the permissible limit -- for reliever Scott Williamson. But he prohibited the Yankees from sending the Reds $2 million in a trade for third baseman Aaron Boone and reliever Gabe White, forcing them to lower the payment and split the deals in two.

The Yankees have grumbled, publicly and privately, about the 2002 trade of Cliff Floyd from the MLB-owned Expos to the Red Sox, the 2003 interleague schedule that they perceived to be more favorable to the Red Sox and MLB's role last offseason in extricating Kevin Millar from his contract with a Japanese club and delivering him to the Red Sox. More recently, MLB approved landmark incentive clauses in Curt Schilling's new Boston contract even though they appeared to violate major league rules.

And that’s not all that Rosenthal bashes Selig on. Check this out:

The commissioner also is guilty of far bigger sins: his family's mismanagement of the Brewers, his inability to resolve the Expos' fate and his continuing failure to gain the union's trust. Still, it's essential that Selig avoid any perception of preferential treatment in the game's biggest rivalry, Red Sox-Yankees.

He doesn't.

I really like Ken Rosenthal, and no, not just because he picked the Twins to win the World Series last year, but because I think he’s a great writer with very interesting thoughts.

OTHER BASEBALL TOPICS

SI’s Tom Verducci’s Baseball Hall of Fame Ballot

Be sure to check out his article showing who he’d vote for. Would he include Paul Molitor? How about Dennis Eckersley? Lee Smith? Jim Rice?

Oh, then be sure to check out my two part Hall of Fame ballot (Part 1, Part 2).

Willie Mays Aikens was quite the ball player for a few years, but drugs got the best of him. SI.com has a great article on the Aikens story. He sold drugs to an undercover cop and is now in his ninth year of a 20 year prison sentence. Because of his baseball past, he has appealed to both Bill Clinton and George Bush for early parole, but so far, to no avail. Jay Jaffe of The Futility Infielder writes a very interesting take on Aikens in his post today.

Not much going on in the baseball world. If you have any questions or comments on anything, e-mail me.
 

BASKETBALL THOUGHTS

RODMAN SIGNS CONTRACT

Flamboyant, 42 year old Dennis Rodman has signed a contract to play with the Long Beach Jam of the ABA.  Obviously Rodman plans on using the team as a springboard to attaining his goal of getting back into the NBA. Obviously, the Jam team is using Rodman to help the first-year franchise fill the stands.

Do you think that Dennis Rodman will ever play in the NBA again? That is a tough question. When I saw Karl Malone hurt his knee the other night, my first thought is that Phil Jackson would give Rodman a call. That would be a situation where it would make sense, a veteran team. But now it seems that Malone will only be missing about 3 games. I think that this is a good move for Rodman though. It is an opportunity for him to show that he can still play. Even in the ABA, I wouldn’t expect him to score a lot. But no NBA team would sign him for his scoring anyway. If he can show that he is in the shape to play near the kind of defense that made him a multi-winner of the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year Award, and if he can grab rebounds the way that made him a seven-time league leader in that category, well, someone is going to sign him.

What do you think? Does Rodman deserve another chance in the NBA? E-mail me.

FOOTBALL THOUGHTS

BRETT FAVRE IS AMAZING, BUT…

I have always had a lot of respect for Brett Favre as a quarterback. I don’t care if he plays for the Green Bay Packers. He has done more than enough to warrant the respect of anyone who calls themselves a football fan. He has put up great numbers and he has led his teams to a lot of wins.

Last night, he played for the Packers in Oakland despite the fact that his father had died of an apparent heart attack in his vehicle on Sunday. Now, Favre deserves all of the accolades he receives, but my opinion is that he did not make the right call last night. He should not have been playing football. Sure, he’ll be made out to be a hero because of how incredibly well he played in leading the Packers to a lopsided 41-7 win over the Raiders. At halftime, he already had thrown for 311 yards and 4 touchdowns. But I don’t know what kind of example he’s making by putting football over family?

Now, my opinion of Brett Favre won’t change at all. If it would come out that he wanted to play just to continue his incredible consecutive start streak to 205 games, that would bother me some. But, I still have the utmost respect for him. I just don’t know what the right thing to do in that situation is. Maybe it is different for every individual.  Just some food for thought, I guess… What do you think? Send me an e-mail.

NFL “EXPERT” PICKS

Aaron Gleeman came into Week 16 hoping to expand upon his two game lead over Ben Jacobs, and he did just that. He now takes a three game lead with just one more week (and 16 games) to pick. But the winner of the Week 16 picks was Vic Quick who correctly picked 12 of the 16 games. Here are the up-to-date standings:

TELEVISION THOUGHTS

Everyone remembers Bachelor Bob Guiney. It was just a month ago that Bob gave a ring to Estella. Yesterday, he was sued by the producers of The Bachelor/The Bachelorette for breach of contract. They signed an exclusivity clause before the show began.  To stay on a high level, what it means is that, ABC feels that Bob Guiney would be unknown if not for their show. His album, 3 Sides, was done with an independent company.

I should mention that I bought this CD at a Media Play about a month ago. I think it is great. From what I’ve read, experts compare his style to John Mayer, so that’s pretty high praise. Amazon.com gives it a 3 ½ (out of 5) star rating. My opinion - I really like it. I especially like the songs “Girlfriend” and “Temporary Life.” The only negative I see is that a lot of the songs have a very similar sound to them..

On another TV note, how good is the show Las Vegas on NBC?  I first watched it just a week ago, and I’ll be honest, the reason I watched it is because Molly Sims, Vanessa Marcil and Nikki Cox are all on it. How’s that for a trifecta? That’s not even fair! But, now having watched three or four episodes of it, it is great! The concept of the show is showing the inner workings of a casino, from the security perspective. It is really interesting!

On that note, that is it for today. To repeat it again, here is my plan for the rest of the week. Tomorrow (Christmas Eve), I will have a posting. Thursday (Christmas Day) there will not be a new posting. Friday, I will be doing a Mailbag edition. So, if you would like to rant on anything from the Twins to the Wolves to the Wild to the Vikings to baseball to my writing or anything, send me an e-mail, then check back and see if your thoughts make Friday’s post.

Have a great day!

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