Happy New Year to all Baseball Bullet-In readers, and best wishes for a healthy and prosperous 2007.

We've been away for two weeks, so we'll start off the first column of this year with a review of some of the off-beat topics in Japanese baseball news, official and unofficial, compiled from various sports newspapers, e-mails and facsimile messages.

Recall in the Nov. 26 column I mentioned the report about the possibility of Sammy Sosa being considered for employment by the Chunichi Dragons? Rumors about Slammin' Sammy coming here were revived during the holidays, now involving another Central League club.