Ozzie Smith sold his Gold Gloves for $500,000 - I know the mature thing to say is, "He'll always have the memories, and it's none of our business." In situations like this, though, I like to ask: How will this affect me? Well I, for one, do not look forward to cracking open next year's Baseball Encyclopedia and having to tell my son* that Farthington P. Richmore III was the best defensive shortstop of 1983.
* That's a writer's device. Through no fault of my own, I am childless.
Scott Boras for the Hall of Fame - Sure, why not? After all, agents are a part of baseball, and Boras has often been described as a "superagent," so let him in, I say.
Beer vendors are also a part of baseball, so why not that middle-aged guy with the pony tail who slings Old Style at Wrigley? He seems pretty competent.
Look, all's I'm saying is, if we keep lowering the standards to let people like Scott Boras and Cal Ripken into the Hall of Fame, where does it stop?
Red Sox sign Mike Napoli - Years ago, before my current Baseball Nation sinecure, I wrote for ¡Beisbol, Si!, a bimonthly Venezuelan magazine. Unfortunately, I was fired for writing the following in the wake of yet another Paul Lo Duca scandal:
It seems to me that baseball might have avoided these kinds of problems altogether by not letting Italians in the league in the first place.
I know what you're thinking: He got fired for that? It actually sounded a lot worse in Spanish. Our translator was against me, I think.
Anyway, you'd think the Moneyball geniuses (sarcasm) at Yawkey Way would know better than to take a chance on another paisan backstop, but at least now we know which of Boston's owners really runs the show (Larry Lucchino).