AND WE'RE OFF!!

 Spring Training games start this Sunday so it's time for the teams to put up or shut up.

**Cam Newton, 31-year-old soon-to-be-free-agent QB, last week said, "I’ve spent thousands and thousands of dollars — maybe even millions of dollars--on clothes I only wore once." Now why would you be proud of that? And why tell the world?

**Now a third member of the NY Mets has been fired over inappropriate  actions against women, specifically female sports reporters. This is ridiculous, will it never end? This is what I call double stupid. Not only do they say and do these inappropriate things, but they also leave a paper trail. I leave you with one thought: My Dad always drummed this into my head - "You always respect the women."

**The Yankees have resigned Bret Gardner for 1 year at $4 million. He's the  the longest tenured Yankee. He started in 2008, and while he's no HOF candidate, he's a very serviceable player and at 36 years old, he can still handle center field. Good move Cashman.

**I love this headline on the NY Post: "Gerrit Cole mad at the ‘bad faith’ in baseball that was just exposed" I pretty sure he wasn't talking about the $324 million contract he just signed. That's not bad faith, of course,  that's just bad judgement.

**The Yanks first spring training game is Sunday. If the teams follow their usual pattern, the regulars will play three innings and then a bunch of guys with three digit numbers on their backs will appear on the field for the last six innings. And yes, I'm so desperate for baseball, I'll still be watching.

**The NY Yankees seemingly led the league for the last two years in players lost to injuries. It's supposed to be different this year, because of their new strength and conditioning coach.  After one complete day of workouts, pitcher Clarke Schmidt has strained a tendon in his elbow and is out for at least three weeks. At least everyone made it through the uniform fittings.

**Tim Tebow has officially retired. I'm not sure from what.

**Bradford Doolittle, a writer for ESPN, has made his predictions for the baseball season, picking quite logically, the Dodgers and the Yankees as number one & number two with Atlanta & Houston next. What else could he do? All these prognosticators have to go on is last years results. All the teams have made moves, some of which will seriously impact their seasons and some that won't. Someday, some gutsy writer will come out with a list that will include a team that on paper has no chance. He'll be wrong, of course, but I will admire his bold choice.

***THEY SAID IT***

"Marie Antoinette, beheaded former queen of France, never played hockey. If she had, history would note her as out indefinitely with an upper body injury."  -- RJ Currie

"Duke star Jalen Johnson has opted out of the rest of his freshman season to preserve his health for the 2021 NBA draft. Or, as veteran Cameron Crazy “Bluto” Blutarskyput it: “Seven months of college down the drain."  -- Dwight Perry

"After the Buffalo Sabres got shut out at home for their fourth straight loss, I bought a cardboard cutout to honor my aunt who passed away. Can I come pick it up so she doesn’t have to watch this any more?"  -- Chris Calarco

"Saw Tom Brady on one of the boats celebrating the Super Bowl victory. I thought for sure he’d be walking on the water."  -- Patti Dawn Swansson

"NHL Outdoor game between Golden Knights and Avalanche stopped after first period, and rescheduled to restart at midnight  now, after sunshine caused deteriorating ice conditions earlier. So add to 2021 insanity… a major professional sporting event postponed because the weather was too good?"  -- Janice Hough

"Below is the new Arby's burger known as "The Widowmaker." How fast can we get a vaccine for this?'  -- Brad Dickson

"I suspect that the Marlins’ decision to allow a 25 percent capacity into its ballpark is a scheme to increase their attendance."  -- NY Post reader Joe Napoleone (From Phil Mushnick, column)

"The Indianapolis Colts acquired QB Carson Wentz from the Eagles for a third-round pick, a second-round pick and a thank you note from Wentz to be sent later."  -- RJ Currie

"Another Tiger Woods’ accident and good fortune instead again lies in the fact he hasn’t killed anyone, including himself."  -- Phil Mushnick

"Look, if the NBA stars think the NBA All-Star Game is a bad idea, they have it in their power to make things right from their perspective.  Just do not show up for the game."  -- Jack Finarelli

"A person took s swing at Mike Tyson as he was signing autographs after his recent fight with Roy Jones, Jr. No arrests have been made, but police are searching for a man who's lost his mind."  -- Patti Dawn Swansson

Chad Picasner

IT'S ALMOST TIME

It's that time of the year when all 30 teams expect to be in the World Series. Well, not the Orioles maybe, but every other team.

**Yankee Stadium opens as a coronavirus vaccination site. Well, that's one way to give the team a shot in the arm.

**Move over Bobby Bonilla, your $1.2 million  a year until 2035, is now in second place for the craziest contract. The Dodgers will be paying Trevor Bauer approx. $120,000 an inning for the next two years. One complete game for Trevor and there goes your record, Bobby. To carry Bauer's contract to another extreme, that's close to $10,000 per pitch, which could lead to this conversation on the mound: Mgr: "How do you feel, Trevor?"  Bauer: " I think I got about $40,000 left in me, Skipper."

**Speaking of overpaid athletes, here's an oddity. The Angels just signed Shohei Otani to a two-year deal for $8.5 million. For a baseball's only two-way player and Rookie of the year winner, this seems reasonable. Of course, Otani is a few years away from free agency, so he has very little leverage in the negotiations, so one could say the Angels were being generous. On the other hand, they are paying Mike Trout $35.5 million a year for 12 years, so there might not be a lot of money left in owner Artie Moreno's wallet.

**You can't discuss sports - any sport - without dragging statistics into it, but how much faith can you actually put in those numbers? A lot of times those numbers are subjective, determined by a stat-head sitting in a booth or at a table where the actual achievement is awarded by some guy with a pencil.A big bugaboo of mine is watching a ball hit to a fielder who can't come up with it but the batter is "given" a hit because it was so hard hit. Bullroar! Those are major-leaguers with a glove. Catch the ball or catch the error. Even college basketball stats are not to be trusted. Here are two examples: In last nights Syracuse - N.C. State game, a Syracuse shot went awry and the announcers wondered if maybe State player Manny Bates blocked it. Even with instant replay, slo-mo and multiple angles available to them, they couldn't tell. One of the announcers actually said, "We'll have to wait and see if Bates was awarded a block." Who was going to make that decision? Manny's Mom?  But there it is in this morning's stat sheet; Manny got credited with a block  - plus two others. Manny's Mom must have called them in. Second questionable stat came from Syracuse point guard Joe Girardi III. He was charged with one turnover. ONE! I saw him lose his dribble to a defender twice plus throw a pass away and yet he ends up with only one turnover. I guess Joe's Mom has that same phone number. BTW, after watching him for two seasons now, I don't think Girardi is a point guard. He should be the shooting guard with someone else bringing the ball down. He'll score more and Syracuse will have fewer turnovers. Boeheim doesn't seem too happy with him either, because he often gets pulled after making an error or two. He plays fewer minutes than any other Syracuse starter, unusual for your primary ball handler.

**Not a good time to be a baseball free agent, especially a decent, but not great, free agent. Teams are playing a waiting game , hoping that players they are interested in will lower their asking price to a team-friendly level. There are still about a dozen free agents  (all under 32 years old) that normally would be signed by now, but there they sit. One that really puzzles me is catcher Austen Romine. He's now 32 and maybe he's not an every day player, but he may be a great backup. The Cardinals just resigned 38 year-old Yadier Molina to a one year $9 million deal. Probably could have had Romine for half that and been set for a few years.

***THEY SAID IT***

"The sun came up this morning. In related news, QB Tom Brady won the Super Bowl."  -- RJ Currie

"Tom Brady apparently immediately after Super Bowl texted an apology to Chiefs’ Tyrann Mathieu “for several on-field verbal altercations.” Now you REALLY wonder what Brady said to him on the field?"  -- Janice Hough

"Last Tuesday’s Sabres-Islanders hockey game was postponed because of snow. Which, when you think of it, is kind of like a swim meet getting rained out."  -- Dwight Perry

" COVID shutdowns forced Cirque de Soleil to declare bankruptcy. There haven't been so many clowns not working this side of the Jacksonville Jaguars."  -- RJ Currie

"Ex-Mariners ace Felix Hernandez,  who just signed with the Orioles, opted out of the 2020 season. With 500 days between starts, he should be well-rested."  -- Bob Molinaro

"NFL used all kinds of COVID-19 protocols to make it to Super Bowl. Now they’re having 22,000 fans & many events, in Florida, where Gov. DeSantis has fought every sensible safety measure scientists devised. It’s like celebrating making it through wildfire season with a bonfire."  -- Janice Hough

"Kendrick Perkins says ex-Thunder teammate James Harden shot poorly in the 2012 NBA Finals because he spent too much time in Miami’s King of Diamonds strip club. Which probably explains why the old bromide isn’t known as Win One For The Strippers."  -- Dwight Perry

Chad Picasner

 

 

TWO WEEKS UNTIL PITCHERS & CATCHERS (MAYBE)

 MLB & MLBBPA are still negotiating it but it looks like it will be in two weeks. MLB wanted to delay spring training a month, presumably to allow for more players to be immunized and also the fans. Not a bad idea, but I think the players didn't want to go thru another session of what percentage their pay would be cut. It may be very difficult to protect players because there will be so many more players in the camps than during the regular season. Arizona (The Cactus League) has stricter rules about the protection  than Florida (The Grapefruit League), so this may be a minor test of how effective the masks and social distancing rules actually are.

**The Yankees have a minor league super prospect named Jasson Dominguez (the spelling is correct). How's this for a start to your career: He won't be 18 until Feb. 7th, he signed a contract with a $5.1 million bonus and he has yet to play one professional inning. His nickname is "The Martian" because his talent is "out of this world." He is a switch-hitting outfielder with blazing speed. 

**Goodbye to Dustin Pedroia. He officially retired on Sunday, but he has appeared in only 9 games since 2017. He doesn't have Hall Of Fame numbers and neither did Thurman Munson, but both will live on in the hearts and minds of their fans. Pedroia never got cheated in his at bats. He had the wildest swing I'd ever seen. Here's the best thing I could say about him: I hated to see him play against the Yankees.

**Another former Mets official has been accused of sexual misconduct. Former manager Mickey Callaway was accused by five women for sending inappropriate texts and other advances. The Mets claim to have no prior knowledge of those acts, the same as accusations against former GM Jared Porter. I have to believe the Mets would not have ignored those claims and hired those two anyway, but it is quite a coincidence.

**The Superbowl is Sunday, as if the network would let you. I think the pregame shows have already started. It looks like NFL will allow 22,000 fans to be in the stadium. Because the game is in Tampa, kind of a home game for the Buccaneers, the Kansas City Chiefs are currently  only a 3 point favorite. I've read where the presence of Tom Brady is also a factor but I wasn't too impressed with his performance against the Packers. I thought the Bucs game plan was the deciding factor. If I haven't passed out from all the pregame snacks, I will watch and root for the Chiefs because Annie-O doesn't like Brady. 

***THEY SAID IT***

"Many of us have reached new levels of desperation in looking for entertainment during this pandemic. But proud to report at least I have no regrets that this Sunday we don’t have viewing option of NFL Pro Bowl."  -- Janice Hough

"Latin is one of the Pope's Twitter languages. If I translated some tweets correctly, his hopes for the coming year are global peace and Notre Dame kicking Bama butt."  -- RJ Currie

"There’s been a grassroots call for the Atlanta Braves to rename themselves the Hammers, in honor of Hammerin’ Hank Aaron. Better hope Mariner fans don’t get any similar notions regarding Randy “The Big Unit” Johnson."  -- Dwight Perry

"I think Curt Schilling is a social troglodyte – meaning no disrespect to cave dwellers in antiquity.  But he will not be the most repugnant person in the Hall of Fame if inducted."  -- The Sports Curmudgeon

Okay, not sports but really funny: "The last name of the person in charge of Nebraska's vaccination process is "Ling." I'm pretty sure her first name is "Ding-A."  -- Brad Dickson

"Last season in 211 at-bats, A’s infielder Marcus Semien batted .223. This week he signed a one-year, $18 million deal to play for Toronto. I still can’t decide what I want to be when I grow up, but I’m leaning toward the expendable — a backup MLB infielder."  -- Phil Mushnick

"Eight years ago at the Aussie Open, Maria Sharapova blanked her first two opponents in straight sets—6-0, 6-0 and 6-0, 6-0. It was the most love I'd seen since the Sixties."  -- RJ Currie

 "The Blue Jays signed ex-Astros star George Springer. Apparently Springer leaked the news of his signing by banging on the lid of a trash can."  -- Patti Dawn Swansson

"The Miami Heat is employing coronavirus-sniffing dogs to screen fans attending their home games. The Jacksonville Jaguars, not to be outdone, brought in a bomb-sniffing dog — but it passed out inside their locker room."  -- Dwight Perry

Chad Picasner