Still not much going on in off-season baseball. Unless you count the guys who are retiring but you thought they were already retired. Yes, I mean you, RHP Jeff Suppan and 1B/OF Aubrey Huff. Both had their days in the sun without really catching fire or gaining widespread acclaim. Suppan seemed to have the potential to be very good when I saw him in the minors. That potential became the ability to win 10-12 games a year seemingly forever. Huff was instrumental in bringing the first World Series championship to San Francisco, as well as being part of the Rays' growth into a contending team.
The other big baseball news seems to be that Rangers -- New York Rangers, that is -- goalie Henrik Lundqvist will be wearing a mask featuring the likenesses of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio for the Stadium Series hockey at Yankee Stadium.
The NHL will be coming out of its shutdown for next month's Olympics with a series of outdoor games, like the one that drew 105,000 people to Michigan Stadium on New Year's Day. The most exotic locale will be Dodger Stadium, which last saw ice in a cocktail glass inside a luxury suite.
Yankee Stadium just had the Pinstripe Bowl football game. Hockey is next.
Let's get with it, NBA! Schedule at game at the new House That Ruth Built. Try to make it The House That Carmelo Brought Down. A Saturday or Sunday afternoon game in April (while the Yanks are out of town) should due. That's April 2015, and not a day later.
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Basketball. I'm ahead 5-3 going into the last day of this week's competition. That would keep me in fourth place. But I'm down by just two assists, so I could pick up another game and possibly move into third.
With Ricky Rubio not playing today, I decided to pick up free-agent PG Mario Chalmers. I contemplated dropping up-and-down SG Joe Johnson, but I might need him to boost my 3-point total, so I waived Taj Gibson for the second time this season. I may try to pick him up again.
Eight of my 10 roster spots are filled tonight. I figure Chalmers at least has plenty of options of people to pass to who are likely to shoot and even make some shots. If I'm really lucky, he'll be getting assists for Chris Bosh.
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Hockey. Still at 66 points, and sliding slowly farther behind the second-place team, currently at 73.
The biggest chances for me to gain ground are in assists, where I'm just 8 behind the team in second; power-play points, 4 behind both teams ahead of me in the standings, and save percentage, .027 behind No. 2.
Last night's game before my very eyes was a mixed blessing. Henrik Zetterberg scored two goals and was plus-2, but Brenden Dillon was minus-2. The goals weren't terribly important, because I already lead the league. Last night's plus/minus was up and down, but finished plus-1, boosting my season total to plus-19. That's still 21 points away from catching the next higher team.
My lineup for Sunday will have six skaters and possibly goalie Eddie Lack (Roberto Luongo was in goal for Vancouver Saturday).
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Football. It seemed weird Saturday when I got up thinking I needed to make an 11th-hour check of my fantasy roster, then realized that I didn't have a team playing. Then as I listened to the first half of Kansas City-Indianapolis on the way to the Red Wings-Stars game, I was wondering whether I could retain RB Jamaal Charles on my playoff roster even if he wouldn't be able to play in the Divisional round.
I don't think it was just because I had the Colts in both of my playoff pools, but I found the KC radio crew very annoying. I just looked up the name of the Chiefs' play-by-play guy. He's Mitch Holthus, and he must have some following in Kansas and Missouri because he's been on the job for 20 years. The annoying part was when the Chiefs were tearing it up, he kept repeating a mantra that the Chiefs would be doing it "all day," which apparently included saying "all day" all day. He also seemed very impressed with himself for knowing the small town in Kansas where the head linesman lived, and the location of Mary Hardin Baylor University in Texas.
It wasn't until after the hockey game that I learned the Chiefs had blown their big lead and lost. All day apparently had a second half.
It didn't help the broadcast that color man Len -- turned out to be the one-time great Len Dawson -- was one of the type who pretty much agree with and parrot what the play-by-play guy says. Dawson has seen better days, and I think those are in the past. (All day.)
Anyway, in my pick-'em pool, both the Colts and Saints advanced, as I predicted, but by the skin of their teeth.
Fortunately, in my $1,000-bankroll, pick-with-the-spread pool, I "wagered" $200 on the Saints and just $100 on the Colts, who didn't cover as 2.5-point favorites. So my hypothetical bankroll is up to $1,100.
In my college pools, I don't expect I'll win anything despite picking up 28 points from Vanderbilt in the pick-winners confidence pool. I have 1 point on Ball State tonight and 5 on Florida State Monday. I'm not even sure Vanderbilt covered the spread, but going into that game I was just 11-16 in my point-spread pool.
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