First, let’s catch up on Pop Quiz questions:
1. From Andy Romanic of Freeport: In the 1942 film “Pride of the Yankees,” three Yankees played themselves. Two were Hall of Famers: Bill Dickey and Babe Ruth. Who was the third?
2. From Bob Buscavage of Moriches: Name the multiple Cy Young Award winner who appears as himself in a 2013 episode of “Franklin & Bash.”
3. From Anthony LoBaido of Walnut Creek, Calif.: During the 1999 episode of “The X-Files” titled “The Unnatural,” Agent Mulder (David Duchovny) wears the jersey of a Hall of Famer. Name the former player.
— Happy New Year!*
*Remember, legally, you can wish someone a Happy New Year until the end of business a week from today, Jan. 13. After that, you must pay a $50 fine. (There’s actually no such law. But there should be.)
With the holidays fully behind us, let’s reboot (or deboot, as they put it in Sunday night’s episode of “The Simpsons”) and see what’s left in this baseball offseason. This figures to be the busiest January in recent memory.
The Hall of Fame
That topic is expected to dominate this week, with the announcement coming Wednesday and a news conference with the inductee(s) Thursday in Manhattan. Here is my ballot.
Last month on YES’ “Yankees Hot Stove,” I predicted Craig Biggio and Greg Maddux would be the two inductees. Based on the 133 full ballots that have been publicized and calculated by Repoz of Baseball Think Factory, it’s looking like I shot too low; right now, Tom Glavine and Frank Thomas would join Biggio and Maddux.
Alex Rodriguez
As The Post’s Joel Sherman mentioned last month, if Fredric Horowitz’s announcement didn’t come earlier in the month, it probably won’t arrive until after the Hall of Fame announcements. Though neither Major League Baseball nor the Players Association can absolutely control Horowitz’s timing, it’s common sense that if a request is made to hold off, he’ll hold off.
Baseball wants as much publicity as possible for its Hall of Fame class, especially after last year’s BBWAA ballot shutout. It doesn’t want air time and newspaper/website space being compromised by A-Rod news. And the union doesn’t want its newly elected Hall of Fame players being bombarded with queries about their reactions to A-Rod news. So that’s that.
Anyway, I’m sticking to my guess that A-Rod’s 211-game suspension will be reduced to either 150 or 162 games. I think Anthony Bosch earned his side of his deal with MLB by providing strong testimony — of the same ilk that already nailed 13 players — and by documenting multiples usages of multiple drugs, which will get A-Rod far more than the 50 games doled out to a first-time offender for a positive test. But I don’t think baseball substantiated its contention that A-Rod obstructed the investigation.
Such a suspension would give the Yankees a realistic chance to stay under the $189 million luxury-tax threshold for 2014. Well, unless they sign Masahiro Tanaka, which they very much want to do.
Tanaka
This goes back to the old baseball adage: “When the Yankees really want someone, they get him.”
There’s no sense out of Yankees camp the team is going to draw any sort of financial line with this guy. They’re in desperation mode after missing the playoffs, and they badly need another frontline starting pitcher while a) not loving any of Matt Garza, Ubaldo Jimenez or Ervin Santana; and b) not having the trade chips to get someone from another team. Tampa Bay wouldn’t trade David Price within the American League East unless it was a ridiculously lopsided deal, anyway.
Hence Tanaka, whom they scouted extensively and really like.
Is it possible, say, the Mariners bring the sweepstakes to a level at which the Yankees aren’t comfortable, outbidding the Yankees for the second time this offseason? Sure. That’s not a great bet, though. We know the Yankees are far more excited about landing Tanaka than they were about retaining Robinson Cano.
Going back to the first paragraph of this section: The only time in recent memory the Yankees didn’t get someone they really wanted was with Cliff Lee three years ago. It turned out Lee, a free agent following the 2010 season, absolutely loved his brief stay in Philadelphia for about three months in 2009 and couldn’t wait to get back there.
We know very little about Tanaka’s personal beliefs and desires, besides that he wants to pitch in MLB. But given that Lee was the outlier, I’ll stick with thinking Tanaka winds up a Yankee.
The other guys
Just as we did a year ago, we have a group of comp free agents (free agents who turned down a one-year, $14-million qualifying offer and therefore require the signing team to forfeit a draft pick) going into January without a deal: Jimenez, Santana, Nelson Cruz, Stephen Drew and Kendrys Morales. We’ll deal with that specific issue in the coming weeks.
For now, though, it’s clear the markets for the pitchers have been compromised as much by the Tanaka situation, if not more so, as by the draft-pick compensation issue. Garza doesn’t even require a draft pick to sign him.
The good news for Garza, Jimenez and Santana is the Tanaka saga has an express timeline. By Jan. 24, he’ll be obligated to sign with an MLB club or return to the Rakuten Golden Eagles. So Garza, Jimenez and Santana, if they indeed wait out Tanaka, will have about three weeks to find employment before spring training begins.
Your Pop Quiz Answers:
1. Bob Meusel
2. Randy Johnson
3. Josh Gibson
If you have a tidbit that correlates baseball to popular culture, please send it to me at kdavidoff@nypost.com.