What up, homies? Well, the troop here is kicking back at my mansion in Dreamworld, and we just got done with our two favorite pastimes, frog-giggin' and catfish-noodlin'. That's right, catfish and frog legs; man, it don't git no better!! Yes, I know, Dreamworld is starting to sound an awful lot like redneck heaven. Which rocks!! Ricky the Albino Satyr couldn't really take part in the noodlin' since, you know, he has hooves instead of fingers. Anyway, we were just in a deep discussion about the ever-growing inequities in baseball. So, as usual here in Dreamworld, we decided to fix what ails the sport as we have done for NASCAR, college hoops, and college football (see previous posts). OK Bud, move over, the gang in Dreamworld is taking over!

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Well, first and foremost, Tommy the Unicorn insisted on a hard salary cap. The current luxury-tax system isn't solving the big-market/small-market problem; who are the only teams you hear about when it comes to Johan Santana? The big-spenders, of course. We encountered some resistance from the player's union, but when we threatened the leadership with cattle prods, they very quickly came around to our point of view (negotiating in Dreamworld is so much easier!). We also moved the trading deadline ahead a full month to June 30 to try to head off the ridiculous sell-offs by non-contenders (though, admittedly, my Braves probably benefited most at the deadline last year with the addition of Teixeira....).

Chad (Blossom's miniature purple rhinoceros) doesn't like the fact that baseball has to compete with the NFL so much at the end of the season. Can't exactly start the season sooner, when games in Cleveland and Denver are postponed due to snow already. One thing you can do is end the season earlier, and by over a week at that. How? Go back to the 154 game schedule which hasn't been around since the early 60's. The less time you have to compete with the NFL, the better. Does the season really need to be 162 games long?

Actually, this is really all we had. We tend to hammer Bud for allowing the steroids era to blossom under his watch, but some good things have happened too. The expanded playoffs and interleague play have been great successes, despite the grumblings of the "purists". We're in favor of contraction too, but who to contract? Yanks and Red Sox would be a great start.....

Well, we're all relaxing and power-napping after a full meal of catfish and frog legs. Later this evening we're going to saddle up and head out to the Monster Truck show at the fairgrounds (go Carolina Crusher!! If you can't beat 'em, run over 'em!). It's a great carnival atmosphere, with games for the kids like whack-a-gnome (using real live gnomes). See y'all next time here in beautiful Dreamworld....