2-10-13 – R.A. Dickey, Jason Giambi, Don Newcombe

R.A. Dickey‏ @RADickey43

heading south tomorrow morning, excited for what lies ahead for the Jays nation.

From the ‘How Sad’ section of the rag, The Cleveland Indians signed Jason Giambi to a minor league contract. Giambi will play 2013 as a 42-year old, an age where you’re supposed to be teaching sports  not playing it.

I have the McAfee virus program on my computer and when I type in the words “Cleveland Indians” on my search page, a warning page comes up saying “Whoa… are you sure you want to go there??

Giambi makes the number of non-roster invitees grow to 23. This is a team with a $65mil payroll, 94 losses last season, and a fan base going nowhere. There’s only one lengthy contract on this team and that’s the $15mil/yr that is being paid to RF Nick Swisher through 2016.

This team needs everything, especially young pitchers… a possible trade target could be LHH Michael Brantley (.288, 6-hr, 60-RBI)who is in the last year of his contract.

MILB - In fact, five black players appeared in the Minor Leagues in 1946, all as part of Dodger president Branch Rickey's "great experiment." In New Hampshire, future stars Don Newcombe and Roy Campanella made their debuts with the Nashua Pride of the Class B New England League. Both men reported that there was virtually no racial prejudice in the small town of 35,000 people, and both were instrumental in leading their club to the league championship. Campanella made his Major League debut in 1948, and Newcombe followed one year later. And while their initial foray into white organized baseball may have been overlooked, the duo is lodged in the public consciousness as first-rate ballplayers and commendable social pioneers.