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Baseballs Winter Meetings used to be the highlight of the off season. They still are, to a certain degree, but not nearly what they once were. Last year at Nashville, for instance, things were pretty quiet. You might say what turned out to be the biggest story was Boston signing outfielder/DH Jonny Gomes to a two-year deal worth $10 million. The biggest trade, if you can believe it, was probably Miami dealing former Jays shortstop Yunel Escobar to Tampa Bay for shortstop prospect Derek Dietrich. Alex Anthopoulos has presided over four Winter Meetings and has made just two trades of note over that span. In 2010, he dealt right-hander Shaun Marcum to Milwaukee and in 2011 he shipped pitching prospect Nestor Molina to the Chicago White Sox for reliever, maybe future closer, Sergio Santos. To be fair to Alex, he did most of his heavy lifting last year before the meetings; including that mammoth 12-player deal with the Marlins. If you dig a little deeper over the past four years, some of the biggest moves have backfired on the teams that appeared at the time to be striking gold. In 2010, the Red Sox pulled off a four-player deal with San Diego to get Adrian Gonzalez and then signed Carl Crawford to the largest deal ever given to a position player who had never hit 20 home runs in a season; Crawford leaving Tampa Bay to sign a seven-year, $142 million deal with the Bosox. Less than two years later, on August 25, 2012, Boston packaged Gonzalez and Crawford into an eight-player deal with the Dodgers that in the long run helped change the fortunes of both clubs. In 2011 at Dallas, the Angels stole the show with a couple of major free agent signings, getting Albert Pujols on a 10-year, $240 million deal and left-handed starter C. J Wilson on a five-year pact worth $77.5 million. Pujols had a decent first years with the Angels but then had his second year cut short by a foot injury and only hit 17 homers in 99 games. Some questioned whether he will ever return to the "superstar" form of his St. Louis days; especially when he will be 34 next season. Wilson has pitching pretty well for the Angels, racking up a 30-17 record with a 3.60 ERA, but the Angels havent come close to making the playoffs since these two arrived on the scene. The Halos only compounded their troubles by signing Rangers free agent left fielder Josh Hamilton to a five year, $125 million deal on December 13 of last year. Hamilton only hit .250 with 21 homers and 79 runs batted in. So in the last four Winter Meetings, there seems to have been more questionable moves than good. In 2009 at Indianapolis, the biggest news might have involved the media. Baseball print and broadcast legend Peter Gammons left ESPN to join MLB.com, the MLB Network and NESN. Oddly enough on the eve of these Winter Meetings in Orlando, ESPN announced Curt Schilling would be moving into the both on Sunday Night Baseball with Dan Shulman and John Kruk; Schilling replacing Orel Hershiser, who is heading for the Dodgers new network. After all that happened last week, including Robby Cano signing with Seattle and Carlos Beltran joining the Yankees, you have to wonder if this is going to be a relatively quiet week in Orlando. For the fans sake, I hope it isnt. I mentioned in my last article that the new executive director of the Players Association, Tony Clark, once hit three homers in a game against the Blue Jays. Well, I researched it a little further. The game was at Rogers Centre on August 28, 2004. Clark had started the game going 0-for-2, and then in the 6th inning he slugged a three-run homer off lefty Ted Lilly. In the 8th inning, he added a solo shot off Jason Frasor and in the 9th another bases empty blast off Kerry Ligtenberg. So Clark wound up going 3-for-5 with five runs batted in, in an 18-6 Yankees blowout win. That, however, wasnt the most unusual aspect of that game. The Blue Jays scored two runs in the bottom of the 8th and actually shaved the Yanks lead to 9-6. Things were getting dicey, so skipper Joe Torre brought in Mariano Rivera with two out in the 8th. Rivera did his job retiring all four men he faced. The Yankees, though, scored nine runs in the top of the 9th to turn it into a laugher. Nevertheless, Rivera got his 45th save in a 12-run victory. I would doubt that ever happened before or since. Its amazing the stuff you can discover on Baseball Almanac. Roy Halladay, whos battled through shoulder issues the last two years, is going to retire. In fact, he is going to call it a career as a Blue Jay. He will sign a one-day contract with the Jays before officially retiring. That would lead you to believe that if Roy makes it to the Hall of Fame one day he will go in as a Blue Jay. Also quite the coincidence that Halladay would retire in the same off-season as his good friend and former Jays teammate Chris Carpenter. The game will miss them both. Deonte Thompson Jersey . -- The Phoenix Coyotes have won three in a row for the first time in 4 1/2 months, and theyve done it just in time for the stretch run to the playoffs. Allen Hurns Cowboys Jersey . - This is just the warm-up act for 18-year-old William Nylander. http://www.cowboysfootballgearshop.com/leighton-vander-esch-jersey/ . -- Pelicans coach Monty Williams does not expect guard Eric Gordon to play in any of New Orleans final five games this season. Chidobe Awuzie Cowboys Jersey . The 25-year-old native of Milford, Conn., has 18 points in 41 games this season. The five-foot-eight 166-pound centre also has 28 points (10-18) in 15 games with AHL Oklahoma City. Mike White Cowboys Jersey . Altidore strained his left hamstring in the Americans opener against Ghana on June 16 and didnt play in their next two games. "We dont know how much because we need to see how hes going, but hes available," U.PITTSBURGH, Pa. - The Cincinnati Bengals looked at their prime-time visit to Pittsburgh as a chance to make a statement about their legitimacy as AFC contenders. In one sense, the Bengals fit right in. Just like Denver and New England earlier in the weekend, Cincinnati let a chance to take firm control of its playoff fate disappear against a scuffling rival. Pittsburghs Antonio Brown caught a touchdown pass and returned a punt for a score in a 64-second span in the first quarter and the Steelers jumped on the Bengals early in a 30-20 victory Sunday night. Given a chance to all but clinch the AFC North and move into the No. 2 spot behind Denver in the AFC, the Bengals (9-5) let Pittsburgh race to a 21-0 lead and never recovered. "Its tough, for sure, because we had everything in front of us," Cincinnati wide receiver A.J. Green said. "We could have had ourselves set up in a great position if we could have come out here and won today." Green finished with nine receptions for 93 yards, but the Bengals didnt make much happen downfield. Cincinnatis longest play was 19 yards, preventing the Bengals from making speedy inroads on the Steelers (6-8) after falling behind so quickly. Andy Dalton completed 25 of 44 passes for 230 yards and two second-half touchdowns, but Cincinnatis only chance to draw within one score ended when Daltons 2-point conversion was batted down with 5:51 remaining. "Theres no panic," Dalton said. "Theres no worry about anything. Were not frantic. We still have two games at home and have everything to accomplish, so weve got to take care of our business." Shaun Suisham added three field goals for Pittsburgh, which built a 24-point lead and hardly looked like a team playing out the string. Ben Roethlisberger completed 20 of 25 passes for 191 yards with a touchdown and an interception. LeVeon Bell added 117 yards of total offence and a touchdown. "I have said for a bunch of weeks now that there is going to be no quit from me or from anybody," Roethlisberger said. "I thought tonight was a good example of that." Looking to move closer to a third straight playoff berth, the Bengals were undone by a series of miscues on special teams. Bell scored two plays after Cincinnati punter Kevin Huber dropped a snap while standing near the goal line after the Bengals first possession. Pittsburghs Will Allen dropped Huber at the 1 and Bell bulled into the end zone on second down for his sixth touchdown of the season.dddddddddddd Cincinnatis issues continued on the ensuing kickoff. Officials ruled Cedric Peerman called for a fair catch at the Cincinnati 9, wiping out a lengthy return. The Bengals eventually punted, setting up the Steelers with a short field. Pittsburgh went 47 yards in eight plays, with Roethlisberger buying enough time for Brown to get open for a 12-yard touchdown strike to make it 14-0. Browns early work wasnt done. Cincinnati punted yet again and Brown took it 67 yards right up the middle, breaking a tackle at midfield on his way to the second punt return for a score in his four-year career for Pittsburghs third touchdown of the quarter. Huber took a hard hit from Pittsburghs Terence Garvin during the return. Huber was down on the field for several minutes before walking straight to the Cincinnati locker room with a fractured jaw. Cincinnati kicker Mike Nugent took over Hubers punting duties. Pittsburgh extended its lead to 24-0 before the Bengals steadied themselves with a 47-yard touchdown drive capped by Giovani Bernards 1-yard run. The Steelers responded late in the half with Suishams 45-yard field goal by to give them their biggest halftime lead of the season. Suishams third field goal pushed Pittsburghs advantage to 30-7 before the Bengals responded with Daltons 1-yard touchdown pass to Tyler Eifert. Dalton later found Marvin Jones for a 13-yard score on fourth-and-5 with 5:51 to play, but Pittsburgh rookie linebacker Jarvis Jones got his hands on Daltons conversion attempt to keep it a two-score game. The Bengals got the ball back one more time, and Daltons long heave to Green on fourth down fell incomplete. "It was a snowball effect," Cincinnati centre Kyle Cook said. "Its tough when youre all bundled up like that to start the game, and then the next thing you know youre down 21-0. So, that makes it tough to get going and come back from that deficit." NOTES: The crowd of 45,873 was the smallest in the 13-year history of Heinz Field. ... Brown caught five passes for 66 yards and a score and now has 95 receptions on the season, tied for second-most in team history. ... Bengals linebacker James Harrison, making his first appearance in Pittsburgh since leaving the Steelers to sign with Cincinnati in the off-season, left in the first quarter with a concussion. 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