A very pleasant Saturday to the masses. I hope those of you on the east coast have successfully dug out of the massive amounts of snow that have come the last few days. Frankly, I’m tired of it and can’t wait for warm weather.
Anyway, there have been lots of little nuggets from around the sports world that have caught my attention and are certainly worth mentioning, so lets get to it.
- In baseball, my guy Ken Rosenthall of FOX Sports wrote that Vladimir Guerrero’s best bet to play in 2011 could be the Orioles. Buster Olney (via Twitter) says the O’s are being told that Guerrero has an $8MM offer in hand, which is about $3.5MM more than they are willing to spend, including incentives. Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com reported that Baltimore’s offer falls in the $3MM to $5MM range. Ideally, the O’s would love to get a deal done with Vlad today as they are in the midst of hosting the annual FanFest at the Baltimore Convention Center where reportedly, fan optimism for 2011 is high.
- New York Yankees team president Randy Levine ripped Rangers CEO Chuck Greenberg for his public comments that the Rangers late push for Cliff Lee might have been what ultimately led Lee to sign with the Phillies. According to the Daily News, Levine called Greenberg “delusional” and said he would be impressed if Greenberg could get the Rangers off “welfare,” a reference to Major League Baseball’s revenue sharing. To be honest, I didn’t take Greenberg’s statement as any sort of boast or as a slam against the Yankees — he seemed to be saying that the Rangers made one last attempt to keep themselves in the mix and accidentally gave the Phillies time to swoop in —it’s hard to argue with Levine when he says Greenberg should “let Cliff Lee speak for himself.” Also, it’s hard to ignore the fact that Greenberg made some negative comments about Yankee fans during the playoffs.
- Hal Steinbrenner spoke to the New York Post and said disagreements between the front office and Brian Cashman have been blown out of proportion. That’s pretty much the same thing Cashman has been saying.
- The Cardinals are not seriously exploring the possibility of trading first baseman Albert Pujols because the superstar slugger, who has full no-trade protection, would veto any swap, writes Buster Olney of ESPN.com.
- On the basketball court, the Washington Wizards lost last night in OKC in double overtime and have fallen to a dreadful 0-22 on the road this season. After trading Gilbert Arenas earlier this season, it appeared that the Wiz have rid themselves of the headaches. So much for that. After getting “blown up” by head coach Flip Saunders after a poor game, Andray Blatche was critical of Wizards fans and called in to a local radio show to defend himself.
- The Miami Heat have been a popular source for controversey this season and for good reason. It started with LeBron’s comments on Twitter in which he educated us all on karma and then came out the next night and injured his ankle (Thanks again, LeBron). Now, the other two of the ‘big three’ are banged up and have missed time. After barely getting away with a win last night, Chris Perkins of FOX Sports Florida wonders if injuries will end up getting the best of the Heat.
- KU’s Thomas Robinson lost his mother to an apparent heart attack. Thomas Robinson’s 7-year-old sister Jayla Robinson called him about 11 p.m. Friday. In a three-week span, Jayla and Thomas, a sophomore forward for the sixth-ranked Jayhawks, lost their grandmother, grandfather and mother. The entire KU men’s basketball team attended the funeral in Washington DC.
