Personal Dork Assistant

Sports Update

Ugh, the Giants gave 2 years, $4.5 million to Maquis Grissom, and worse, promised to play him every day. Not that promises of playing time means anything, but Grissom was actually useful against lefty pitchers, and turns back into a pumpkin against right-handers. On the other hand, Ray Durham is a solid sign, and it'll be nice to have a legit leadoff guy in the lineup. They also offered arbitration to Jeff Kent, which is a little curious in light of the Durham signing, but if you can squeeze them both in the lineup, you do it and worry about the field later.

Billy Beane is back in the saddle and already wheeling and dealing. Being smart enough to dump replaceable talent and their irreplaceable salaries is what makes him The man. Of course, it helps that there are other teams out there who buy into in the mystique of The Closer, instead of looking at the stats that actually matter.

The semi-final round of the Louis Vuitton Cup is just about to start, and the Outdoor Life Network is being added to my cable line-up just in time, too. No real surprises in the results so far, as the four teams with the biggest budgets have came through the early rounds, but not unscathed. After a rough start, Oracle BMW ripped off a 4-0 series win over One World in the quarterfinals to send them into the repechage rounds. Alinghi is ostensibly a Swiss team, but they b(r)ought over Russel Coutts and Brad Butterworth, the rearguard that led the Team New Zealand to the last America's Cup. I don't think that's very cool, but then poaching sailors from other countries has been a long tradition, and it's not as if Team NZ doesn't have enough sailors. It would be cool to have the next America's Cup on the San Francisco Bay. Too bad Larry Ellison would be involved.