A-Rod comes crawling back to the Yankees

When A-Rod decided to opt out of his contract and had what appeared to be a massive falling out with the Yankee front office I figured there would be no chance of A-Rod wearing pinstripes next spring. I figured that to screw the Yankees out of that much money from the Rangers in his contract would be unforgivable. I figured A-Rod saw the writing on the wall, that the Yankees were due to get into a rebuilding year and clear out some of their dusty old talent and start working towards the future and that A-Rod wanted to be part of a winner, like the Red Sox.

I missed the boat on this one. Apparently A-Rod/Scott Bora$$ grossly misjudged what clubs without pockets as deep as the Bronx Bombers were willing to pay, realized their mistake and A-Rod without his money grubbing agent in tow went crawling back to the Steinbrenner brothers begging to be a Yankee again and even willing to take a pay cut for costing the Yankees such a large chunk of Ranger money. This situation clearly didn't pan out as I would have liked. We can all get back to hoping A-Rod gets hit by a bus now.

The good news is that the Yankees may have to curb their offers towards Mike Lowell somewhat now and it should make it easier for the Red Sox to work out a reasonable deal with Mike. I stand by my belief that Mike's numbers will drop off when he's no longer having a contract year, but he still hits well in Fenway and is a solid defensive infielder and a positive influence in the clubhouse.

Manning, Dungy and Vinatieri combine their efforts to blow it against the Chargers

The Germans actually have a word for this:

scha·den·freu·de n. Pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others.

This is exactly what I was experiencing after Adam Vinatieri's last minute field goal sailed wide to give the Chargers a slim 23-21 victory at home. This loss wasn't just on the shoulders of our once beloved, now turncoat place kicker, oh no, there was plenty of blame to go around. Peyton Manning set a Colts franchise record, but not the good kind of records like he usually sets, this time it was six interceptions in one game. Even Colts RB Joseph Addai looked lackluster with 56 yards on 22 carries against a Chargers defense that allowed Adrian Peterson to run up the highest yardage total by a running back in a single game just a week prior. Coach Tony Dungy stupidly decided to waste a crucial time out to argue with the referees about a false start penalty against his team. Oh, and three-time Pro Bowl defensive end Dwight Freeney hurt his left foot in the fourth quarter and left the game. Freeney's status is questionable and the Colts have claimed Simeon Rice off waivers after he was released by the Denver Broncos last Friday. Then Jesus Christ himself came down from heaven wearing a Tom Brady jersey and smote Peyton Manning for his arrogance.....ok, maybe not that last bit, but it was still pretty bad.

This really opens things up for the Steelers. If they can beat the Patriots in Gillette on December 9th and run the tables and the Patriots lose another game they'll get homefield advantage throughout the playoffs. Otherwise, the Patriots are poised to wrap up the division, the bye and home field advantage in the coming weeks.

Mike Lowell can't come to a deal with the Red Sox before exclusive period ends

Nick Cafardo's Extra Bases blog is reporting that the Red Sox couldn't come to a deal with Mike Lowell.

My guess as to how this will pan out? Mike Lowell will get his desired 4th year and probably more money to play for the Yankees. Then he'll revert closer to his career numbers without the Green Monster helping out his average and his numbers will get lower as he ages, like most of the Yankees that have been picked up coming off of their primes. I think the Sox will then be able to open up the purse strings to sign Alex Rodriguez without getting severe backlash from the Fenway Faithful for not resigning Mike Lowell.

News Writing Class Assignment: BC beats FAU 68-62

I submitted this for my News Writing class assignment. We were all brought to the game, allowed to relax in the Media Room and then sit on press row for the game. The assignment was to write a recap between when the game ended ~9 PM and the deadline at midnight. This is what I wrote, don't think it's half bad. BC played a terrible game and were lucky to get hot down the stretch to beat FAU.

NEWTON - The Boston College men’s basketball team made a comeback late in the second half to beat the Florida-Atlantic Owls 68-62 in Chestnut Hill Monday night.

The Eagles trailed by as much as 8 points with time winding down in the second half, but were sparked by a 20-3 run with Junior Guard Tyrese Rice and Sophomore Forward Shamari Spears contributing 16 of the points. Complaining from Florida-Atlantic coach Rex Walters prompted a technical foul that further assisted the Eagles in their comeback. Soon the Eagles would put the game out of reach and would improve to 2-0 on the season.

Rice lead the Eagles in scoring with 21 points. Rice shot 5 of 13 from the field and 2 of 7 from beyond the arc, but was 9 for 10 from the free throw line and had a team high nine assists.

Spears also had a productive night. Spears posted 18 points, shot 7 of 10 from the field, sunk 4 of 5 free throws and lead the Eagles with 8 rebounds.

Both Rice and Spears missed Saturday’s season opening game against New Hampshire after violating NCAA rules by participating in a non-NCAA certified contest last July. Both players made their season debuts tonight. The Eagles received significant contributions from Freshmen Biko Paris and Rakim Sanders to post a 67-57 win against New Hampshire.

The Eagles will prepare to take on Mercer Bears next Sunday in Chestnut Hill. On Saturday Mercer posted a 96-81 upset win over the #18 USC Trojans.

My Second Article

BC caps season with ACC title - Sports

This was actually a fun game to watch, unfortunately it was freezing cold that night which somewhat dampened the experience for me. The soccer coach was a nice fellow, but really only gave me one usable quote, the fact that I didn't have a recorder made me even more reluctant to use verbatim quotes from my hand written notes of the post game interview. I think this was an improvement over my swimming piece.

Too much pitching? A good problem to have...

With the pick up of Schilling, the exercising of options for Tim Wakefield and Julian Tavarez there are now 7 potential starters for the Boston Red Sox: Beckett, Schilling, DiceK,Wakefield, Bucholz, Lester and Tavarez. What are we going to do with the extra two you ask? Obviously Julian Tavarez can be moved to the bullpen. What about the other 6? The other night I was talking with my co-workers about the option of possibly having a 6-man rotation. Turns out I might not be as crazy as I thought, this was from Nick Cafardo in today's Boston Globe:

"Epstein was asked about going to a six-man rotation and did not close the door on the idea. In fact, he said, it had been and would be up for discussion. Matsuzaka and Schilling likely would benefit by an extra day's rest."

The idea of having a 6 man rotation is somewhat odd. With Josh Beckett's youth and dominant pitching we wouldn't want to reduce his starts, but it would seem to make perfect sense for the rest of the rotation. Matsuzaka has pitched his entire career on a six man rotation, the transition to a 5 man rotation certainly took it's toll on Daisuke and he seemed to have some fatigue issues later in the year. Schilling is aging and seemed to benefit from working on an additional days rest. Tim Wakefield is also aging, although this is less of a factor due to the fact that he is a knuckleballer, given the injuries he incurred this year I'm inclined to believe it couldn't hurt for him to spread out his starts a bit more. Clay Bucholz has never pitched a full season in the majors and had to be shut down by the Red Sox before the playoff for fatigue issues, having extra rest between starts might help him transition to the grind of the majors. Jon Lester has also never had a full year at the big leagues, who's to say how he'll react to his first full season? This would still leave Julian Tavarez as the insurance man in the bullpen should their be an injury to one of the starters.

If the Sox don't choose to do this then I'm at a loss for who's going to be the odd man out. Beckett, Schilling and Daisuke are the untouchables. Wakefield has been a bullpen guy in the past, but he won 17 games last year as a starter. I don't think there would be any benefit to keeping Lester and Bucholz in the minors, they're both ready for the big leagues and would be going to waste in Pawtucket.

Isn't it great that with the current lack of starting pitchers on the free agent market this year we have more quality starters than we know what to do with? Big supply, strong demand, sounds like the formula for a favorable off season trade market for the Red Sox.

Kevin Youkilis wins Golden Glove

Kevin Youkilis was named the winner of the American League Gold Glove for his outstanding fielding at first base all year long for the Red Sox. Now I can refer to his fielding prowess by saying he has won a golden glove rather than saying his fielding is golden glove caliber.