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