Yankee favorite by night, deadbeat dad by day

In one of the classier moves I've seen in a while, the Unit (scum-stauche, mullet and all) is now suing his ex-girlfriend for about 100 grand in child support payments previously paid for his love child. Although the deadbeat dad/Yankee favorite came to see the girl (who is now 16) shortly after she was born, that was the extent of his fatherly ambitions. Although he didn't want anything to do with her whatsoever, he did ever so graciously agree to pay child support and even a little extra that went towards his daughter's day-care costs. But, he is now suing because he claims he paid way too much in day-care costs ($750 per month), and even some after she no longer received those day-care services *gasp*.

So, the Yankees' #1 starter who is earning (or I should say "is being paid") a cool $16 mill this year is suing his shunned love-child and her middle class mom for a little less than $100K because he felt he did "too much". Wow, folks! His publicist sure is earning his money on this one. Nice work....way to make a private situation that's embarassing to your client dramatically worse.

Congrats Big Unit, you are officially dead to me now and rank one spot above Karl Malone on my most-hated list and one spot below Tom Wolfowitz and Hermann Goering.

WBC Wrap-up

The World Classic of Baseball ended with Japan's 10-6 championship victory over Cuba. Despite team USA's early exit and other more serious flaws, I think the tournament was a major success. It was fascinating watching national teams, some with very different playing styles. After watching the tournament, watching a couple Japanese baseball games has become another life goal of mine (as well as trying to copy their hitting techniques). The games were close, and teams like Japan, Korea, Cuba and the Dominican Republic played great, which will surly increase national pride and the popularity of baseball in those countries.

There were some flaws that need to be considered for the next tournament though. First of all, the games were very low-scoring despite having some of the scariest batting line-ups you could imagine. The reason for this was definitely not dominant pitching, but instead hitting that wasn't back on track after winter break. It takes a while for hitters to get their bat speed and pitch recognition back to regular season levels, and the tournament started long before the hitters were ready.

I also have a major problem with a pitch count rule that applies to all teams. Although it was meant to prevent injuries to Major League pitchers, there were teams (Japan for one) whose pitchers were ready to throw more pitches. This puts them at a disadvantage when they have to take out a pitcher that is on a roll and replace him with someone else all because of an arbitrary rule that isn't used at any other time in baseball.

Both of these problems hint at the awkward timing of the tournament. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a better time. Hosting the tournament at the end of a long baseball season would likely attract fewer stars who are ready to start their off-season. The only scenario I see as a possibility would be in the middle of the season, similar to what hockey does with its professionals during the Olympics. It could even be thought of as an extended international all-star break. No matter when they have it though, it promises to be just as compelling next time.

Proof

Here is further proof that Red Sox fans are pathetically obsessed with the Yankees and care as much about a Yankees loss as they do a Red Sox win. This is a state of mind I will never understand. I had a college roommate who said 2001 was a great year in sports for him because the Yankees lost in the World Series. How he can be happy about a baseball season that ends with his team not in the playoffs is beyond me.

Put Me In Coach

Alfonso Soriano has finally decided he will grace left field with his presence. It must have been hard for him to decide to play the easiest of the outfield positions for a paltry $10 million this year. Although I understand the fact that his contract is up at the end of the year, and he wants to have the best defensive and offensive year possible to maximize his next contract, I don't think anything justifies his refusal to take the field on Monday. It may be unfair that he was traded to a team with an All-Star second baseman and a ball park unfriendly to hitters, but that is the nature of the game. You can't control where you are traded, although by being a better presence in the locker room, you have some control over if you are traded. I hope Soriano's selfishness is behind him, for his own sake. Otherwise Frank Robinson is likely to slap him around a little.

Any Scapegoat Will Do

I am no fan of Barry Bonds; I think he treats the press and the fans with complete disrespect, acting as a poor ambassador for the game. Worse than that though, he decided to tarnish the game and its most cherished records by abusing illegal performance enhancing drugs.

Despite all that, I am against Bud Selig's deicision to investiage Barry Bonds. Any investigation by Major League Baseball into Bonds' alleged steroid use is inconsistent compared to its previous actions. For example, MLB did not investigate Jason Giambi last year after his testimony before a grand jury, in which he admitted to steroid use, was leaked.

If there is one thing I have been consistent about from the beginning of this scandal is that baseball needs to investigate the use of steroids throughout all of baseball, instead of picking on one or two players that make the news. When they do this investigation, it should be large-scale and thorough and no effort should be made to cover up complicit behavior during the steroid years on the part of the owners and general managers.

Since I doubt MLB is ready to admit their own involvement, they shouldn't bother investigating it at all. I hate scapegoating more than I hate deciding to ignore the past altogether.

Haters

Jim Caple has a column on ESPN about whether Yankees-haters should root for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic. While I recognize that his column isn't completely serious, it does get to an underlying difference between Yankees fans and anti-Yankees fans (better known as the Red Sox Nation). While the anti-Yankees fans truly have a dilemma ever rooting for a Yankee or ex-Yankee, I don't know many Yanks fans that care if there are any Red Sox players on the team. For example, just because Johnny Damon is on Team USA doesn't cause any... wait, he is a Yankee now isn't he. Okay, let me try that again. I don't have any problems rooting for Jason Veritek, the captain of the Red Sox, while he is wearing the stars and stripes. Caple on the other hand, is having serious problems rooting for A-Rod and Jeter.

What this shows is that even a World Series Championship has not allowed the Red Sox Nation to mature at all. They still carry hate in their heart, and it looks like they always will. I pity them.

I Give Up

Let me get this straight: We can't beat Canada or Korea in baseball (and it takes a hometown umpire and some arbitrary pitch count rules to beat Japan), but we are ranked number five in the world in soccer. Okay, I give up trying to figure out American sports.

Just A Little

I am glad to see that Grady Little has been given a second chance, but I have to say that I always thought he got a bum rap for his one bad call in the 2003 ALCS. Of course, if you agree to take a job with the Boston Red Sox, you have to accept that you could easily be subjected to years of scorn for one mistake; that fan base is always ready to find a new scapegoat to blame all their miseries on.

I will admit that Little’s decision was a bad move. He sent mixed messages to Pedro Martinez late in Game 7, first giving the indication that he was taking him out, and then deciding to send him back to the mound. Managers shouldn’t second-guess their own decisions, but more importantly, they need to know when their pitchers are out of gas without having to ask them.

What makes this unfair is that the Sox front office didn’t give Grady a chance to redeem himself, instead giving Terry Francona a team ready-made for a championship. Many managers make similar decisions and either get away with them, or are at least given the benefit of coming back the next year to try again. I will never forget the numerous mistakes Bob Brenly made in the 2001 World Series – but I also remember that his team won. Something tells me though that if the Diamondbacks had lost to the Yankees that year, Brenly would have kept his job despite leaving Shilling in too long in Game 7 and giving B.Y. Kim every chance he could to blow their leads. Only is Boston so irrational to practically blacklist an otherwise great manager for one decision.

Good luck, Grady. The Los Angeles Dodgers are in need of talent like yours.

World Baseball Classic

As much as I want to hate the World Baseball Classic because it was the brain-child of Bud Selig, I can't bring myself to ignore international competition like this. I have to love it for the same reason I love watching international hockey. Different countries have different styles, and for a short couple weeks, you watch mini-All-Star teams playing for national pride.

Of course, when the powerful team USA loses to Canada in baseball, national pride turns to national mocking. The beauty of baseball (or any sport for that matter) though is that any team can beat any other team on a given day.

Yesterday afternoon we were treated to USA versus Japan, an exciting game by two very different teams. The Japanese style of baseball focuses on fundamentals, speed and manufacturing runs. American baseball on the other hand relies mostly on power and bravado.

The game was close all afternoon, and ended with a two-out, bottom of the ninth, game-winning RBI single by Alex Rodriguez. Unfortunately, the win feels a little shallow considering the run that would have put the Japense team ahead in the eigth inning on a sacrifice fly was taken away on a terrible call by the home-plate umpire. Watching that game has me itching to make a trip to Japan and catch a couple games in their league. Until then, I'll have to stick with the tournament Selig created.

Let it Begin

If you have ever witnessed a sports argument that doesn't seem to end, then you should have a good idea of what to expect here. In this one forum, we have many rival perspectives, including big market versus small market, Yankees versus Red Sox, Duke-haters versus... okay, we all probably hate Duke basketball.

We promise you one thing though, at the very least we will be more intelligent than The Mad Dog 100 : The Greatest Sports Arguments of All Time.