Humor

Hal Steinbrenner received a telephone call from Nan Croft, an assistant comptroller in the Tampa office of the New York Yankees.

“Mr. Steinbrenner, I’ve been going over some of the invoices from the training facility and thought you needed to know there are some strange things going on over there.”

A major league baseball insider recently revealed that the Blue Jays management's apparent obsession with defense is just part of the low-grade propaganda advanced to convince fans to purchase 2010 season tickets in the face of a 100-loss year.

Further, according to the content in Bleacher Report's Toronto Blue Jays section, the writers/super-fans are buying into the scam—hook, line, and sinker.

The scheme's rationale is based on an old baseball adage: Pitching and defense win       pennants.

Nationals RHP Garrett Mock and his wife Emily have had several Valentine's Day celebrations together.

Welcome to the seventh edition of "Daily Random Sports Thoughts."

For those not familiar, I pick a team, player, or any other topic in sports that I have five random thoughts about.  If you like 'em, read 'em.  I'm trying to get 'em on here every day!

Today's lucky random sports topic is...the Tampa Bay Rays!

1) Hopefully, you guys can have another cinderella season like 2008!

Both the New York Post and New York Daily News reported today that Brett Gardner has been working hard on his bunting skills hoping that he can get on base with his speed.

This strategy was first reported by this writer in a Brett Gardner Daily Update on Bleacher Report about two weeks ago.

George King in the Post reported Gardner saying he has been bunting more in order to utilize his speed.

Matt Kemp and Rihanna are still in Mexico, and they don't care who knows it. The two were romantically linked earlier this week, and those reports seem to be right on the money judging by these latest pics. The two are pulling no punches, and have no problem playing to the camera. The life of a professional baseball player, and that of a pop princess. Does it get any better than this?

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Dear Hollywood Elite,

How many of you have been to a Dodgers game? (Yes, Alyssa Milano and Larry King, I see you.)

How many of you have dated a Dodgers player? (Yes, Alyssa Milano, you can stop waiving your hand now.)

Lastly, how many of you are interested in an intriguing business opportunity that could potentially save the Dodgers and help resurrect Los Angeles' dying economy? (Please step to the front, Kardashian family.)

Hollywood Elite, I offer you a simple proposal: buy the Dodgers from Frank McCourt.

Music and baseball go together like Tony La Russa and Dave Duncan.

The nature of the game (frequent breaks in the action) means the fans have to be kept happy somehow; playing background music is a great way to increase fans' patience.

But it goes deeper than that.

Well, it's January 1st, and as always, people around the world are resolving to better themselves in the year ahead.

Some people will resolve to lose weight, some people will resolve to think more about others, and some people will resolve to read my articles more often (I hope).

The principle doesn't apply very well to baseball; if executives thought about improving their teams only once a year, they'd be fired pretty quickly.

Nevertheless, here are my suggestions for how Larry Dolan, Manny Acta, and Mark Shapiro could better the Cleveland Indians in the year ahead.

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