Baseball

By MARC LANCASTER
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
The official acknowledgement Monday of the two worst-kept secrets in Cincinnati baseball probably did little to alleviate the sticker shock felt by the Reds' bookkeepers.

In committing nearly $20 million to shortstop Alex Gonzalez and left-hander Mike Stanton, the Reds addressed areas of need on their in-flux roster while also facing up to the realities of the economic climate in which they find themselves this winter.

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Monday, November 20, 2006

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Monday, November 20, 2006

By BABE WAXPAK
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Dear Babe: My son recently purchased what appears to be an old copy of a 1914 Baltimore News Babe Ruth rookie card in an antique store. I'm trying to determine if this blue card is a recent "fake" or an actual reproduction that was produced years ago.

By TRACY RINGOLSBY
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
The Minnesota Twins have won four division titles in the past five years. They haven't made it to the World Series, however, since 1991. They haven't even gotten out of the first round of the playoffs, other than 2002.

A wild-card team, however, has advanced to the World Series each of the past five seasons, and three times a wild card has won the championship - Boston in 2004, Florida in 2003 and Anaheim in 2002, when the Angels knocked off National League wild card San Francisco in seven games.

By JIM DONALDSON
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
You think New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman trashed his room when he found out the Boston Red Sox had outbid the Bronx Bombers for the rights to negotiate with Japanese superstar pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka?

You may recall that's what angry and frustrated Sox GM Theo Epstein did at his hotel in Nicaragua several years ago when he got the news that Jose Contreras had signed with the Yanks for what, at the time, seemed the excessive sum of $32 million.

That's chump change now.

Fifty-one million dollars.

That's what it cost, not to sign, but merely to obtain the negotiating rights to Matsuzaka, the 26-year-old right-hander for the Seibu Lions who has been likened to a Japanese Pedro Martinez _ a top-of-the-rotation starter with command of four batter-baffling pitches.

Actually, the Sox' ante was $51.1 million.

By LARRY LARUE
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
This is his last job, and this time Lou Piniella insists he means it.

He said that in Cincinnati, where he won a World Series, and in Seattle, where he twice got the Mariners to the American League Championship Series.

By BABE WAXPAK
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Dear Babe: I have an authentic Barry Bonds baseball bat that he used in batting practice (BP) before a game against the Florida Marlins. It is an Easton PRO STIX 238.

By BABE WAXPAK
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Dear Babe: I have a baseball from the 1928 World Series between the New York Yankees and the St. Louis Cardinals. It is signed by Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth.

By TRACY RINGOLSBY
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Bud Black seemed to be a surprise choice to be the new manager of the San Diego Padres.

Truth is, had Black been interested, he would have managed long before now.

For the longest time, Black didn't even consider managerial overtures.