Sports Redux: Start Spreadin’ The News, We’ve Lost Jason Bay

Keith Allison , Flickr, Used under Creative Commons license. Well, he’s gone. After the Red Sox spent the offseason thus far making it clear that resigning Jason Bay was Priority Number…let’s say Number 46…Bay took his act south, as we noted yesterday , reportedly signing with the Mets for 4 years and 66 million clams. So we’ll miss our favorite dour Canadian outfielder, who should fit right in in New York, except for being quiet, Canadian, unused to playing in the spacious new Mets’ stadium, and not being injured for the moment. Reaction is mixed. Kevin Youkilis told ESPN, apparently by telegram, "Jason was a close friend. A joy to play with him. Great ballplayer." Surviving Grady tries to reassure everybody that the sudden big hole in the lineup isn’t something to panic over. Chad Finn has mixed feelings . And the New York Post talks to some scouts , who sum life up by saying Bay is "a professional player, and the Mets need all the help they can get." The Patriots haven’t tipped their hand over whether they’re going to play hard on Sunday against the Texans, or whether they’ll Colt the place up and rest everybody. Since it would be quicker to find the largest prime number than to try to figure out who the Pats will actually be playing in the first round (Why we love last-week playoff scenarios: the Broncos are the fifth seed in the

AFC right now. If they win, and the Ravens and Jets win too, the strength-of-schedule is adjusted to the point where the Broncos fall out of the playoff entirely. They still have ten scenarios where they can make the postseason, including a tantalizing situation where they get in because NY, Bal, Mia, Jax, and Hou all lose. And you wonder why the Pats don’t take clinching things for granted.) If you like flimsy historical allusions, overconfident predictions that will be turned on Boston fans when they backfire, a gratuitous shot at uninvolved Red Sox, and restating the obvious, boy, has the Shaughnessy-bot got a treat for you today. The Flyers-Bruins game had better be worth it, since installing the rink at Fenway has left a region-wide trail of broken hearts. First there was the scalping of free tickets for the open skate, now the Globe tells us that high schools had to shell out tons of cash for the right to play on the Fenway ice. Not to mention the fact that the B’s announced James Taylor will sing the National Anthem, throwing beloved icon Rene Rancourt under the Zamboni. A spokesperson defended the cost for high schools, saying everyone in charge wanted "to ensure there is a mixture of community and corporate skates". Ah, what says "wintertime magic" like a corporate skate?

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Sports Redux: Start Spreadin’ The News, We’ve Lost Jason Bay