In honor of Jim, the birthday boy, we start of today’s musings with a line tossed around last night: why would you trade a boat for maybe a boat. The context, as usual for the past 48 or so hours, was the Johan Santana trade. We’ve taken the temperature of the average fan, and they’re pretty [redacted] upset about this trade. That’s no secret. What seems to bother folks the most is that there was no real centerpiece to the return package; not only are the four guys unproven, there’s not even one that makes you say, “In two years, if he’s everything they say he is …” The Gomez kid might be the closest thing to it, but he’s not it. Even the much-maligned KG trade brought in Al Jefferson, a clear No. 1 piece. With all that said (and we know it’s hardly news), let’s turn our attention now to Santana himself. There’s a fine line between being opportunistic and being greedy. Right now, he is way over that line. He has the Mets over a barrel right now (if you think the Twins botched this deal, think about the awkward position the Mets are in right now. Why would you ever let word leak out that you have acquired the best pitcher in baseball before you have signed him to the extension upon which the deal hinges. Santana and his agent see the good will they’re generating in New York and can pretty much name their price, which perhaps is why this deal still isn’t done). The NY Post says Santana is trying to push the deal over $150 million. Crazy money. Greedy money. Not enough to say good riddance (especially without that centerpiece) but enough to help understand why you trade a boat for maybe a boat. OK, we don’t need four baseball blogs on this site. What else happened?

*400 for Tubby. They might as well have played the season-to-date on paper instead of the court. Nothing has been terribly surprising about any of the Gophers’ 19 games.

*Ex-Viking Jim Marhsall says the ‘72 Dolphins would get blown out by this year’s Patriots.

*An interesting read about Tom Brady, reminding us that his path to stardom wasn’t exactly paved with gold. Or paved at all. If things had broken differently, he might be filling out TPS reports right now instead of … well, you know.

*One of our all-time favorite videos, at least the set-up: Fantastic Voyage by Coolio. How we supposed to get there? WE AIN’T GOT NO CAR. Fool.

*Fasola-link! Apparently “The Warriors” is showing in Cleveland tonight, which makes us sad, for the first time ever, that we’re not in Cleveland right now. Can you dig it!

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