Griffey continues to produce. How much longer will he do it for the Reds?

It really doesn’t get better than being number one in all the land and playing for your local Bulls, an NBA team that’s rich in tradition.  I bet that Derrick Rose is wishing that one day he would have a monument immortalizing him outside the United Center like fellow son of the Second City, Michael Jordan. But please don’t think I’m going to make that Rose-Jordan comparison like all those journalists did.

  Rose is a very different player and he is more of a facilitator as opposed to the assassin of a scorer like MJ.  He does, however, have the heart to take a team on his back and ride them to the Promised Land.  If he only could have hit both free throws with 10.8 seconds left in regulation as the Memphis Tigers went ahead and blew the game against Kansas. 

You should be here in Chicago. The city is buzzing about Rose. It seems his name and picture are lighting up the skyline. Kids from his neighborhood, Englewood, are ecstatic that someone escaped the streets. And everyone knows someone who goes to church with Rose’s grandmother, or knew Rose’s mom when she worked at the local elementary school.  He’s already got legions of young fans, and I predict he’ll be a huge fantasy pickup.

I hope he can deliver for this team that went a lackluster 33-49 and 26 games back with no production from the backcourt consisting of Kirk Hinrich, Ben Gordon, Chris Duhon and newcomer Larry Hughes.  If they save the bigs and pick up a sneaky free agent we might be cooking with gas in this town.  The Southsider Rose will get plenty of support from the locals and his unselfish play will carry over and bring some stability to the squad.  Be on the lookout for the fire sale on guards because there’s not enough room for this stable of 1 and 2’s.  If I were the Bulls manager, I would take a serious look at free agents Corey Maggette who opted-out of his contract with the Clippers and George Wallace from the Bobcats who is looking to move. 

Have you ever been to the United Center? The Jordan statue has a gate around it, but it’s an icon for both fans and visitors alike.  People  (mostly illegally) scale the fence and take pictures of one of the greats. Rose can only hope and dream that he can fill the shoes of his Airness.  In the days of the me-first athlete I really don’t see it in Rose.  Those qualities led the Bulls to take him over Michael Beasley. Instead of the high-scoring forward from Kansas State, they picked a dynamic floor leader that averaged 14.9 points and 4.7 assists in his lone season at Memphis.

This whole worst-to-first thing is getting catchy because I’m scratching my head and asking why Tampa Bay’s James Shields is playing lights out against the Red Sox at Tropicana Field?  He is 2-0 and looking very confident and in control out there on the bump.  Overall, the Rays are 4-0 against Boston this season.  We usually have to deal with Scott Kazmir and the lethal lefty’s crafty pitching but now the Rays are battling hard this year.  They play great defense, pitch gems, hit for power and posses speed on the bases.  If you want to trade for some players from their squad, let’s go with BJ Upton .284, 6 Home Runs, 41 RBI’s and 23 stolen bases, speedy Carl Crawford .274, 8 Home Runs, 44 RBI’s and 20 stolen bases and hard hitting Evan Longoria .267, 15 Home Runs, 47 RBI’s and 4 stolen bases .

In all league activity Ken Griffey Jr. just hit his 603^rd homer for his illustrious career.  Griffey Jr. is a class act and a must have on your fantasy team. 

I’m still on that Jhonny Peralta bandwagon as he went 5-for-5 with three doubles last night.  He hit his 12^th homer of the season and had 3 RBI’s.

Hanley Ramirez continues to hit the stitching off the ball.  He went 2-for-5 last night with 1 RBI for the Marlins as they got a 6-5 win over the Nationals.