Wait: Did I really start this post without talking about Tom Brady and Bridget Moynihan breaking up?
Everyone keeps talking about how Brady will be such a player, but how about Moynihan being single? Over/under on the date of the first rumor of a relationship with Derek Jeter: April 1, 2007.
Meanwhile, is Brady the new Jeter? Here's one of my boldest predictions for 2007: I'm calling Brady-n-Britney by the week of Super Bowl XLI. (The real question is: Who DOESN'T see this coming? If I was a savvier blog-marketer, I'd insert an eye-candy pic of Brit here.)
49ers beat Seahawks in Seattle: OK, back in August, who had the Niners sweeping this season series with the defending NFC champs? As I said yesterday, if I had to put my five-year bet on either team, I'd take SF over Seattle. Is it heresy to say, if I was starting a franchise today, I'd rather have Alex Smith, Frank Gore and Vernon Davis over Matt Hasselbeck, Shaun Alexander and ANY of the Seahawks' WRs or TEs?
Matsuzaka Watch: I love that he's wearing Johnny Damon's old No. 18 jersey number. I hate this media-adopted nickname "Dice-K." It's awful. (He said his nickname in Japan is "Monster." Why not use that?)
Speaking of big-time pitchers in the spotlight, are the Mets ready to make a serious play for Barry Zito today?
AI Trade Watch: The more I read, the more I think the only team that can/will seriously consider trading for AI is the Heat. Which would be amazing. (The T'wolves? While it would be fun to see KG and AI together, I doubt the Sixers really want what Minny is selling, beyond rookie Randy Foye.)
I still hear those Clippers rumors swirling, but I'm not quite sure why the Sixers are demanding Shaun Livingston, who the Clips simply won't give up; I can't be the only one who thinks that Corey Maggette is one of the most underrated players (certainly most underrated AVAILABLE players) in the league? Is AI-for-Maggette (plus whatever it takes to make the numbers work) that crazy?
NBA All-Star Voting: AI leads all East guards in fan voting, which is just about the most fascinating development that has come out of this past week of AI Trade Frenzy. In all of the considerations of "value," why don't any teams put a value on the fact that AI is insanely popular and puts fans in the seats like few other players in the NBA?
(More voting: How cool is it that Toronto's Chris Bosh is currently in the starting lineup? What a statement about why fan voting rules.)
Maybe the Warriors shouldn't be so quick to think about dumping Baron Davis for AI...
Don't read too much into the Bobcats' win over the Magic. (Meanwhile, it's nice that May and Morrison combined for 54, but do two Top 10 picks really offer appropriate draft value coming off the bench? Maybe drafting a "starter" isn't as important anymore as drafting a closer.)
I love the D-Rays' idea to play a 3-game regular-season series at the Disney complex, nearly 90 miles from their usual home in St. Petersburg. Who cares that the Disney stadium only holds between 9,000-13,000? That's as many (or more) than the D-Rays were drawing at the Trop. Hell, why not play "home" series all over the state? Convert themselves into a barnstorming team that becomes a novelty when they play in, say, Tallahassee or Jacksonville or Orlando. If the Tampa fans won't show, maybe others will.
So I've been reading that there's all sorts of brouhaha about this Mickey Mantle memoir due out next spring. Author Peter Golenbock has found a way around James Frey-style problems of accuracy in memoir: "Inventive memoir," which is a wonderfully catchy euphemism for "fiction."
Specifically in this case, the fictional license to write an "autobiography" of Mickey Mantle from Mantle's voice, allowing for some true stories, some exaggerated stories and some stories that readers will never know if they are true or simply entertaining. I wonder if people will buy/read it -- hell, maybe it's time for me to pitch that "autobiography," since I can now apparently "reveal" my tryst with Ashley Judd and my career as a high-powered NBA executive.
(Given the 2006 scrutiny of "truthiness" in so-called non-fiction memoirs, I fully expect "inventive memoir" to become the new standard: "What I write in this memoir is sort of true, but don't hold me to it if it's not." The genius is in admitting it up front.)
-- D.S.