• Ballpark news. Council approves ballpark financing in 8-1 vote (U-T). I actually caught about an hour of the proceedings on local access television last night after my Perl class. I haven’t read up enough on the history of publicly financed ballparks to know what’s best, but I’m sure glad this finally appears to be headed toward resolution one way or another. Watching the whole project sit in limbo for 3 years hasn’t been much fun. Now we just need to take care of a couple more pending lawsuits and hope Bruce Henderson somehow magically disappears.
• Elsewhere, the Oakland A’s signed former Padre outfielder Mike Colangelo. I didn’t realize Colangelo was a free agent. Sorry to see him go. He could make a real nice fourth outfielder.
• The Padres claimed pitcher Rob Ramsay off waivers from Seattle. Originally in the Boston organization, Ramsay is a power lefthander who came up as a starter but has pitched mostly out of the bullpen in the big leagues. Nice acquisition. I could see him actually competing for a rotation spot come spring.
• Still trying to figure out how Tino Martinez garnered more MVP votes than Mark Mulder. Bizarre…

If I don’t post tomorrow, Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!