Friday Notes: August 17, 2007

Hamilton County schools started this week, so I’m spending more and more of my time sitting in traffic.  I actually bothered to change the CDs in my car for the first time in probably a month or two, so I guess I’ve been pretty bored with the increase in traffic.  Anyhow, I do have a few notes:

• If you’re a somewhat disconnected McCallie alum, as I tend to be, you might not be aware that one of my fellow members of the Class of ’02 is currently in training camp with the Tennessee Titans.  Jason Hall, who was also a University of Tennessee standout, signed with the Titans after being cut last week by the Panthers.  He was the final Defensive MVP of NFL Europa this past year, so it’s no wonder that he’s getting a shot.  I remember him most for his dominating performance against my team in the Sweet 16 (an intramural basketball tournament, for the uninitiated) during my freshman year.  He and his teammates (as Michigan) beat my team (Dalton State) by something like 80 points, and it probably could have been worse.  Jason perhaps wasn’t the most highly-regarded prospect on our ’01 State Champion football team (then-sophomore QB Ryan Moore probably held that title), but he clearly had a bright future, and he’s a good guy on top of that.  We’re all rooting for you, J-Hall.
• Earlier this week, a South Carolina inmate named Jonathan Lee Riches sued Michael Vick for $63,000,000,000 billion this week (his ‘billion’ added after the actual number) for allegedly stealing two of his pit bulls, using them for dogfighting, and then selling them on eBay to buy missiles from Iran.  Apparently this isn’t his first ridiculous lawsuit (the thing was handwritten, for crying out loud), nor would it be his last.Now, Riches has filed a suit against Barry Bonds, Bud Selig, and others for some new kind of conspiracy theory.  This time, he’s only asking for “$42,000,000.00 million dollars” after he bugged a table at the “I-70 Steak N Shake” and caught Bonds paying Selig for steroids in an effort to boost TV ratings.  Riches also claims that Bonds is using “Hank Aaron’s corked bat,” which contains “secret chambers” for his HGH supplements, and he alleges that Bonds is selling steroids to nuns.  Riches says he wants his identity back, and I guess you have to do something about it if you’re going to call yourself “THE WHITE SUGE KNIGHT.”  You really have to read the whole thing.  The Smoking Gun says that Riches has filed lawsuits in 15 separate districts.
• From the Scott Boras-is-still-one-step-ahead-of-everyone-else department, courtesy of Rany Jazayerli at the BP: Unfiltered blog:The newest rules for the MLB draft allow teams to have a compensatory pick in virtually the same location the next year if a draft pick does not sign.  This was designed to encourage the teams drafting high to go after the Boras clients who typically have signability issues.  Here’s how it all works:For the top teams in the draft, the BATNA (Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement, or fallback plan), is pretty good, but it gets worse the farther you go in the draft.  This gives a team like the Tigers, who drafted Rick Porcello at #27 (far lower than his talent level suggests he should have gone), less negotiating power than the top teams in the draft.  Thus, they basically had to give Porcello all the money he wanted, unless they wanted an inferior player next year.  Boras absolutely realized this, and before the draft he was already talking about how Porcello wanted to go to college and wanted big money.  This caused him to fall in the draft and actually get more money than he would have as a top pick (because the teams have a worse BATNA, while it pretty much remains constant for the player).  The whole post is worth a read, if not only because I haven’t explained everything here.
• And now, a late addition to the notes.  This shouldn’t need much explanation, except that I sat behind someone at a game last year, and he had a custom Braves jersey with Francoeur spelled the way it is below.  Fortunately for him, he was not Jeff Francoeur.

Have a great weekend.  I’ll have my first fantasy football draft of the year tomorrow night, so it’s likely that I’ll report on that next week.