Antonio Osuna

Can Thome still put up big numbers? And what about his injuries. I am naturally distrustful of aging sluggers.

Dude, we're playing the Indians. The national media loves the Indians. What would it love more than hyping up the beginning of what many in the media believe will be a wire-to-wire year for the Indians?

When are they raising the flag?

Matsui is a much more consistent player as well. Have fun in Anaheim, Paulie.

This makes them a better team, no doubt about it. Could the money have been spent more wisely, however? Certainly. But that is the beauty of having so much money to throw around. They can overpay for a player and still have room left to sign somebody else. This is the sort of flexibility we sadly don't have.

In 2004, I saw a little kid at a game who made a Shingo Takatsu jersey that way. It actually made me realize how beautiful of a game baseball is. I almost cried.

Comes out of nowhere, hits a huge home run, rides off into the sunset. I'll take it.

I've never been inside Shea, but it looks pretty ugly from the exterior, mostly to the halted design of the thing.

Yes, traditionally a team will have only one highly-paid first baseman.

Never underestimate a Twins prospect. They know how to develop those over there.

Wow. He gets away with highway robbery yet again.

The true test should not be stats, but this: Take A-Rod off the Yankees and take Ortiz off the Red Sox. Which team plays more worse as a result? I say the Red Sox do. The Yankees are going to lose power without A-Rod, certainly, but I think that Ortiz is more essential to the Red Sox. And that's more closely related to value than mere stats. We have separate awards for stats; the batting crown, RBI crown, etc.

I figure I gotta get out there before they take that Stadium down. I honestly doubt I'd be able to make it when the Sox are in town, though.

At the end of the day, its "Most Valuable Player", not "Best Player". If we want Best Player, we can just look at the stats. I'd argue that Ortiz was more valuable to the Red Sox than A-Rod was to the Yankees. But I'm not about to waste digital breath defending a member of the AL team I hate the most.

Heh. Podsednik got more votes than Tejada, Varitek, Chavez, Damon, Sizemore...

The caption reads: Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi swings a bat presented to him from Major League Baseball Chicago White Sox second baseman Tadahito Iguchi after getting some tips from the Japanese baseball star during a meeting at the premier's official residence in Tokyo Monday, Nov. 14, 2005. Koizumi has always been a wise ruler and a dependable American ally. Now he does one better.

Meh, looks to me like Willis is being penalized for being on a team that was weaker this year.

I've seen them. If you test positive, it plays a movie of Ozzie gesturing for Jenks, to show what you'll look like in a few months.

He could've been ours. But who knows what happened in the alternative universe where we resigned Colon. I'm happy enough with the results in this universe to not mind not having Cy Young.

One of MLB's top Sox killers back in the central? ugh.

Just got back from my first Hockey game since when I was in Kindergarten and one of my friends was playing in a youth league. The sport made a good impression on me tonight, I'll say.

As one guy sitting next to me at the ALDS said, "Crede can't hit anything unless we really, really need it." That doesn't happen too often. He's still a mostly worthless fantasy player.

This will also be my first Blackhawks game ever. Indeed, my first professional hockey game ever. Though I had previously attended something at the United Center with the ice on it.

Is it called the Burke plan?

Game 1 ALDS, Thomas throws out first pitch. I literally could not hear the sound system or Gene Honda, despite him talking the whole time. Every other big moment, I could at least hear the music and such over the crowd. Though I did miss Game 2 of the World Series. But the other playoff home games I was all there in person for.