Friday, December 26, 2008

ARE THE RED SOX IN TROUBLE?

***ROB NEYER IS OFF BASE ON THIS ONE***
Rob has written that the Sox "didn't need" Teixeira. They made it to the 7th game of the AL Championship. They outscored the Yanks & the Rays handily. One player was not NEEDED to put them over the hump for that last game. Right, dream on, Rob. Beckett wasn't himself all year; who's to say he'll recover. Ortiz looks like he's slipping badly. Lowell is coming off hip surgery. They have no catcher. That's four question marks right there. Yes, they have a young phenom firstbaseman in the works (Lars Anderson), but he's at least a year away and Boston fans are no more patient than Yankee fans. I'm sure Francona would have found a spot for Tex, like maybe a late game defensive replacement? Rob, you're going to have to lay off that Egg Nog at Christmas.

***MANNY'S IN TROUBLE BECAUSE OF TEIXEIRA***
If Tex had signed with Boston, the Yanks would have gone for Manny out of desperation. Now all he can do is crawl back to the Dodgers and get what he can. At least Boras did the decent thing: sent Tex to the highest bidder. He might have talked Tex into Boston at $10 million less, opening up a big payday for Manny, but he didn't. Picasner agrees with all of that...except for the words 'decent' and 'Boras' in the same sentence.

***EMOTIONS RUNNING HIGH***
The Yanks are being excoriated (look it up!) by a lot of teams and writers for the tremendous amount of money they spent this winter. Wilbon & Kornheiser of 'Pardon The Interruption' have a different view, however. They make two good points: Yes, the Yanks have a lot of money, but they SPEND it to improve their team. They don't just sit back at pocket an obscene amount of profit they could realize from their whole enterprise. Secondly, they are charging an awful lot of money for tickets and realize that to justify it, they have to put a winner on the field and THAT'S what they're trying to do. Certainly worth the debate.

***LIONS ABOUT TO GO 0-16***
You can feel sorry for them, of course, but they are contributing to their own demise. Last week, they broke their huddle for the FIRST play of the 2nd half...with 12 men on the field - the first play of the 2nd half. There are two important facts here: One, they were told a couple of hours before that they were going to get the ball to start the half. Secondly, the 11-men at a time rule has been in effect for a while; like, forever. I guess Marinelli figured, well, nothing else has worked, maybe I can slip this one by.

***A LITTLE PRO FOOTBALL***
I wonder what's going to take longer on Sunday: the actual games or the explanations of the playoff scenarios after? I'm sure the announcers will be explaining it the whole game. They may even mention the game being played on occasion.
If Derrick Ward runs for at least 52 yards today, the Giants will be the 4th team in history to have two 1000 yard rushers. Picasner remembered Czonka & Morris of the Dolphins and Harris & Bleier of the Steelers, but forgot Kevin Mack & Ernest Byner of the Browns. Sorry, Cleveland fans.

Picasner is off to enjoy a bit of his ethnic roots today.

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