There was some talk of the brewing labor trouble and owners' sharing problem at the NFL Meetings last month.

Peter King of SI.com paints a not so pretty picture.

I love the game of baseball; my boys play, I played and I enjoy talking about it, and maybe it is because I grew up a Pirates fan, but I am down on the sport.

This new habit of taking pitches is killing the game. I understand the reasoning … get to the bullpens.

But here is the result: the Pirates-Cubs game yesterday, it last about 4.5 hours for 12 innings, there was 19 walks, nearly 500 pitches. It worked out to nearly 6.5 pitches per out.

That is ridiculous, but you know what else, it is the normal game.

John Calipari's Memphis team fell apart at the end, by not making their free throws, and Kansas is the best team this season. I still like Calipari as a coach, but Bill Self won the battle last night.

I do have a problem with the end of basketball games. We generally watch 38 minutes of good college basketball and then we play a free-throw, 3-point shooting contest. Heck, we might as well stop the game and vote on a slam dunk contest. In the NBA, shot clock and inbounds rules change the way the game is played in the end.

Change the rule so that after 10 team fouls the team gets two free throws and the ball back.

Playing the regular game, Memphis won last night. But as soon as we stop playing basketball and play the foul (smelling) game, we got a different champion.

Folks want to know why TV ratings are down for NBA and college basketball; all I know is it is pretty unanimous that the end of games make for awful TV.

Here are some things that I find interesting:

– Why does Memphis coach John Calipari get no credit for being a good basketball coach? I know that he can recruit, that he took UMass to the Final Four and that his teams have never gone on probabtion. I know that he struggled in the NBA, but he knows what he is doing on the college level. He outcoached Ben Howland of UCLA, and I expect the same thing tonight against Bill Self and Kansas.

– We received our shipment of MLB media guides this morning, what team do you think produced the thickest book? Try the Tampa Bay Rays. 576 pages; it works out to nearly a page per all-time victories. Very strange.

– If the Cavs end up fifth and then lose in the first round of the playoffs to the Washington Wizards, we all know the calls will be loud for coach Mike Brown to be fired. My guess is that won't happen. I think it is more likely that GM Danny Ferry gets bounced, but even writing that, don't look for a cleaning out of the Cavs by Dan Gilbert.

– Browns GM Phil Savage says he isn't going to trade up in this year's draft. And that is the correct choice. First, I don't think he has anything to trade beside next year's No. 1 or Brady Quinn, and Quinn isn't going anywhere this year. Check back on that this time next season if Derek Anderson goes to the Pro Bowl again. Lastly, Savage has built this team to win now, so he should give it a shot and see what happens this season.

– The first week was choppy for the Tribe, but a heck of a lot better than the Detroit Tigers'. Talk about flaming out.

Quick name the top five on the Indians payroll.

Did you forget Casey Blake or Paul Byrd?

The answer: C.C. Sabathia at $11 million, Jake Westbrook at $10M (with $21M more to come in the next two years), Travis Hafner at $8.05M (with $51.75M more to come over the next four seasons … he better not hit .250 ever again), Byrd at $7.5M and Blake $6.1M.

The total, according to numbers published in USA Today, is $78,970,066. Not bad for a team that could win the World Series.

The biggest bargain is a toss-up between Jensen Lewis ($393,000) and Asdrubal Cabrera ($393,300).

It also was reported that the Indians have committed more than $124M in future deals through 2013. The bulk of that being Hafner's crazy contract.

The rest of the AL Central:
Tigers at $137.7M
White Sox at $121.1M
Royals at $58.2M
Twins at $56.9M

The NFL doesn't need to do anything about the end of the season because some teams opt to not play their starters.

To me, it is each team's choice. The Indianapolis Colts earned the right to do what they wanted with their team. If folks remember, Browns linebacker Willie McGinest thinks the same way even though the Tennessee Titans beat a backup team of Colts, keeping the Browns out of the playoffs. The New York Giants, on the other hand, opted to play their starters against the New England Patriots even though they couldn't improve their standing in the NFC playoffs. That is fine, too.

On top of that, how do you legislate a team to play its starters, how do you determine who should start and who shouldn't. There is no way to determine that. It is fool's talk.

I also am against reseeding for the playoffs. If a team wins a division it earns one home game in the playoffs. With the schedules not being the same for each team, the divisions aren't equal.

Take the upcoming season, the AFC North, home to the Browns, plays the AFC South and NFC East. That means six 2007 playoff teams right there. My guess is whoever wins the AFC North (By the way, I think it will be the Browns), they will win 10 games at the most and maybe nine. The schedule will be very tough so the division winner deserves to be home, not on the road to play an 11-win wild-card team from a weaker division.

NFL, leave well enough alone.

It just took one round of the NCAA Tournament for this march to madness to take the turn for the better for two teams.

UCLA and Kansas have the road set up to the Elite Eight. Neither team will face a team better than an eighth seed in the next two rounds.

Upset City: Tampa, Fla., had four upsets on Friday. Two 13 seeds and two 12s won. Talk about bracket busters.

ESPNews said this morning that they had more than 2 million entries on ESPN.com and already there are no perfect brackets.

Enjoy the hoops.

Terrelle Pryor hopes to be used like Tim Tebow was when Florida won the national title. And I think Jim Tressel is thinking the same thing. It should be interesting to see if Pryor can develop into a quarterback who can throw the ball. That is why most think that he is more like a young Vince Young, and you know, there is nothing wrong with that.

Another side of Pryor's choice is that Michigan could be in for a long year. RichRod's game plan needs an athletic QB and I am not sure that Michigan has one. Could a below .500 season be in the offing?

The Indians seem to be flying under the radar locally.

The TV, radio and newspapers have continued their normal coverage of a Tribe spring training, but for a team that was one win from the World Series, it seems that not much is at stake.

Maybe it is the Browns' strong offseason or LeBron James, maybe there isn't enough air for everyone. Heck, even the Gladiators are 2-0.

The Indians are close, they can win it all.

But the window of opportunity is open THIS season. This is C.C. Sabathia's likely final season with the Indians.

These thoughts need to be a the forefront of GM Mark Shapiro's head.

I think Shapiro needs to be ready to play whatever chips he has to make trades to fix any holes that develop early. The chips, I see, are the the losers in the No. 5 spot in the rotation, either Lee, Laffey or Sowers. Marte, Choo and Francisco also are trade bait.

I think this team can win the American League this season, but it also can't be a season that Shapiro lets get away early. He needs to be bold and active.

The following is a list of the maximum amount of money each of the NFL teams has remaining to spend under the salary cap, according to Yahoo! Sports.. Figures are as of last Thursday.

The Browns have about $12 million, which puts them in the middle of the pack.

1. Tampa Bay $42.8 million

2. New Orleans $31.1 million

3. Kansas City $30.0 million

4. Tennessee $27.2 million

5. Buffalo $26.6 million

6. Jacksonville $26.2 million

7. Green Bay $24.4 million

8. Chicago $22.5 million

9. Miami $21.0 million

10. San Diego $18.7 million

11. Minnesota $18.6 million

12. Houston $15.6 million

13. Denver $15.2 million

14. San Francisco $15.0 million

15. St. Louis $14.6 million

16. Philadelphia $13.9 million

17. Cincinnati $13.3 million

18. Atlanta $12.5 million

19. Cleveland $12.0 million

20. New York Giants $11.1 million

21. New England $10.8 million

22. Seattle $9.1 million

23. Carolina $8.3 million

24. Washington $7.7 million

25. Indianapolis $7.6 million

26. Oakland $6.4 million

27. Baltimore $4.7 million

28. New York Jets $4.5 million

29. Detroit $4.4 million

30. Dallas $3.9 million

31. Pittsburgh $1.3 million

32. Arizona $310,078