Justin Verlander quarterbacked the Detroit Tigers to the ALCS. (AP)Justin Verlander, is there nothing you can't do?

Verlander, the AL MVP and Cy Young winner who led the Detroit Tigers to the ALCS in 2011, completed a unique triple crown Sunday by correctly picking the winner and score of Super Bowl XLVI: New York Giants 21, New England Patriots 17.

[ Related: Giants win Super Bowl behind another comeback by Eli Manning ]

"Verlander" must be Dutch for "psychic."

Verlander actually gets another trophy for his clairvoyance — the 2012 Super Sage Award, presented by the Scripps Howard News Service. Every year since 1986, Scripps Howard has held a celebrity pick 'em contest, and Verlander was the only one among the 100-plus persons polled from the world of sports, entertainment and media to get the score and winner exactly right. The San Diego Chicken (Ted Giannoulas) won the contest a year ago.

As C. Trent Rosecrans noted at Eye on Baseball, a victorious Verlander was ready with his own touchdown dance on Twitter:

21-17 prediction #proudwinner

Although, by scrolling through Verlander's feed, which includes several observations on the Big Game and halftime show (Madonna was "tanking" before "killing it at the end"), you'll notice that Verlander issued a revised prediction about midday Sunday:

Brian Cashman: Police informant. (Getty)No other executive in Major League Baseball can match the resources, and few have the acumen, of New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman. And almost no one can claim to live as adventurous a personal life.

Cashman scales buildings for Christmas dressed as one of Santa's elves. He sleeps in Central Park to raise awareness for child homelessness. He ... becomes a police informant to help catch a woman accused of harassing and extorting money from him after they had a 10-month alleged affair. That's right: Cashman lured her into a police dragnet.

That is the fantastically strange story told by the New York Daily News and Deadspin. Now, if you add up all of the sordid details, Cashman doesn't come out looking like Snow White in this tale. But there's no question he's running away with "The Most Interesting GM in the World" award for this century so far.

From the NYDN:

Prosecutors portrayed Louise Neathway, 36 — who said in an interview published Thursday that she was Cashman's mistress — as a con artist who pestered him for cash.

"The defendant extorted approximately $6,000 from the victim and attempted to extort over $15,000," prosecutor Eric Iverson said at Neathway's Manhattan Criminal Court arraignment Thursday.

But here's the best part:

Neathway, a British citizen who also goes by the name Louise Meanwell, was arrested Wednesday afternoon in front of her Tribeca apartment building on Leonard St. A source said Cashman helped lure Neathway into a police dragnet.

They practically deputized him! Cashman always had a little bit of a Columbo look to him.

Albert Pujols won't partner in a St. Louis restaurant anymore, either. (Getty)It was a culinary paradox: How could a Missouri sports bar and grill named for slugger Albert Pujols continue to exist after he departed the beloved St. Louis Cardinals for the dreaded West Coast via free agency?

Answer: It couldn't. The Pujols 5 Westport Grill is being renamed. John Marecek, a sports talk radio host on KTRS in St. Louis, had the scoop on Twitter on Wednesday night:

Pujols 5 Restaurant to be re-branded the St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame Bar and Grill. Expect an announcement tomorrow #stlcards

The hambre (hungry) Hombre himself soon issued a statement on the matter, which Marecek also passed along:

Pujols: "I want to wish Pat Sr., Dave, Pat Jr., and the rest of the Hanon family nothing but success and happiness with their new restaurant"

And just like that (along with $254 million) he was gone.

Because he works in Albert's new domain covering the Los Angeles Angels, blogger Sam Miller of the Orange County Register quickly spotted the Pujols-related tweets. Miller addressed the two obvious issues:

• What are they really going to call the restaurant now? The "St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame Bar and Grill"? Sheesh, your dinner is cold by the time you're done pronouncing it all.

• What are they going to do with the huge statue of Albert out in front of the joint?

Sam had some great ideas for a reboot, especially "Appreciate What You Had!" — but I got it. I have solved the problem. Just call me the problem-solving wizard, if you will.

White Sox slugger Paul Konerko might wave good-bye to baseball after 2013. (AP)The end is near, as far as a playing career goes, for Chicago White Sox slugger Paul Konerko. He said as much over the weekend at his team's fan fest.

Konerko, who turns 36 in March, has amassed 396 career home runs, an .858 OPS, five All-Star appearances and one World Series ring in parts of 15 seasons. He is signed through 2013 and told reporter Chuck Garfien of CSN Chicago that two more seasons might be enough:

"No doubt it could be," Konerko said in an interview with Comcast SportsNet. "Yeah, in all reality I would see it ending after next year or maybe another year. I mean, at some point you got to go home and be around your kids and have other things to do."

Unless you know Konerko a little, it's a strange thing to hear from a guy coming off the best two individual seasons of his career. But there are only so many home runs you can hit, and only so much money you can make, before enough becomes enough. Of course, some play baseball for additional reasons. Guys like Konerko, who derive something from playing for championship contenders.

Ever since the White Sox won the Series in 2005 with Konerko's help, they've been drifting away from winning it again. The 2011 season — from the awful play in the field to the destructive relationship between ex-manager Ozzie Guillen and GM Ken Williams — was particularly brutal.

Tom Brady looks like a natural no matter what sports equipment he uses. (AP)If not for football, Tom Brady might have been Joe Mauer before Joe Mauer came along. Or at least a platoon partner for A.J. Pierzynski.

Because it's Super Bowl week, writers will exhaust every possible angle on the New England Patriots and the New York Giants. But it's not that much of a stretch to imagine Brady — perhaps the best quarterback in NFL history — strapping on the tools of ignorance and playing Major League Baseball as an All-Star catcher instead.

Back in June 1995, Brady was a 17-year-old who had just graduated high school in San Mateo, Calif. He was a couple of months away from heading to the University of Michigan to play football (and, presumably, to go to class) when the Montreal Expos picked him in the 18th round of baseball's draft (a full round ahead of David Ross and Aaron Miles!)

A catcher with a tall, left-handed power stroke and a rocket arm, there was a lot to like. Reporter Rachel Brady (interesting coincidence) of the Globe and Mail examines what might have been:

"Whenever he would take an infield before a game, that's when they really took notice," said Brady's high school baseball coach Pete Jensen, who was also a scout for the Seattle Mariners at the time. "Scouts would see him throw from behind the plate and say, 'Wow,' because he really had an outstanding arm."

Of course, Jensen's recollection includes a tall tale of Brady's considerable power.

This man will get a haircut on live television. (AP)From the "TV ran out of things to broadcast years ago" dept., the MLB Network will televise the upcoming haircut of Miami Marlins star Jose Reyes.

Talk about a hair razing story.

You might recall that Marlins president David Samson said back in December that Reyes would have to abide by team rules like every other player, and one of those rules is: no longhairs allowed.

Yes, that's right: A guy named Samson is making another guy get a haircut.

Anyway, Reyes has dreadlocks. Stylish, functional dreadlocks. Or at least he will until Friday, when the clippers come out and the lights come on, one of his representatives said on Twitter.

Chop, chop, Jose.

I might or might not watch, but I surely would tune in if Reyes went to the barber shop from "Coming to America," where the barbers argue over who was the greatest boxer of all time. We could update it to "Who is the greatest Marlin of all time?"

No word from Jimmy Rollins on whether he was wearing Liz Claiborne. (@JimmyRollins11)

Jimmy Rollins apparently was doing some spring cleaning when he came across an old photo of himself, Pat Burrell and other Philadelphia Phillies rookies wearing the latest summer of 2000 fashions. Rollins didn't expressly say it, but it seems an homage to Burrell, who recently announced his retirement at age 35. And check out Burrell: Even as a rookie, he was built like a brick ... oven pizzeria.

There are two kinds of people in this world: Those who think men wearing dresses is funny, and those who don't. I go with "funny." Rollins said on Twitter:

Old new discovery....my and Pat's rookie dress up day

Ah, yes. The rookie hazing of choice in Major League Baseball: Making the youngsters look foolish by stealing their regular clothes and replacing them with women's garments, or mascot outfits, or whatnot.

Two other things of note:

Matt Garza won two games for the Rays in the 2008 ALCS. He deserves his ring back. (AP)

Did someone put up a sign saying it's OK to steal Tampa Bay Rays stuff? The Fresno Bee put the word out Tuesday that the 2008 AL championship ring belonging to Matt Garza was stolen from his home in Fresno County, Calif.

This breaking-and-entering news comes less than a year after criminals burglarized the spring training Florida residence of Evan Longoria, David Price and Reid Brignac, stealing (among other items) Longoria's AK-47.

Stealing. From Joe Maddon's ballplayers. The nerve of some people.

Garza's 14k white gold ring, encrusted with 47 white and one yellow diamond, is valued at $30,000. So it's not the typical piece of jewelry a high school junior might order through Jostens.