Wells to sign this weekend?

This dropped this morning, from ESPN.com's Jerry Crasnick:

Outfielder Vernon Wells is involved in serious negotiations toward a seven-year, $126 million contract with the Toronto Blue Jays, and the two sides hope to have a deal in place by the end of the weekend, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.
The source said the chances of Wells remaining a Blue Jay are "better than 50-50," but that "it's not a done deal." Given the size of the contract, the major remaining hurdle is for Toronto owner Ted Rogers to give his approval.

Interesting news here, and matters are progressing a lot quicker than anticipated. That's one big stamp of approval required, with a lot of zeroes attached, and it will make for a bit of a cliffhanger weekend.

UPDATE, 12:55 pm: Blue Jays, Wells, near deal on extension:

Wells said Friday that the agreement is not yet complete but that he anticipates the contract will be finalized soon. The deal will start with the 2008 season.
"How can you not be happy?" he said Friday in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "Like I said, my family comes first. Obviously this gives me an opportunity to set my family up for a couple of generations. That's the biggest part of this thing. And this gives me a chance to do something special in Toronto that hasn't been done in awhile."

$126 million is just a start

The Blue Jays have made what would amount to a pretty hefty offer to Vernon Wells, due to become a free agent a year from now, as Yahoo's Tim Brown puts it - and it was Brown who broke this last night:

FRANK GUNN/CANADIAN PRESS

Vernon Wells: Financials pointing up.

Toronto and its baseball franchise are deflecting Carlos Delgado flashbacks, and general manager J.P. Ricciardi is reliving his formative years in Oakland, during which Mark McGwire was traded and Jason Giambi was allowed to walk. Not long after Ricciardi left for Toronto, Miguel Tejada left the A's for the same financial reasons.
According to one baseball source, Ricciardi has floated to Wells a proposal of seven years and $126 million, the average annual value of which would exceed Soriano's contract with the Chicago Cubs (eight years, $136 million) by $1 million.
Ricciardi would not comment and Wells' agent, Greg Genske, would only say, "We have yet to have meaningful discussions," about a contract extension.

Ricciardi struck out on adding pitching targets Ted Lilly and Gil Meche at last week's winter meetings, but the Wells question overshadowed the entire proceedings. I claim no special knowledge here, but I've dealt with agentspeak over the years, and that quote from Genske is pretty much equivalent to a 'no, thanks ... the real game hasn't even started yet.'
ESPN's Buster Olney says as much this morning in an Insider piece, writing that Wells' price could well reach the vertiginous level of $200 million if he goes on the market at the end of the 2007 season:

When the Jays' honchos met earlier this week to consider the offer made to Wells, the numbers must have been jarring to the executives. Six weeks ago, a $75 million offer to Wells would've sounded a little light, but not unreasonable -- and now reasonable has climbed to $126 million. Seven years, $18 million a year.
(snip)
If Wells hits the market next fall, when he's eligible to become a free agent, he'll get offered a deal of $150 million. At least.
The White Sox don't have a center field solution, and they would probably bid on him. The Red Sox would definitely bid on him. Tom Hicks, as impetuous an owner as there is when it comes to free agents, would bid on Wells, knowing they could bring him home to Texas. The Yankees, freed by a lot of contracts set to expire after next season, might bid on him, to at least drive up the price on the Red Sox and perhaps to move Johnny Damon to left field and Hideki Matsui to DH. The Mets want to trade for him now, and would bid on him. The Dodgers would bid on him.
With those financial monsters involved, Wells' deal, as a free agent next fall, might be closer to $200 million than $100 million.

If nothing else, the Jays have put the ball in Wells' court, as they always had to. Next move is his to make. As Jeff Blair puts it over at his Globe blog, there are plenty of options from here.

Into the weekend: Talking and carolling

A quote, and a little rant to start off, riffing off Wednesday's postgame in Cleveland:

"All in all, we played well. I look at it as a positive thing. We're growing as a team; we're getting better. Three weeks ago, we couldn't have come here and played that well."

And a week before this night and its four-point defeat, the Raptors were eight points better than the same Cavs - so what's up with that, coach? But I'm not picking on Sam here. He's just spinning, like all coaches do. It's more about this North American sportswriting addiction to the locker-room quote, these bromides and warmed-over cliches that we hustle down to get, wait around for, chicken-scratch into our notebooks or transcribe dutifully off the recorder. I did it for years.

Thanks to TV and now the Internet, though, pretty much everyone who cares knows what happened last night. Listening to some player or coach distill it into these little bits of nothing adds - nothing. More interesting is why it happened and how, but rarely is that explored in any depth. Even though it can be a bit pretentious, overall, I'll take the quoteless, British style of match reporting. Will Leitch said it best: access is overrated. And along these lines, here's one for you - via Kottke, former major league pitcher Don Carman's list of stock locker-room answers, favourites (and a few I've written down and banged into the keyboard) including:

7 If we stay healthy we should be right there
12 This team seems ready to gel
14 That All-Star voting is a joke
20 We've got to have fun
26 That's why they pay him _ million dollars

One last appeal. A little while back there was some fun here with the 50 Worst Things to Happen to Sports countdown. Now it's time to put together the answer list: The _ Best Things to Happen to Pro Sports. Any and all submissions appreciated. I've got nearly 20 on my own, but need more.

One last e-mailed Christmas carol. Nice work by Glenn from Arizona on this one:

On the twelfth day of Christmas,
my true Leafs sent to me
Twelve wingers in need of a drumming,
Eleven players and a Glenn Healy piping,
Ten forwards a-diving
Nine wankin' penalties
Eight goals a-milking,
Seven games a floundering,
Six players a-standing
A fiiiiiivvve game losing streak
Four yapping call ups
Three strung out forwards
Two blind defensemen,
And a broken hockey stick from an ash tree!

One last vidgame "think piece". Newsflash: video games like Madden NFL have enhanced kids' understanding of sports. And here we thought all it did was make them fat (Related: Toronto hosts Canada's NFL Madden finals, Jan. 20 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre).

One - make that two - last BCS bits. Usually I avoid US college football, but these are too good to pass up: Slate's Chris Suellentrop on Who's #2? and blog fave Neate Sager has his Top 5 Pointless Bowl Matchups, including the Whatchamacallit Bowl here in Toronto sometime in January, I forget when, I'll let Neate tell you:

5. INTERNATIONAL BOWL: WESTERN MICHIGAN vs. CINCINNATI, Jan. 6, Toronto There's nothing wrong with playing a bowl game in Toronto. It's just that a game that ranks below the Meineke Car Care Bowl in the NCAA pecking order should not be held just two days before the national championship game. If this game was held on Boxing Day where it belongs, no problem.

One last interview. Alanah at VCOE got her press pass from the Canucks, and thus was able to get some of those locker-room quotes (see - there's a theme here!):

Alanah: You strike me as a player that enjoys playing to the fans and this bad luck might be getting to you in a personal way.
Alex Burrows: Yeah, a little bit for sure. I haven’t scored a goal in 28 games, but you’ve just got to keep working. Like I said, the bounces aren’t going our way right now.

Alanah, go back to Don Carman's list right now! I believe this one is No. 13. Or maybe 17.

Sports around town. Woodbine's closing day goes Sunday out at the Rexdale plant, with a first post of 12:40 p.m. And here's your Sovereign Award finalists.

Watching. Arsenal at Chelsea, 11 a.m., Sunday, Fox Sports. They're both through to the Champions League knockout round - nice try there, Gooners - but it's the postgame press conference, Wenger vs Mourinho, that might be the better matchup.

Pooch punts. Jinks the Vizsla is back. Went 3-2 last week, and the tail is wagging but good this time around. Actually, it's always wagging when it's kibble or cookie time:

DETROIT (-1 1/2) over Minnesota
NY JETS (-4) over Buffalo
WASHINGTON (+1 1/2) over Philadelphia
New England (-3 1/2) over MIAMI
Denver (+7 1/2) over SAN DIEGO

Photo of the day: Hare dresser

JOHN STOREY/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Tony LaRussa gets ready for the winter meetings.

Related: Tony LaRussa's wife cashes in some chips (Deadspin).

Into the weekend: More Raptor numbers

Wrapping it up for another week, and this one is almost worth its own post, but let’s just make this a little longer than usual thanks to an email gem from Michael Brandon:

I looked back at your Nov. 21 blog entry, referencing 82games.com, a site I appreciate.
Also, I was looking at the stats of minutes played by players that are either rookies or new to their teams, and comparing them to the Raps. Of all the teams the Raps have played this year, new players to the team have accounted for an average of 19% of the playing time, and rookies have only accounted for 5% of total minutes.
In the case of the Raps, 63% of their minutes are played by players new to the team, of which 16% of total minutes are played by true rookies. Anthony Parker, who has not played an NBA minute in years accounts for 13% of team minutes.
No other team the Raps have played come close in new player minutes (Hawks 33%, Bucks 35%).

To me, that underlines the subjective notion expressed here and elsewhere that lack of familiarity is part of this whole debate. But there’s more from Michael:

I also looked at the W/L records of the league for further insight.
As near as I can tell, the East only is winning 28% of their games against the West (in part because the lower-ranked teams by W/L record have been West loaded early), and they only win 54% of their home games against any opposition.
The Raps have won 60% of their home games (3-2), and probably should have won one out west, maybe two if the stars were aligned (or California fell into the ocean).
So, we have people screaming for the head of Sam Mitchell, because a team with 62% of their minutes eaten up by new players, is one game behind the average this early in the season. I thought that consensus was for the Raps to be average this year (41 wins) or less (30-40 wins).
I don't want to quibble with the numbers on 82games.com. There is nothing to quibble about. However, there is more to the story.

Good points. Thanks, Michael.

Early pre-vegetarian pie-eating contest.

One more email. Regular Tim Farrell weighs in with another Raptor-related observation:

Garbajosa suddenly can't shoot . . . could it be . . . the curse of Vince Carter's jersey??

Not only that, Tim, but T.J. Ford is wearing Rafer Alston’s old number and Chris Bosh has Vincenzo Esposito's. You may be on to something.

One more helping. Here’s a sport where expansion is not only encouraged, but inevitable – until this year, that is, the world pie-eating championships, gone from a marathon to a sprint and now including a vegetarian option (from Times Online):

"They’ve taken things too far this year - pies are supposed to be meat and potato and anything else just isn’t normal," said Dave Smyth, 48, a painter from Hindley, who won the first contest in 1992 when he ate an impressive four pies in three minutes.

One more question. Is this the future of newspapers – making ballplayers even richer? Jon Friedman spells it out in DJI's Market Watch (thanks to DD for the linkage):

Your newspaper operations are a mess and your baseball team is a disaster. So, what do you do? Why, invest heavily in the baseball team, of course.
On Monday, Tribune confirmed that it would pay free-agent slugger Alfonso Soriano $136 million over eight years. It's spending more than $200 million total on many players this off-season, as well as hiring a new manager, veteran Lou Piniella.
As the late, great Cubs announcer Harry Caray might shout in disbelief: Holy cow!

One more press release. Don’t know how this was overlooked, but the Detroit Red Wings have been disbanded. VCOE has the release the world missed.

Sports around town. Look no further than the Air Canada Centre Tuesday, and the Metro Hoops Showcase (6:30 p.m. tipoff), apparently the first-ever high school basketball doubleheader to be played on the hallowed, history-laden hardcourt where Negele Knight once trod. Seriously, they'll put on a better show than many of the recent hoop nights the place has seen.

Watching. The Vanier Cup, live from Saskatoon (Saturday, 3:30 p.m., The Score). Saskatchewan vs Laval, and it should be a hooly. And as is the custom around here, Neate Sager’s got the preview (including the weather forecast - cold, very cold).

Pooch punts. Yup, he’s back, tail between his legs after a piddling 0-5 record that puts him squarely in the league of many of the world's best public handicappers – it’s Jinks the Vizsla, scarfing down another set of kibble-or-cookie plays of the week:

Jacksonville –3 over BUFFALO
New Orleans +3 over ATLANTA
Chicago +3 over NEW ENGLAND
Philadelphia +9 over INDY
SEATTLE –9 1/2 over Green Bay

Morneau's MVP

A bit of a surprise, Justin Morneau winning the American League MVP over the likes of Jeter, A-Rod, Ortiz et al.
But add Morneau to the list of great Canadian ballplayers. I'd call crafty Ferguson Jenkins the best of the lot, but Larry Walker and oldtimers recall George Selkirk in the conversation as well.
What puts Morneau in their league is this kind of recognition, at just 25 years old and with just two big-league seasons completed.
Via baseball-reference.com, here's what these other big Canadian names in the baseball history books were doing at age 25:
Jenkins. In an era of hard throwers, he was already established as one of the best control pitchers in the game.
Walker. Just coming into his own in his third big-league season and getting MVP votes, but still five years away from winning the trophy in 1997.
Eric Gagne. Sure he doesn't belong in this company, but for a time there he was a dominant closer. At 25, though? Scuffling around.
George Selkirk. At 25, was on the cusp of taking over from the Babe. And how big is that?

The Big Hurt - Yay or Nay?

First reaction to this?
How about huh? Seems a bit out of character for J.P. Ricciardi to go after a plodding 38-year-old bopper coming off a rebound season that followed two years of big hurts.
But this is DH'ing we're talking about. Take care of your body, four or five ABs a night, a veritable rocking chair - so goes the theory, anyway.

TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO

Winfield: The elderest Jays DH.

Frank Thomas will be 39 years old in May. Would that make him the oldest Blue Jays designated hitter? No - not yet, anyway. Using the Jays' all-time roster and baseball-reference.com, here's a list of the oldest Jays DH's, and how they managed (one omission, Dave Parker, came here at age 40 in '91 but really didn't play all that much, so I've left him off - anyone else I've missed, let me know):

Ron Fairly (39 in 1977) ... Played 58 games at DH, and a few more than that at 1B and OF. Batted .279 with 19 home runs, .465 slugging percentage.

Paul Molitor (38 in 1995) ...  Still had three years left in the tank after this season, when he batted an ordinary (for him) .270 and slumped to a .350 OBP.

Al Oliver (38 in 1985) ...  A valuable pickup in the middle of the Jays' first division-winning season, he batted .251 in his final big-league season.

Rico Carty (39 in 1979) ... He actually turned 40 at the end of this final big-league season, hit 12 HRs on a Jays team filled with kids.

Cliff Johnson (39 in 1986) ... Charles Oakley always reminded me of an NBA version of this guy. Had some good years here; 15 HRs and .250 BA.

Dave Winfield (40 in 1992) ... Slugged .491, drove in over 100 runs - the erstwhile Mr. May/seagull killer turned 41 in October, a few weeks before the Jays' first (and his only) World Series title. Pretty good pickup, no?

UPDATE: Report: Jays may have Barajas interest (TSN.ca)

Book Review Week: Clemente

Time to wrap up this set of reviews – but first a book note: Next time round, I'm hoping Michael Lewis’s new one, The Blind Side, will be a part of it (if you haven’t read the New York Times excerpt from a few weeks back, check it out).

So here we go, after Messrs. Bidini, Brunt and Skyrme, it’s David Maraniss’s turn with Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball’s Last Hero. Maraniss’s tome on Vince Lombardi from a few years back is about the best sports bio I’ve ever read. Clemente is a little different: A story about societal change, and about a life cut short - he had no second act. Just when it seemed like baseball’s first Latin American superstar was winding down his career, he literally disappeared into the ocean while taking supplies to earthquake-ravaged Nicaragua on New Year’s Eve, 1972.

Clemente’s baseball bona fides are undisputed and well-documented. But it’s his life in his native Puerto Rico, his desire to help those in need, his love-hate relationship with America, and especially that last flight in a rickety, overloaded, fly-by-night charter airplane (and its aftermath, Clemente’s death plunging his native Puerto Rico, and a Pittsburgh that had come to embrace him, into deep mourning) that Maraniss sketches out with precision that sometimes chills to the bone. Drawing on official documents and investigations from over three decades ago, these read like short sharp daggers unsheathed and pointed, as in this excerpt detailing the negligence of the doomed plane’s owner, after a series of repairs suggested but not ordered by the FAA were due:

“The airplane ought to be ready for a test hop,” one inspector said, after seeing the repair work. But Rivera couldn’t do the test hop himself. He still didn’t know how to taxi his own plane, let alone fly it.

The fatal flight is the climax of the story, but only a piece of a satisfying whole. This is a portrait of the baseball artist as a noble young trailblazer, and three decades on, Clemente's legacy is as plain as the playing fields of the big leagues, where the likes of Manny Ramirez, Ozzie Guillen and Pedro Hernandez owe a great deal to his figure and his story. Maraniss puts it this way:

The mythic aspects of baseball usually draw on cliches of the innocent past, the nostalgia for how things were. Fields of green. Fathers and sons. But Clemente's myth arcs the other way, to the future, not the past, to what people hope they can become. His memory is kept alive as a symbol of action and passion, not of reflection and longing. He broke racial and language barriers and achieved greatness and died a hero. That word can be used indiscriminately in the world of sports, but the classic definition is of someone who gives his life in the service of others, and that is exactly what Clemente did.

An elegant read from a writer who has already set the bar very high for writing about sports.

Into the Weekend: This Day in World Series, etc.

Haven't had a chance to post today's TDWS, so let's just blend it all together in the usual Friday fashion round here.

TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO

Jack Morris, '91 Series ace, as a Jay in '93.

Lots of candidates: the '04 Red Sox, the '02 Rally Monkeys, but I'm headed further into the wayback machine, to a guy who would cement his rep as the finest big-game pitcher of his generation, and cash in with the Blue Jays as they moved into their golden era.

That'd be Jack Morris, and the '91 Twins. Fifteen years ago today, Morris matched up against a young John Smoltz in a classic duel and won out, pitching a 10-inning shutout and the Twins, who had knocked out the Blue Jays on the way to summit, defeated the Atlanta Braves. If there's ever been a better Game 7 pitching performance, I haven't seen it.

Let's wrap it up then . . .

One Two last read(s). The Guardian's interview with former Irish international Paul McGrath is pretty sobering stuff:

The first of those failed suicides came in 1989, soon after he and Sir Alex Ferguson had fallen out for the last time and Manchester United sold him to Aston Villa. "I was in trouble with the club," McGrath says. "I'm drunk and ashamed, on the edge of my bed, and reaching for the knife. I remember the blood pouring across the floor and the screaming of the nanny looking after our boys."

Oh, and there's a new world record in Scrabble: 830.

One last view. Vintage sneakers for sale - only $8500. U.S.

One last screensaver. Ryan from Hoops Addict sends this one along.

One Two last e-mail(s). Joseph DiDanieli wants to see something this weekend:

I am hoping Don Cherry calls out Tucker the way he called out Barnaby. Tucker didn't goad anyone into a penalty like Barnaby but what he did going after Eaves and then not backing it up two nights later was just as cowardly as Barnaby. If Tucker wants to play the tough guy he better be ready to back it up against all comers - not just against people who don't fight like Eaves.

Don't hold your breath Joe. Meantime, J. Pruschka has this to say about Pro-Line, after that rant of a week ago:

I totally agree with you and Queens Park's ban on internet gambling advertising, or whatever they're trying to do. They're just out of touch with reality. Go to a licence system, make the licences super expensive so only the serious companies can afford to get into it & be done with it. What next, they're going to outlaw bookies too? Wait, they already have . . .
I have a question. If "Toronto FC" make it to the MLS playoffs next year or the year after, who do they expect to sit in the stands at BMO Field on a frigid night in October or November?? Would they move the games indoors to the Rogers Centre?

Makes sense. They have been nuzzling Mr. Rogers of late. But if they don't go in there, they could always rename the place FMAO Field.

Watching. Montreal at Argos, CBC, 3 p.m. It seems this time of year these two teams are always hooking up. Playoffs start next week, and depending on how it falls this weekend here and with B.C.-Winnipeg these two could finish anywhere from first to third in the east.

Pooch punts. Jinks was on fire last weekend, scarfing down winners like they were kibble and cookies - which they were, actually. Here's who he's gobbling up this week, even getting into the CFL:

Alouettes +3 1/2 over TORONTO, Atlanta +3 1/2 over CINCINNATI, PHILADELPHIA -7 over Jacksonville, NY Jets-Cleveland OVER 37 1/2, Indianapolis +2 1/2 over DENVER.

This Day in World Series V

While waiting for the weather to clear in St. Louis - it doesn't look good, and it's not like there's any clearing on the way - there are lots of candidates for TDWS.

ELISE AMENDOLA/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Tony Fernandez: The usual Cleveland heartbreak.

Hands up on Don Denkinger (21 years ago today). Hands down on the Subway Series (six years ago).

I'll go with this one - one of the most unlikely (and forgotten) World Series champs ever, your '97 Florida Marlins. And more heartbreak for Cleveland, going to the 11th inning of Game 7 only to lose - the first team to ever lose a World Series when carrying a lead into the ninth inning of Game 7. Truly, God Hates Cleveland Sports.

Some more reading:

Ken Rosenthal takes a look at the Tigers' impatience at the plate (sorta like Neate did yesterday, that):

The Cardinals are jamming the Tigers' hitters, preventing them from going to the opposite field. Leyland wants his hitters to start turning on inside pitches, forcing the Cardinals to change their patterns.
The Tigers' well-documented impatience actually is less of a concern for Leyland and his staff, even though the team is averaging only 3.38 pitches per plate appearance in the Series.
While the sample size is ridiculously small, the Tigers' average is down from 3.86 in the ALCS, according to STATS, Inc., and far below the Giants' major-league worst average during the regular season, 3.59.
"Our problem is that we're not being aggressive in hitters' counts," first base coach Andy Van Slyke said. "If we're not aggressive, we're not going to score. We're like an NFL team running a two-minute drill with no timeouts. Our OBA (on-base-average) means NTU — nothing to us."

Meantime, playing small ball, congrats to the Nippon Ham Fighters, a team with a flourescent pink mascot that plays YMCA during the 7th-inning stretch - Japan Series champions with former Blue Jay Michael Nakamura getting the save.

Oh, and can't forget this. Here's your October 1997 memory: The top-grossing movie in Toronto the week of the Marlins' win/Indians' collapse, and a commercial message from its star.