Random Baseball Thoughts. And Football.

I said it was random.

All kinds of stuff going on that are interesting in the last 72 hours or so.

Matt Holliday was retained by the St. Louis Cardinals after testing the free agent market. Keeping him in the fold was huge for the Cards. It is huge because he offers good protection in the lineup for Albert Pujols and relieves some of the pressure off Ryan Ludwick. Keeping him allows the Cards to try a kid at third, David Freese, who won't be as pressured to deliver right away.

The addition of Brad Penny to the rotation deepens an already pretty good staff that may just need a bit of bullpen help to be well rounded. Would like to see John Smoltz stick around for another year.

St. Louis looks like a good bet to defend it's Division title.

Andre Dawson was elected to Baseball's Hall of Fame. Not much to say other than 'Hawk' is probably a worthy selection. He was, for nearly a decade, as good a player in the game as you could ask for. He did everything well and you have to wonder what he might have been with healthy knees.

Randy Johnson called it a day by announcing his retirement from baseball. Is he the greatest left-handed pitcher ever? Some think so. Five years from now we should be talking about his Hall of Fame selection.

Mike Shanahan goes to Washington to coach the Redskins. This is interesting on many levels. First, Shanahan was very successful in Denver for many years but there is a school of thought that coaches are less effective as they age. Second, the owner of the Redskins is a meddler who WILL NOT let his football people alone to run the team. And the coach he just hired is extremely hands on and desires control. They are making nice right now, but stay tuned. Third, the Redskins are a franchise that matters. The Yankees and Red Sox matter. The Lakers and Celtics matter. The Cowboys and Patriots matter. So do the Redskins and it's irrelevant if you are a fan of them or not. What happens with the Redskins will be watched closely.

And Charlie Weis to Kansas City? Very cool. I'm not a Chiefs fan, never have been, except when I was. For two years KC had Joe Montana and I liked them then. I was living in Ft. Worth at the time and it was nice to follow someone besides the Cowboys.

I like this Weis deal and despite his mediocre run as a head coach at Notre Dame, he has a track record of success as an offensive coordinator in the NFL. I like this move by Scott Pioli a lot.

I'm reading Cal Ripken Jr.'s autobiography which I got at Christmas. There is a lot that goes into making a career in major league baseball and Ripken's book lets us in on it. It's not splashy, but neither is the author. The book has his personality - it gets the job done.