*I spent Thanksgiving Day driving four hours and then getting mad online about Tony Massarotti's Hall of Fame ballot.
*The New York Post's Joel Sherman says the 2017 Astros could be like the 2016 Cubs, and are spending like it.
*The Yankees, Red Sox, Astros and Rangers seem to be the final four for Carlos Beltran. It also seems from that link that the Astros are interested in Mike Napoli as a stop-gap until A.J. Reed is ready.
*Joshua Prager wrote a piece in the New York Times on Ralph Branca, the man who gave up Bobby Thomson's "Shot Heard 'Round the World." Prager is also the author of The Echoing Green, which is simply the best baseball book I have ever read.
*The players who quietly retired in 2016.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
