So Long! Farewell!

Sayonara, Rudy Giuliani!

Finally you can go back to being a jerk, further alienating your family, and making scads of money from Hugo Chavez. We'll miss you.

Santana to the Mets?

Sports Illustrated is reporting that Johan Santana will end up on the Mets.

This is obviously huge for the Mets. Life's a lot easier with a #1 starter in the rotation.

Also I think it's crushing for the Yankees. As I've said before, the staff was bad last year. As of now, their 2008 rotation is

Wang (3.70 ERA, a solid #2 starter)
Pettitte (4.05 ERA last year; #3 starter)
Mussina (5.15 ERA last year; a #4 starter at best)
Kei Igawa (67 innings pitched in major league baseball)
and choose among
Phil Hughes (72 innings pitched in major league baseball)
Joba Chamberlain (24 innings pitched in major league baseball)
Ian Kennedy (19 innings pitched in major league baseball)

Pettitte and Mussina are on the downward slopes of their careers. There's a lot of potential among the bottom three guys, but still. Unless the Yankees want to destroy their careers, none of the last three guys is throwing 200 innings next year. They could stay in the bullpen all year, but it seems very unlikely that any of them will make any playoff starts.

The Yankees *needed* Johan Santana. If the Mets end up with him, the Yankees must get someone else to start, right?

The Sports Doldrums

This is such a boring time of year for sports fans. Spring training is far away. The bowl games are done. I could theoretically care about the NBA, but why start paying attention before the playoffs?

Christopher Hitchens, are you reading this blog?

Mike Huckabee on the confederate flag:

You don't like people from outside the state coming in and telling you what to do with your flag. In fact, if somebody came to Arkansas and told us what to do with our flag, we'd tell 'em what to do with the pole, that's what we'd do.

Shame, Mike, shame.

Clemens

This Clemens story is going to be great. He just filed a defamation lawsuit against his old trainer, Brian McNamee.

The legal case is so weak that it must be for show.

In nonlawyer talk, to win a defamation case a plaintiff has to show that the defendant made a false statement and that he (the plaintiff) suffered damages. Was McNamee's statement false? Obviously, that's the big debate--whether McNamee told the truth. Clemens would have to show that McNamee lied. Seems unlikely, considering that McNamee testified to the Feds under penalty of perjury.

Even worse for Clemens, it's harder for "public figures" to win a defamation case. The theory is that public figures voluntarily put themselves out there to be praised by people, so they also have to accept more criticism. As a public figure, Clemens will also have to show that McNamee acted with "actual malice". I don't think he can show actual malice.

McNamee made his comments under oath to the Feds. Even if McNamee is lying, and it would be crazy for him to lie under oath, it doesn't make sense that he would have actual malice to Clemens. (I suppose it's theoretically possible that he has a big grudge against Clemens and made all this up to "get" him, but that doesn't seem to be the case here.)

In any event, I'm sure the legal ridiculousness is just starting!

One More Michigan Post

...at least for the next few months.

Michigan's win over Florida was great, of course. I also found it a little sad. In the game, Michigan opened up the offense with four or five receivers and looked to spread out Florida's defense so Henne could pick them apart.

The offense looked great. It was fantastic. Our individual receivers are so big and strong and fast that Florida's defensive backs couldn't cover them one on one.

So the big question is why has Michigan never run this offense before? Michigan has the talent (Michigan always has the talent). Why not open the offense before the bowl game? I know that Henne was hurt much of the year. But why not install the offense from the start of the year? For that matter, why not use it in last year's Rose Bowl?

The problem with Lloyd Carr and/or Mike Debord (Michigan's offensive coordinator the last several years) is that he plays too conservatively. The sad part of this game is that we could have run a more imaginative offense the last several years, scored more points, and probably Lloyd would have gone out after a successful season, not just a successful game.

But that's all in the past. If we can count on Rodriguez for anything, we can know that the days of a dull offense are long gone.

Go Blue!

What a day, what a great way to send Lloyd Carr off.