Nottso

Hunt hasn't missed an opportunity to bust on Greinke for the ribs, either. He even makes opportunities to throw a shot. It's almost Witradrian in nature. I'll be glad when TH is back on the job, although I hope he takes whatever time is needed to deal with the passing of his father.

Thank you for the kind words, Ms Hawing. I look forward to seeing everyone again as well. I may or may not wear pants. It's a crazy old man perk.

Photobucket seems to have eaten my bulldog avatar. I find this very upsetting.

I'll do my best to attend. Do I hafta wear pants?

I look forward to the Weeks/Gomez double steal. I think RR really is going to "turn the boys loose" and I can't wait to see it. I also wouldn't mind Weeks/Braun or Gomez/Braun on the double steal. I've had enough of the "no stealing in front of Prince" mentality. I want some action.

I think a lot of has to do with the fact that a baseball player can be sub-par in one area, yet be so good in other areas that he keeps getting chances. Gomez for instance. He's awful at the plate, but he still has some value. In football, most players don't have multiple areas, or at least not to the extent a baseball player does. If an NFL receiver can't catch, no matter what else he may be good at, he's gone. If a DB can't cover, sayonara. So on and so forth.

If I had abs like that, every picture of me ever taken would be shirtless. Even the one on my driver's license. Camera comes out, shirt goes off. I wouldn't be able to help it. The response would become utterly Pavlovian after a time.

Game,I have good news and bad news for you. First, the bad: It's all downhill from here, energy wise. I only wish I had the energy I had at 30, or 35, or 40, or even 45. If I had your energy (and a midget army), I could rule the world. Truly. Now the good news: Life gets better and better with age. I'm happier at 50 than I was at 45, which was happier than I was at 40, which was happier than I was at 35, etc., etc., etc., on and on and on blah blah blah. I'm closer than ever to assembling my midget army and ruling the world. Truly.

I've been wondering when and how Merle will reappear, especially since the group has now moved from the camp.

"Sycophants" is bugging me. It's bugging me a lot. It is clearly the hot new buzzword amongst 15 year old bloggers that up until last week couldn't have told you the meaning of the word if their pimply little lives depended on it. Ugh.

There's also the phenomenon where a male and a female survive a near-death experience together, even if they're repulsed by each other, will be drawn to "mate" right away. Iirc, it's about the "species survival" instinct. Wife and I like the show thus far.

I'm 50, and my memory has gotten so bad over the past couple of years that my wife (works for the Sheriff's Department) made me a special ID to go in my wallet in case I wander off. It's frightening. Great news about Eddie Sedar. He does seem like the kind of guy you'd like to have over for a cook-out.

I hope Counsell is back. He's always been one of my favorites.

I can't believe I've never seen these on any kind of sports television, done as a highleet reel.

They should cover the entire bill. This isn't some surprise thing that popped up a few months after buying the car. The car was broken when she bought it, and it's plain for all to see. For them to do anything other than pay the entire bill would be the epitome of sleaze in the auto sales industry.

That's good stuff. Edit: I've comeback and watched this at least a dozen times. It just doesn't get old.

One more word on the "better helmets, better protection" line of thought. Helmets are not designed to protect the brain; they are designed to protect the skull. There is a big, big, big difference there. I've been riding motorcycles for 40 years, and have lost a lot of friends over the years; some wearing helmets, some not. Also, 2 of my brothers were subcontractors to the Medical Examiner's office in Memphis- they and their employees were the people that came out to scenes and picked up bodies. Sadly, I've seen a lot of dead people. Too many, to be honest. There's an ugly thing that my brothers referred to as "mushroom head." This happens when someone is so severely concussed that they die from it. Usually, these are people that were wearing helmets, so there was no skull fracture of any kind. At autopsy, when they open the cranium, the brain "mushrooms" out; sometimes to the size of a beachball. It's pretty grotesque, to say the least. In these cases, some surmise that if the skull had fractured, the brain may have had enough room to swell without killing them (please note the emphasis on "may"). I don't want to have the age-old helmet debate here. I'm just trying to shed a little more light on the subject from another perspective.

PilprinBuddha, I was about to say that I'd like to see Randolph get the nod because whenever I've seen him working with the infielders, they all seem to be really loose and having fun. Of course I might be the one that is totally wrong with that, but that has been my perception. I definitely agree that they need to have fun again. I don't think it's a coincidence that at the beginning of this year (a year that began with fairly high expectations), Macha pretty much said "no more shenanigans" (untucking, choreographed celebrations, etc.), and we didn't come anywhere close to meeting those expectations. These are young kids for the most part. They oughta have fun.

I'm pretty down on Melvin myself. When Dean Taylor was hired, he said "The big club will not win in 2 or 3 years. The entire organization is in a shambles, and needs to be rebuilt from the bottom up" (or words to that effect). Many of us were ecstatic. Finally we had a guy that was willing to tell it like it was, and take the proper steps to fix it. Of course, when the big team wasn't winning within a couple of years, Taylor was shown the door. But in that short time, our farm system had gone from being one of the worst in all of baseball, to being pretty darn good. Melvin inherited a pretty decent farm, with what appeared to be a plan for success already in place, yet here we are 8 years later and we're still scrambling for starting pitching. I realize that every pick doesn't work out, and that pitchers are probably the biggest "crap shoot" of all; but we seem to be struggling with this big, gaping hole throughout the system, and have been for a number of years now. The small/mid market thing means we absolutely have to develop our own players, with the occasional trade such as Sabathia, or big-ticket free agent signing to make a push when the opportunity presents itself. Over-paying for aging free agents is never going to be a good plan. I'm okay with Wolf thus far, but others have been disastrous. Suppan, Davis, Riske, Gagne, Hawkins, Hoffman to a degree, etc, etc, etc, on and on and on. Now we've drafted a lot of pitching, which is needed, but will we now experience a drought in home-grown position players? How many times will this pendulum swing back and forth before we achieve some kind of balance? I'm not looking to debate Taylor vs Melvin as GM, but if my memory is right Taylor did do an excellent job with the farm. Of course, my senility has been acting up lately, so maybe I'm remembering it all wrong. If I am, I'm sure I'll be corrected (and gladly).

Molina would probably have you tossed....

To me, the "good second half" isn't the aberration, but the "poor first half" is. What Wolf has done over his last 10 or so starts is a lot closer to his career norms than what he did in his starts earlier in the year. I would think (hope) Wolf starts off next year right where he's leaving off this year.

This is too beautiful.... http://network.yardbarker.com/mlb/article_external/audio_jack_clark_says_cards_have_poopy_pants/3249783 If you scroll down a ways, you'll find the audio clip as a video. I'm just not smart enough to embed it.

Who owns you now?

When I said sold out I meant it in the most literal sense, as in he would be selling out his interest in the team.

I don't know if it's an age thing, the fact that I'm pretty much zero homophobic, or that I was always a union man and believe strongly in worker's rights but when I hear "make your living on your knees," the first thing that pops into my head is that he's accusing Molina of being weak and groveling; a pawn or a puppet as it were. (Note: That has got to be the longest single sentence I've ever written, but for the life of me I just can't see a way to break it up.)