Good afternoon from sweltering Boca Raton, where weather.com says it “feels like 99.”

I went down to Miami Gardens last night to check out Misty May’s husband’s Marlins take on the Cardinals. After a hurricane caused a two-hour rain delay, Matt Treanor & Gang pulled it out 4-3 to pull 1 1/2 back of the Phils. I got to know Treanor while I covered the Fish during the lockout, and he’s one of baseball’s good dudes. I also got to do a story on Matt and Misty during Spring Training that year, which was fun.

Four things:

Uno — Marian Gaborik. I don’t expect any news until Doug Risebrough and Tom Lynn return from Slovakia-Czech Republic and give us scribes the minutes and audio tapes from their meeting with Gaborik . They did meet up Tuesday in Trencin.

Regarding all these rumors that Gaborik’s going to sign with a Russian team any day now, remember there is one massive difference between Alex Radulov and Gaborik. Radulov was going to make 860K and change this season with Nashville. Gaborik has $7.5 million on the table and is year from getting a Brink’s truck load of cash from somebody.

Makes no sense to me, at least for the near term.

Gaborik’s going to make a lot of money in the NHL during his career, whether it’s in Minnesota or elsewhere. I just don’t buy that he wants to play in Russia. Now, does that mean his agents aren’t scoping the landscape? Nope.

Dos: Mark Parrish. He’s got his charity celebrity auction/dinner/concert this weekend and should be closing in on a deal with some team eventually. I talked to a reporter from CKNW in Vancouver today, and agent John Vollan confirmed to him that the Canucks have shown interest.

Parrish just has to stay patient. Remember, two of the teams interested in him have other things pending and he’s Plan B. In other words, if Mats Sundin turns down Vancouver’s reported $10 million-a-year offer or simply retires, Parrish will get an offer. If Radulov indeed does not return to the Predators, Parrish will likely receive an offer from Craig Leipold’s old team.

Tres: Kurtis Foster. Returned to Minnesota with a ring on his finger yesterday. He says he’s getting much better from his broken femur and “almost walking totally normal now.” He hopes to get on the ice for a twirl in September and is still aiming for a Nov. 1 return.

Cuatro: Wes Walz. Proved how gullible I am. Honestly.

Wes Walz actually convinced me yesterday that he was chased by an alligator. I literally almost called the Strib on deadline last night during the Marlins game to get space.

Yes, I am indeed a moron.

It took about a half-dozen text messages before I realized he was kidding. I fell for stuff like, “I didn’t know gators were that fast. I thought I was fast … not.”

Finally, he yelled at me to “take the hook out. I can’t believe how hard you swallowed the hook.”

Anyway, Walz is doing very well getting situated in Tampa Bay as assistant coach to Barry Melrose. Two thing’s for sure: It’ll be a fun year down in Tampa, and I am truly an idiot.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 13th, 2008 at 3:15 pm and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.