Phoenix.BloggersPub

Wow!  Michael and Juanita Jordan are officially splitting this time. Juanita originally filed for a separation back in 2002, but took it back when Michael and her agreed reconcile the marriage. Evidently, the reconciliation only lasted another 5 yrs.  Their statement indicates that it’s a “mutual and amicable“ breakup… If the problem is tied to his infidelity, then this statement is just to save face in the media.  I doubt that Juanita is ending this “mutually“.

Michael Jordan has been known to cheat on his wife in the past, so it’s probably safe to say that his infidelity led to the split.  After 17 yrs of marriage and 3 kids, the couple will take on new lifes apart from each other.

The most interesting part of the story will be the splitting of Michael’s fortune.  Michael is worth hundreds of millions of dollars and she’s been there almost from the beginning, so it’s probably safe to say that she’ll get half of everything.

A quick catchup on the apparently-looming RJ deal, before I head off to the Phoenix Fear Film Festival, though I don’t have time to do much more than a quick summary of the latest reports…

New York Daily News: “The Arizona Diamondbacks have been the most aggressive suitors for Randy Johnson and sources close to the negotiations said Thursday that the Yankees and Arizona could complete a trade to send Johnson back to the desert before next week. The Diamondbacks, who view Johnson as a gate attraction, want to talk to the Big Unit about a contract extension, a source said… The Yankees, meanwhile, have their eyes on a package of Arizona pitching prospects. The Diamondbacks are loaded with young talent and if the Yankees send Johnson home to Arizona - Johnson’s home is in the Phoenix suburb of Paradise Valley - they’d like to get at least two of the following three pitchers: Dustin Nippert, Micah Owings and Ross Ohlendorf.”

I’m sure they would like to get two of them. However, that doesn’t mean they necessarily are going to get them, and I would reject a deal: give them one of the trio perhaps, along with a lower-level prospect. As I’ve mentioned before, we do not have to trade for Johnson: how good is a PO’d Big Unit going to be for New York? We’ve seen that already, earlier in his career, when he wanted out of Seattle…

East Valley Tribune: “If Randy Johnson returns to the Diamondbacks, it will be for at least two seasons, seemingly ample time for him to get his 300th career victory. Johnson has one year remaining on his contract with the New York Yankees at $16 million, but because of the way the D-Backs’ payroll breaks, they would seek to add another year to make the deal work financially if a trade goes through. “Two years is a preference and a necessity,” a high-ranking D-Backs official said Thursday while reporting no movement in trade discussions. The D-Backs have about $10 million to spend this season to hit their payroll projection of $60 million-$65 million. But their largest contract — Livan Hernandez’s $7 million — is up after 2007, and the projected payroll in 2008 is between $65 million and $70 million, which would enable the D-Backs to afford a back-loaded Johnson deal.”

It also goes on to talk about the $40m we still owe Johnson from his last stint, which would be restructured as part of the deal. Any pitcher at his age is going to be a game of Russian Roulette, but if we’re signing him for two years, I can only presume that due diligence has been carried out, and we will not end up paying a lot of money for something which sits, surly and aggressive, at the far end of the bench until the end of 2008.

Okay, let the discussion and updates continue…

In a rematch of last year’s Western Conference Finals, the Phoenix Suns and Dallas Mavericks met up Thursday night in Big-D.  The game was pretty close throughout and had the playoff-type atmosphere that many expected.  Final score - 101-99.

Phoenix had a chance to win it at the end of the game, but Amare Stoudemire missed a 3-pointer as time expired.  Ok, you probably read that and said “What the f*** - why is Amare shooting a three w/ the game on the line?”  I asked myself the same question and the only answer I came up w/ is that the inbounder didn’t get it to the right guy when he had the chance.  Steve Nash (get a Steve Nash jersey) was open on the baseline for a good 1-2 seconds before the ball went in to Amare, but the guy (Raja Bell?) didn’t see him.  Raja Bell also had a costly turnover with under a minute left - he anticipated Nash going behind a defender so he led the ball there… problem is, Nash went the other way and the ball goes out of bounds.

Dallas was led by Jason Terry (35 pts) and Dirk Nowitzki, who I found out during the game doesn’t have any front teeth… are you kidding me?  Thunder Dan (Majerle) was kind of a jerk on the broadcast, making fun of Dirk w/ an “all I want for Christmas is my two front teeth” line towards the end of the game.  Dirk’s jumper from the top of the key with a few seconds left sealed the victory for the Mavs (get a Dirk Nowitzki jersey).

The Mavs won their 8th straight game and have the NBA’s best record at 22-7.  The Suns are now 19-8 and have the 2nd least amount of losses in the league - they’d have the 2nd best record in the league if San Antonio hadn’t played more games to this point (22-8).

Phoenix plays the New York Knicks tonight at Madison Square Garden.

Phoenix Suns Rumors…
The Suns are reportedly keeping their eye on the Charlotte Bobcats’ Melvin Ely, although I can’t figure out why… Rumors also abound about them possibly going after Ely’s teammate, Brevin Knight, though it probably wouldn’t work for salary cap reasons.

Word coming out of New York today is that the Arizona Diamondbacks and the New York Yankees are negotiating a potential trade that would send Randy Johnson back to the Diamondbacks in exchange for young pitching talent. At first glance you have to wonder whether this deal makes sense given the youth movement the Diamondbacks have been touting for the past several months. Wasn’t this the same team that told fan favorite Luis Gonzalez in no uncertain terms that he was too old to play here? Last time I looked, Randy Johnson was 4 years older than Luis Gonzalez. Furthermore, Randy was always one who walked to a different drummer and did not endear himself as the most approachable guy from a fan’s prospective. A prime example of that came the day that Randy was signed in 1999. Channel 3 reporter Gil Tyree thought it would be cool to go to Randy’s house and interview him unannounced. That was about the last time that Gil was seen anywhere near a Diamondbacks player. Personally I applauded Randy for that action since Gil was a jerk but that is best left for another time. So as these rumors swirled, I had to wonder what exactly was up with this idea.

This was probably the best Gurkha I’ve had.

The Randy Johnson affair still rumbles on, so I’m holding over the third part of the baseball round table until next week. By then, hopefully, it’ll all be resolved - one way or another - and I’d hate for the wise words of Piecoro and Magruder to be trampled in the mad frenzy of Unitomania. So, going through the Johnson updates since last time, in no particular order. There’s a long article in the NY Times, which - surprisingly for the New York media - talks about the trade from the Arizona perspective. The whole piece is definitely worth a read, but here’s the Reader’s Digest Condensed version:

“He certainly was not a fan favorite that Luis Gonzalez has been”? Ouch. Kendrick’s chronic case of foot-in-mouth has another outbreak. Way to make the Big Unit want to come back to Arizona, Ken. It may be the truth - just as it was the truth that there had been “whispers” about Gonzo - but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to say it. Further up the piece, it appears there’s about a $6m gulf that needs to be covered in our budget to get Johnson. That could be covered either a) by the Yankees or b) by trading Eric Byrnes. Actually, I wouldn’t mind too much if the answer were c) both of the above, and I’ll get to a possible scenario for that below.

The Tribune says that the Yankees want Medders and a couple of our starting prospects from a list that includes EdGon, EnGon, Nippert, Owings and Ohlendorf. We’ve “balked” - presumably when we stopped laughing - with Vizcaino being offered for Medders. It appears we’re keen to keep BMedd: the report mentions Atlanta wanted him in the Estrada deal, when we gave them Villarreal instead. It lists the Giants and Padres as the other suitors - no mention of the Dodgers any more, I note - but word is that Zito has spurned the Rangers, and is currently leaning toward the Giants.

Over on DBBP, Levski - whom I’ve learned the hard way not to argue with - said, “If I had to predict an outcome, I’d say it would end up being Vizcaino, one of the group mentioned in the article…(and from this group, I’d say the most likely candidates are Enrique and Ross [Ohlendorf]) and another pitcher from the low minors, not in the top 20, i.e., no Bret Andersons or Matt Torras, etc. I also assume the Yankees would be eating a significant portion ($6-8m) of RJ’s salary.” I’d perhaps also add this being contingent on us being able to sign Johnson to an extension covering 2008 as well. Trading Vizcaino certainly makes sense, since he’ll be a free agent after 2007.

The NY Daily News says the Yankees want to wrap up the trade quickly, so they can get on with trying to pursue Zito and/or Clemens. This all started “when GM Brian Cashman made a condolence call to Johnson after the recent death of the pitcher’s brother and Johnson told the GM it was important to him to be near his family.” Which seems either very generous or somewhat cold-hearted, I’m not sure which… It also raises the spectre of a three-way deal involving the Padres: “One prominent agent said he had heard talk of the three teams being involved in a possible deal in which the Yankees would get Linebrink.”

I was trying to work out the possible permutations there, but my head started hurting. However, I know the Padres badly need a bat for left-field, so how about Eric Byrnes? He’s got power! He steals bases! He’s Californian! Seems like a match made in heaven to me. So, maybe something along the lines of, Byrnes to San Diego, Linebrink to the Yankees, Johnson and $8m cash to the D’backs, EnGon + a B-prospect pitcher to the Yankees? I’d hit that, f’shizzle.

However, the amount of actual, solid “news” today seems very limited, with even Ed Price in the NJ Star-Ledger, who broke the original story, now quoting Magruder’s Tribune piece. I still believe the Diamondbacks are the only team with a realistic chance (if we can keep Kendrick away from anyone with a notebook or microphone) and interest, and that the Yankees are much keener to trade him than we are to have him. It’s like a game of poker where we know we have the better hand: the longer we can draw this thing out, the more desperate the Yankees will become and the better results we can get. Hold firm, Josh: if you wait long enough, the three pitchers the Yankees get will be Grimsley, Jarvis and Ortiz.

Finally, check out Mister T’s diary about the state of the fan nation. I pity the fool who doesn’t - and please leave their thoughts on the general tone and feeling of AZ’s fanbase, as we head towards the end of 2006. He also asks you to grade Josh Byrnes’ performaince, and as background reading, there’s a little bit in the Republic on Byrnes’ first year. Best quote there: “Change was necessary to give an opportunity for our young players. Clearly, there was a lot of nostalgia from the former era of the D-Backs and while transition is never easy, I think we were able to accomplish a lot.” Here’s to more in 2007.

As previously mentioned, James Brown made eight albums for Smash Records, five of which were instrumental. Handful of Soul, released in 1966, was the fourth (via). The album features covers and originals.One of the covers is a pretty interesting take on When a Man Loves a Woman.
Even if you’ve tired of the song (thanks, Michael […]

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