On Boxing Day, the pursuit of Masahiro Tanaka finally begins. The 25-year-old Japanese star has officially been posted by his club team, the Rakuten Golden Eagles. So for the new capped fee of $20 million, any one of the 30 Major League teams can get in on the bidding and getting a deal done by 5pm on January 24. Tanaka was a spectacular 24-0 this season with a miniscule 1.27 ERA. He is the same age Yu Darvish was when he was posted two years ago and, like Darvish, wants the challenge of pitching in the Majors. The Blue Jays were in on the chase for Darvish, but to what extent we will never really know. There were rumblings at the time that the Blue Jays barely lost out to Texas and their winning bid of $51.7 million. But Alex Anthopoulos and the organization would never confirm or deny that and in the end, it was felt the Rangers were actually bidding against themselves just to be sure they got Darvish. Texas signed him to a six-year, $60 million deal but if certain conditions are met, the sixth year turns into a player option. So far its been a good investment by Texas. Darvish is 29-18 over two seasons with 401 innings, 498 strikeouts and 169 walks. He was added the American League All-Star roster his first year, and only missed last years mid-summer classic due to an injury. Most scouts believe Darvish to be a better pitcher than Tanaka, who projects by many to be a number 2 or 3 starter, rather than a staff ace. When Tanaka won the Sawamura Award as top pitcher in Japan in 2011, over Darvish, he conceded that although he had slightly better numbers than Darvish in a couple of categories, he said "as a pitcher, Im nowhere near his calibre". The Blue Jays self-imposed five-year limit on contracts is one thing working against them, although Anthopoulos conceded a couple of weeks ago that the Jays might go to six years for the right player. The biggest thing going against the Jays is the desperation of some of those big-name teams that figure to be in on the bidding and the marquee presence of others. The Yankees pitching staff needs an infussion of youth and talent. The Dodgers havent won a World Series since 1988 and Texas has never won one. Boston is in that year-by-year battle for bragging rights and now that theyve won three World Series titles this century to the Yankees two, they arent going to let up now. The Blue Jays may make an offer just to say they did, but Id bet on Texas or the Yankees to be Tanakas ultimate landing spot. A couple of trivia points on Darvish. The first Major League hit he surrendered was to his countryman Ichiro Suzuki and the first home run he surrendered was to Edwin Encarnacion of the Blue Jays on April 30, 2012. Darvish still won that game though, 4-1. Another Babe It was on December 26 of 1919 when the most infamous deal in Red Sox history went down. It was the day Babe Ruth was sold to the Yankees. This is the story of another player who went by the nickname "Babe". Werner Birrer was a reliever and occassional spot starter for parts of three seasons in the 1950s with the Tigers, Orioles and Dodgers. Hes better known for his years pitching in the International League, in Buffalo, the city where he was born. He ultimately made it into the Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame and was a valued member of the community as a teacher and a coach. Babe Birrer passed away back in November at age 85. He had one day in his career where it all came together and earned him the sobriquet "Babe". On July 19 of 1955, Birrer came on in relief in the sixth inning to try and protect a 5-4 Tigers lead over Baltimore. Not only did he pitch four shutout innings of relief to earn his second of four career saves, Birrer slugged a pair of three-run homers to propel the Tigers to a 12-4 victory over the 0s. What was so special about that? Well, those were the only two home runs and only six runs batted inn of Birrers entire career. As far as anyone knows, he is the only Major League player in history to cram all of his home runs and RBI production into just one game. For that one day, that one game, Werner Birrer was called "Babe" by his teammates for the rest of his career. Oddly enough, the two relievers who surrendered those home runs to Birrer, George Zuverink and Art Shallock, are both still alive and amongst the 100 oldest surviving Major Leaguers. Shallock is 89 and 245 days, Zuverink 89 and 128 days. Just a little known page in the book of Tigers history. Authentic Elias Lindholm Jersey . Houston won 3-0 to advance to face New York in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Last in the game, Di Vaio and Romero got into a shoving match with several Houston players. Romero appeared to elbow and kick Houston defender Kofi Sarkodie. Authentic Jay McClement Jersey . The 20-year-old Pelicans big man glanced up and smiled widely at the well-wishers -- a fitting end to a day he wont soon forget. Davis responded to his selection earlier in the day as a Western Conference All-Star with 26 points and 10 rebounds, and the New Orleans Pelicans overcame a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit to defeat the Minnesota Timberwolves 98-91 on Friday night. http://www.hockey... . -- The proud fathers huddled near the Dallas Stars dressing room, smiling, laughing and telling stories while wearing replica green sweaters of their sons team. [url=http://www.hockeyhurricanes.com/justin-faulk-hockey-jersey/]Justin Faulk Jersey . Irving scored 23 points, Tristan Thompson had 20 points and 10 rebounds and the Cavaliers beat the Denver Nuggets 117-109 on Friday night. Justin Faulk Hurricanes Jersey . Dukurs winning time was 1 minute, 45.76 seconds, a quarter-second better than Russias Alexander Tretiakov. Lativas Tomass Dukurs was third, 1.41 seconds off the pace. Jon Montgomery of Eckville, Alta.WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- Only two Syracuse teams have won their first 20 games, and C.J. Fair has been a member of both. This current one, he says, is "a hard-fought 20-game winning streak." Not much came easy during the Oranges latest victory. No. 2 Syracuse matched the best start in program history Wednesday night, pulling away to beat Wake Forest 67-57 behind a strong second half from freshman Tyler Ennis. Ennis scored 16 of his 18 points after halftime and Fair finished with 16 points for the Orange (20-0, 7-0 Atlantic Coast Conference), while Trevor Cooney scored all eight of his in the final 1:45. Syracuse remained one of three unbeaten teams in Division I with No. 1 Arizona, which beat Stanford 60-57 on Wednesday, and No. 4 Wichita State. The Orange pulled away late while sidestepping a possible trap with a visit from No. 17 Duke coming up this weekend, and joined the 2011-12 group as the only Orange teams to start 20-0. "Weve got a long stretch ahead of us," Fair said. In their first visit to Tobacco Road as ACC members, they had to work for it against a Wake Forest team that had been perfect at home and tough on visitors in the top five. "It was just one of those games youre just trying to struggle through defensively, and we did just a good enough job defensively to be able to get the win," coach Jim Boeheim said. "You have to find a way to win these games, and this team has been able to do that." Travis McKie scored 12 points for the Demon Deacons (14-7, 4-4), and his free throw with 4:10 left pulled them to 54-49. But while Wake Forest came up empty on its next two trips down court, Cooney caught fire. "We needed one of those timely 3s to go in," McKie said. "If we just wouldve got three more of those 3s to go in, wed be looking at a different outcome." The guard buried a fall-away jumper that he called "the toughest shot I had all day." He followed that with two free throws to give Syracuse its first double-figure lead and streaked down court for an open-court dunk after a steal by Fair to put the Orange up 62-50 with 1:19 left.dddddddddddd. "I heard C.J. say, Shoot it," Cooney said. "And no one needs to tell me to shoot it." By then, they could look ahead to hosting the Blue Devils at the Carrier Dome in one of the seasons most widely anticipated matchups. Devin Thomas scored 12 points for Wake Forest, which had won 13 straight at Joel Coliseum and had won three straight home games against top-five teams -- a run that included a rout of then-No. 2 Miami last season. Just about all of the Demon Deacons key stats suggested they would be blown out: They shot 34 per cent, were outrebounded 55-35, made just three of their 20 3-point attempts and were 18 of 30 from the free throw line. "Theyre long and athletic, so their zone is definitely a force to be reckoned with," McKie said. "We had great looks. We just didnt knock it down." But some of the Oranges numbers were equally poor -- they shot 36 per cent and were 22 of 33 from the free throw line -- and that allowed Wake Forest to stay within striking distance for much of the game. "For the most part, we did a good job on their shooters, and when they got an open look, they just didnt make it," Boeheim said. "Same as us." Joel Coliseum was buzzing when Wake Forest turned an eight-point deficit into a one-possession game in the span of a few seconds midway through the second half. Robert Morris transfer Coron Williams swished a 3-pointer before Madison Jones swiped the ball from Cooney and hit a quick layup to make it 40-37 with 12 1/2 minutes left. Ennis, who was 0 for 6 from the field in the first half, followed by reeling off eight points -- all on drives down or across the lane -- in about 4 minutes to give the Orange a bit of breathing room. His finger roll helped Syracuse match its largest lead to that point, 48-40, with about 8 1/2 minutes left. Jerami Grant finished with 10 points and 12 rebounds for the Orange. Cheap China Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys China Cheap Jerseys From China China NFL Jerseys Cheap Jerseys Cheap Jerseys China ' ' '