Weekly Sporties

-It is not uncommon to find out that baseball players who have been drafted out of a poor country have false information in their background. These guys come from such bad situations that they are willing to lie about their age to make sure they get signed. After all, an 18 year-old with a 100 mph fastball but who can't hit the corners is seen as a diamond in the rough. A 23 year-old with the same attributes is seen as someone who probably has control issues that make him not worth the effort of trying to fix his mechanics. Still, it is rare that they take it the additional step of changing information beyond their date of birth. But, this week we learned that is the situation surrounding the Cleveland Indians' pitcher Fausto Carmona. Turns out his real name is apparently Roberto Hernandez Heredia and he's 31, three years older than everyone thought he was. Now, whatever you think of him changing his age, I wonder why he changed his name. Roberto is so much easier than Fausto. I get sick of spelling Rakauskas for people, can you imagine if every time you fill out a form you have to tell the person on the other end of the line how to spell your first and last names when they aren't even your real names? That would drive me crazy. You had to think after a couple years he wished he had given himself an easier fake name. And how did he not accidentally call himself by his correct name even once? When I was working in radio I used to do traffic reports under a fake name because I was on two stations in the same area, and I would slip up at least once a week (shocker my radio career didn't last). I'm sure the Indians are pissed that he lied to them, but at least they know he can keep a secret.

-Speaking of guys where it will probably turn out they are older than we currently think, this week the Texas Rangers signed Japanese pitching sensation Yu Darvish to a 6-year contract. Between his contract and the negotiation fee the Rangers now owe Darvish's Japanese league team, it is the richest MLB contract ever signed by a Japanese pitcher. Now, the Rangers and Darvish's agents had 30 days to work this deal out and they got it done on the very last day possible, just before the deadline. Here's my thing about baseball negotiations: they always get it done on the very last day possible. Draft picks never sign until the day they are about to go back into the draft pool and guys on the trading block never move until last day they can be traded. So, here's my suggestion to Major League Baseball (and really, all professional sports) - move up the deadlines. I know that contracts are complicated legal agreements and I'm not saying it is going to get done in an hour, but I don't think these guys even start talking until there is only a week left. What do you need 30 days for? It's not the amount of time, it's being up against a deadline that motivates them to get back to the bargaining table. From now on, tell them they have a week to get deals signed. My guess is just as many contracts still get done, only now people aren't left twisting in the wind for a month.

-While we're on the subject of never-ending negotiations, the Red Sox and Cubs still haven't agreed on compensation for general manager Theo Epstein. When Theo left three months ago both sides said they wanted to get this over with, but the deal needed to be fair. Well, this week they turned to Commissioner Bud Selig to determine what constitutes fair, saying they were at an impasse. Complicating this is that Epstein is negotiating for the Cubs, which means he knows just what the Red Sox want and since he left on not-great terms he appears to want to squeeze them to make sure they don't get it. Since both sides appear to have dug in their heels, the teams are going to leave it up to the Commissioner to figure out a deal and hope to have it done by the end of next week. I don't know what the Sox are going to end up with (and I'm pretty sure I don't care), but I'll just be glad to have this whole thing over with once and for all. Also, if I were the Cubs and I needed to find a third team to make a deal work I would not call the Red Sox, because it certainly doesn't appear like they are going to make things easier for Theo in his new job. Way to keep it civil, boys.

-I have stated many times that I do not get the NFL's obsession with trying to make Europe embrace American football. They tried to have an entire developmental league over there and it was soundly rejected by the masses, but the NFL continues on undeterred (not unlike a stalker). First they added a yearly game in London. While the game is well-attended it does seem the crowd only shows up for the experience and not the actual game, as pretty much every NFL team is represented by a few fans in the crowd. Well, the new plan to force football down their throats is to give them the same team for a few years in a row and try to make the crowd root for them as the "home" squad. It might have been a good idea if they picked a quality team but the NFL went with the St. Louis Rams, who have won 10 games in three years. Yeah, that'll convert people. They were picked mostly because their owner, Stan Kroenke also owns the Arsenal football team. Apparently, no one told the NFL that the only thing all Premier League fans can agree on is that they hate Americans owning their clubs. Not to mention this just angers St. Louis fans who are losing one home game a year for the next three years (the good news, though, is they still get to pay full-price for two preseason games!). Seriously, they don't want our football and we don't want their soccer. Someone needs to tell Roger Goodell that friends don't always have to like all the same stuff. Let's just agree on this and move on.

-In one of the most expected stories ever, it was revealed that during the Broncos loss to the Patriots Tim Tebow played almost the entire second half with torn cartilage around his ribs, a bruised lung and a build-up of fluid in his chest. Tebow has been a media darling for a while, so a report about him playing hurt (thus creating an excuse as to why he played to poorly) was bound to surface sooner rather than later. The people who support Tim view this as proof of what a tough player and leader he is. That is certainly one way to look at it. But, for the realists in the crowd, it is seen as the first of what could be several issues. You see, Tebow plays like a battering ram. While that is admirable and everything you could want in a running back, it's not a great thing for quarterbacks to be putting their body through. Just ask Philadelphia how great it was when Michael Vick was knocked out for several weeks this season due to his style as a running quarterback. If anything, this could show the Broncos how necessary it is to make sure they have a more traditional player at the position. Heart is great, but heart doesn't do the team much good when it lands the starting quarterback on the sidelines with his arm in a sling.

-If anyone saw the value of keeping a competent backup on the roster this year, it was the Indianapolis Colts. Once Peyton Manning went down that team suffered a collapse of epic proportions. Unfortunately for Colts fans it appears that Manning could be done for good, as actor Ron Lowe tweeted out that he has heard Manning's neck injury will force him to retire. Now, I know it sounds random, but the former "West Wing" actor and Manning share an agency group and Lowe and the Colts owner do know each other, so there could be some credibility to this. Of course, that didn't stop the certified members of the "football insiders" from dismissing the report out of hand, even going so far as to take a couple of pot shots at the actor. This, of course, makes me want this report to be true. I can't stand it when media people somehow act as though what they do takes years of training and a skill set that normal people simply couldn't handle. All these 'insiders' really are the same people who talked about everyone behind their backs in high school. They hear rumors about one person and then tell other people that rumor in exchange for another rumor. It's a bad habit that they have somehow turned it into a career. Please stop acting as though your job couldn't be done by a group of 15 year-old girls with a cell phone and an unlimited texting plan.

-Of course I have to admit the football reporters may be right to dismiss Lowe's Tweet, because it is not like celebrity reporting has been great as of late. Just a couple of months ago music producer Jurmaine Dupri said on his Twitter feed that Dwight Howard was being traded to the Nets within 48 hours. Since Dupri has worked with Jay-Z, who owns a small part of the Nets, people took this report seriously. As anyone who follows basketball knows, those 48 hours have long since passed and Howard remains as a member of the Orlando Magic. The thing is no one knows for how much longer, as this week it was reported Howard expanded the list of teams he would be willing to accept going to in a trade to include the Los Angeles Clippers. Shocking, considering last year Howard wouldn't have gone to the Clippers if they offered him ownership of the team in exchange. (It's amazing what getting a second All-Star on your roster can do for your image.) Dwight Howard drives me crazy, because he is the poster child for everything I don't like about the current NBA stars. He wants to be traded and abandon his current organization, but also demands to be in control of where he lands, essentially killing the Magic's chances of getting the best deal. He wants to go somewhere that he would have several good players around him so he doesn't have to do everything himself, but also wants to be paid like a player who could win a championship by himself (even though he has proven that he can't). He shouldn't be able to get everything he wants, because he is not that special of a player. Again, wasn't the point of the lockout to keep this from happening?