Weekly Sporties

-The biggest name in free baseball free agency this year was that of Albert Pujols. The once-in-a-generation slugger was on the open market for the first time in his career and, despite getting a huge offer from the Miami Marlins, most people thought he would re-sign with the St. Louis Cardinals, the only baseball team he has ever played for. But, in a shocking early-morning signing, Pujols signed a 10-year, $254 million deal with the Anaheim Angels (I know that's not their proper name, but I don't care). Now, even though analysts seemed sad that he was leaving St. Louis, a lot of people thought this was a great signing for the Angels. Well, half a great signing, anyway. Eveyone sort of agrees that paying him that much money for that long is a losing proposition. Pujols will turn 32 in January, which means he'll be 41 in the final year of this deal and no one expects him to still be playing well at that age. That, of course, makes me wonder why they offered him that long of a contract. If you know a guy isn't going to keep playing at his current level for more than 5 years (6 tops), why not offer him a 7-year deal just to cover your bases? An addition 3 years at $25 million per seems a really bad idea, especially when you know in year 1 it's going to happen. A lot of people say it is because Albert wanted a 10-year deal. Well, he can't want lots of stuff, it doesn't mean you have to give it all to him. You're already giving him $25 million a year, I think he can make a few concessions going the other way.

-About a decade ago the biggest name in baseball free agency was Manny Ramirez. Well, things have certainly changed for Manny in the last couple of years. First he failed a drug test in Los Angeles and was suspended 50 games. Then he had a couple of lackluster years for the Dodgers, which led to him signing a one-year contract with the Tampa Bay Rays. But before the season even started Manny was informed he had failed a second drug test and was going to be suspended for 100 games, at which point he promptly retired. I remember writing when he announced his retirement that I wondered just how long he was going to be able to stay away from the game, considering Ramirez didn't strike me as the kind of guy who has a lot of hobbies outside baseball. Turns out I should have bet money on it, as this week Manny filed reinstatement papers with Major League Baseball stating he intends to come out of retirement. First off, I fully expect him to end up on the Marlins because that seems to be their move this year. Now Manny still has to serve a suspension for his second failed drug test, but the thing that caught my eye was that MLB announced Ramirez's suspension had been cut in half and he would only be suspended 50 games. How does that work? How does essentially taking your ball and going home get rewarded? Try that next time you get a speeding ticket: "That's a $200 fine." You know what, officer? I'm not even going to drive this car anymore... Wait, I need a car. "Good for you. It'll be a $100 fine then." I highly doubt that would work.

-One of my biggest pet peeves in sports is when people start to treat rumors as if they are facts. This week started off with sources inside the Lakers saying that they would like to add both Chris Paul and Dwight Howard to their team and they were willing to trade almost anyone on their roster to make it happen. Yeah, well so would the other 29 teams in the league. So, what exactly makes this news? Now, I will grant you that the Lakers did aquire Chris Paul for a few hours on Thursday (which we talked about yesterday), but there was little to no chance they were ever going to be able to get both Paul and Howard on their roster. It was the sports equivalent of me saying that I want to go on a date with Jessica Biel. Well, isn't it nice to want? Yet, for some reason ESPN spent half the week talking about how great the Lakers lineup would be if it had Kobe, Chris Paul and Dwight Howard. It would be great, but that doesn't make it true. I know that the Lakers usually manage to capture the sexy names in free agency, but how about from now on we at least wait until guys are actually on the team before we start talking about their crunch time rotations?

-A few days ago baseball announced that it was going to have a dress code. Not for its players, but for the media members who cover the teams. Apparently, people had decided that just because you work in sports it doesn't mean you get to dress like a slob. You can tell how bad some locker rooms had gotten by the items that were banished: muscle shirts, ripped jeans, mini-skirts, halter tops and flip-flops. Honestly, if you have to be told not to wear that stuff to work then I can only wonder how you got a press pass to begin with. But, there was one item that caught my eye: no clothing with team logos on it. Granted, when you are trying to act as though you are impartial, wearing a team-issued hoodie doesn't look so good. Still, this is going to kill most baseball writer's, because damn do they love their free shirts. When I was working in radio I once had a very popular local writer call me four times because I had mentioned getting him a free shirt from the station. For guys like that to have to go out and buy a logo-free polo is the equivalent of torture. I'm willing to bet the writer's in St. Louis took news of the new dress code harder than the Pujols decision.

-In a move that continues to show they are suddenly the most innovative sports league in North America, the NHL announced major changes to the league's playoff system. Instead of doing the standard two-conference, six-division alignment they have now, the league is going to a four-conference system that will be based more on geography than before and will feature a re-seeding for the four conference champions rather than the normal East vs West format. Basically, it means you could see teams like the Bruins and the Sharks meet in the semi-finals of the playoffs and the Bruins could face the Rangers in the Stanley Cup Finals. It's all very new and a little confusing, so instead of harping on that, I'm going to take a little umbrage with the conference the Bruins have been placed in. Currently they are slated to be with Montreal (good), Buffalo, Toronto, Tampa Bay, Florida and Ottawa. Meanwhile the other East Coast conference is the Islanders, the Rangers, the Penguins, the Flyers, the Devils, the Hurricane and the Capitals. Seriously? Why does it feel like the Bruins are in the 'leftover' conference despite being an Original 6 team? And if these conferences are supposed to be more based on geography I couldn't help but notice Boston is nowhere near Florida. I know I shouldn't be complaining because they are clearly in the easier conference, but when you consider the schedules will be weighed towards conference match-ups it feels like the fans are getting screwed here. I mean, would you rather see the Bruins play the Rangers 4 times a year or the Panthers? I rest my case.

-There was a strange story in college football this week. Tuesday night reports started to come out that June Jones, currently the head coach at SMU, had reached an agreement to become the new head man at Arizona State. All that was left to be hammered out were contract details. But, by Wednesday afternoon the deal was off. Reportedly the Sun Devils backed out after concerns from students and alumni. Alright, I'll ask: when did Arizona State get to be so choosy? Last time I checked the Sun Devils haven't exactly been a PAC-12 powerhouse - they only win the conference about once a decade. And I'll grant you that June Jones isn't exactly warm and fuzzy, but he's a very good college coach. He took Hawaii to a BCS bowl for heaven's sake. Also in two years he turned SMU into a winner and they hadn't been relevant in college football in almost 20 years. Sure, he may not be the sexy name other schools have been hiring lately, but he wins. Also he's never had an NCAA violations against him and it appears like he runs a clean program. So, here's what I would like to remind Arizona State fans: you don't have to hang out with him. We've all worked in an office with a prickly person before - as long as they can get the job done then it doesn't really matter if you don't want them to find out where everyone is going for drinks after work. I'm telling you, winning covers up a lot of personality defects.

-The last time I wrote about NASCAR's Kurt Busch he was complaining about how there was no sportsmanship in auto-racing. Since that time Busch was caught on camera screaming violently at a reporter in a video that became a YouTube sensation and his crew chief quit while basically saying he no longer wanted to put up with Busch's verbal abuse on a weekly basis. Busch said he intended to seek out a sports psychologist to deal with his anger issues, but it was too late. Early in the week he announced that he was leaving Penske racing after he and his team "mutually parted ways". No they didn't. This is like when someone gets dumped and then tries way too hard to convince all their friends it was a mutual decision. The reality is that NASCAR has slowly been shrinking over the past few years. As a sponsor-driven sport in a bad economy, funding has been harder to come by and teams go under almost every week. Busch was on a solid team with a major sponsor - you simply don't give that up voluntarily, even if you're a previous Cup Champion. There are only so many job openings for drivers and you certainly won't see a car like this come open under normal circumstances. Sounds to me like the first thing Busch and his sports therapist need to talk about are a few honesty issues.