The Philadelphia Phillies signed Pedro Martinez and he immediately went on the DL with a shoulder strain. That must've been some heavy pen he was using to ink his contract. Pedro signed for a cheap $1 million the rest of the way, with a chance to earn another $1.5 million in bonuses. So much for his $5 million pro-rated he was demanding...is there anybody that is shocked that former Toronto Blue Jays - among others - closer Billy Koch was charged with criminal mischief and battery after getting into it with a neighbor, no doubt in a trailer park? Check out Koch's numbers pre-drug testing in 2003 and after. Anybody think he wasn't juicing?...the construction workers in South Africa working on World Cup 2010 stadia are no longer on strike after picking up 12% raises that will see the highest paid workers now making $336. A month. Seriously...the general consensus among Mariano Rivera, Justin Verlander, Shane Victorino and Michael Young, among others, on what picking up Roy Halladay would mean in a trade is that he'd put a team over the top. Well yeah, if you're a contender, you'd think one of the top five starters in the game would do that...why the New York Yankees should trade for Halladay: you've got about $40 million coming off the payroll this off-season with Andy Pettitte, Johnny Damon, Hideki Matsui, and Xavier Nady moving out, and a rotation fronted by CC Sabathia, Roy Halladay and AJ Burnett can lead you to 100 win years for the next 3/4 years. No brainer, even if it means dealing Phil Hughes and Jesus Montero...word is season ticket renewals for the NBA squads in Philadelphia, New Jersey, Indiana and Milwaukee are going terribly. Rough times ahead for David Stern's league?...Canadian Justin Morneau is unimpressed that the All-Star Game featured a pre-recorded version of the Canadian national anthem. Good for Morneau. How can games where Toronto is playing always have the anthem sung but the freaking All-Star Game, which has Blue Jays and Canadian players, goes to a canned version? Lame...a French tennis player had a failed drug charge dismissed upon appeal because he claims the cocaine ended up in his system after he kissed a girl at a bar. That's either incredible recall or creativity on his part...Dallas Cowboy back-up Tight End Martellus Bennett staged the Black Olympics where he went for the very evolved contests of seeing who could eat fried chicken quickest, watermelon, and drinking Kool-Aid quickest. The video is just over four minutes, and incredibly, at no point does the term "is this a bad idea?" come up. Video below...if I'm the CFL or MLS, I'm making damn sure I had games going last night sans competition. Alas, neither did and the WNBA was the only action to watch...the British Open is under way and by the sounds of it, everyone and their mother figures Tiger Woods is a lock. Also a lock: wind, torched grass and evil bunkers, if Turnberry is anything like the average British Open track...have a great Thursday.