Shanoff's WUC: Tiger, Halladay, Lee, Lackey

Today's Calls: Tiger vs. Calf Blood, Roy Halladay vs. Cliff Lee, John Lackey vs. Hideki Matsui, Frank Gore vs. Cards D, Jake Locker vs. Sam Bradford, Colt McCoy vs. Ndamukong Suh, Babe Ruth vs. Josh Gibson and More.

The Opening Pitch: Finally, some good news for Tiger!

After three weeks of sex scandal, tangential implication in a potential scandal involving performance-enhancing drugs seems small by comparison. Most people -- the non-fans driving the insatiable public curiosity for all things Tiger -- couldn't care less about PEDs, unless you're talking about Ambien.

We have gotten a lot of reasons -- nearly a dozen of them -- not to trust Tiger as the upstanding icon of responsibility he has been portrayed as -- ironically, I think he'd cheat on his wife before he'd cheat on the game ... oh, wait.

Dr. Anthony Galea's methods might be ... innovative (know the phrase "platelet-rich plasma therapy," involving calf's blood) and he might have worked with athletes recovering from injury from Tiger to Dara Torres to pro football players. Remember: There's no reason not to trust any doctor nicknamed "Miracle Man."

There's a fine line between the necessary boundary-pushing in medical methods that are in-bounds and the stuff that may cross the line. For now, fans and media need to get a lot more educated on the techniques before implying guilt-by-association.

But if Team Tiger wanted someone to change the subject from his adultery to something -- anything -- else, he got it.

MLB Hot Stove Insanity: Only Tiger could push the biggest Hot Stove day of the offseason to the back-burner.

• But the fact is: Roy Halladay is headed to Philly, replacing playoff hero Cliff Lee. Lee is a near-impossible act to follow, and yet Halladay is even better (and, presumably, to be locked up for a half-decade, unlike Lee).

• Lee is going to Seattle, to anchor a team with playoff aspirations. Lee is Seattle's chance to make up for the Erik Bedard deal; Lee is a superior pitcher, with playoff-race experience and without the injury issues.

• Meanwhile, John Lackey has reportedly left the Angels for the Red Sox, who get their own, significantly smaller version of last year's CC Sabathia deal. Boston didn't have to give up young talent to land Halladay. Of course, they didn't get Halladay. (But almost as important: Neither did the Yankees. The AL East arms race continues.)

• As for the Angels? They lost their ace. They lost out on Halladay. But their obsession with catching the Yankees continues by signing World Series MVP Hideki Matsui. But in focusing on matching the Yankees, did they lose their own division?

MNF: 49ers surprise Cards. Some day, the Niners will find the ideal run-pass balance. For now, relying on Gore got the job done. (Either that, or the Cards are pretenders merely posing as a playoff team. The Cards have "early playoff exit" written all over them. Given the franchise's history, that's a HUGE upgrade over "perennially miss the playoffs.")

Colts not resting? Is it possible that the Colts under Jim Caldwell will abandon the practice of resting the starters after playoff position has been clinched, which has earned the Colts nothing but early playoff exits? Looks that way -- how refreshing. (BTW: That's THIS week; we'll see what happens in Weeks 16 and 17.)

NFL Draft: Jake Locker staying at Washington, even though he is the highest-rated QB on the board for the 2010 draft and is a guaranteed 1st-round pick -- perhaps even a guaranteed Top 10 pick. It's like he looked at Sam Bradford's experience this year and said: "Oh YES: Give me some of THAT!" An irrational decision and a mistake. He will not get better prepared for the NFL by playing another year in college, rather than learning directly from NFL coaches.

SN CFB A-A Team: You can't say it's not star-studded. McCoy headlines an offense featuring Spiller, Gerhart, Shipley and Tate. Suh leads a D that includes Hughes, McClain, Haden and Berry. You know it's stacked when the best college QB of all time is relegated to the 2nd team.

Scandals: What was Jim Leavitt thinking? This can't end well.

Bowl Schedule: What's the bowl you're most intrigued to watch, outside of your own team's game? Dave Curtis ranks the bowl games, 1-34. He's got Oklahoma-Stanford at No. 1, Alabama-Texas at No. 5 and TCU-Boise underrated at No. 8.

More Hot Stove: The Cards are willing to give Matt Holliday an 8-year deal to make him the bolster to Albert Pujols' franchise foundation. ... Mike Cameron is the new Jason Bay? Umm, not quite. ... Let the Aroldis Chapman Derby begin. ...

NBA Talking Points: Can anyone stop the Celtics? (11 straight Ws). ... A day after being clobbered by LeBron, the Thunder get a taste of Carmelo (31 pts in Denver W). ... Just when you think it can't get any worse this season for the Wizards, they find a new low. ... More fodder for "LeBron-staying-in-Cleveland" conspiracy theorists.

CBB Top 25: Congrats to New Mexico fans, making their first Top 25 appearance in a decade. Win over Texas A&M put them over the top, but I wouldn't put too much stock in an unbeaten record built on cupcakes.

Games: Babe Ruth vs. Josh Gibson. Strat-o-Matic -- my favorite game growing up -- contributes to a new debate. (Need a primer on Strat? Here you go.)

Ouch: This is what it has been reduced to for JaMarcus Russell. Charlie Frye? It's almost like Tom Cable would rather humiliate Russell than win games -- that is, if the Raiders hadn't gotten infinitely more competitive the minute they benched Russell.

The Last Word: "When his career is over, you'll look back on these indiscretions as a minor blip, but the media is making a big deal out of it right now." -- Nike boss Phil Knight. (If, by "minor blip," he means "brand-scarring.")

Dan Shanoff writes The Wake-Up Call every weekday morning for SportingNews.com and blogs daily at DanShanoff.com. Got any comments, questions or feedback? Email Dan at shanofftsn-[at]-gmail-[dot]-com. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/danshanoff.

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