Jesus! Am I speaking chinese here?

No , Paul you aren't...but Pedro might have been. Did you see his press conference? Some reporter asked Pedro about his feelings on leaving the Red Sox and their fans to which Pedro replied, " Oh...you touched my subpart." HUH. I grew up in Florida so I speak at least enough Spanish to get by and NEVER, EVER have I heard the word "subpart". Actually, didn't Mark Chmura get in trouble that night in the hot tub for touching somebody's subpart? Just in case you haven't crunched the numbers Pedro will be making $13.25 million in each of the next four years, the final two years he'll be 36 and 37. I would be shocked if he recored more than 15 starts in either of those two years.

Now back to Paul Silas last night. I've seen alot of things in the NBA but I can't ever remember a player being "sent to his room" like Eric Snow was last night. That looked like the time I got caught by my Dad for flipping my mom the bird behind her back...not good times. If thats how Paul Silas reacts when he gets a little backtalk, how would he handle having a towel thrown in his face like Danny Ainge from a few years back? Would he just start fighting that player right there on the court? This is the same man who called Ira Newble a "pussy motherfucker" last year in front of numerous NBA reporters. And what does it say about the volatility of Silas that he has had MAJOR run-ins with two guys who aren't exactly regarded as bad apples around the league? No wonder George Shinn wouldn't answer his front door after he fired Silas in New Orleans.

I was getting ready for work this morning with Sportscenter on in the background when I heard a familiar voice but not an ESPN voice. I thought it sounded exactly like somebody but then I said to myself, "No way, he'd never be on ESPN...didn't he enter the Federal Witness Protection Program?" Well, I was wrong or his enemies have died because it WAS who I thought I heard...none other than Fred Hickman, formerly of CNN's sports highlight show, you know the one that ESPN ran into the ground. Good to see Fred back on a major station again, lets just hope that the suits at ESPN don't make him "Stu it up" thereby forcing me to take him down with Linda Cohn, Scott Van Pelt and Stuart Scott.

I heard that you weren't bored enough with the Div. I-AA football tidbits I gave you last week, so I decided to bring them back...James Madison QB Justin Rascati was the QB at Gainesville (Fla.) Bucholz in high school. Which means that I actually saw him play in high school. Surprisingly enough, I have no recollection of him. Actually, thats not surprising at all when you consider that I was usually as drunk as reservation Indian on the first of the month whenever I went to high school football games during my time in Gainesville. Aw shit, who am I kidding? I was that drunk during lunch on a tuesday back then. As good as Rascati is...he'll never live up to the legend of the QB who came before him at Bucholz, the immortal Doug "I really should've given baseball a shot" Johnson. Well, he might if he can manage to make it to the NFL and lose his starting job to Kurt Kittner. It's all about goals.

Is anybody else scared that Tim Hudson is going to have to a completely ridiculous season along the lines of 21-6 with a 2.15 ERA now that he's in Atlanta? Jeez, If Leo Mazzone turned Kevin Millwood and Jaret Wright into 15 game winners then what the hell is he going to do with a complete stud like Hudson? I wish I could lay a bet like "Tim Hudson will win two Cy Young awards in the next five years."

I know that the Mariners had to get better offensively, especially since Brett Boone can't ever take his "vitamins" again, but they may have gone the wrong way with the Sexson and Beltre signings. Safeco Field is a huge, cavernous pitcher's park so they went out and signed two power hitters who will most definitely see a decline in their home run totals. I'm not saying these are bad signings, they're not...both of these guys will probably be All-Stars numerous times in Seattle. These guys just seem much more suited to the Kingdome than Safeco. If you want to win playing in a park like Safeco you need great pitching and a team full of guys who can play small ball with one solid power hitter in the middle of your lineup. Relying on the three run shot in Safeco is going to bite you in the ass more often than not.

Jamal Crawford takes more bad shots than any player I can ever remember...if he has anything resembling an open look from anywhere within 26 feet it is going up and it is going up fast. I really thought that Stephon Marbury was going to drop kick him during the 4th quarter of that Pistons-Knicks game a couple of nights ago. And could somebody please give Jamal his key back to the weight room? It was a good joke but I'm sure the kid is tired of weighing 155 lbs.

It seems like the Olympics were the worst thing that could've happened to Carlos Arroyo. He had a great year last year by being a steady, heady point guard who Jerry Sloan could trust. Then he followed that up with a true "coming out party" in Athens. But now, its like he came back to the NBA this season and decided he was going to try and take over games like he did this summer. All year long he has been endlessly talking trash and forcing up horrible shots that make Jerry Sloan look like he's on the verge of suicide. That's all well and good when you're playing for Puerto Rico (not a real country anyway, does Guam gets its own team?) because you are playing with guys like Larry Ayuso and your team gets its swagger from you...but in the NBA? No, no, no. He established himself by being a pass-first point guard, not a Puerto Rican Gilbert Arenas and if he isn't careful he will be teaming up with Joe Forte in the Latvian league All-Star Game soon.

That's all for me today. I am going home to take a nap in order to prepare myself for the Sonics-Suns game on ESPN tonight. It should be a very exciting game to watch...the only thing missing is Duke Tango running up and down the court yelling things like, "Hot Sizzle" and "Ohhh Baby!"...who knows, maybe ESPN will surprise us.