It was suggested that there would be a glut of free agents available in baseball's Supermarket Sweepstakes. And that as a result, the overcrowded nest of baby birdies with beaks wide open begging for worms would depress the market and reduce prices, thus creating bargains for the teams with limited budgets.

Instead, the remains of the day look like a picked-over bin on dollar days at Kmart. Not even a Reggie Sanders, Matt Stairs, Jeff Suppan or Kenny Lofton among the leftovers. The glut dissipated quickly, leaving players not even the Pirates want. Well, they always can rely on that glut of talent they have in Nashville.

Jose Mesa isn't a bad signing. What can it hurt? There's no risk involved if he doesn't pan out. This is a big mouthful for me, since I haven't forgotten that long October night in Florida when he failed to hold a ninth-inning lead for Cleveland in Game 7 of the 1997 World Series. Which I'm quite sure will be the last, best chance to see the Indians win in my lifetime. Not to be bitter. And another good thing about Mesa's signing: He doesn't speak to the media.

We knew that Marc-Andre Fleury's ticket to Cape Breton already was punched, we just didn't know his departure date. Now that we do, the only question remaining is, why now? It's clear the answer is the Penguins wanted to get him out of here before he turned into Phillip DeRouville. If our view from the outside looking in at this team is horrific, imagine what it must be from inside Fleury's mask. Better to get him out of here before he begins to believe this train wreck is his fault.

These Penguins will end up with more points than the team that collected 38 points 20 years ago, but they are in pretty much the same place they were in January 1984. This time they won't have to manipulate the lineup to ensure they end up with the worst record.

Oscar and Felix are no more of an odd couple than Andre Agassi and Brentson Buckner. You don't see their names in the same sentence often, do you? But both have shown what equal doses of experience and maturity can do. While maintaining their personalities and their independence from the conventional, both realized at some point that they were squandering their talent and rededicated themselves to excellence. Agassi, although he will not win another Grand Slam event, is one of the greatest players of all time, having won each of the four majors at least once. The same will not be said of Buckner, but it's noteworthy that he went from clubhouse clown to captain in Carolina -- a testament to his maturation.

While I'm at it, that Super Bowl video deal in 1994 the Steelers used as rationalization to dump him is totally bogus. They point to that premature exultation as providing motivation for an inferior San Diego team. If that were true, why did the Chargers wait until midway through the third quarter to get aggravated?

Did coach Bobby Ross withhold his secret motivational weapon until they were down, 13-3, then call his players over on the sideline and say, "Oh, did I tell you about that rap video they made?" And the Chargers got so angry about being dissed and disrespected that they scored 14 unanswered points?

Did the Steelers' secondary have visions of sugarplums and rap videos dancing in their heads while the likes of Alfred Pupunu got behind them for a long touchdown? If so, what were they thinking in the first 38 minutes of the game while Stan Humphries couldn't complete a pass?

That double thud you're going to hear in about two months will be both of Glen Sather's hockey heads being lopped off if/when his New York Rangers fail to make the playoffs for the seventh consecutive season, four on his watch. Sather put his coaching head on the line when he chose himself to lead them from behind the bench. His GM's head was placed on the block when he traded for Jaromir Jagr. You're supposed to add players like him and salaries like his to win the Stanley Cup, not just to make the playoffs. If they don't make it, neither will he.

I know I'm too late to cast my vote in the Post-Gazette's online poll, but the 1978 Super Bowl XIII Steelers were the best of the four championship teams.

First Published: January 31, 2004, 5:00 a.m.