32 DAYS TO GO

I do watch some of the 'teaser' games, also known as Spring Training games but they don't play for real until April 1st - at least for the Yanks. It's only worthwhile to watch the first 5 innings, because after that, There are guys on the field that I never heard of. Pitchers only pitch one or two innings and lineups often look like they were pulled out of hat; in fact, I think 7/8 was hitting leadoff yesterday. Of all the possibilities available to him, Girardi had Brian Roberts hitting cleanup. No point in commenting on the play since nobody was going at performance level. I did like Kelly Johnson's swing, though.

IT'S ALREADY STARTED
Baseball writers have now progressed from wondering how Derek Jeter will do, to hoping he doesn't get hurt to JETER MUST PERFORM VERY WELL, which is the latest headline. Can't we just let him get into shape before those kind of demands are made on him?

IN OTHER NEWS
In the sport of boxing - sorry about the word 'sport' - Don King has adamantly denied that the Ali-Liston fight was fixed. Okay, now I can relax because, if you can't trust Don King...

The college basketball writers and coaches who rank the teams must be very proud. There were 6 games involving Top 25 teams yesterday, and 5 of them lost.

 Dodger manager, Don Mattingly, got some relief on his starting outfield problem, when Carl Crawford strained a hamstring. Mattingly has four outfielders, all of whom expect to be starters. With Crawford hurt, Don can go back to playing 3 outfielders and 4 infielders, instead of 4 outfielders 3 infielders. Pitchers didn't like that setup anyway, too many groundball hits.  

The SF Giants have made a friendly offer to the Oakland A's. The A's wanted to move out of their outdated stadium and relocate in San Jose, however, the Giants claim the territorial rights there and refuse to give them up. But wait, they don't want to be nasty about this. Giant president Larry Baer has a suggestion. If the A's want to build a new stadium, Baer says the Giants are willing to share AT&T Park with them - providing that they stay the hell out of San Jose. What nice guys.

***THEY SAID IT***
"Women spend an average of 335 hours a year getting themselves ready in the morning, according to the Today/AOL Ideal to Real Body Image Survey.  Or roughly the equivalent of the Super Bowl pregame show."  -- Dwight Perry
"76-year-old Richard Petty vs Danica Patrick. When is this going to happen? Tomorrow, please. America would gobble this up. Prime time, national TV, the nation Super Glued to it. Go Daddy vs. Old Daddy."  -- Rick Reilly
"Wisconsin has a bill to legalize wagering on rubber duck races. I think this is stupid, and I live in a state where legislators considered a bill allowing a human to eat a horse."  -- Brad Dickson

"On March 15, the San Diego Padres are offering free season tickets to fans who can hit a home run at Petco Park off the team’s pitching machine. And considering the way the team has hit lately, winning fans may also be offered a free-agent contract."  -- Janice Hough

"A double disappointment for the US Men’s Hockey team. They went home without a medal, and their rooms weren’t even worthy of being trashed."  -- TC Chong

"Lamar Odom has reportedly signed a deal to play in Spain. When Khloe Kardashian heard about it, she said, "That's not far enough."  -- RJ Currie

"Dallas owner Jerry Jones says it’s his fault, not Tony Romo’s, that the Cowboys haven’t gotten to the Super Bowl. What, because Jones didn’t trade Romo?"  -- Janice Hough
"In Kissimmee, Fla., a "pro wrestling dinner theater" has opened. This is for diners who don't mind when a 450-pound Russian lands on their salad."  -- Brad Dickson

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