Yellowstone, C.C. Sabathia, Brian Windhorst and … yes … Yellowstone

Ken Rosenthal of Foxsports.com reports that the Milwaukee Brewers have made a serious offer for C.C. Sabathia that includes two top prospects in the team's minor leagues. The offer could include a standout left-field prospect named Matt LaPorta and shortstop prospect Alcides Escobar. Rosenthal, a longtime and well-respected baseball writer, quoted anonymous baseball types marveling that the Indians could land those two players for Sabathia — and speculates that the Indians might have to give more than Sabathia to acquire them. The story is here. My scouting reports on the pair are incomplete. Well … I've never seen them even swing on the on-deck circle. But the tenor of this story indicates two things: The Indians are listening to offers for Sabathia, so we should probably expect him to be traded, and there are teams out there willing to give up some top talent to acquire him. If these two players are involved and they are the real deal, it might be impossible for Mark Shapiro to pass up the trade.

Several folks have asked me about Brian Windhorst, our outstanding and congenial Cavs beat writer (not many folks are called congenial these days are they?). Brian is an outstanding person, and he is presently in a local hospital recuperating. He has made progress these past 10 days of treatment, but the recovery and return to health will take time. I hope you all join me in wishing him well.

I have some thoughts on the Cavs and Indians and Browns in this Sunday's Beacon Journal, as well as the final animal count conducted by my daughters at Yellowstone. Yes, they counted each one they saw, from coyotes to buffalo to elk to moose to swans. One animal hit four figures — and it was not the wild humans stepping aimlessly in elk poop. RedHawk Rick commented on the previous Yellowstone post that this trip sounded like a wonderful opportunity to spend time with my daughters, and it was. I would not trade it for anything in the world. But I kind of think going to Borders with my daughters is a pretty good time too, and there are no buffalo or bears hanging out there. Rick also asked if Yellowstone was better than Jungle Larry's Safari Island. Really now, Rick, are we not stretching things a bit there? This would be like comparing a Pixar movie to Deputy Dawg or something. Dare we insult Jungle Larry by bringing him up in the same breath as Yellowstone's majestic mountains, roaring rivers and wonderful wildlife? Please.

Learned at Yellowstone that bison babies can actually be kind of cute. Not cute like Mikey from the Life cereal commercial or Adriana Lima (he wrote, cleverly finding a way to put her picture in again), but cute in their own fuzzy way. Apparently June is the best time to see bison babies, which makes it a good time to visit the park. Too, you're not there in September, when the male elk decide they want to … well … you know … find a female. So they get kind of aggressive and go after any human wearing a backpack (Hey … the backpack line is a JOKE — but the elk do get worked up in the fall). This time of year, the elk just walk around and eat and show off their furry butts. Elk have furry butts, you know. But you probably do know because Jungle Larry taught us all that. Alas, we digress. Here are a couple baby buffalo and part of the herd we saw the first afternoon we drove into the park.

Also learned that there really is nothing like seeing a bald eagle in the wild. Well … maybe there's a couple or few things like it … but we don't need to get into that at the moment. The day we saw the eagles, this male was hunting while the young eagle hung out at the nest. At first I thought it was the female, but a wise reader posted a comment and informed me it's the baby. (Thanks for that post … kind of saved me from further embarrassment.) I had thought the female eagle sent the male to hunt while she hung around watching The View or something, proving once again that the female of the species is wiser — no doubt she buttered up this poor schmuck male by praising his strength and hunting skills and off he went, like most dopey men. While waiting for Old Faithful to erupt one day — it's interesting, but not the highlight of the trip — a woman of American Indian descent explained that in the old days the women chose the chief, and the women of the tribe decided when the Indian nation would go to war, the thinking being that they had the most to lose. Which proves once again and through generations and cultures that no matter how much influence or power we males think we have, we only have it because the females allow us to have it. Like the guy who wanted to rearrange the living room because he was tired of how it looked. His wife said: "I let him." But since this is the baby, the joke might not be all that relevant. So … never mind.

At any rate, this is the male eagle, perched proudly on the end of this tree, from far away and then close up. And then after he flew into another tree after an unsuccessful venture into the Madison River in search of a fish.

And here is the baby. Amazing how large it gets, eh?