If you've got Kindle, you've got Jacoby Ellsbury

Last night, Red Sox center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury endeared himself to a whole nation of fans when he stole home off of Andy Pettite.

Jacoby first rose to national baseball prominence during the last month of the 2007 season, when he helped the Red Sox get to the World Series and win it. His 2008 season was also excellent, although he platooned with Coco Crisp for much of the year.

After a slow start, batting wise, to 2009, Jacoby has started to hit, and his steal of home - a straight steal, not a suicide squeeze, was his tenth of the year.

Athletes go broke quicker than anybody

http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1153364/1/index.htm

According to a Sports Illustrated article published in March, 2009:

• By the time they have been retired for two years, 78% of former NFL players have gone bankrupt or are under financial stress because of joblessness or divorce.

• Within five years of retirement, an estimated 60% of former NBA players are broke.

• Numerous retired MLB players have been similarly ruined, and the current economic crisis is taking a toll on some active players as well. (Last month 10 current and former big leaguers—including outfielders Johnny Damon of the Yankees and Jacoby Ellsbury of the Red Sox and pitchers Mike Pelfrey of the Mets and Scott Eyre of the Phillies—discovered that at least some of their money is tied up in the $8 billion fraud allegedly perpetrated by Texas financier Robert Allen Stanford.)

You note that they don't give the percentage of how many MLB players go broke after two years or five years. Obviously it's much less than 60%...otherwise they'd surely mention it. There's perhaps a reason for that... although as the above paragraph states, lots of baseball players invested in what they thought were wise investments with fraudsters, instead of sheer stupidity...

Three basketball players were mentioned, whose main problem is that they have a gazillion children - each by a different woman:

Children almost always complicate the issue. How to limit paternity obligations is a challenge for pro athletes. Former NBA forward Shawn Kemp (who has at least seven children by six women) and, more recently, Travis Henry (nine by nine) have seen their fortunes sapped by monthly child-support payments in the tens of thousands of dollars. Last month Henry, who reportedly earned almost $11 million over seven years in the NFL, tried and failed to temporarily reduce one of his nine child-support payments by arguing that he could no longer afford the $3,000 every month. Two weeks later he was jailed for falling $16,600 behind in payments for his child in Frostproof, Fla.

An aversion to family planning goes hand in hand with neglect of other forms of financial foresight, which can affect what happens to athletes' fortunes even after they die. Hall of Fame linebacker Derrick Thomas, who died at 33 following a January 2000 car crash, had ignored the urging of his financial adviser to make a will, and his entire estate was left for the court to divide, touching off a legal battle among the five mothers of his seven children. (Of the estimated $30 million Thomas had earned in the NFL, he had only $1.16 million in valued assets at the time of his death.)

>>How to limit paternity obligations is a challenge for pro athletes.

I would think it would be very simple. Don't have unprotected sex with a woman. Use a little thing called a condom, or better still, get a vasectomy! Then you can have all the sex you want without fear that you'll have baggage hanging around your neck for the rest of your life!

Beat the Streak 2009 is here!

http://www.mlb.com/mlb/fantasy/bts/y2009/

I missed out on yesterday's game, but got started with today's game. I've already made my first 10 choices (the most you're allowed to make at one time is ten games). Of course, some of those I'll modify on the day of the game, but it's important that you never miss a game, because if you forget to choose a player, that ends your streak, assuming you've got one!

So, I chose Dustin Pedroia for today, and he rewarded me by hitting a homerun in his first at-bat.

These early games are really a "crap-shoot," as it's too early in the season to know if a player is on a streak or in a slump. But if Pedroia's homer is any guide, looks like he's starting out as hot now as he was when the season ended last year.

My next 10 picks (which may be modified - I'll update you each day with any changes) are

April 7 - Dustin Pedroia of the Red Sox - homerun
April 8 - Dustin Pedroia again. He hits Scott Kazmir well
April 9 - Jacoby Ellsbury has a good average against Garza. I'll see how he does in these first two games, then may or may not keep him.
April 10 - Derek Jeter. He hits well against Sidney Ponson.
April 11 - Mark Loretta (Dodgers) against Brandon Webb.
April 12 - Ryan Howard (Phillies) vs Aaron Cook
April 13 - Jed Lowrie of the Red Sox
April 14 - Derek Jeter
April 15 - Derek Jeter
April 16 - Manny Ramirez