Red Sox News.

• Schilling won't negotiate during the season..  This kills my idea, where the Sox get to observe several of his starts before coming to a decision.  Oh well.  Things happen.
  
• Clemens: "I'm failing at retirement."  Other things Clemens is failing at: Turning himself into a sympathetic figure through humor.
  
• Daisuke worried about the food.  Just as long as he's not concerned about pitching.  Wait.  He is concerned about pitching.  "Overpowering" fastball with no movement, you say?  Good job working on the sinking fastball.  This guy could tell you how overpowering his fastball ended up being last season.
  
• Baseball players, including Craig Hansen, are completely focused on the 2007 season.  I'll give them this credit:  I didn't think we'd ever hear about this again.  Hansen.  Snoop.  Damon.  Meeting of the minds.  Herbal enhancements, and I don't mean Andro or HGH.

• You hate to see a guy go out like this.  I've always had respect for Matheny, and I suspect he had half a mind to tell his doctor to go to hell.
  
• Brett Myers gets contract extension.  Always important to lock up character guys.  Hypocrisy?  Yes.  That being said, this is a pretty good move in a baseball/business sense for both sides.  
  
• Austin Kearns signs extension as well.  The infamous deal just keeps looking better for the Reds.  ...not.
  
• Armas Jr. signs with the Pirates.  In my opinion, the Pirates main strength is their young starters.  So it's probably important to block one of them with a faux veteran presence.  Oh well.  At least they didn't already have someone to fill that particular role.
  
• Bernie Williams is offered invite to Spring Training, with almost zero chance of making the roster. Kudos to him for not accepting it yet.  Have to give Bernie credit for making last season a high note to go out on.  All that's left is to, y'know.  Go out.  Of all the players on the Yankees, I probably respect him almost as much as I respect Mo.  Those might be the only two on the list at all.  Which made this incident all the more perplexing last season, as it's really the only time I can recall Bernie's emotions getting the better of him.  
  
• Retire.  For your sake and ours.  Admit the deal can't satisfy either side, and walk away.  I'm sure we're all almost as tired of this as we are of the Clemens Crap.  Check out this gem of an interview with Dusty Baker.  Of particular note is this exchange:
  

• To remind you, Dusty, here's a piece with quotes from Aaron regarding Bonds.
  
• Blue Jays sign ex-pitcher.  Personally, taken as a whole, the Thomson/Ohka/Zambrano signings are fine.  All low-risk moderate-reward.  And as I've pointed out before, none of them are Josh Towers.

Boston News

• If you've been living under a rock all day, then it's possible you haven't seen this.  Surviving Grady puts it best.
  
• I'm a huge ATHF fan.  If you haven't seen it, you might be better off.  Wildly entertaining, but trying to figure out just what the creators did to come up with some of these ideas...well.  It's enough to drive one mad, which is exactly what this ad campaign did.  Stunningly brilliant and idiotic at the same time.  Kind of like the show.