Ryan Howard won his arbitration case, and even though they had every right to take it to arbitration, the Phillies just come off looking the way they always do: like cheap bastards. Whether that is fair or not in this case I don’t know, but due to a long running (124 year) history of doing everything on the cheap, they’re gonna come off looking like the bad guys in a situation like this. They paid him a measly $900,000 the year after he won the MVP, and Howard wouldn’t have such a short tenure if they hadn’t been so short sighted and signed Thome. Anyways, we’ve got four seasons of Howard before he moves on to greener pastures (aka teams that don’t pretend like they don’t have any money). So does Howard deserve $10 million? Fans in Philly sure think so. More importantly, I’m glad he won. This will be one less distraction in the coming year.

One of my favorite people in America celebrates a B-day today. Here’s a few choice Charles quotes, courtesy of barkleyquotes.com:

• On the Portland Trail Blazers serving Thanksgiving meals: “In between arrests they do community service.”
• “You’re the boss, Ernie. The white guy’s always the boss.”
• “They say it about brothers, but I can guarantee everybody in Finland look alike.”
• Ernie: Do the Knicks have any chance of turning things around? Charles: Heeellll No!
• On the Enron scandal investigation: “Almost all those politicians took money from Enron, and there they are holding hearings. That’s like O.J. Simpson getting in the Rae Carruth jury pool.”
• Ernie Johnson: “Auburn is a pretty good school. To graduate from there I suppose you really need to work hard and put forth maximum effort.” Sir Charles: “20 pts and 10 rebounds will get you through also.”
• “I’m not a role model, … Just because I dunk a basketball doesn’t mean I should raise your kids.”
• “When I was recruited at Auburn, they took me to a strip joint. When I saw those t**s on Buffy, I knew that Auburn met my academic requirements.”