FanHouse Scythehands Voxslayer

It's been a while since FanHouse checked in on Jose Canseco (nearly a full week) and the circus that is his life. Last we heard from Jose, he was set to fight Vai Sikahema in a "celebrity" boxing event. Unfortunately, sacrificing Vai Sikahema to the god that is Jose Canseco is just not enough. Jose's blood lust can not be quenched with one mediocre kick returner from years past.

No, for Jose to truly be satisfied, he needs to fight somebody who can combine the nerd qualities of someone who blogs and plays online role-playing games, with the ability to strike out big league hitters. Who could ever meet such standards!?

From Ben Maller:

Retired steroid slugger Jose Canseco challenged Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling to a fight while appearing this morning on Angelo Cataldi's morning show on WIP in Philadelphia. Canseco also claimed the bloody sock that helped make Schilling famous was actually ketchup.

As someone who survived the tragic public revelation that he used to play Everquest under the pseudonym "Scythehands Voxslayer" (seriously: Best. Gamertag. Ever.), Curt Schilling knows a little bit about public relations. Which is why, in a soon-to-be-televised interview on Costas Now, he has some valuable critiques of Barry Bonds, Rafael Palmeiro, and the like:

"If someone wrote that stuff about me and I didn't sue their [butt] off, am I not admitting that there's some legitimacy to it?" he said on HBO's "Costas Now."

Schilling said "this will be the steroids era forever" and proposed that Jose Canseco and Rafael Palmeiro should be punished for steroids use.

"Jose Canseco admitted he cheated his entire career," Schilling said. "Everything he ever did should be wiped clean. I think his MVP should go back and should go to the runner-up."

While things are probably not that legally or publicly simple for accused steroids users, I will grant Schilling the logic of his point. Because, for example, Barry Bonds has not openly refuted the use of steroids (under oath, he admitted to unknowingly using), does not necessarily make him a steroid user. But his silence, like Mark McGwire's, sure does seem fishy.

Also, good to know Curt Schilling doesn't care for steroids. Glad we cleared that one up.

On Friday, the Yankees are expected to bring Kei Igawa back to start against the Giants. He seems to have regained whatever form the Yankees thought he'd have when they dropped tens of millions of dollars on him this summer, posting a 2.65 ERA in six starts down in Triple-A.

Also, Yankees fans might appreciate this: I just read that he's a "gamer." You can't have too many gamers on your team, guys who won't ever give up even when luck isn't on their side. Oh wait, did I misread that? My bad, he's not that type of "gamer" -- he's just a big geek when it comes to video games. From Pending Pinstripes:

Kei Igawa is a baseball player who lives as a gamer. He preordered the Play Station 2 and got it on the day it was released, and same for the Play Station 3. He plays online games even as a pro. On the day Final Fantasy XI was released, he pitched a complete game shutout. He is a diligent man who would line up outside a store at 7 am to purchase "Dragon Quest VIII" (also known as "Dragon Warrior" in US), and raised his character's level to 99, a feat not many will have the patience to do. Just to note, while he was lined up for the game, his agent was busy discussing his contract.

The owners have recognized Igawa as a big gamer too. To the news that Igawa had raised his level to 99, Square-Enix released an official statement: "it would take well over 100 hours to accomplish such feat. It requires tremendous grit and battling as a player."

(I wonder if Igawa ever bumps into Scythehands Voxslayer in his virtual worlds ...) When I was a kid, I used to play marathon sessions of Nintendo that lasted so long that I'd get blisters on my thumbs. For the Yankees' sake, here's to hoping Igawa shows a bit more restraint.