BASEBALL
	1.20.05 Miscellaneous baseball notes: I know this has been blown all out of proportion already, but I just wanted to make a small comment on Randy Johnson’s first run-in with the New York Media.  As I’m sure you recall, he was approached by a cameraman as he was going to take his physical and he put a hand over the camera lens and said “Get out of my face.”  Then, when the cameraman said he was just trying to get a picture, Johnson yelled “Don’t talk back to me.”  With a line like that, Johnson must have children that are giving him problems and it just spilled over into this situation.  But seriously, all the talk is about how Johnson might not be able to handle the media in New York, but what about the photographer?  To be a member of the media in New York you should be used to having a hand in your camera lens and be used to getting yelled at occasionally.  That this cameraman has made such a big deal out of this story tells me that maybe he isn’t seasoned enough as a photographer to work the New York beat.  I thought these New York guys were so tough – maybe he should go out to California and try covering Tommy Lee, Kid Rock, or Sean Penn, then he’ll see something worth complaining about. As I mentioned in previous articles, the Arizona Diamondbacks have had an interesting offseason.  The oddity continued as they made what would appear to be their final move last week in acquiring Shawn Green from the Dodgers in exchange for prospects (predominantly the main catching prospect they received from the Yankees for Randy Johnson).  So, just to sum up, the perennially debt ravaged D-Backs opened up the checkbook and signed Troy Glaus and Russ Ortiz and then essentially traded Randy Johnson to the Yankees and got Shawn Green and Javier Vazquez.  The trade with the Yankees (prior to the Shawn Green deal) was the part that made the most sense – they got a good young (and cheap) pitcher in Vazquez along with some prospects while shedding the $16.5M that Johnson was going to cost them.  But trading the prospects away for an aging and expensive Shawn Green negates a lot of the benefit of that trade.  The D-backs should be a much better team than the 111 game loser they put on the field last year, but it is unlikely that they will challenge for the NL West title and in a couple of years they are right back to being an old and overpaid team with a bleak future. In what to me is a surprising show of restraint, the Yankees did not sign Carlos Beltran.  That honor goes to the New York Mets.  The Mets have made quite a splash this offseason, signed Beltran, Pedro Martinez, and they are currently one of the leaders in the pursuit of Carlos Delagado.  Now that Mo Vaughn’s albatross of a contract is finally off their books (he was still the highest paid player in the National League last year), they had some free cash to throw around.  They just hope that Beltran doesn’t have a career ending injury early in his contract like Mo did.  The Mets will be interesting this year – the rotation of Pedro, Glavine, the enigmatic Kris Benson, and the wild but talented Victor Zambrano will be the key.  If Pedro and Glavine have another year left in each of their tanks and Benson and Zambrano finally live up to expectations, the Mets could be a force in the National League.  They should score some runs, especially if they get Delgado.  A lineup with Jose Reyes and Kaz Matsui setting the table for Beltran, Mike Piazza, Delgado Mike Cameron and Cliff Floyd would be imposing.   The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim?  99.99% of people think that this is the most absurd name change since Ol Dirty Bastard changed his name to Little Baby Jesus, and the .01% that like it all work for the Angels.  The city of Los Angeles doesn’t even like the name change, although I bet if they decided to play football instead of baseball the city would welcome them with open arms (for a few years and then they’d stop supporting them, fail to build a new stadium, and the team would be forced to move somewhere else).
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