Happy Friday.  This Friday will be the Friday of our Fridays.....what...

RELAPSE
Of course this is going to be the lead story.  Reports surfaced last night that Josh Hamilton relapsed.  I feel like the smart thing to do is hold off on any hardcore opinions until Josh comments and tells us what exactly happened.  The reports are very murky in terms of any definite information.  Gerry Fraley of the Dallas Morning News reported that Ian Kinsler appeared at the establishment in order to persuade Hamilton to go home.  The Rangers released a statement saying they were aware of the situation, but had no comment at this time.  Josh deserves a chance to either come clean or defend himself and I suspect that'll happen sometime this weekend.

I've got a ton of thoughts, but i'll keep it quick because the deeper thoughts don't need to be published until I hear Josh speak on this situation.

Is anybody really surprised here?  I'm not.  This could be a completely overblown thing, or it could be a serious problem.  Chances are it's a little bit of both.  I have a hard time believing Josh hasn't had a beer since the Arizona relapse.  He's a major league baseball player out on the road with his buddies for a large part of 9 months.  There's probably going to be a beer or two.  He could have a beer or two with a couple teammates and those teammates will personally make sure it doesn't transform into more than that.  Addiction is not a thing involving fine lines.  There's no quick fix.  This is a constant battle.  We have no idea, and most of the public has no idea how difficult this battle is for Josh.  It's neverending.

Now to the business side of things...doesn't this make the Rangers extension dilemma a lot easier?  I think it does.  I think the Rangers would love to have him back after this season, but he'll need to sign a club friendly deal.  That's what I prefer.  I've heard rumors of 12-15 million on the open market, but I don't think anybody would seriously give him that.  I've long been of the thought that the Rangers should let Josh walk after this season, but should ink him to an extension as long as he'll do a club friendly deal.  By club friendly, I mean no more than 6-8 million a year.

No matter what, we should wait this out though.  I truly hope Josh is okay and that everything is straight in his life.  I'm concerned though.  I'm concerned that this could get blown way out of proportion, but i'm even more concerned for Josh and his family.  Stay tuned....

SUPER BOWL
The Super Bowl is Sunday.  I guess i'm going to give some sort of lukewarm sports opinion on it.  I think the Giants will win.  There are so many similarities with the Giants and last year's Packers.  Nobody ever seems to point it out (they point out Detroit beating Tampa Bay instead), but the Packers don't make the playoffs last year if DeSean Jackson doesn't make that game winning punt return for a touchdown against Philadelphia in Week 14 or 15.  Somehow that always gets swept under the rug.  That punt return is this year's Miles Austin "lost it in the lights play".  If Tony Romo connects with Miles Austin on that wide open play in the first Cowboys and Giants meeting, then the Cowboys win the division and make the playoffs while the Giants sit at home.  The Giants hit a stride, got players healthy, and have cruised through the playoffs in the same manner the Packers did last year.  Obviously, it'd be rediculous to count Tom Brady and the Patriots out.  They were my pick on Monday of this week, but i've slowly changed my mind.  I expect a great game.  I truly do.  It's a game where I don't really like either team at all, but I also don't really hate either team at all.  It doesn't excite me like some Super Bowls do, but I still think it'll be a great game.  There's nothing like the Super Bowl.

MASTERS OF SEX
One of my favorite actresses Lizzy Caplan is finally getting her own show.  Caplan, of Party Down fame, will star with Michael Sheen in a Showtime program that is an adaptation of something about sexual research.  Haven't looked that far into it honestly, but Caplan is a personal favorite of mine thanks to Party Down.  Here's the article from AV CLUB.  

REVIEW OF LAST NIGHT'S PARKS AND REC "OPERATION ANN"
From an overall standpoint, very little has been written for Rashida Jones' character Ann Perkins this season.  That doesn't mean she's not important.  If anything, she's essential to the show.  Leslie needs her as a best friend, and one of my favorite relationships in the history of Parks and Recreation is the relationship (or lack thereof) between April Ludgate and Ann Perkins.

Also, Ron loves riddles, Aziz Ansari's cousin's name is Harris so it was funny to see that be the name of one of Ann's speed dates, Martin Starr is in this episode (Roman from Party Down), and the emo kid Orin returns as well.  There's so much more, and i'm sure Alan Sepinwall will hit on some of these things, so i'll direct you to his review because he's a lot better at reviews than I am.

I honestly haven't read his review yet, I just did the linkage.  No matter what he thought of the episode, I really liked it.  I think I probably get accused of being a homer for this show, but right now i'm finding that it can really do no wrong.

You need to have a good Friday!

KT