Yankee Haters Seethe A Bit More: Well, sure ... you give up a top pitching prospect to get a decent third baseman, whose only real value when all is said and done is that he is a few years younger than your current one. He does his part ... hits a home run to get you to the World Series ... so it is not too big of deal that he really didn't do anything else when he hurt himself playing basketball. It was an "accident," they say ... as if! It was all part of the plan, you see. It just left an opening for the best player in baseball, so they say, who dislikes Texas (252 mil. and all) enough that he's willing to switch to third to play for the Yanks, even though he basically is clearly better than the guy currently at short.

The Rangers are even footing around a third of the bill, so with Alfonso Soriano also leaving (I pity the guy ... Texas ... shudder), it turns out to be not even a ridiculous amount of money. So to speak, especially this year (Soriano, Boone, and prospect Drew Henson leaving saves them $14mil and A-Rod will cost them $15m!) Not that the Yanks, the haters say, are worried too much about the money. Baseball mismatch continues, and just how stupid that deal was for the Rangers in 2000 (A-Rod was not too crazy about it either at the end of the day, but he still got the money, so isn't too bad off) was underlined yet again. Don't fret haters ... the Yank starting rotation is untested and has no lefties. And ... ok ok ... you need to calm down. I'm a Mets fan, remember? We are aiming for .500 ... so don't take it out on me.

The Red Sox, by the way, had a chance to pick him up ... ;)

Joe Sermon: I sermonize on Mel Gibson's film, even though it did not come out yet. No funny business here: unlike the Vatican, I am totally aboveboard about talking about it. Curious about the thing ... I like foreign films and never saw one in Aramaic before.