• Interesting juxtapositon of baseball articles in the Sunday New York Times the other day. On page 8, there was a short memoir piece by Joseph Burgess on finding, and then losing, the Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr. rookie card. It's all about a love of Junior.
• On page 7, meanwhile, an investigative piece by Michael S. Schmidt and David Waldstein suggests Junior's old teammate, Alex Rodriguez, who passed Junior in career homeruns last year for fifth place, is seeing a doctor in Florida who may be associated with administering human growth hormone. Are the Yankees trying to cut A-Rod loose? Is A-Rod just clumsy? Is the article a misunderstanding? He's had injuries, sure. But wouldn't steroid use and HGH make A-Rod less likely to be injured, rather than more? Either way, we've come a long way since A-Rod and Junior, both so young, hit 2nd and 3rd in the M's lineup. A-Rod's tarnished and still suspect; Junior, beloved, is a baseball card. 
• In that same day's New York Times Book Review, a great Q&A with author Alain de Botton. Quote: “It’s a mistaken prejudice of our times to think that the only way to cheer someone up is to tell them something cheerful. Exaggerated tragic pronouncements work far better.”
• Here are the 2013 Cesar nominees. Let's go “De Rouille et d'os”! 19 fevrier a Paris.
• Here's a fun memoir piece from Ken Levine on laughing too hard as a newbie writer on “The Tony Randall Show,” the one where he played a Philadelphia judge. I think that was my heyday of TV watching. Double lesson: fear is a great motivation; and never laugh when you find something really funny.
• Wow, that was quick. Two days after the Times story, David Schoenfield suggests A-Rod's career is over.

His last at-bat?