This and that

• Apparently I'm not the only one who doesn't think we'll get Kerry Wood in a million years. The Enquirer's John Fay reports that Walt Jocketty sees little chance of signing Wood.

Dallasnews.com's Evan Grant urges Rangers GM Jon Daniels to talk to Walt Jocketty at the winter meetings, only because the Reds figure to be a team that might have interest in Gerald Laird.

Freep.com's Jon Paul Morosi reports the Tigers definitely are interested in Laird.

• Seattle is clamoring for Junior (Moeller HS), sorta. Gotta love the Goldberg quote in this story. "Somebody," he said by phone Tuesday, "is going to get a bargain." Which begs the question, what is a 39-year-old outfielder who hit .249 with 18 home runs last year worth? (I know, he's his agent, and it's his job to say nice things about his client.)

• SI.com's Stewart Mandel (Sycamore HS) has a must-read mailbag today, including items about mid-major respect (for you MAC football fans), Ohio State (for Buckeye fans) and UC's upcoming game with Hawaii (for Bearcats fans).

• Linebacker Victor Hobson is the newest Bengal. Looking to learn more about Hobson, I stumbled across victorhobson.com, which you should definitely check out. I'm not going to just start ripping the Web site, but I do want to point out that the "season" link brings up the 2007 New York Jets' (the last team he played for) regular season schedule, the "register" link provides an opportunity to "join the newsletter" and "get any updates on Victor Hobson," (I would hope his signing with the Bengals yielded a Breaking News newsletter) and his bio includes the following line: "With his charismatic smile and energetic presence, Victor Hobson brings more to the table than could be expected." Pretty outstanding.

One other thing about Hobson (not about his Web site): Earlier in the day, Mike Reiss of the Boston Globe reported that the Patriots recently were in touch with Hobson, but they apparently opted to bring back Rosevelt Colvin instead. So at least one other (pretty good) team was looking at Hobson when the Bengals signed him.

Speaking of linebackers, former UC Bearcat Tyjuan Hagler gets the start against the Bengals with Gary Brackett out.

• The Lot D's C. Trent has the latest on Carson Palmer's plan.

• I did not know that: Why is Xavier hosting Auburn tonight? Auburn agreed to the game in Cincinnati so guard Quantez Robertson (Withrow HS) could play in his hometown. He made the request during his sophomore season. It will be the first time he's played a college game in his hometown, and he's expecting 50 members of his family to attend. He's averaging 7.3 points per game. He played against Xavier's CJ Anderson (Winton Woods HS) in high school. Xavier won 80-57 at Auburn last season.

Also, Ole Miss vs. West Virginia tonight means Andy Kennedy against Bob Huggins.

• Non-local link of interest: On Monday, I said it was local enough because it was the Steelers, but now I'm non-localizing it because I don't have any other non-local links of interest. Anyway, ProFootballTalk.com reports that Ryan Clark won't be fined for the hit on Wes Welker that aroused my ire the other day. Which is garbage, by the way, that he won't be fined.