Various Notes

USAToday.com has an interesting combination today. The big news is ARod now says he will play for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic. Of course, on the same page is a Jon Saraceno article touting ARod’s indecision about what team to play for, and his switch from baseball player to businessman.

Don’t they have editors over there? Save a good writer like Saraceno some embarrassment, and edit that piece slightly, so it doesn’t look like he was asleep at the wheel. He obviously was just writing an assigned piece before the news broke.

Now, as for ARod becoming a businessman—what do we expect? We have, for decades, bemoaned athletes—especially certain boxers—who made millions, and lost them because they didn’t know how to handle the money, or were ripped off by thieving handlers. Now we run them down for getting smart, and watching their cash?

Denny Neagle’s in the news again. His statement to police, which amounted to a confession of soliciting a prostitute, has been disallowed. He had about $19 million remaining on a contract with Colorado when he was arrested in December 2004. He was cut for his bad conduct, and the players association filed a grievance, which resulted in an unreported settlement.

Finally, a baseball team has found a way to get out of a bad contract. Neagle’s original contract was for $51 million. You’d think that a guy with that kind of loot wouldn’t troll the streets looking for a sidewalk hooker—ah, but then, that would be having the good sense of being a businessman, and we wouldn’t want that, would we?

It’s Arbitration Time! That wonderful time of year when clubs and ballplayers call each other names, and haggle publicly for every last dollar. It’s an embarrassment to the sport, and everyone involved. This year’s sordid lot includes Alfonso (I’m not playing outfield) Soriano—and yes, that was a stupid move to announce that, before negotiations. Guess he’s not a businessman yet.

Also still in the process are Adam Dunn, Carlos Zambrano, Mark Prior, Josh Beckett, Shawn Chacon, Juan Pierre, Coco Crisp, Morgan Ensberg and Felipe Lopez.

I think Team Arbitration looks pretty good right now. Can they replace Cuba in the World Baseball Classic?

The former mayor of Detroit, Dennis Archer, has been picked to mediate the growing dispute between MLB and Washington D.C., which now does not want to honor it’s stadium-building agreement with baseball. What happened? A politician in Washington D.C. lied? Switched positions? Falsely represented something to get their way, and then tried to rework the situation to their advantage? Oh my! How unprecedented!

Maybe Bud Selig should have had ARod and Scott Boras work that deal for them.

Then again, maybe ARod should just build the stadium. He can probably afford it better than the nation’s capital. Between that, and deciding to play for TEAM USA, he’s got the beginnings of a presidential campaign going.

The Yankees and Red Sox lead the poll on Foxsports.com—of teams you are most sick of hearing about. What is this? Fox is actually trying to gauge what their audience wants? What’s next? Bill O’Reilly calms down? Oh wait, his audience loves him more than Catholics love the Pope.

The Yankees and Red Sox bullied a huge 84% of the vote—with the Yankees winning 54% to 30%.

Man, those Red Sox can’t come in first in anything, can they?

Peace-Out
Jim Evans
jevans@baseballdigestdaily.com