I will say that the characterization of a player taking less money to go close to home is an overhyped topic on sports radio, but that certainly isn't Andy Pettitte's fault. We can leave him well enough alone, and truly smack sports radio for the tedious banter of glorified subjects. These guys will yap all year about how Tiger Woods is in a slump (or make up fantasy arguments that other people are saying he's in a slump just so that they can take the opposing view). Really what this Pettitte thing boils down to is that people are happy that the Yankees finally lost a free agent--all the other talk is just window dressing. But I guess that even that giddiness totally ignores that the Yankees now have Kevin Brown and Javier Vasquez. I hear Clemens is basically going to Houston, too.

Geez...are Adam LaRoche and Andy Marte ready to produce for the Braves? I hope so! They're going to lose everyone else!

Hey, I don't know if you guys are like me, but it would be slightly interesting if the BoSox and the Yanks got every available impact free agent and see how it plays out over the season and (maybe) the playoffs. Because one of those teams would have to lose and not go to the World Series--that's a big statement. It would be different if they were in opposite leagues--you could spell the "death of baseball," but they're in the same division! One HAS to lose--and with no guarantee that the World Series would be won by either team.

I think the Phillies have made the most quality moves in the offseason so far. Milton as a starter is great, and TWO quality relief pitchers in Worrell and Wagner. If they had Wagner last year, they would have been the wild card representative (if not the NL East champ) because Mesa gave up many, many games to the Marlins in the home stretch.

The NFL playoffs look interesting as of now...wouldn't that be kinda fun if the Titans played the Ravens...again?

Quickly:

LAST SAMURAI: Not exactly great, but good. No matter what anyone says, this movie is a little too much like DANCES WITH WOLVES, so the feeling of been-there-done-that makes the film a bit stale. Good action scenes make up for some tedium.

SOMETHING'S GOTTA GIVE: Could have ended at the hour-and-forty-five minute mark and everyone would have been sent home happy--but no, we're in Hollywood, we need to make complications for our newfound lovers to overcome before they get back together for another forty-five minutes. Diane Keaton is quite great, and Jack Nicholson once again gives the public what they want. One of the many movies this year where the ending sinks the rest of the picture. Keanu Reeves...thanks for trying hard, man, I root for ya.

STUCK ON YOU: Head-scratching movie of the year. Not hilarious. But not a failure as an enjoyable movie. Greg Kinnear steals the movie from Matt Damon, but mostly because his character is written more interestingly. The movie is funniest when it strays away from the one-joke premise, which is not often. A great "background-while-doing-chores" movie.

I'm watching LOTR: RETURN OF THE KING tomorrow. I've been jonesing for some time.