Misery Loves Company: Two Guys Watch Baseball

Nasty Case of the Spins

So many topics, so little time. The Hot Stove runneth amok here in MLC Land, with the good, the bad, and the putrid mingling in a winter brew more potent than anything cooked up by the good people at the Boston Brewing Co. Here's a stream-of-consciousness look at things from the upwind side of the MLC team:

Comings and Goings: Pedro's gone to the Mets in a whirlwind of chicanery and gamesmanship, despite Whitney's fervent pleadings. As much as I loved watching him, and remain enraptured by his electric talent, 4 years and $52 million is simply more than he's worth at this point in his career, and I wish him well and thank Theo for not getting sucked into Petey's emotional headgames. I truly hope that he pitches well for Whitney's 9, because everybody should get to experience Pedro at his best, but I think his best years are behind him.

As Petey closed one door on the Sox, David Wells opened another and waddled into Fenway as the Sox No. 3 starter (at least I hope he's No. 3, because if he's higher up in the rotation it could be a long season - not a Pittsburgh-long season, but a long season nonetheless.). I've always enjoyed Wells' persona, and he'd appear to be a good fit on the Idiots. It's a relatively low-risk signing, so I'm on board.

Finally, Edgar Renteria joins the Sox courtesy of a 4 year, $40 million deal. Part of me wonders why Orlando Cabrera for $2m a year less wouldn't be just as good, but I can live with Renteria - especially if his signing means that Hanley Ramirez winds up in a package that yields Tim Hudson or A.J. Burnett, as rumored.

Great Moments in Film History: I watched HBO's hastily revised (Reverse of the) Curse of the Bambino last night. For the first time in 18 years, I watched that ball go through Bill Buckner's legs with a smile on my face. Everything that happened before 2004 only served to make this feel so goddamn sweet. And once again, it got really dusty in my house during the ALCS and World Series footage.

And Finally: Whitney's already spent significant righteous anger on this topic, but Linda Cropp has exposed herself as the worst kind of opportunistic weathervane of a politician. She's also embarrassed a city with a stunning display of legislative duplicity. We could argue all day about the merits of public versus private financing for sports facilities, and I'd be inclined to agree that full public funding isn't necessarily the best plan. However, Ms. Cropp publicly endorsed the deal that the city had reached with Major League Baseball, whooping it up from the podium alongside Mayor Anthony Williams on the day the deal was announced, and for her to cut the legs out from under the deal at the very last moment is despicable. She seems to be both conniving and not very bright (or at least not very savvy about how things work in the real world), which is a dangerous combination - and a deadly mix for baseball in Washington.