HIRING A HEAVY BAT

Carlos Beltran

It was the bottom of the 9^th. The Cardinal’s Wainwright walked Paul Lo Duca to bring up Carlos Beltrán with the bases loaded and two men out. Down 0–2 to the rookie Wainwright, Beltrán looked at a called strike three, a curveball on the outside corner at the knees, and the ballgame was over. The bat never left Beltran’s shoulder. They almost made a statue of Beltran in that pose and were going to remove Stan The Man’s statue in front of the St. Louis Stadium! The Cards almost voted Beltran a World Series share for his contribution!

The Cardinals it is rumored have signed Beltran on for 2012 at $26 Million for two years. He will be the opening day right fielder and Lance Berkman will move to first base to replace Albert Pujols. What next? The Mets signing Bill Buckner to play first base?

IT’S GETTING TO BE A HABIT!

Indianapolis that is, well, all the winning, anyhow. The Colts stunned the Texans Thursday night with a 19-16 come from behind victory with a 19 seconds to go 1-yard touchdown! Sneaking over the Texas border was Reggie Wayne, keeping the streak alive and scoring to extend the victory totals to a whopping 2.

Dan Orlovsky, was given the ball by Wayne after scoring, breaking a tradition of Wayne’s of keeping the ball after each TD in his career. After a 0-14 start. Wayne felt that Orlovsky deserved the ball after two recent back-to-back victories. Don’t forget the Orlovsky was the 0-16 QB for Detroit in 2008.

Gio Gonzalez

NATIONAL GIO DAY IN WASHINGTON D.C.

The Nationals have traded for All-Star pitcher Gio Gonzalez of the Oakland A’s! The A’s will get three top prospects and a player; Catcher Derrick Norris. Gonzalez is 26 and was the 38^th overall draft pick of the Chicago White Sox in 2004. He pitched himself to 16 career high wins and 12 loses last season after going 15 wins in ’10. Last year he had a 3.12 ERA in 32 starts.

A TERRITORIAL RIVALRY

The only real territorial rivalry was played out once again when the NY Islanders traveled all the way to Madison Square Garden to face off against the New York Rangers, and faced a bitter lose to the Manhattanites.

Opportunity is the trade mark of NYC, and the Islanders were full of opportunities, which they handed one after another to the Rangers! You might say Christmas was early this year for the Rangers.

The Rangers enjoyed a three game win streak while the Islanders saw their two game win streak snapped, 4-2. The victory puts the Rangers just 2 points out of first place in their division!

IT’S OVER THE TOP

Or at least over the wall as the UCLA Bruins, stage their yearly ‘Over the Wall – let’s skip practice today’ tradition that dates back to the late ‘80’s.

Jim Mora

New UCLA coach Jim Mora says the tradition of Bruins players going "over the wall" at practice will not continue next season. His feeling and rightly so is that if you play on the team, it is a privilege to, and you are expected to dedicate yourself 100% The latest childish act occurred and some of the teammates did not participate, and were angered that others did go over the wall.

SEE YA IN A FEW DAYS!

I will take the next three days off and return on December 27^th.

That’s all I wrote folks!