Ken Davidoff's baseball insider

In case you missed it yesterday, today we'll kick off a 10-day contest. Each day, one smart reader will receive a copy of this DVD. To reiterate, once you win one copy, I ask that you respectfully withdraw the rest of the way.

So here's our first question, focusing on the first DVD in the set: 1976 ALCS Game 5, which ended when Chris Chambliss hit a leadoff, bottom-of-the-ninth homer to send the Yankees into their first World Series since 1964.

The game featured four players who have either brothers or sons who have played Major League baseball. Name the four players and their big-league relatives.

The first person who e-mails me at kdavidoff@newsday.com will receive today's copy of the DVD.

Thanks to this site for the photo.

Here is my story for today's Newsday. I'd love to be a fly on the wall in that meeting with Brian Cashman and CC Sabathia (and presumably Sabathia's representatives as well)...

Cashman: Why haven't you accepted our offer yet? Would you rather play somewhere else?
Sabathia: What? No! That's ridiculous. I've just been busy, that's all. The Warriors are stressing me out.

I still think there's a good chance the Yankees wind up with both Sabathia and Derek Lowe, with A.J. Burnett headed to Atlanta. In any case, it sure seems like we're moving closer to a resolution. A week from now, I'll be back home from the winter meetings. It seems likely that Sabatha and Burnett, at the least, will have chosen their future employers by then.

Thanks to the IMDb for the photo. I'm burnt out on CC Sabathia photos, so I went with character actor CCH Pounder instead.

Self-promotion alert: For the blog's many, many readers in the Baltimore area, I'll be on WNST Radio at 1:30 this afternoon.

Contest coming shortly...

Man oh man, if I could, I would give out more than three medals this week. Great stuff all around, even though things got a little heated at times.

Alas, the Rules Committee would frown upon such generosity, so we'll keep it at just three award winners.

The bronze goes to baileywalk, who offered this thought when a Brandon Webb-to-the-Yankees trade was floated:

If the Yankees could get Webb for Damon, Kennedy and Melky, Cashman would do a tap dance, naked, in centerfield at the new Yankee Stadium.

The silver goes to Bob Tufts, who suggested:

If Newsday buys the Mets, we can name the new park "Comment Submission Error Field."

The gold goes to JE, who offered this retort to a comment I made:

"Pitching and defense, pitching and defense, pitching and defense."
I don't doubt that Cashman is uttering those magic words, Ken, but if he actually believes what he says, then why not address Jeter's defensive shortcomings at the most important position on the diamond? (Move him to CF or 1B.) In contrast, Dunn (or Burrell, Ramirez, and Ibanez) are playing a corner outfield position.

Gotta run this morning, but we'll have baseball and the contest later. Thanks to this site and this site for the accompanying art.

Here is a story we just put on the Web site. To summarize: The Dodgers haven't held any serious discussions with Andy Pettitte. Torre called Pettitte only because one of Pettitte's representatives (brothers Alan and Randy Hendricks represent Pettitte) called Dodgers GM Ned Colletti to check on the Dodgers' interest. Torre thought, from his conversation with Pettitte, that the left-hander wanted to remain with the Yankees, and Torre_ given his strong relationship with Pettitte _ didn't try to talk Pettitte out of that.

Torre made himself accessible to promote this, a six-DVD set titled "Essential Games of Yankee Stadium." You get the full replays of these six games:

1. 1976 ALCS Game 5.
2. 1977 World Series Game 6
3. 1995 ALDS Game 2
4. 1996 World Series Game 6
5. 2001 World Series Game 4
6. 2003 ALCS Game 7

I asked Torre to choose his favorite Yankee Stadium memory, and he struggled to go with just one.

"There'll never be a first world championship (for me) again," Torre said. "Just about every game we played in '96 was emotional, with what went on in my personal life. To watch Charlie Hayes squeeze that last out in Game 6, it was the last game, but to me, there were a couple of games that were my favorites.

"The '03 games where Aaron Boone ended it, I go out there and change pitchers in the fourth inning, losing 4-0 and Pedro is pitching for them. I wasn't comfortable with that whole scenario, bringing in Mussina. To have that turn into a win was pretty incredible.

"The surreal games were Games 4 and 5 in '01 World Series. When it happened in the second one (when Scott Brosius hit a two-out, ninth-inning, game-tying, two-run homer, the night after Tino Martinez did exactly the same thing), there was a sense of, 'Didn't this just happen?'"

Now, in the interest of cross-promotion and synergy and all of that 21st century stuff, the DVD manufacturers have agreed to supply our little blog with 10 copies of the set to give away in contests.

Starting tomorrow, through Sunday, December 14th, I'll give away one DVD per day, to the first person who can answer the daily trivia question pertaining to one of these games. Let's limit it to just one DVD per person. Dennis, don't try to trick me and pose as "Sinned," the way Mr. Burns went as "Mr. Snrub" in this episode.

First of all, accountability time: I made a bad read off the Braves' acquisition of Javier Vazquez a couple of days ago. I incorrectly assumed that trade would take Atlanta already out of the A.J. Burnett bidding. Shoot, given the Braves' thriftiness of recent years, I never considered Atlanta a serious candidate for Burnett in the first place.

But it appears now that the Braves are the favorites to sign Burnett. Their executives were expressing confidence to their friends throughout the industry, as I wrote today, and it appears that Burnett's agent Darek Braunecker wasn't bluffing a couple of weeks ago when he told me Burnett would have a five-year deal to sign. Who would've thunk the Braves would go where the Yankees and Blue Jays wouldn't? Props to Mark Feinsand for having this yesterday.

Remember when the Braves were the industry's best team, by far? When signings like Terry Pendleton, above, paid off brilliantly, and when they developed players like Tom Glavine, Chipper and Andruw Jones and David Justice?

That era seems so distant now, doesn't it? After being owned by one of the most memorable human beings of our time, love Ted Turner or hate him, the Braves are now very much a corporate entity, and they've gone from 14 straight division titles (from 1991 through 2005) to a 235-251 team the last three seasons.

If they go ahead and sign Burnett _ and that seems like a safe bet _ the Braves will be trying something they haven't in a while: A high-risk, high-reward move. It could easily backfire, given Burnett's history of visits to the disabled list.

But if Burnett is right, he teams with Vazquez and Jair Jurrjens to give the Braves a decent front end of the starting rotation, with Jorge Campillo also displaying promise. The Braves ranked 12th in the National League with a 4.46 ERA last year. They ranked a more respectable sixth with 753 runs scored. So if they have indeed improved their pitching, the Braves could be an interesting team again, much to the Mets' chagrin.

whynot, your take is requested on this one.

Transaction Analysis: The Giants signed Bob Howry to a one-year deal for $2.75 million. Gotta give the Giants credit for being aggressive, as they've added Howry and Jeremy Affeldt to what was a bad bullpen. Howry put up what looks like a very bad 2008 season, but our own James K. points out that Howry had an unlucky .354 BABIP, considering his line-drive percentage of 17.9. He also had a strikeout: walk ratio of 59:13 in 70.2 innings.

Why didn't the Mets go after him? It's apparent the Mets are saving their bullpen resources for two pitchers and only two pitchers _ a closer from either Brian Fuentes or Francisco Rodriguez, and a setup man with closer's experience like Huston Street _ and otherwise will go bargain hunting. That equation will change if the Mets acquire J.J. Putz, but as Joel Sherman points out today, the competition for Putz, whom Seattle is now reportedly making available, will be fierece.

If Angels GM Tony Reagins is being truthful here, and the Angels are 1) determined to hang in there with Mark Teixeira, 2) even if it costs them CC Sabathia in the interim, then the Yankees would seem to have their man.

And all it will have cost them was roughly $140 million, and a tub full of anxiety over why it took Sabathia so long to accept it.

What an awkward beginning to such an important relationship.

Now, first of all, I'm jumping the gun a little here. Perhaps Reagins is trying to turn up the heat on Teixeira with these quotes, and he'll turn to the California native and resident Sabathia if Teixeira and Scott Boras don't bend.

Probably not, though. We all can see that the Angels' primary need is offense, rather than pitching. And the Dodgers and Giants have displayed zero appetite for a Sabathia deal.

So, will it be the Yankees' $140 million, or the Brewers' $100 million? That's hardly a debate. Yet if the money were even, I think CC would be whistling the "Laverne and Shirley" tune right now.

A Yankees sympathizer lamented to me the other day, "When it has worked out for us when we signed someone who didn't want to be here?" You could argue Mike Mussina, but Mussina was sold by the way Joe Torre and the Yankees conducted themselves in their pursuit of him. He actually had comparable offers from the Mets and Red Sox. And besides, Mussina's whole intention was to stay close to his Montoursville, Penn. home, and the Yankees qualified there from the beginning.

Sabathia, by all accounts, is not merely a good guy. He is a GREAT guy, a great teammate. And we know he's an excellent pitcher. Maybe he can self-motivate by choosing to be offended by the lack of West Coast interest in his services, and that'll get him through the next six years.

But I can't forget the words of someone who has known Sabathia for a long time: "CC likes to be happy." In other words, he values having an amount of tranquility in his life. If Sabathia gets off to a rough start in 2009, with angry fans paying high prices to boo him, how difficult will he find it to remain happy?

Maybe I'm being overdramatic. But more and more, it looks like these are questions we'll have answered, down the line.

We knew this was coming, after Ozzie Guillen concluded the 2008 season by questioning Javy Vazquez's manhood and Vazquez responded by pitching poorly.

Let's call this one a win-win for now. The Braves get an innings-eater who will probably be happy to return to the National League. Vazquez never lived up to the hype he generated while excelling for Omar Minaya's Expos. He's a mistake on Brian Cashman's ledger, for one.

The White Sox, meanwhile, stock their farm system, and GM Kenny Williams gets some more payroll and roster flexibility; he already had traded Nick Swisher to the Yankees, as you know. Williams historically does well with such freedom, even if his plans don't always pay off immediately.

With Vazquez, the Braves have less of a need for Jake Peavy, although few would argue that Peavy is a class above Vazquez. For certain, this means Atlanta won't be going toe-to-toe with the big-market teams over A.J. Burnett.