Stuff you missed while contemplating a move to the desert southwest:
- I previewed the upcoming BBWAA Awards. Even made a few predictions: For ROY I like Jeter. AL MVP: Jeter. I also like Jeter for NL MVP, CY Youngs in both leagues and AL Manager of the Year. For NL Manager of the Year, I like Ditka.
- Sandy Alderson’s father was killed. Served in WWII and Korea and lived 87 years on this terrible Earth, only to be cut down by a 21 year-old driver. Man, I don’t understand the cosmos sometimes.
- Jon Heyman is making “a big push” to keep Scott Boras happy.
- The Mets are going to interview Jose Oquendo for the manager’s job. And the jobs for first base coach, third base coach, bullpen coach and assistant to the traveling secretary.
- Terry Collins had a DUI in 2002. I love how this was put out by pro-Backman people. They desperately want to believe that people don’t prefer Backman for the job due to his personal issues from ten years ago. At some point I hope they realize that the biggest problem is that “an old video started circulating last summer of you throwing bats around and acting like an ass at a low-A ballgame” is not a key qualification for a major league manager’s job.
- They should call this the Dan Ugly situation. Hey-o!
- The Cardinals will “aggressively pursue” Juan Uribe. How does that work? “Hey you! Yeah, you, Uribe’s agent! Get your fat ass back here and sign this contract before we break your freakin’ arm! How ya like that, punk!”
- On Saturdays, I farm out my Jeff Francoeur bashing to D.J.
- If you had to guess which would sell for more money -- a Babe Ruth home run ball or a Kirk Gibson home run bat -- I’m betting you’d guess wrong.
- The Pirates hire Clint Hurdle. More on this later today.
- The Indians are cutting payroll for 2011. I enjoyed the couple of visits I made to the Tribe Social Deck last season. I mean, it was great being invited by the team to sit and watch the team for free and be encouraged to blog about it. But I’m probably going to decline if invited next year. Not because it’s not cool, but because I’ll likely be able to get better seats even cheaper by just hanging around the ballpark before games.
- The Phillies sign Jose Contreras to a two-year deal, which keeps him under contract through his age 157 season.
- Finally, I get that it’s a crime to have drugs sent to you in the mail, but I always wondered about how merely signing for the package is enough to get you busted. I get random stuff sent to me fairly often. Books people want me to promote, t-shirts, various pieces of gear I wasn’t expecting from NBC for my little basement studio. I’m not suggesting anyone do this, but if someone were to just ship me a kilo of coke without my knowledge and I were to sign for it, would I be in deep doo-doo? Isn’t the crime complete in such instances when the order is placed? And if the cops know the order is placed -- like they did with Jose Guillen’s wife -- why can’t they just make the arrest before the shipment arrives?
As for today, I know you couldn’t freakin’ wait, but the Best and Worst Uniforms of All Time resumes at 11 AM, picking up with the AL Central. There will be Chief Wahoo rage at around 3PM or so. Just thought I’d warn you ahead of time.
