LAS VEGAS – When the baseball bunch showed up at The Bellagio on Monday morning to kick off the annual Winter Meetings, the biggest grumbles were from the media types complaining about the dearth of activity.
Oh what a difference a day makes.
Tuesday morning the contingent in Vegas woke up to the news that the Padres and Cubs were close to ironing out the much-ballyhooed Jake Peavy trade with the Phillies also in the mix; CC Sabathia expressed a desire to pitch for the Dodgers; and the hated Mets were preparing to close a deal with save machine Francisco Rodriguez.
Yes, the Mets finally have a legit closer.
That’s three National League teams making some big moves while the World Champion Phillies kept the dialogue going.
But sometimes all talk and no action isn’t all that bad. In the Phillies’ case the chit-chatter might be the ground work for a move before the team heads home on Thursday. Of course it’s all speculative right now, which is the beauty of the Winter Meetings. There’s a bona fide cottage industry in all this banter – some of it which might even be true.
As far as the Phillies go, it appears as if they really aren’t in the mix for Peavy after all. However, the team apparently is still interested in utility infielder Nick Punto as well as Penn alum Mark DeRosa.
Who knows what else we’ll be talking about by the end of today.
Seen and heard
Our spies say ex-Phillie farmhand Kris Benson and his wife, Anna, were walking through the corridors at The Bellagio on Monday night. Phillies outfielder and post-season hero Shane Victorino also was making the scene for a brief moment, too. … Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan just walked by this second (10:50 a.m. PST). … Phils’ manager Charlie Manuel is nursing a bit of an ailment and will not be able to hold court at his media availability this afternoon. … Rays' manager Joe Maddon -- that guy is everywhere! ... Winter Meetings veterans say more players have showed up at this year’s get together than in recent memory. The official reason, of course, is that many of them are seeking work (Luis Gonzalez, Frank Thomas and all of the big-name free agents). But seriously, how is going to pass up a trip to Vegas in December?
That's just Vegas
They say that if you stick around long enough you just might see everything. Spend a week in Las Vegas and you might see everything by midweek. For longtime friend of CSNPhilly.com, Howard Bryant of ESPN, the trip to Vegas gave him a chance to cross off another been-there-done-that experience from his checklist.
You see, Howie got to town last week in order to write about the sentencing in the O.J. Simpson kidnapping and what he saw was pure Vegas.
After the sentencing was handed down, Howie walked out of the courthouse to see a man dressed as Elvis giving TV interviews on whether justice had been served. Standing next to Elvis was someone dressed in a Wonder Woman outfit.
Elvis and Wonder Woman making media appearances is undoubtedly odd, but the most surreal scene occurred inside the courtroom where Howie sat in the jury box and watched O.J., dressed in the county blues, be led out by the marshals with his hands cuffed behind his back and leg irons around his ankles.
