From The Desk of Idiotic Ideas

While Mike and the Mad Dog and seemingly the rest of the world continue to whine about Roger Clemens coming back to the Yankees, I thought I would break things up by showing you the continued idiocy that is the braintrust at Major League Baseball. Brian Hoch writes for MLB.com:

NEW YORK -- The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, bitter rivals in the American League East, could be headed for an Opening Day showdown in the Far East.
Major League Baseball has entered preliminary negotiations with several teams, including the Yankees and Red Sox, about playing exhibition games in China next March and opening the regular season in Japan, according to a report in Saturday's New York Times.

Um...stupid? I get that it's sports greatest rivalry but to play it anywhere other than Fenway Park or Yankee Stadium borders on ludicrous. While it was an interesting novelty when the Yankees and Devil Rays opened in Tokyo in 2004, it didn't really hurt anything because those two teams don't exactly fill stadiums every time they play - making it perfect to put in Tokyo, because those games would sell out.

The rest of the story is here.

Oh, before I run, thanks to the New York Rangers for giving hockey fans hope for a big postseason. Unfortunately they played the top seed in the Eastern Conference, and that's no easy tasak. Further unfortune is that so few of you watched it thanks to the debacle that is the NHL's broadcasting arangement. Nobody knows where to find the games on TV, further compounding an already difficult sell in hockey. Sad, really, because the Stanley Cup tournament is sports at its best.

Back to the Rocket for a quickie. I hadn't heard Suzyn Waldman's hysterical rantings after the Yankees announced the return of Clemens when I posted my thoughts last night. It's here if you'd like to hear it for yourself. Look, I like Suzyn because she's a survivor and a fine reporter, but not a great analyst at all. This however was over the top. In fact the whole thing is striking me as a bit embarrassing - from the fanfare to the contract to the reaction. I said what I said in regards to the Yankees spending their money - it's not against the rules, so whatever. I welcome Clemens back to win games, especially big ones, but I'm not in love with the stretching of the rules that the Yankees are doing - after saying that they wouldn't in the first place. Baseball is about teamwork, and allowing Clemens to come in, pitch, and leave again just seems wrong.

I also wish broadcasters didn't have to be shills for their teams but that's their bread is buttered unfortunately. Michael Kay ("I got goosebumps" or whatever asinine thing he said) didn't exactly stand out as a voice of objectivity either. You all just set things up for clowns like Bob Raissman (speaking of objective...HA!) and Phil Mushnick (I have nothing nice to say). It's too easy for them and just makes the Yankees look, well, stupid.

The Yankees seemed to be heading down the right road and just didn't need another sideshow to their seemingly endless circus. But...none of that will matter if they win the ring, right?