It's Friday the 13th....

It’s Friday the 13th and I guess there’s enough bad luck to go around, just in general, but for the Houston Astros and New York Yankees, the fortunes of the day hit especially hard.

The Astros Miguel Tejada, one of the best shortstops in Major League Baseball, has now admitted to buying steroids but then throwing them out. They cost about $6500 but he threw them out. When was the last time you bought ANYTHING for $6500 and then not used it? Maybe I can become his garbage man.

Oh, and he’s not really the age that he told his employers, the Houston Astros. He’s at least two years older than that. I’m pretty sure that makes him about 37. Oh, and by the way, Tejada’s numbers fell a bit in his first Houston year. Just to give you an idea, his homer totals were as follows for the seven years from 2000 through 2006: 30, 31, 34, 27, 34, 26 and 24. In his last year with Baltimore, 2007, he managed to hit 18 homers in only 133 games.

In 2008, he hit 13 homers in 158 games and a full 632 at-bats. He did have 38 doubles though and scored 92 runs. The really bad news is in the RBI department though. His ribbies declined to 66 while he averaged well over 100 ribbies from 2000 through 2007. Wonder what round he’ll be drafted in Fantasy Baseball this year?

If I’m Ed Wade, the Astros GM, I’m feeling a little blue. Oh, and Miguel will play in the World Baseball Classic. What the hell….it probably won’t add to the wear and tear on a 37 or 38 year-old body, one that is possibly weaning itself off God-only-knows what. And he’s only making 13 million per year, so what’s the big deal?

As baseball fans, we have to have a little fun with this stuff. It’s, after all, not showing many signs of going away. Maybe when spring training really gets rolling, it’ll be largely forgotten. I certainly hope so.

You have to chuckle, you really do. Clemens just took another hit when a judge ruled that his case against McNamee would have to be re-formulated. The judge found that evidence shows prosecutors threatened McNamee that if he did not talk to Mitchell, he could have become a target of a criminal investigation. The judge therefore ruled McNamee was compelled to speak to Mitchell as part of a government proceeding and could not be sued for defamation for his comments.

I had another hearty grin as I read my local newspaper. Apparently, this great baseball mind who writes for the Star-Ledger thinks Arod will now be a force in the fight against drugs. He’ll be speaking to the kids out there, letting those little ones know how bad steroids are, and why they shouldn’t follow his example.

Somehow, I just can’t see Arod doing that. I can’t imagine Arod being a force for good in any way, shape or form! Maybe you have to be a Yankees fan to believe this inane nonsense. (not that there is any other kind of nonsense).

Meanwhile, Barry Bonds’s case seems to be getting better and better. And I can’t say I’m sorry to see it. Does he really deserve to go to jail? Maybe the folks taking the taxpayer’s money, both the Congressmen and the lawyers, deserve jail (or worse-how about a slow roasting), but Bonds probably doesn’t.

The only straight guy in this whole mess has been Jose Canseco. Now, I’ve read both his books. MLB has been trying to get him thrown into jail for quite some time now, and I actually think they succeeded on at least one occasion.

I wish a different organization ran professional baseball. Is that so much to ask? Get rid of the shyster Selig, and while we’re at it, we could get rid of Fehr and Orza too. Let’s get some new leadership in there. Enough is enough.

Some people are asking that all 104 names (actually 104 positive tests – whatever that means….why there wouldn’t be a virtual 1 to 1 correspondence between tests and players quite escapes me) be released. Not me.

Let’s just drop it, ok. Keep on testing, try to test for everything under the sun, and if some players are smart enough to keep beating the grim reaper, mazeltov. Testing would be a lot like locks, they would keep honest people honest, which, by the way, would not necessarily include Messrs. Bonds, Rodriguez and certainly not Tejada, or his buddy Palmiero, McGuire, Sosa…et al….

I was most gratified to see that Paul White of USA Today Sports Weekly is picking the Mets to finally win the NL East, although his reasoning for same seemed quite specious. White must be very impressed with Freddy Garcia; that’s all I have to say. He also mentions an improved bench, but except for Alex Cora and Angel Pagan, I don’t really see it.

Unhappily though, there’s a cloud in every silver lining, especially on Friday the 13th. The rest of the USA Today staff feels that the Mets are just the third best team in the National League, and picks them to finish 2nd again in the NL East.

Gee whiz, there certainly seems to be enough Yankees Kool-Aid to go around. The same weekly newspaper is picking the Yankees narrowly over the Rays as the premiere team in Major League Baseball. I guess if they’re making Arod some kind of evangelist, they can pass muster as the favorite.

They do have some pitching now though. I have to admit that much. And I love C.C. Sabathia and A.J. Burnet. Wang is coming back. Joba will probably be Joba again, but as a starter or premium set-up guy remains to be seen. Mariano will be a year older and pardon me for saying so but Jeter, Damon, Matsui, Posada, Pettite and some others are already a little long in the tooth.

I like the Mets.

The Day After

Thank God for Thanksgiving but especial thanks for the day after. That’s the day the family’s all together but the company’s gone home. That’s the day for pancakes in the morning and no cooking or cleaning up to do. That it’s also about the time I overfill the furnace with water and spend the night with the comforting but eerie sounds of clanking pipes is even easily forgotten, so full of anticipation as I am for the coming day.
Yeah, Friday after. That’s the day you do reflect, the good things, the bad things, all that, and, for a sports nut, it’s an affirmation of the normal state of things. In the NFL, it’s the dominance of Dallas, and the putridness of Detroit. In most Fantasy Leagues, it’s the last week of the regular season, and Sunday we’ll find out which brainiacs made the playoffs.

It’s also a big, big day in college football, the only day in fact that some fans pay any attention at all. This day may not be as good as some of those I recall from the past, but it will still be pretty good. It’s the height of the season and usually chock full of regional matchups that decide who’ll have bragging rights for another year. And to hell with the BCS and Bowl Games.
Not that I’m even into college football. But I still remember with a good deal of fondness those Turkey Friday games between Alabama and Auburn and Oklahoma vs. Nebraska. I don’t see those on the schedule today, I suppose Nebraska has slipped and Auburn, who knows, I couldn’t really tell you.

But still, I’m watching Pitt against West Virginia right now and that’s not all bad. West Virginia (7-3 overall, 4-1 in the Big East) can tie an unlikely Cincinnati team for first place in the Big East with a win. Dave Wannstedt’s Pitt team is also 7-3 overall but just 3-2 in the conference. They’re leading 7-0 right now and WVU looks like it’ll be coming back.
LSU plays Arkansas later on CBS, and I have no clue as to why. Both teams just aren’t that good, not this year anyway, the same goes for Colorado playing Nebraska, although Nebraska still has some hopes. Then the late game features UCLA and Arizona State, both with no hopes whatsoever of winning anything, and this couldn’t even be characterized as a regional rivalry. If anybody can tell me what the sports networks are thinking, please drop me a line.

Still, I’m determined to enjoy the day. It’ll be this Pitt game and then Colorado-Nebraska. I’ll tune in to some NBA action later on, see what Charles is up to. (If you’re asking Charles who?, this column is not for you. Click elsewhere. Thanks). But Miami will be up against Phoenix at 8 and Shaq’s always a giggle. Then Dallas vs. the Lakers and there’s Dirk and Kobe. Life is good.
But maybe not if you’re a West Virginia fan. Pat White just got smacked down at the two and they’re settling for three. Geez, will Pat White ever graduate? He’s been around forever, it seems.

And we still have Sunday to look forward to. The G-Men might have a real battle on their hands at FedEx Field in Landover vs. the Skins, who’re 7-4 and feature a healthy (supposedly) Clinton Portis, the best running back in the league. Although the Giants beat the Skins in the opener, by a score of just 16-7, the Skins were awful in that game, the first under new coach Jim Zorn, and they’ll be missing the big mouth Brandon Jacobs and the big hamstring Plaxico Burress.
Can the G- Men do to the Skins what they did to the Cardinals a week ago? I don’t think so, especially in the aftermath of the Eagles convincing drubbing of Arizona yesterday. Arizona just couldn’t stop the run again, or any piece of the Eagles game, for that matter.

A look at the stats reveals some interesting data. The Skins rate very favorably on defense when compared to the Giants, both against the run and the pass. And, if they can stop Derrick Ward and maybe even Ahmad Bradshaw, who never seems to get enough playing time, it’ll get very hairy indeed.
The Giants are comfortably ahead. They don’t really have to win while the Skins will be fighting for their playoff lives. They play smart defense usually, but the Giants have some smart fellows themselves, especially at the receiver position with Toomer and Steve Smith and even Plax’s backup, Domenick Hixon, looked really good vs. Arizona.

Of course, you have to like the Giants chances, what with that offensive line, and Eli standing tall over center. I don’t think Jason Campbell measures up. But that’s why they play the game. Will a chance at knocking the Skins out of the playoffs be motivation enough for the Giants to overcome that bruising Skins running game? And if they do stop that, will they forget about Santana Moss?
The much-ballyhooed Jets will be playing at 4 on Sunday. They’re coming off two gigantic wins, versus the Pats and then the now once-defeated Titans. They’ll be going against the crazy Broncos, a team coming off a horrible 31-10 loss to the lowly Oakland Raiders.

But the Raiders do have a great defense against the pass, just ask Jake Delhomme. The Jets secondary may look like cake in comparison. Despite the presence of Darrell Revis in that backfield, they’ve allowed 148 first downs through the air.
And, if anybody can put the ball in the air, it’s Denver QB Jay Cutler. He’s got some nifty receivers too, a fast and huge fella named Brandon Marshall on one side and a tricky Eddy Royal on the other. They’ve got two tough tight ends that can both catch the ball in Scheffler and Graham too. It could be that they’ll master the porous Jets passing defense.

Yeah, Thanksgiving Friday, the best day of the year.