Rickey is Proud of Rickey

- I'm a week late on this but who are the idiots that left Rickey Henderson of their ballot for the Hall of Fame? I never really understood the whole "making them wait a year" mentality. If the guy is good enough to get your vote he should get your vote and Rickey was definitely good enough to get your vote.

I had a very spirited debate with friends last week about where Rickey stands on the all-time greats list. My argument was that it is extremely tough to judge Rickey because he was the most unique player in history. Nobody had his combination of speed, defensive ability, eye at the plate, ability to disrupt pitchers and power. I left the argument at him and Barry Bonds (pre-'roids) as the two best outfielders of the past 25 years.

- I'm not knocking Jim Rice as a Hall of Famer but there is no way in hell he was a better player than Andre Dawson (time for my annual rant about Dawson not getting in). Dawson was the ultimate 5 tool guy. The most underrated thing about him was his defense. He could track down anything and nobody ran on him. Think how good his career stats could have been if he played his whole career on natural grass and at Fenway the way Rice did. The Hawk would have hit 55) home runs. The cement tarmac they called Olympic Stadium crippled Dawson's knees and stunted his career numbers. He shouldn't be punished by voters for that.

- I've watched the Suns play 5 or 6 times this year including their win against the Raptors yesterday and as much as I love Shaq, he is not playing as well as people suggest he is this year. He is putting up all-star numbers but he is not playing much defense anymore. He is really just using his size to move people from the basket, not covering weak side and moving away from the basket the way he used to. That's not a criticism, just an observation. You would expect it from a guy his size who is 36 years old.

- The Raptors are a mess and I don't think they'll make the playoffs. The problem is that Jermaine O'Neal needs to be coming off the bench but with his salary has to start. Andrea Bargnani is finally coming around and playing very well and putting him back on the bench makes no sense. That's why I love the Shawn Marion for O'Neal trade rumors. I don't like Marion that much but he will score and rebound for the Raps and give them another option. But more importantly his contract is done at the end of this year and bringing him in allows Bargnani to be in the starting lineup.

- Now that Andruw Jones has been bought out by the Dodgers after eating his way to a disastrous year that makes him arguably the worst big name free agent signing ever, can we ask if he has been lying about his age for 13 years? His drop off is pretty consistent with guys in their late 30's not a guy born in '77.