t include major league home run leader Mark Trumbo, Jose Bautista, Carlos Beltran

It should come as no surprise that Mark Nicholas considers cricket to be a beautiful game. It had stolen his heart by the age of nine and has been his sweetheart ever since. Beauty is the beholders business, of course, but Nicko, the roving romantic who went from captaining Hampshire to helming TV coverage in both hemispheres, puts his perspective across pretty convincingly. Never mind goalposts, jumpers are for keeping you warm in the slips.For those who know Nicholas chiefly through his work as a commentator and presenter, such ardour has long been obvious. Cover drives are dreamy, unplayable deliveries crackerjack. Plenty of cricket fans - particularly those immersed in Channel 4s innovative coverage of England in the early 2000s - will have a favourite Nicholas moment (and theres a good chance it came during the 2005 Ashes): his description of Steve Harmisons slower ball to Michael Clarke at Edgbaston remains gloriously overblown, while other moments of appreciation verged on the pornographic. Nicholas sprayed his enthusiasm around like a Formula One driver with a fresh magnum.This approach, he notes in his autobiography-cum-memoir A Beautiful Game, meant he came in for some stick - hyperbole and exclamations being the main grumble. But the Nicko-isms (should that be Nicko-gasms?) were principally what made him one of the stars of the show once the rights to broadcast England Test matches switched from the BBC - staid old Aunty - in 1999. As Nicholas writes, Channel 4 was where the flame burned brightest for me, though he surprised many by subsequently carving out a niche as the polished Pom host of Channel Nines coverage in Australia.The great strength of his style is that it is so genuine. The books subtitle is My love affair with cricket and Nicholas bubbles over with anecdotes, lore and affection for the game. His 18-year career with Hampshire is also described as a love affair. The Channel 4 years were an equally passionate tryst: It was a love affair with cricket and we stopped at nothing to make the lover special and everyone else appreciate her.The first notch on his bedpost came nearly 40 years ago, when scoring a hundred in Dover for Hampshire 2nd XI - which was orgasmic. Nicholas rose quickly to prominence at Hampshire, becoming captain at 23, though he never quite made the grade for England. He was selected to lead an A tour to Zimbabwe (contracting a potentially fatal strain of malaria while away) and nearly capped via the TCCBs captaincy roulette in 1988, Mickey Stewart informing him during a county match in Guildford that he had lost a three-two vote against Chris Cowdrey.As a batsman Nicholas was good enough to score 36 first-class hundreds, but leadership was his metier. Elvis, the overweight public schoolboy who briefly worked as an analyst in the city during the off season, became Jardine, the bold captain who would lead Hampshire to four one-day trophies in six years. Along the way, he drank deeply of crickets heady brew: seeking batting tips from Barry Richards and Garry Sobers; being transfixed by Kerry Packers World Series Cricket in Australia (cricket porn); and chatting with Don Bradman and Bill OReilly in the back of the press box.In between sections on playing the game and covering it, Nicholas just loves talking shop too. Whatever your view on his ability or his insight, he has a great store of knowledge about the game, and a range of experience that includes having faced Jeff Thomson, met Packer (one of the books best anecdotes) and called Richie Benaud a colleague for many years. He writes touchingly of Maco, his great Hampshire team-mate Malcolm Marshall, and the Smith brothers, Chris and Robin, as well as sadly departed commentary box companions such as Benaud and Tony Greig. In one of the final chapters, he even heads off into the future to imagine an intercontinental championship for Test cricket (played over four days), a 30-over World Cup and the rise of Max10, an even shorter shortest format. As readers of his work on these pages will know, MCJ Nicholas can rarely be accused of being dull. Peter OToole, Tiger Woods and Mick Jagger crop up either side of tales about facing the deadly combination of Derek Underwood and Alan Knott on a wet pitch; there are references to Ziggy Stardust, Alistair Cooke (no, not the England captain) and Bruce Springsteen. Nicholas is not afraid to confront criticism, either, raising the subject of an excoriating 2015 article by Geoff Lemon on the sliding standards at Channel Nine. He concedes that Lemon had a point and hopes that changes made to the coverage in Australia reflect a sincere desire to get back on track.No one does it better is a quote on the cover of A Beautiful Game, from Geoffrey Boycott. Few would argue with Sir Geoff. With the passing of a host of iconic broadcasting voices in recent years, it is tempting to suggest that Nicholas is now one of the keepers of the flame. He continues to spread the gospel, over the airwaves and through his work with the Chance to Shine charity in the UK. There is a sense that he wanted to write less about himself and more about cricket, though it is all the more readable for the personality bursting through. Besides, the two seem to go pretty well together: call it a beautiful friendship.A Beautiful Game By Mark Nicholas Allen & Unwin 420 pages, ￡20 Air Max 95 Online Store .500 on the season. The Jets are now 0-5-1 in the second game of back-to-backs. The game started the same way the Vancouver game started the night before, with the Jets taking the first two penalties of the game and killing off the first, but the Oilers getting on the board first, scoring on the second man-advantage. airmax95shoesforsale.com . Philadelphia is 2-0 against the Senators this season and scored five goals in each victory. The Flyers recorded a 5-0 win in Ottawa on Nov. 12 and then earned a 5-2 home decision on Nov. 19. 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NEW YORK -- Yoenis Cespedes opted out of the remaining two years of his contract with the New York Mets on Saturday to become a free agent again.Acquired by the Mets from Detroit at the July 31 trade deadline in 2015, Cespedes had 17 home runs and 44 RBI in 57 games with the Mets down the stretch, helping them reach the World Series for the first time since 2000.After finding a slow market in a free-agent class that also included Jason Heyward, Alex Gordon and Justin Upton, Cespedes made a surprise return to the Mets when New York agreed in January to a $75 million, three-year contract that allowed him to opt out after one season and $27.5 million.Cespedes had 31 homers and 86 RBI in 132 games, slowed after injuring his right quadriceps on July 8. He hit one home run after Sept. 11.The 31-year-old slugger gives up $47.5 million -- $23.75 million in each of the next two years.After helpiing the Chicago Cubs win their first World Series title since 1908, outfielder Dexter Fowler declined his part of a $9 million mutual option in favor of a $5 million buyout.ddddddddddddOther outfielders on the free-agent market include major league home run leader Mark Trumbo, Jose Bautista, Carlos Beltran, Josh Reddick and Matt Holliday.Pitcher Jaime Garcias $12 million option was exercised by St. Louis, and outfielder Cameron Maybins $9 million option was exercised by the Los Angeles Angels, who acquired him from Detroit on Friday.Kansas City declined its $7 million option on 33-year-old right-hander Luke Hochevar, whose season was cut short by surgery in August to relieve numbness caused by thoracic outlet syndrome. Hochevar will receive a $500,000 buyout. 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