Parting March Shots

Greensboro, NC -- There's no definitive topic in tonight's blog, just some random musings, as we gear up for the start of the baseball season. One of my favorite Mondays of the year -- and there are only a few of them -- is Opening Day. It's where time ends, and then begins anew. The 2009 MLB predictions by B's Bistro will be posted in this space on Thursday. For now, here are the hot topics...

• The Braves extended Chipper Jones's contract by 3 years/$42M. For an injury prone, about to turn 37 years old player, $14M/year is a ton of cash to invest. Sure, Chipper has restructured his contract a couple of times for the team, and he'll always be an Atlanta Brave, but having your pay cut to $10M/year isn't going to make you or your family go hungry. I think the Braves will be regretting this one.
• The Orioles are assigning uber prospect Matt Wieters to the minors (until mid-May) to delay his arbitration by 1 year. Smart move considering that the Orioles are still 2 years away from contending.
• Mike Rizzo has returned some normalcy to the Nationals front office. The agent for Joe Beimel received a call from Bowden at the end of February, indicating that the Nats had interest in signing him. However, the agent described the interaction between him and Bowden as hot air, or bottom of the barrel shopping by Bowden. Rizzo called Beimel's agent during the first week of March and cordially described the Nats' plans, indicating that if he has a better offer than $2M to take it. Sure enough, Beimel signed with the Nats one week later thanks to Rizzo's honesty and organization.
• Speaking of $14M annual salaries, the Tigers cut Gary Sheffield and his bloated $14M contract. While currently stuck on 499 HR's, Sheffield is going to have a tough time finding work. I'm sure some team will find $400K in their budget in an attempt to make a buck or two off of his 500 HR's campaign. BTW, what's the difference between Sheffield and Bonds? Did Sheff not take steroids, deny using them, became injury prone after he stopped taking them?
• Did you notice that the three out of the four NCAA Final Four teams this year were beaten by George Mason in the 2006 Big Dance?
• What is the lure of going to a historic sports program and trying to revive it... Notre Dame football (Weiss), Alabama football (Saban), and now Calipari to Kentucky? Is it all about the cash?
• U2 has announced their 360 Degrees Tour with a 4-pronged "claw" hovering over a circular stage, planted in the middle of football stadiums. As a longtime U2.com member, I was able to secure my tickets to the show in Charlottesville, VA today (random spot on the tour). The past two U2 tours have been in arenas, and with the instant sellouts, the band was forced to tack on extra shows in that city, sometimes up to 4 shows in a city like Chicago or New York. With the move back to football stadiums, these facilities limit the shows to 1 (sometimes 2) in a particular city. Also, the number of tour stops is much smaller than the last two tours. No North Carolina stops. I'm wondering if the economy has anything to do with it.

Happy Birthday, Schnookies!