PSoTD

How many hours of NFL football games do you watch on television each week?

I'm a Reds fan, but it sure seems to me that Pete Rose is looking for subtle ways to embarrass Major League Baseball so that they feel removing the lifetime ban would be less newsworthy.

When I was a little kid, Johnny Bench was my favorite sports hero. I was a Cincinnati Reds fan, and Bench did lots of great things on the ballfield. I own two "celebrity autographs" (it really isn't my thing), and Johnny Bench's is one of them.

Good to see him doing something valuable for another community that can use encouragement: people with hip problems.

I didn't realize that the movie coming out "Everyone's Hero" had Christopher Reeve as a director.

Regardless, this movie looks putrid. I love baseball, and the idea of an animated movie about baseball for kids, one that might raise the game's attraction to the youngest generation, is great. Baseball needs something like this.

But from the commercials and the trailers, Everyone's Hero isn't going to get it done. A talking baseball and a talking bat? My kids - including our six year old who likes baseball - don't want anything to do with this movie. Our son is prime market, and the marketing has turned him off.

The good news: Ed Helms gets a movie role. He plays Hobo Louie.

I just want to say, I think the sportswriters that suggest the Bears are toothless this year are about to be proven wrong. I have no doubt that the defense will not be as good as last year - we were very lucky in team health on that side of the ball - but that it will be plenty stout and within the top 10 defenses in the league.

On offense, I expect a considerable change. I expect Rex Grossman to play with confidence and WITHOUT rust. I expect the running game to be successful still. I expect Bernard Berrian to bloom this season as wide receiver. And I expect Lovie Smith to open up the offense quite a bit.

So... let's get going!

Anyone else beginning to sense a bit of vintage 1964 Philadelphia Phillies in Motown? The Detroit Tigers play 4 against Minnesota and three against the White Sox in the next two weeks. Two bad series there, and we could be seeing the greatest collapse finish in a generation of baseball seasons.