So now that I've had some time to consider the Knicks impending hiring of Donnie Walsh as team president here are a few thoughts on what Walsh has to do to return the Knicks from a joke to a team that New Yorkers can be proud of.

Step 1:
He needs autonomy. If he's here to take marching orders from Dolan and simply be a puppet, well good for him in getting $15 million to do that. Wish I could have a job like that. But if he's here to actually run the team then he needs to be allowed to do the right things, no matter how bad the team gets (though really can it get worse?) and no matter how many contracts have to be bought out.

Step 2:
Show Isiah the door. There have been rumblings that the reason Walsh was Dolan's first choice is because of his relationship with Isiah and that the two of them would work well together. Hiring Walsh helps give the Knicks credibility again, keeping Zeke costs them all of that. Now there are some who may think that Isiah is getting a raw deal here, that he's not as bad as people tend to think. Really? Well here's my counter argument to that; one potential name being bandied about to come in as GM is former 76er's exec Billy King - yes THAT Billy King - and what's more, he's considered a huge improvement.

Isiah the GM needs to go as does Isiah the coach - the latter needs to be replaced by someone who demands accountability from his players - ALL HIS PLAYERS. The name we keep hearing is Mark Jackson. I'm a little torn on that one. I like Jackson as a player but I'm not sure he's ready for the test that awaits the next coach of the Knicks. If it were me, I would hire Scott Skiles. Yes he's a hard a$$, but that's just what the Knicks need right now. Someone who will not accept a team that laughs its way through a 25-point loss. He will demand for players like Randolph, Curry, Marbury (if they are with the team) and Crawford to play as hard at their end of the floor as they do in the front court.

Step 3:
Unless the Knicks luck out in the lottery and get the top pick, he should use that pick as a carrot to get a team to take either Curry or Randolph off his hands. Look, it was a good idea, it really was. But the bottom line is that the Curry/Randolph front court just won't work. They are too similar in every way. You can get away with one low post player who doesn't run, is a defensive liability and can't or won't rebound, but not both of them.

Would the Nets for example consider Curry and the Knicks first round pick for Marcus Williams, Sean Williams and a re-signed DeSanga Diop? The Nets have Devin Harris running the point for the next six years and Josh Boone and Sean Williams are very similar players. For the Knicks, Marcus Williams would be the true PG they are looking for and Sean Williams would bring some interior defense to the party.

Step 4:
Buy out Stephon Marbury/Jerome James/Quentin Richardson - you'll notice I did not say trade them. I said buy them out. Get them out of here but don't be stupid enough to trade them for someone else's bad contracts. The only way to get out of this mess is to get out from under the cap and the only way that is going to happen is to let these contracts expire.

So, if Walsh were to follow these 4 steps the Knicks would enter next season with a starting five of:

Marcus Williams
Jamal Crawford
Wilson Chandler
Zach Randolph
Sean Williams
and a bench of Nate Robinson, David Lee, Renaldo Balkman, Jared Jeffries, Mardy Collins, Randolph Morris (if they keep him) and Diop.

Not ideal - in fact far from it. But it is a start, and a start is all Knick fans can hope for.

Here is the reaction from Ray's Manager Joe Maddon from the New York Post: "The other day when we were playing in Tampa, that play you saw at home plate was a good hard baseball play. What you saw today is the definition of a dirty play," Maddon said. "There's no room for that in our game. It's contemptible. It's wrong. It's borderline criminal and I could not believe they did that.

"That was a blatant attempt to hurt Aki. And it was set up. It was premeditated. It's all of the above," said Maddon, who was adamant that Duncan should be suspended. "I mean, I don't know what's the difference between that and a high stick in hockey, but it was that bad."

From Joe Girardi:

"Shelley has been taught as a player, when he's going to be out, go after the ball and that is what he did," Girardi said. "Shelley made a hard aggressive slide." Girardi would not classify whether or not the play was dirty without seeing the film on it, but did say that if it was dirty he would talk to Duncan.

Duncan's intent was to send a message - there's no question about that. And I'm not enough of a homer to call it a "good hard play" but reading Maddon classify it as borderline criminal does make me chuckle. Iwamura got a cut on the leg, and a small one at that, but it could have been much worse and if it had been, the person responsible for getting all of this going would have been Maddon. Not for insisting that his team play hard in spring training, but for the way he treated everything that happened after the collision as a joke.

If you go back to Saturday and the comments since then that Maddon has made, it seems to me (and granted I'm as slanted on this as a see-saw with a baby on one end and JaMarcus Russell - all 300 plus pounds of him - on the other) that Maddon almost enjoyed the attention and was using the incident to put himself on the map. I think that annoyed the Yankees more than the play itself and maybe added fuel to the fire.

As a lifelong Yankee fan I will tell you that one thing about this makes me feel good about the Yankees under Girardi. Under Torre retaliation was never part of the plan. The Boston Red Sox, over the last 5 years or so, have made a habit out of hitting Yankee hitters and they do so without fear or retribution or retaliation. A couple of examples: When Pedro was still with Boston, the first two batters in the Yankee lineup were Soriano and Jeter - Pedro drilled them both, knocked them out of the game, not a single Boston player was even made to feel uncomfortable at the plate. Last year, Julian Tavares was seen during a game telling Dice-K that if he hits the Yankees they will be uncomfortable - he wouldn't have done that if it meant that Manny or Ortiz would be forced to eat dirt in response. It just wasn't Torre's way. Well, if Maddon's intent was to send a message on Saturday that the Rays aren't a pushover in the AL East then I think Girardi's message was that the days of taking liberties with the Yankees are over.

By the way, Yankees and Tampa still have to play two more times this spring. Something tells me we're not done here yet.

We knew it was coming. There was no way it could go down any differently then it did and now that it's happened we have to wonder if this is the end, or just the start of something bigger. I am of course talking about the Eliot Spitzer sex scandal - the law and order governor of New York was caught funnelling a ton of money into a prostitution ring - I hear there are already a few studios calmoring for the movie rights and I'm sure there will be a Law & Order episode or three dedicated to it - if there haven't been already.

Oh, and in sports the Yankees and Tampa Bay had a bit of a fiesty afternoon. In the first inning, Yankee pitcher Heath Phillips grazed Tampa prospect Evan Longoria earning himself an ejection and Longoria at least a bruise. Later in the game Shelley Duncan went into 2nd base hard with his spikes up and took out Akinori Iwamura. Duncan was then tackled by OF Jonny Gomes. The benches cleared. Someone accused someone else's parents of not being married, there were references to female dogs and the like. In the end, no punches were thrown but Duncan, Phillips, Gomes, and Yankee coaches Kevin Long and Bobby Meacham were tossed from the game.  It appears no one was seriously injured.

Here are some comments by those involved, courtesy of Newsday's Kat O'Brien:

Jonny Gomes
"I just thought he tried to inflict some pain on Aki.
... I was taught all the way up from T-ball to always
have your teammates' back."

Akinori Iwamura
"Probably Duncan himself knows that it wasn't a fair
play at the time."

Heath Phillips (on hitting Longoria)
"Nothing was intentional. ... I was trying to throw a
fastball inside and it got away from me."

Shelley Duncan
"There's no malicious intent at all. ... I play the
game the right way. I play hard every day."

Joe Girardi
"The code is play hard, and you play the game the
right way."

If you read the comments of Duncan and Girardi they seem identical to the ones made by Zimmer and Maddon - perhaps a not so subtle shot at the two men who have been a little disinterested, if not critical, of the Yankee response to the take out play of Cervelli.

Is this where it ends?

Before I start my post I would like to send condolences to my friend Chris on the death of his manhood. He and his girlfriend have been living together for a while now and recently got engaged. I called him yesterday (Sunday) to ask him a question and was told that he would have to call me back because he and his fiance were watching DVRed episodes of "Project Runway" a reality show that pits contestants against each other as they try to get into the fashion industry. I wasn't sure things could get worse than when she made him sit through Brokeback Mountain, but sadly they obviously can. It is only a matter of time before he gives up Maxim and FHM for Marie Claire and In Touch. At this rate, his bachelor party is going to be a bunch of us going to see Spam-a-lot. Let this serve as a cautionary tale to all of you who are contemplating moving in with your girlfriends, at the very least maintain a two television household. And now, a moment of silence....

Alrighty...so with three weeks to go in spring training we're at the stage where teams start setting their rosters, figuring out what they have in short supply, what they have in excess and how to fix one with the other. So here are a few trade scenarios that might make sense:

Yankees get LHP Pedro Feliciano
Mets get OF/IF Shelley Duncan
Why the Yankees do it: Currently they are trying to find a left handed relief pitcher from the group of Sean Henn, Heath Phillips, and Billy Traber - Feliciano is far better than any of them. While the Yankees would like to keep Duncan his spot could be filled by Jason Lane or Morgan Ensberg, both of whom are having good springs.
Why the Mets do it: Duncan offers the Mets a right handed bat off the bench and a good option to back up both Delgado at 1st and Alou in LF. The Mets have good depth at reliever and could afford to part with one of them.

San Fran gets Joe Crede, Jose Contreras
Chi White Sox gets Jonathan Sanchez, Randy Winn
Why the Giants do it: Offensively the Giants are a mess. Crede is not exactly Alex Rodriguez or even Pedro Feliz at third, but he is an upgrade to the San Fran lineup. The Giants also could use a starter with the injury to Noah Lowery. Winn, Dave Roberts, and Fred Lewis are all pretty interchangeable parts.
Why the Sox do it: With Josh Fields Crede becomes redundant. They aren't sure what Connor Jackson will provide and having Winn is a nice insurance policy. Their rotation is pretty thin after the trade of Jon Garland but I believe if they did this deal they could turn around and sign either Kyle Loshe or Freddy Garcia (if they want to wait for him to be ready in June) and not really miss a beat.

Cleveland Indians get Jason Bay
Pittsburgh Pirates get Cliff Lee, Trevor Crowe, Andy Marte, Franklin Gutierrez
Why the Tribe does it: They have a good young core but could use one more bat to put them over the top. They can part with Gutierrez and move the Michaels/Delucci platoon to RF to make room for Bay. Lee has been a major disappointment since signing his 3 year deal and there are no spots for either Marte or Crowe.
Why the Pirates do it: The Pirates having Jason Bay is like a homeless guy owning a Lamborghini - it's nice to have but really not what you need. As I said, Lee has been disappointing for the Tribe but maybe a change of scenary helps him turn things around (as does a trip to the National League) Crowe and Marte would help the Pirates build up their young talent pool.

There are lots of other minor moves that could be made, but just thought I would use these three to get the party started. Remember boys - parental controls can block out Project Runway too...

It isn't often that a spring training game gets a ton of attention, especially the 9th inning of a spring training game when all the regulars have already showered and headed off to wherever the regulars go when their day is done, but here in New York a play in the 9th inning of yesterday's game between the Yankees and Devil-free Rays is all anyone can talk about. And by anyone I mean myself, Yankee fans, and bored radio hosts who do not want to talk about the Knicks, hockey, or Duke vs. UNC.

A Tampa minor leaguer with little/no shot of ever being a major leaguer ran over Francisco Cervelli at the plate with one out in the ninth. Scouts agree that Cervelli will likely be a major leaguer at some point, though probably a back up due to his lack of a power bat. As a result of the collision Cervelli will miss about 8-10 weeks with a broken wrist.

For his part this was Joe Girardi called the play "uncalled for" and added:

"I'm all for playing hard, but I don't think it's the time when you run over a catcher in spring training," Girardi said. "I don't understand it. It happens in the season and, as a catcher, I understand that. But in spring training, I don't believe in it."

As for Maddon's response: "I never read that rule before," Maddon said in response to the thought that there was an unwritten rule against running the catcher - which is just a stupid comment since it is impossible to read unwritten rules though Maddon has been around baseball long enough to know it exists. Maddon continues, "We try to play the game the same way on March 8 as we do on June 8. We don't differentiate between a spring training game and a regular-season game. We play it hard and we play it right every day."

Look, I understand what Maddon is trying to do. We all agree that these Rays are, physically, a far better team than they have had there in years, but winning is as much mental as it is physical. Maddon's got a young team with no experience at winning and the first thing he has to do is get his players to take every game seriously and play hard from the first pitch to the last one. 

That said, I agree with scouts who have worried aloud that Maddon's style this spring is going to get some of his key players hurt. Teams will start to throw at their players and things will snowball from there. Picture Carl Crawford standing in against a Yankee prospect who is not going to make the club, a player who may be teammates with Cervelli in the minors, who knows that Joe Girardi didn't like the way a non-prospect took out a young Yankee and so with all that going through his head the young pitcher comes inside on Crawford and hits him in the wrist, shattering it. Will Maddon chalk that up to "part of the game" or will he call it dirty? How about a Houston prospect retaliating for Carl Crawford plowing over their catcher by going in hard at third and taking out top Tampa prospect Evan Longoria?

Had this happened a month from now, no one would have complained. But there are different rules in spring than there are in the regular season. Or are there?