HOW MUCH DOES A NUMBER COST?

## Before the Syracuse Orange had their hats handed to them by Georgetown, the Athletic Department retired Carmelo Anthony's #15.  Now, my initial thought was, "Great player, but he only lasted one year. What the heck?"  Then it became clear: Anthony gave the University a gift of $3 million towards a basketball center. Carmelo has often said how much he enjoyed being at Syracuse, but it was only for the one year. You have to wonder is this was some kind of negotiated deal or just a couple of  'happy accidents.'  A spy in one of the novels I read, once commented, "You'll live a lot longer if you don't believe in coincidences."
I guess the answer to the question is $3 million.

## Speaking of the Syracuse-Georgetown game, the Hoya's Otto Porter, Jr. probably had the game of his collegiate career, grabbing 8 rebounds, getting 5 steals and lighting up the Orange defense with 33 points. Considering Syracuse only scored 46 points the whole game, imagine a pre-game talk where a player says, "Just give me 7 baskets guys and I'll do the rest."

So another great rivalry comes to am end, all in the interest of collegiate sports needing to find a way to collect more money.

*** THE SAGA OF MARIANO RIVERA***
There are questions, of course. How well will he perform at his age and coming off a serious injury? Is this his last year? Even if he's downright ordinary this year, and by ordinary, I mean maybe 35 saves and an ERA of 2.20. Who could find fault with that? But look at the legacy he has laid out for future closers. He already has 608 saves. Trevor Hoffman ended up with 601, but no one else is even close. As an example, Jonathon Papelbon has 257 saves and averages 37 per year. At that rate, he needs to pitch 10 more years to surpass Mariano. He would be 42 years old.
On the list of career saves leaders, only John Franco (21)pitched for more years than Mariano's 18. Franco ended up with 424 saves.
In the post-season, against the best teams in baseball, Rivera's record is unbelievable.  8-1 W-L record, 42 saves, only 86 hits and 21 walks in 141 innings. All he throws is a cut fastball and no one has figured out how to hit it in 18 years.

Wallace Matthews says the Kevin Youkilis is fitting right in. In two at bats, so far this spring, he has stranded five runners.

***THEY SAID IT***
"So now that 2013 Spring Training has started, how long until Cubs fans break out their “Wait until 2014″ t-shirts?"  -- Janice Hough
"Hundreds of international soccer matches, including some in the World Cup, were fixed by organized crime gangs, an 18-month probe revealed. Not sure of the fixers' modus operandi, but we probably can rule out point-shaving."  -- Dwight Perry
" The Omaha Boat Sports and Travel Show features a shark exhibition. What better way to get people interested in taking up boating."  -- Brad Dickson
"Some Daytona 500 prediction:  
There will be at least 5,000 fans named 'Earl' attending the race.
Somebody in the infield will lose a tooth trying to open a bottle of beer."
 -- Mike Bianchi
"Bulls star Joakim Noah is 0 for 7 in career three-pointers. Anyone surprised a guy named Noah prefers his points two by two?"  -- RJ Currie
"Michael Jordan turned 50. Now when you see his tongue protruding, it's because his teeth just fell out."  -- Brad Dickson
"Looking at the cover of this week’s Sports Illustrated — Bryce Harper in his Washington Nationals uniform — moved a neighborhood woman to remark, “I didn’t know Wegmans had a baseball team.”  -- From Phil Mushnik's column.

"Seth McFarlane will be hosting the Oscars this weekend. What? Homer Simpson isn’t available?"  -- TC Chong

CP-