Actually, I don't know if that's true because I don't get to Clearwater until Monday (should I take my spear-fishing gear?), but the representatives of the Phillies and slugger Ryan Howard met at St. Petersburg's tony Vinoy Hotel & Resort to present their respective cases in today's arbitration hearing.
According to reports on CSN, the hearing lasted for approximately five hours after which the groups were besieged by a gaggle of reporters that had been casing the joint all morning. Upon greeting the arbitration parties, the reporters reportedly asked if the hearing had been contentious.
Now I don't know much about anything, but considering the Phillies offered Howard $7 million to play baseball for one season, I'm not sure how contentious the hearings could be.
What are they going to say:
"Your honor, Howard is such a slouch and such a poor player that we only want to pay him the equivalent of the gross domestic product of several of the smaller countries in Europe."
Nevertheless, whatever the final decision it seems as if Howard is going to make out all right.