Sports Crumbs - 11/14/06

-- Early reports are that the Boston Red Sox bid $42 million just for the rights to negotiate with prized Japanese star Daisuke Matsuzaka. No, that's not a misprint. $42 million just to negotiate? Who is this guy, the Japanese version of Bob Gibson? Besides Ichiro, when have any of these Japanese players lived up to any of their lofty expectations? Hideki Matsui is a good player, but I wouldn't put him in the top 10 outfielders in the game right now. And who can forget Hideo Nomo who started this all off. The only way he's been successful is by switching leagues more times than Anne Heche switched teams. I don't have a problem with any teams signing him, it just seems ridiculous to spend that kind of cash just for the right to negotiate with him. Honestly, I hope the Seibu Lions (his Japanese team) pull a fast one on the Sox and accept the money and then pull him off the market. They could issue a simple press release that says "We sooooo sawry."

-- Sammy Sosa thinks he's ready to return to the big leagues after taking a year off. Boy is this guy delusional. I guess the reason you didn't play last season had nothing to do with your .221 average, .376 slugging, 45 RBIs and 14 home runs in 102 games with the Orioles in 2005. Nothing at all to do with that. Most teams are completely willing to give aging steroid users max deals. Maybe he should start corking his bat again, that worked for a while. Or maybe he should pull his Capital Hill routine and say he can't speak English anymore. Give it up Sammy. You are just a bump in the road to cleaning up baseball so why don't you and Mark McGwire jump on a boat and go meet Mike Tyson in Bolivian.

-- In another damaging blow to my fantasy football team, Clinton Portis broke his right hand in the 1st quarter of Sunday's loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. This really isn't that big of news since he already missed a couple games with separated shoulder at the beginning of the season, but with Willis McGahee already out with 3 - count 'em 3! - broken ribs, my fantasy football team has really gone down the shitter. Throw in Tiki Barber's sprained thumb, and I'm settling into dead f'ng last. Sorry, I know no one cares, but I had to vent.

HC