All the Yankee news from the weekend should be filed under "retired." Jorge Posada, despite rumors that there were other teams interesting in signing him for DH roles, decided to hang 'em up -- a Yankee for life. Hip, hip Jorge! I applaud that decision. Also having finally announced that he is actually retired, Bernie Williams made the eligibility list for the baseball Hall of Fame. And it's a good year to do so as there is no clear-cut electable player; Bernie has maybe about as much a chance as Barry Larkin to get that call, but this could be the year the writers don't enshrine anyone. And seeing how the Veteran's committee only picked the late, Ron Santo it could be a very quiet and small induction ceremony this coming summer in Cooperstown, NY. The year I attended it was Brooks Robinson and Juan Marichal; there's no one like those 2 eligible in 2012 for sure...

Making some minor revisions to the Rose cover and really hoping to be able to release the book on or around Valentine's Day; failing that, I suppose a month later Steak & a Blowjob Day would be the next appropriate date.

Was very happy to be able to see the great, touring double-bill of Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker on Saturday night at the Fine Line. The former band is now the current one despite their "opening" standing on the bill. CVB played some new tracks which sounded more like Cracker songs, but they did light up the crowd with Matchstick Men, Club Med Sucks and Take the Skinheads Bowling (looking down from the balcony directly over stage-right we saw an awful lot of "skinheads;" it was not what you would call a young crowd) and a few others.

Cracker were dynamite. They played so much of what I wanted to hear and it all sounded great. The pretty Samantha, who I had my eye on but she was with a guy so it was just an eye, came over to me at one point (I don't remember which song) to tell me that I was the only one enjoying that one as much as she. I came back to her a little later to inform her that if they played "Been Around" I'd have all that I needed; she needed "Can I Take My Gun to Heaven." And although she didn't get hers, I did get mine -- and it was only made better when she waved me over for a nice, tight slow dance during my song.

Bar-tending school tomorrow. What's your order?

Cheers,
Brian