Thought I would have stuff on here to jump start everyone's work day. Some notables from aimlessly wandering around the internet/watching TV this evening....

--This is for, in particular, the Man In Black. I was looking on K-State's Rivals board to see if this rumor about those purple d-bags actually hired Jerry Dinardo (they didn't, damn it, it was a joke). Then I came across a thread about Brent Venerables, and it turned into a "Bill Bradski" thread. This one was hilarious: "Brent Venerables is 1/8th Cherokee. This has nothing to do with his ancestory, the man ate a fucking Indian." and "Brent Venerables' tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried."

--This is a Flash clip of Jeremy Shockey, pointing and cocking off to a camera, who happens to keep the camera on him as he realizes that the kicker just missed the extra point, and they, in fact, lost the game. I don't know if there is a more priceless clip available on the internet today.

--UCLA's head coach accused Nebraska's older teams as being "steriod shooters," or something to that effect. I would be completely and totally shocked by that.

--David Letterman hired a painter to do a oil portrait of him and Oprah, in honor of her being on the show this Thursday. It is pretty priceless. And The Darkness is on--still haven't been able to figure out what the big deal is about these guys. I mean, they're not terrible, but they are just cheese dicks that play music that was crappy in the 1980s, and is crappy now.

--Billy Wagner got $43 million over FOUR years?? I mean, the guy is a total badass, but a four year contract for a guy that is 36?? And for $43 MILLION?? I think it is official: Isiah Thomas is secretly the GM for the Mets, too.

--The A's signed Esteban Loazia for 3 years, at over $7M/year (lovin' those new owners, MIB, aren't you? That's a huge contract for them.). They have more pitching than they know what to do with now, which is intensifying the Zito trade rumors. The Cubs have been linked in these rumors. Who knows, everybody is rumored to go to every team, but be honest: isn't the Hot Stove league almost as fun as the actual baseball season? Other Cub rumors of note:

--The Cubs have reportedly officially offered to Furcal, and he is expected to accept.
--There is suposedly a blockbuster trade that is being worked on between (for sure) the Cubs and Rangers, along with other teams, that would send Alfonso Soriano and Kevin Mench to the Cubs for Todd Walker, Jerome Williams, and some minor leaguers. This was on Yahoo! Sports, under the headline "Hot Stove: Greatest Infield Ever?" It would be unbelievable impressive. Say that this trade goes through, along with Furcal, as well as the Juan Pierre deal that has been reported on quite a bit over the last couple of weeks, the Cubs lineup would look like this:

1. Rafael Furcal SS .284 BA .348 OBP 46 SB
2. Juan Pierre CF .276 BA .326 OBP (.355 career) 57 SB
3. Derrek Lee 1B .335 BA .418 OBP 46 HR 107 RBI .662 SLG (!)
4. Aramis Ramirez 3B .302 BA (you owe me, NPGAGE) .358 OBP 31 HR 92 RBI(in123 games) .568 SLG
5. Alfonso Soriano 2B .268 BA .309 OBP 36 HR 104 RBI .512 SLG
6. Matt Murton LF .321 BA .386 OBP (!) 7 HR 14 RBI .521 SLG
7. Kevin Mench RF .264 BA .328 OBP 25 HR 73 RBI .469 SLG
8. Michael Barrett C .276 BA .345 OBP 16 HR 61 RBI .479 SLG

Holy shit. I mean, that lineup is frightening. Sure, so would the defense, in a bad way, but who cares? Not to mention, I'll be excited with one of these deals to go through, but it's fun to dream, right? WAIT 'TILL NEXT YEAR!

--OMG--my nomination for the greatest blog ever: On The DL. Baseball groupies that talk about the guys who play baseball and the women they cheat on their wives with. Look for the posts with picture links--here's one with everyone's favorite utility man--Jose Macias!!!

--No, seriously, On the DL is unbelievably addicting. Look at it. It is the true definition of "guilty pleasure."

That's it. Thank you, Heavy Soul, and good night!