The Deluge Begins

Busy days ahead but the official offseason buzz of baseball is buzzing already. Outraged to be out-publicised by the Mets, the Yankees are answering the splash of Pedro putting Metland on the map with the deal of the offseason, which will see Randy Johnson finally going to the Yankees.

The Yankees are to receive the giant pock-marked pitcher Randy Johnson, a five-time Cy Young Award winner and the pitcher they've sought since the middle of last summer, and surrender pitcher Javier Vazquez and two of their top minor-league prospects, gutting their minor league system in the process. However, the deal makes the Yankees probable favourites to win the World Series. Poor little Yankees had to surrender the spotlight from King George's Massive Ego for more than a day and look what happens. A deal that couldn't get done for the last 5 months or so, is suddenly done and the spotlight is back on the Yankees. Gee, let's hope Randy Johnson doesn't suffer any career-threatening arm injuries between now and October and send the Yankees on another desperate chase for infamy.

According to a Diamondbacks source, the Dodgers will receive Vazquez, catcher Dioner Navarro and third baseman Eric Duncan. Los Angeles will send outfielder/first baseman Shawn Green, pitcher Brad Penny and reliever Yhency Brazoban to Arizona.

And, of course, the Mets are not going to sit by idle whilst the Yankees steal their thunder. They allege to be getting closer to signing behemouth first baseman Carlos Delgado.

Meanwhile, all remains quiet on the Boston front, Pedro-less and fading fast.

They didn't even score the replacement pitcher.

The Braves did though. Being in the Mets division, they had to react. The Braves nabbed Oakland Ace Tim Hudson for outfielder Charles Thomas and pitchers Juan Cruz and Dan Meyer, and continued to reload for next season.

Former Dodger 3B, Adrian Beltre was severely overpaid by the increasingly desperate Seattle Mariners. Beltre joins recent signing Richie Sexson which is great but hé, didn't anyone tell the Mariners front office that they still don't have any pitching to speak of?

The Red Sox weren't totally silent though. They are proud to announce the signing of Edgar Renteria. Uh, Randy Johnson, Pedro and Tim Hudson, three of the best pitchers in baseball, all move teams and the Red Sox sign Edgar Renteria. Hmmm. I guess with the novelty of winning the World Series the Red Sox can be expected not to understand they can't rest on their laurels.

*****

Take the Gun Away From DC's Head

But worse still, of all the announcements made and some not made, the news that baseball's move to DC is on the verge of collapse.

The way I understand it, this is about baseball trying to shove an agreement that DC already agreed to down the throats of DC, insisting that money for a new stadium be paid in majority part by the taxpayers and the council of DC wants private money to pay for it.

The sensible thing to wonder of course, is why are these council members, at least one of whom is making a push for Mayor of DC (Linda Cropp)and certainly likes the publicity garnered from this 11th hour morality play, only speaking up now when they've known about this deal for months?

The other thing to wonder is why DC, a city which doesn't have enough money to fund education for it's children, will be using valuable tax dollars to finance a bloody baseball stadium to begin with?!

And lastly, why is MLB such a group of extortionists that they would want to take education and food from the children of DC solely to foot the bill for a baseball stadium that will probably be out of style or out of date in a decade? If the Idiot Collective who decided to award the franchise to DC in the first place, had simultaneously announced an OWNER for this alleged franchise, then the owner could sort it out of his own or their own pockets for a DC franchise.

At the end of the day, it isn't difficult to imagine someone like Peter Angelos paying off DC Council members to raise this last-minute stink because if you recall, Angelos, billionaire champion whinger and all-around pig, hasn't reached a deal with MLB that will pay him off for "letting" a franchise move to DC in the first place.

If you want to know what sucks about baseball, don't even bother worrying about the steroids just yet. In baseball owners, you've got a collective of greedy swine who will stoop to nothing to line their billionaire pockets more full with ill-begotten cash and meanwhile, you've got opportunist scum like Linda Cropp and The Ambitions ruining DC's chance to get in on the billionaire's game.

Somtimes, without a scorecards, you should never know who to be more disgusted with.

If you are really disgusted with Linda Cropp, you might want to have a look at the Drop Cropp campaign being waged heavily.

Unfortunately, if you are really disgusted with MLB owners, there isn't any such similar campaign afoot. Like DC, you'll have to tolerate them, or leave baseball altogther.