Comment Winter Olympics, Alex Rodriguez, Mets practice and the Red Sox's offense

You won't be surprised to learn that the judges were just as unsympathetic as were the rest of you to my harrowing plight of a dead power cord.

In any case, the medals, please:

The bronze goes to Islander505, who had fun ruminating over the news that Ben Affleck will direct a movie about the marriage swap of former Yankees Mike Kekich and Fritz Peterson. I'm not sure how many of these I actually got, but I enjoyed the rat-a-tat frequency of the one-liners.

Suggested titles for the Affleck Film:

".....And A Player To Be Named Later".

"A League of Their Groan"

"Trading Laces"

"Two Balls, Two Strikes, Two On, Two Out".

"Coming Out Of The Bullpen"

"Ground Rule Doubles".

"Take Two, And Go To Left"

"Relief Pitchers"

"...Calling For Another Lefty"

"Doubles In The Leftfield Corner"

"One For Fastball, Two For Changeup"

The silver goes to Richie G. for his criticism of the Yankees' Joba Rules:

Ken, the current situation is Joba is going to relieve?? This is pretty big news. And I think if that's the case, the Yankees truly didn't learn from their mistake last year with Joba.

You cant put a kid on a innings count and start him as a starter. It makes zero sense to do that.

The way they worked with Joba in 2008 was smart. In 2009, it was beyond idiotic, and I really think that may have had something to do with his struggles. Because they basically put the restrictions hard-core on him once he had his three best outings.

And the gold goes to Poppy, for his reaction to the news that we're getting closer to blood-testing players for HGH:

Given the Mets medical staff's penchant for bungling diagnoses, let's hope MLB doesn't utilize any of their doctors to administer the tests.

--Here's my column on Alex Rodriguez. The column isn't as confident as the headline that there's "no reason" to think that we'll continue to see Good A-Rod. Given Rodriguez's past behavior as a prima donna, I want to see hiim do the "team-first" act for one more season.

But yeah, of course, his on-field performance trumps this stuff.

Here are the A-Rod takes, in alphabetical order, from Steve Henson Bob Klapisch, Bill Madden and George Vecsey. The New York Post site, with Joel Sherman's take, appears to be down.

--Greetings from Port St. Lucie! I missed the first full-squad workout yesterday, to wait around for A-Rod, but David Lennon was here to document it.

--Red Sox hitting coach Dave Magadan, the former Met, expresses his frustration that Boston's offense is perceived as a weakness. I assume Magadan is just trying to motivate his troops, for rationally, he has to know that 1) The Red Sox's offense, on paper, isn't as good as their pitching or defense, and 2) It's definitely not as good as the Yankees' and possibly not as good as the Rays'.

Another good piece on the Red Sox from WEEI, which I found on Twitter, is here, about owner John Henry's reluctance to commit to long-term deals.