This and that

• Kevin Youkilis (Sycamore HS, UC) finished third in American League MVP voting. Which is unbelievable. He even (deservedly) got a couple of first-place votes. To think that this kid was just the younger son/brother of my Knothole coach/teammate who used to hang around at practice and ask if he could take a few cuts after we all had hit.

• On the Lot D, C. Trent has some great quotes from Hines Ward, who claims, among other things, that he wasn't able to get a hold of Keith Rivers.

• Speaking of this week's Bengals opponent: The NFL won't acknowledge what a disaster the end of the Steelers-Chargers game Sunday (with the Polamalu touchdown that was ruled not a touchdown before the league admitted it should've counted) has become because it didn't affect the actual outcome, but it really is pretty messed up that the Steelers would've covered and all of those people lost all that money. The New York Post's Steve Serby adds insult to injury by pointing out that the blown call may lead to tiebreaker issues, which would be pretty outstanding. And the Washington Post's Mark Maske has a story about how the league may modify rules on instant replay as a result. By the way, the Steelers apparently weren't happy about the officiating in general.

• Last week's Bengals opponent: CBS' Pete Prisco rips the Eagles for tying the Bengals in his Prisco Grades: Week 11. A Rumors and Rants contributor points out that Philly's love-hate relationship with Donovan McNabb is just annoying. I'd have to agree. Some of his throws on Sunday were ugly, but he's still one of the 10 or 12 best quarterbacks in the league.

• The Giants are pretty excited and getting serious praise (from ESPN, et al.) for signing Jeremy Affeldt to a two-year, $8 million deal.

FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal also has a couple of items in a notebook about Ken Griffey Jr.: one about Junior's wife telling him he can sign anywhere he wants to and the other about Junior's knee (with quotes from Tim Kremcheck).

And speaking of former Reds, Sports Illustrated's Pablo S. Torre makes a case for Josh Hamilton as Sportsman of the Year.

• Thought it was cool that Toledo native B.J. Raymond had a great game against the Rockets in Xavier's 81-65 win. Unbelievable second half from Tyrone Kent, BTW ... it's not every day you see a guy drop 32 points in a half.

• Non-local link of the day: ESPN has a very interesting story about Jonestown founder/leader Jim Jones' grandson, Rob, who is the best high school basketball player in the Bay Area. The mass suicide at Jonestown happened on this date in 1978.