*Why would anyone sign Manny Ramirez after the way he played himself out of Boston last year? To me, that’s a pretty basic question that too often goes unmentioned in all of the talk about where he’ll wind up.  I’m all in favor of players making boatloads of money, but they need to understand that their bosses have a right to negotiate too — and even play hardball. Questionable injuries, less than 100 percent effort, assaulting a mid-level Red Sox official; it seems prudent for a team to be concerned about dishing out multimegabucks his way, doesn’t it? About the only reasonable fit to me would be the Giants. After Barry Bonds (and A.J. Pierzynski), I supposed Manny wouldn’t seem all that dysfunctional to them.

*A lot of people were anticipating a “legitimate” home run king a few years from now when Alex Rodriguez would pass Bonds on his way to 800 or 900 home runs. Well, that’s out the window now and — owing to the apparent sheer volume of players who tested positive for steroids in 2003 (104 of 1,198) — we can reopen the debate about whether performances of that era should be identified as “the best ever.” I don’t think you can mess with the numbers themselves, but fans, media and baseball officials can decide the context in which records should be viewed. Hall of Fame balloting in the years to come as Bonds, Sosa and Clemens are voted on (unless baseball bans them in a Pete Rose-type of decision) will be an interesting test. Baseball liked to celebrate its milestones but a good discussion is in order.

*Is anyone else tired of players saying that whether or not another player uses illegal drugs is “none of my business?” Ryan Ludwick of the Cardinals (a former A-Rod teammate) was among the latest to utter those naive words in an XM/Sirius interview. It’s the same thing as journalists reacting to plagiarists and the financial industry reacting to Bernie Madoff and rogue bankers. When the credibility and fairness of your livelihood is questioned, it is your business, guys.

*And in case you’re looking for a good, slightly snarky explanation of the 2003 drug-testing that has apparently nailed A-Rod and 103 others, here’s a good take from Harvey Araton of the New York Times: “…baseball granted players immunity while it conducted survey testing with the hope that the number of cheats would be infinitesimal and that the whole sordid performance-enhancement problem would go away. Instead, there was a list of 104 players who were sloppy enough to be caught or who didn’t care enough if they were because the union geniuses guaranteed them that the results would be confidential forever, if not destroyed.”

*I liked this headline a lot until I figured out I wasn’t the Howard getting $54 million over the next three years.

*Joe C. is reporting that sources tell him Joe Crede wants a base salary closer to $7 million than the $5 million that had been talked about. The Twins are still well under their $74 million payroll from 2007, so a deal closer to $7 million than $5 million, plus incentives, shouldn’t change the major question about Crede: Is he healthy enough to play every day? If so, the Twins should be on him. And if the team has payroll room, as Jim Pohlad suggested last week, I hope the Twins have also been talking with the Mariners and with Adrian Beltre’s agent (Scott Boras) about what it would take to waive his no-trade clause regarding the Twins.

*Anyone else notice that it’s harder to listen to XM/Sirius Home Plate? The other day, I was driving and listening to one of their hosts shouting about something or another. Moments later, the host said he’d been chided by his producer for shouting. So it wasn’t just me. There are loud voices that I like in sports media — Mad Dog Russo, hockey’s Don Cherry and Kevin Harlan (from the Timberwolves era) are three — but I don’t like baseball delivered in CAPITAL LETTERS! My biggest problem with the current incarnation of Home Plate is that bluster has replaced conversation. One example is a host who calls himself “Hacksaw,” invites women to call “the ladies’ line” and has one of those radio voices that I don’t think can be sustained 24/7. (He’s also the guy who resigned under pressure after calling one Vikings game a few years back when Larry Fitzgerald Sr. cited racially insensitive comments “Hacksaw” had made while hosting shows in California.) There’s still some good stuff on there (Rob Dibble and Kevin Kennedy are entertaining; Ed Randall and Jody MacDonald run intelligent, witty shows), but the channel has suffered with its purge of Mark Patrick and Charley Steiner and by trading shrillness for substance.

*Was anyone unable to watch more than a couple innings at a time of the Caribbean World Series last week? Watching aging minor-leaguers who are hardly the best representatives of their countries just didn’t do it for me.Was I missing something? Will I be missing something (other than A-Rod playing for the Dominican Republic and Nick Punto playing for Italy) if I don’t pay much attention to the World Baseball Classic?

*Anything bugging any of you? Last chance to spew before pitchers and catchers report next week and we get overwhelmed by the glory of the game. Just keep it civil.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 9th, 2009 at 1:09 am and is filed under Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.