1. The biggest addiction in baseball, believe it or not, is not illegal performance enhancing drugs. It is baseball itself. Just look at how many guys can’t give it up. The latest is Bret Boone, who has not played in the majors since 2005. I was there in 2006 when before an exhibition game, Boone retired in Met camp, theoretically because he had nothing left. But now he is trying again, coming back to the Nationals where his brother, Aaron, is on the roster and his father, Bob, is in the front office. I don’t know the percentage of players still using illegal performance enhancers. But I bet close to 100 percent of the players have baseball in their blood.

2. I think Curt Schilling has a better chance to be distracting to the Red Sox than Andy Pettitte does to be distracting to the Yankees.

3. Don’t let the mild manner fool you, Andy Pettitte is tough on the mound. But he is sensitive off of it. The problem will not be on game day for Pettitte. It will be on the long stretches in between his starts.