Friday Fodder: Looking for the Steelers and over

BY JOE SANTORO

Sports fodder for a Friday morning . . .

Kurt Warner versus Ben Roethlisberger, the Pittsburgh Steelers defense versus the Arizona Cardinals offense, who will sing the national anthem, the price of a 30-second commercial and which type of chip to serve with which dip are all very important Super Bowl issues. But in Nevada the only thing that matters is who will win and by how much. Take the Steelers giving seven points or less and take the over if the number is under 50. The Steelers will cover Larry Fitzgerald and make Kurt Warner turn the ball over. Pittsburgh 34, Cardinals 17. Way to go out on a limb, huh?

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The comparisons of Luke Babbitt to Nick Fazekas are easy to make. Big kids. Big scorers. Big rebounders. Big jump shots. But the former Wolf Pack athlete that Babbitt reminds me of the most at this stage of his career is not even a basketball player. It's former Carson High School and Wolf Pack pitcher Darrell Rasner. Rasner hit the ground running as a freshman, winning 14 games in 2000. The similarities between Babbitt and Rasner, though, only begin there. Rasner, like Babbitt, was far from being the most talented athlete on the field. But, also like Babbitt, he worked as hard or harder than everyone else at his sport, played the game with an unbelievable amount of poise as a freshman, acted with an even more unbelievable amount of class away from the field and was a team leader the moment he first put on his Pack uniform. And Rasner, like Babbitt, was always the most competitive guy on the field, settling for nothing less than his best effort and the best effort of his teammates.

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Somebody please tell me what was the point, exactly, of moving the 3-point line in men's college basketball back a foot to 20 feet, 9 inches? The move has had almost no effect on the game. If they really wanted to make a change, they should have moved it back to the NBA distance of 23-9. Most players in college basketball shoot 3-pointers from the NBA distance anyway. Babbitt, for example, lets his fly from 25 feet with regularity. The only thing adding another 3-point line a foot away from the women's line has done is make the courts as cluttered as a NASCAR driver's jumpsuit.

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Looking for a reason to watch the World Baseball Classic? Well, the USA team might have a Wolf Pack representative in pitcher Chad Qualls. Qualls, who is in the running to be the Arizona Diamondbacks closer this season, won 22 games in two seasons for the Pack in 1999 and 2000 and is on the United States' preliminary roster for the WBC. Final rosters will be named next month.

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OK, yes, I am a baseball junkie. I get excited about the WBC. I'd rather watch Venezuela against the Dominican Republic in the WBC than any regular season college football or basketball game. Sorry. I'm old. I get it. To me YouTube is and always will be something they stick in you at the hospital. Nothing against college football or basketball. They rank higher on my priority TV-watching list than the NFL or NBA. But when it comes to baseball, well, I have a weakness. By the way, the new MLB television network is the best thing to hit TV since the remote.

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Is Jeff Kent a Hall of Famer? Silly question. Of course he is (so is Omar Vizquel, by the way, if he ever retires). If you let in a Jim Rice and a Ryne Sandberg then you have to let in a Jeff Kent. Kent had almost the same career stats as Rice and Ryno. Kent also was a great postseason player, hitting .340 with nine homers in seven postseasons combined.

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This was clearly a bad year to be a baseball free agent. It's almost February and guys like Manny Ramirez, Adam Dunn, Orlando Cabrera and Jon Garland can't find jobs. But it's hard to feel sorry for them. All of these guys, if you can believe the rumors, have all turned down offers. Don't these guys watch CNN or MSNBC? Don't they know the country is in an economic free fall? You even have an pitcher on his last legs like Andy Pettitte turning down a $10 million deal to pitch for the Yankees. Do we need any more proof of the greed of players and their agents and how they've lost touch with reality and their fan base?

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If you are Al Davis, don't you take a deep breath, swallow your pride a little and give Jon Gruden a call about coaching the Oakland Raiders? How about Mike Shanahan? Silly question, huh? Both Gruden and Shanahan would rather coach kickers in the Arena League than take orders from Al Davis again. And Davis would rather change the Raider colors to pink and yellow than to admit he's ever made a mistake when it came to getting rid of a coach. Davis should name John Madden the coach. Why not? Madden could coach from the press box like Joe Paterno and also do color commentary at the same time.

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The first call New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan should make is to Brett Favre. The conversation should go something like this . . . "Hello, Brett? This is Rex Ryan. When are you going to retire?" Favre needs to do the honorable thing and retire. Now. Not next week. Not next month. Not in July. Now. He owes the Jets that much. The Jets should not have as much patience with Favre as the Green Bay Packers did if they know what's good for their organization. So, go to the Super Bowl, Brett, and announce your retirement in front of the world. Retire with class. Finally.