WELL, IT IS A "FANTASY" CAMP

***THE LADIES FANTASY CAMP***
I don't know if other teams do this, but the Yankees have a fantasy camp solely for women. It runs from Thursday to Sunday , with Friday and Saturday being the actual game days, and cost $1950. Their ages ranged from 26 to 67 (Annie-O is already working out) and they were split into four teams, each coached by a Yankee "legend." They were taught how to field ground balls by Bucky (F***ing) Dent and pitching by David Wells, who also probably ran the 'Happy Hour' afterwards. The hitting coach was pitcher Al Downing, which makes no sense to me, and outfielding was coached by Mickey Rivers, which makes even less sense. It must have been difficult getting Mickey away from betting on the ponies at Hialeah. One of the coaches was Oscar Gamble, who also doubled up coaching the hair styling sessions. It must have been fun, however, as a local woman who attended, is ready to go back next year.

***AROUND THE LEAGUE***
## Trouble in Detroit: Victor Martinez blew out his knee during off-season workouts, and may be lost for the year. Does this make the Tigers prime candidates for what's-his-name,...uh... Prince Fielder?
## Speaking of Prince: agent Scott Boras is starting to sweat a little: He claims to have had a meeting with Marlins GM, Michael Hill. It turns out, they passed each other in the hall and Scott stopped him for a couple of minutes to exchange pleasantries. If he has an actual sit-down meeting, Boras may call it a marriage.
## Money problems in beantown?: Like the Yankees, Boston has mostly stayed out of the free-agent market and are trying to sign their current players. Jacob Ellsbury, who hit .321 with 32 homers and 105 RBI's, was signed for $8 million. Only $8 million? Kei Igawa makes more than that and he's still eating his lunch in Trenton. (Thankfully!)
In the meantime, David Ortiz, who made $12.5 million last year, is asking for $16 million, while the Sox are offering $12.65 million. Wow, a $150,000 raise. Big Papi must be thrilled.
## Waiting for the other shoe to drop: Now that they have opened the floodgates, sports writers and analysts are waiting for the Yanks to pull off another big trade to get a bat to replace Jesus Montero. I wouldn't be surprised.
## It won't be these guys: There are a couple of familiar names still available, DH types all of them. Guys like Vlad Guerrero, Johnny Damon and Hideki Matsui. I'm not sure this is what Cashman has in mind, since he stated that his plan is to use the DH spot to 'rest' some of his veterans on a regular basis. This makes Eric Chavez a more viable candidate.
## Lincecum goes high end: Tim is heading for arbitration and he's asking $21.2 million. This is the highest asking amount ever in arbitration history. The Giants are offering $16.5 million. This should prove interesting.
## Other Giant news: The Giants have signed 3rd baseman Pablo Sandoval. While contract addendum's such as no basketball, no snowboarding, etc., are common, the weight-challenged Sandoval has a clause that includes no Big Macs. MacDonalds in the San Fran area are currently busy cutting payroll (just kidding).
## The Texas two-step: The Rangers have until five o'clock today to sign Japanese phenom, Yu Darvish. If they don't sign him, not only does Darvish lose a big pay day, but his Japanese team, the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters (is pork dangerous in Japan?) also lose their $51.5 million posting bid. The odds are sill in the Rangers favor.

***THEY SAID IT***
"Hiroki Kuroda continues to send signals to the Yankees and Red Sox that he wants to sign with one of those two clubs. One source familiar with the negotiations described the Red Sox as being "nowhere near close" on Kuroda, while the Yankees were characterized as mostly kicking tires." (written on 1/13 @ 6:00 P.M., Hours before the Yanks signed him.) -- Jason Stark
"At the moment, the Clippers coach is Vinny Del Negro. Now I have nothing against Vinny Del Negro but...Del Negro doesn't make your team better, he just makes sure all the players get on the team bus." -- Norman Chad
"Riots break out among old people lining up to purchase Nike's throwback/retro Air Mikans." -- a 2012 prediction by Scott Ostler
(A funny line if you're old enough to know who George Mikan is -- and I'm not telling.)
"Miss Wisconsin Laura Kaeppeler — en route to winning the Miss America pageant — introduced herself to a national-TV audience by saying, "If you're watching, Aaron Rodgers, call me." The Green Bay QB's girlfriend, we assume, has already ruled this one an incomplete pass. -- Dwight Perry
"The network is pulling out all stops trying to woo Tim Tebow to work Sunday's AFC Championship as a studio analyst: I just saw the CBS eye, and it was wearing eye black." -- Brad Dickson

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