The scumbags never had any intention of signing Manny.

After last nights post, I would have been hard pressed to find a more disgraceful day and set of circumstances. But today absolutely has seen the lowest most slime filled lies from a sports franchise I have ever witnessed.

After last night's press release from Frank Mccourt excoriating the super agent for turning down a two year, $45 Million dollar offer with a player opt out in the second year, the truth became known this morning when Dylan Hernandez of the LA Times referred to a source which made it clear that the two year offer was for deferred money. In other words, rather than Ramirez making $25 Million guaranteed and paid in full in the first year, and then the remaining player optioned $20 Million for year two, the Dodgers had every intention of doling out the money over five years or more. The first year Ramirez would be paid $10 Mil, then another $10 Mil for the second year, and the remaining $25 Million in two $10 Million years and a final $5 Million in 2013. Further, the deferred amount would be interest free, which means that if the economy continues to tank, the money would be worth less in five years with no compensation to escalate the total amount. Apparently Boras proposed a counter-offer of $55 Million to cover that interest and that's when the Dodgers pulled the offer off the table. Currently there is no offer at all.

What is incomprehensible is not the deferred money, which apparently was part of the deal since November. What is incomprehensible and reprehensible, is that the Dodgers claimed in a mass e-mailing and public forum, that Boras rejected the deal outright. In addition, owner Mccourt rambled on accusing Boras of manipulating the Dodgers in an attempt to get them to bid against themselves. He claimed that the negotiations would have to start over from scratch. This was why the public perception that Manny was a greedy asshole was so strong last night. It was not until today that the real truth came out and that we saw that the Dodgers were attempting to crucify Manny and Boras for their own nefarious purposes, which I now believe were to create a backlash against the player and his agent in attempts to deflect criticism away from the truth, which was that they never, EVER had any intention of signing Manny in the first place, as remarkable as that sounds. In fact, they have cynically used these negotiations to manipulate the season ticket sales and are now coming to the end of them.

To suggest that this is an abomination of the stewardship of a civic franchise and treasure like the Dodgers is the understatement of the century. Frank and Jamie McCourt should be investigated by Major League Baseball at once and if there is any indication that they have ethically or otherwise violated the spirit or letter of ownership and/or the collective bargaining agreement, they must be removed as owners of the team and the Dodgers placed in a trusteeship until a legitimate owner is chosen. However, that would also continue to implicate Bud Selig in his tacit approval of the Mccourts in the first place. I do not remember an off-season this dark and this ugly, from A-Rod, to the NY Yankee Stanford frozen assets case, to these despicable Dodgers/Manny/Boras negotiations. If Selig doesn't come in and put an end to this, he is simply cementing his legacy as the absolute pariah of all baseball commissioners and should be banned from the game forever.

As far as the Dodgers are concerned, they lost 18 to 0 to the Mariners in Arizona today. I wonder if these lies and duplicities had any effect on the teams performance on the field. You think?

Frank and Jamie McCourt planning to sell the Dodgers

While there may be no evidence to support that statement, by all indications these last five months of stripping, cutting and finally the indignity of watching the dumb show called "Lets pretend to sign Manny", clearly one can surmise that the idiot couple have finally had enough.

With Manny Ramirez turning down the Dodgers fourth offer, which was essentially the same offer each time in different clothing, my hope is that the fans can really see the McCourt's for what they are: greedy lying scumbags who have used the public media to create the exact opposite perception of Boras and Ramirez. Since that day five months ago when Jamie McCourt made the statement to the effect of "would the fans of LA rather have forty youth baseball fields or Manny", anyone who had a fucking brain could tell that the lying Jew bitch and her Mick fucking husband Irish Frank were full of shit. Then a series of preposterous offers to Boras, all made public in a free for all in the press with Bill Plaschke and others behind them, organized by the PR staff of Josh Rawitch and company, the Dodgers continued to manipulate the situation into convincing the average imbecile that Boras and Ramirez are greedy bastards in an economy that the average person is struggling in.

Let's face it, the Dodgers never had ANY intention of signing Ramirez otherwise, if they really valued him, they would have done it. The fact that without Manny, the Dodgers payroll is now $70 Million dollars in a market this size, and that they have given only two "long term" deals to Furcal and Blake at three years and some few millions, well, all of this is an indication that the team is being stripped for sale. Frank and Jamie also can see the handwriting on the wall...the attendance will be seriously affected by the recession already, including the lack of tickets sold at Camelback Ranch, and without Manny it will be totally untenable to continue to own this franchise. I predict we are seeing the last year of Frank and Jamie as owners.

As for Manny, he will most likely end up where everyone else ends up with such a pedigree...in pin stripes. As for the Dodgers, I will do everything in my power to not watch the games or step foot into that stadium again. I have had enough.

Author Elizabeth Gilbert speaks on creativity.

Polish Poem by David Lynch and Chrysta Bell

POLISH POEM ----- Chrysta Bell & David Lynch _ INLAND EMPIRE (2006) -- Truly Haunting and Beautiful Ballad ( Closing Scenes ) -

Indian Thriller

Eat your heart out, Michael!

WOWEE! Tonight's episode of "Lost".

One of the best episodes ever. The show has finally and unabashedly entered the realm of pure archetype. Using a well, which in Jungian psychology is classical mythological imagery for the soul, continues to place Lost as the only show on TV that has left the realm of the world spirit, finally bringing us into the psyche and the underworld.

I am totally stoked that the ratings are the worst ever for the season 5 premiere. Anytime a piece of art attempts to subvert it will lose tons of viewers. The creators are totally free to mine the dreamworld.

How in Hades name did Ben get that ring of Jins? Alechemy, no doubt.

Terminally single

I have been thinking about how to plot the days I have now been single. It has been over 8 and 1/2 years. If I divide that by 365 days that comes up to roughly 3,102 days that God has deemed it unnecessary for me to find someone to share my life with. Granted, I have not been proactive about searching for that special someone for sure. There are many reasons for this, not the least of which is that the idea of actually BEING in a relationship is the most repulsive concept imaginable. Interesting dilema here. My life is utterly empty due to a lack of love and yet when I actually think about the prospect of such a possiblity I want to throw up.

I'm not sure if it is the fact that of the miniscule opportunities for intimacy that have come my way, each one was more agonizing, more grotesque, more monstrous than the one before it. Why I would pine in any way shape or form for something different than that is a mystery to me. Relationships have been nothing short of the biggest waste of my life. Even the moments when I thought someone cared and there may have been a shimmering light of something lasting, I always knew at the core that there could be the possiblity of abandonment. Ladies and gentleman, I do not DO abandonment, and nothing any of you can say will help me to have a different perspective about it. It is something I have to come to on my own. I know that people who have a history of relationships will attempt to give advice. Save it! Only God will let me in on his little secret as to how to get out of this maze of feeling that I don't deserve love in my life.

I'm not saying that God has put this insanity into my head. Most likely it is the ego, the phantom illness, that keeps alive my hopelessness. But what if it is God that is doing it. What if God has a plan and a reason that is beyond human reason to keep me in this state of deprivation from love. Most likely it is "I" that has abandoned myself. I have never felt so completely stuck in my life at any point since I have been alive.

Here is the horror: lets say that I get that relationship. If I truly feel I don't deserve such a thing, then it won't be here when it comes. You get my point? I won't even be aware of the reality of its existence. To yearn for something that you cannot even experience when it arrives...I can think of no greater definition of hell.

But for today...3,103.

But, hey, who's counting?

Vinny, is that you?

Who would have thunk it? His maestro chose the right profession in the broadcast booth, I dare say.

It's so simple. A child could do it.

Is this really happening? Are we only a mere two weeks away from spring training and the Dodgers and Manny Ramirez have utterly failed to come to an agreement to keep him in LA? Who is at fault here? Is it Frank McCourt and his baffled shock at Scott Boras' intractability on getting Manny a 5 or 6 year deal at $25Mil a season? Or is it Scott "I'm holding the national pastime hostage" Boras and his comments to McCourt to "be careful when playing chicken that you just might blink" that is to blame? I mean really, what's next, a pissing contest? And is it really true that virtually NO TEAM has any interest in signing Manny? Nobody?

Uh...guys...hello. I have been talking collusion 5 for over two months now. Today the first article I have seen all winter referring to such a spectre came out. Baseball scribe Bill Shaiken mulled over this very real possibility in the LA Times Sports section. Over one hundred free agents are still without contracts. By the end of the week, Major League Baseball will have to determine if Vero Beach may have a spring training again. No, not a return by the Dodgers, but a repeat of the 1994 Homestead, Florida free-agent spring training camp needed for all of the unsigned players. What gives?

This time, "its the economy, stupid!" just doesn't cut it. Clearly there is an attempt to contravene the collective bargaining agreement which stipulates that at no time, even in tough economic climates, can an atmosphere of agreement between owners sway the market place. It is illegal, plain and simple. If Major League Baseball doesn't back down, and if the player's union decides it really has a case, then who's playing chicken now?