Ohio

Marty Brennaman has been making other bold statements on behalf of the general public, saying such things as “People hate corn. Corn is the most hated vegetable,” and “Jim and Pam, Ross and Rachel, people have rooted against couples like this for ages.”

Former Cubs fan favorite Kerry Wood started his spring in a familiar way: with an injury. Now on the Indians, the closer sat out practices this week with a sore back before easing into workouts this morning. Despite a frustrating, injury-riddled career, Wood says he's not too concerned about the achy back.

Dusty Baker is at it once again. The former Cubs manager is not sending Mark Prior out to the mound for yet another inning, late in the game with his team up 10, and he's not scolding the fans for their incessant booing of LaTroy Hawkins. He is, however, signing some of his favorite 30-somethings to contracts -- like former Cubs Daryle Ward and Jacque Jones -- who inked minor league deals with Baker's Reds Thursday to serve as Baker's '09 versions of Lenny Harris and Freddie Bynum.

Cavaliers’ first-round draft pick Kyrie Irving took his basketball inexperience up a notch today when he shook hands with NBA Commissioner David Stern and confused him with famed composer Marvin Hamlish, saying, “It’s an honor to meet you, Mr. Hamlisch. You play the piano like Grant Hill.”

A lackluster effort by the Blackhawks led to a 1-0 shutout against the Columbus Blue Jackets Thursday night.

The Indians sent top Triple-A prospect Peter Minuit to the Yankees yesterday in exchange for $24 of beads, pelts and “clay pots to be named later.”

"A lot of people assumed we'd do something that made sense like split the teams up by geography or name them after our most famous alums, but why take the logical route?" said commissioner Jim Delany. "And there's no way we're changing it, no matter how stupid even our most die-hard supporters believe it to be."