A big fat contract doesn’t instantly turn a 22-year-old into a sure thing in the playoffs, especially when that player had no previous playoff experience. Alexander Ovechkin has plenty of International experience, and that’s important, but he still needs to cut his teeth in this year’s playoffs and some of his other teammates need to step up and come to his aide.

Bud Selig will tell you he has added a lot to the game and one of the things he has taken away from the game is the fun and importance of Opening Day. I figured the games in Japan back in 2000 were an experiment that would eventually turn into an All-Star game there but who thought these contests would turn out to be “Opening Day” games.

The New York Mets are rolling through spring training lately because their starting pitching is rounding into form. Pedro Martinez (4IP, 0ER against Detroit) is throwing much better than last season and lets face it, he needed a full year to heal correctly, but he gutted it out last year and now he is mentally and physically ready for the 2008 season.

So Billy Crystal made his fake MLB debut and he struckout but he made contact! Should I cheer? Should I say, “well he got the count to 3-1 and he made contact” or should I be embarrassed for him because at the age of 60 he looked ridiculous, and so do the Yankees and the commissioner of baseball who had to approve the idea.

The Philadelphia Phillies have gotten off to notoriously slow starts these past few April’s and now before spring training games have begun the team has lost it’s full-time closer, Brad Lidge for at least three weeks.

Just like Rod Stewart once sang every picture tells a story looking back at Roger Clemens numbers will now tell their own story. When the righty's time was winding down with the Boston Red Sox, and at that time the fans were indifferent about him, he was hitting hard times at the age of 30.

1993 11-14 with a 4.46 ERA and
1994 9-7 with a 2.85 ERA
1995 10-5 with a 4.18 ERA

Mike Knuble is the type of hockey player that can get lost in the shuffle. He will never stand out and say, “Look at me”, he doesn’t crave the spotlight, but he is the consummate teammate and for the Philadelphia Flyers he has been there for them through thick and thin.

Atlanta - - Two players could send the All-Star game into the stratosphere and their names are Evgeni Malkin who wears the Penguins sweater and Alexander Ovechkin who plays in the nation’s capital.

BUFFALO - With the bag pipes chiming and snow gently falling on “The Ralph” both teams came out for their pre-skate to a thunderous applause. This is one of the few pre-skates where players from the opposing teams didn’t mouth off at all they were more interested in checking out the surface, since it has now changed because of the temperature drop and precipitation. Both goalies on each team were feverously manicuring the ice in the crease to get it exactly the way that they like it.

Bert Blyleven had one of the best curveballs in the sport, it made the opposition’s knees buckle, and he was the true ace on almost every team he pitched for yet he is still an outsider looking in, as far as the National Baseball Hall of Fame is concerned. Will that change this year? It should, besides I would vote in this starter over any closer that’s currently out there and waiting as well.