jazzytrav

I'll be there. It's my 2nd year in a row, so next year it becomes tradition! At least that's what I plan on telling my wife.

Secret power? You mean like a ray gun or something, where they hone in on a guy and put the whammy on him? Then he becomes their slave, and can do dastardly things. Yeah, I think they keep that in the back room at Gilles. Yes, secret power. The power to suspend a player based on a gut feeling or because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time without telling anyone what or why or how. I'm not saying he didn't do it...I just don't know because no one on either side will admit to anything or present any evidence of anything.

Just throwing it out there, but is it possible that he saw a situation where MLB has so much secret power over the lives of every player, so rather than drag out a situation that he was 100% going to lose, regardless of whether he's guilty or not, he just decided to take his lumps so he can get back sooner?

So, he doesn't have herpes?

Lame, looks like I'm out of luck. This was the first time I've been in an "automatic renewal" situation. When I got the notice from him, I read it incorrectly...thinking I had until the end of the initial lease to give him my notice. At the time I was fully into house-buying mode and I guess I didn't read it all the way through correctly. Thanks for the info guys. I'm just letting him keep it in exchange for the lease termination. In the long run, I guess $1,000 to get this guy off my back and my last rental out of my mind is fair enough.

I've got a bit of a screwy situation with (hopefully) the last rental I'll ever live in. My wife and I lived in a townhouse for three years. Our lease had an automatic annual renewal...lease ended May 31, new one started June 1. We are required to give a 45 day notice of intent to vacate. So, we bought a house and set the closing date for June 13. On May 8, I called my landlord to inform him that our last day in the townhouse would be June 30, under the assumption this was my 45+ day notice. But apparently, if we don't inform him otherwise, our automatic lease renewal goes through May 1 (even though the lease doesn't end until May 31). So even though we hadn't even technically started our new lease, he says our automatic renewal has already gone through and we're locked in for another year. At this point I'm fuming, but willing to work with him because I figured he could fill the place quickly. It took a little while, but I managed to pay rent+mortgage for a few months until he found a tenant in early August (I had already paid August rent). The problem is that that these new tenants are both working temporary jobs, so he didn't force them into a year lease...they're just month-to-month. He's worried that they'll leave in December when one of their temporary jobs expires. I would think that the moment a new person signs a lease and moves in, our previous lease would be voided, but that's not how it seems to work with this guy, and I'm not really sure what the law is on that. Anyway, he just sent us a lease termination that includes him keeping our security deposit and August rent (total of about $1,000) in exchange for being let out of the lease and not being responsible if the new tenants bail after a few months. The other side of that, of course, is if they stay through the end of our original lease...he basically just won a $1,000 bet. Do I have any recourse here, or do I just suck it up and consider the $1,000 a fair trade to get rid of him?

That doesn't make it okay for "journalists" who admit to not having the entire story to speculate that his silence implies guilt.

I actually kinda like that lineup, given the options available. Statistically, it's hard to root for Gomez, but then I watch him play and get those "I feel like a kid again" nostalgic baseball feelings.

I actually kinda like that lineup, given the options available. Statistically, it's hard to root for Gomez, but then I watch him play and get those "I feel like a kid again" nostalgic baseball feelings.

http://img.math-fail.com/images-old/divide-by-zero5.jpg

http://www.foppishdandy.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/the-count.jpg

It's not fair when I read this on April 5th with Fool's Day out of my mind. All I could think of was, "Man, he really Yosted the Royals season."

This may be a bit obscure, but my in-laws were recently in Seattle and attended this: http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/St-Mark-s-choir-strikes-an-untraditional-chord-1099985.php If this crosses the religion line, I apologize and feel free to delete. It really has less to do with religion and more to do with just being a cool historical thing to take in. It's a late Sunday night service and the entire thing is in Gregorian chant. Apparently a lot of people bring blankets and lay around the church, sorta like the couple in the link. If you've ever heard Gregorian chant, you can imagine how relaxing something like this would be.

At my credit union branch, we have a toy children's car (big enough for a kid or two to sit in) next to the wall by a painted-on ATM. Next to it is a little table with a toy cash register on it. Someone decided to put the cash register on the "hood" of the car. Now kids sit in the car and play with the cash register. I feel like we're not setting a good example.

It pains me to catch up with an old high school friend in online conversation, only to realize that her online conversational skills now begin and end with "LOL OMGZ JK!!!" It would be one thing if she was always kinda stupid, but she was a fairly intelligent person back then (10+ years ago, mind you). With online conversation becoming more of a staple each day, it's discouraging to see an intelligent person so easily decide to make themself sound like an idiot.

I think Tiger may have had a tinge of guilt clouding his mind.

Thanks TO Of course he's going to be happy...he just got a promotion with a different company. I'm betting he still fully appreciates what the Brewers organization has done for him thus far.

I don't think there's a conflict in this statement. Braun said that there were 18-19 locations in that radius, not that they would ship that day or Sunday. I find that completely relevant, since it would have been completely anonymous if stored at FedEx. I'm not implying tampering, but having it in the hands of someone that could fairly easily identify which sample belongs to which player (he can say they were just a number, but he had all of three samples) for 44 hours has to cast doubt on the reliability of the sample. I think it would also be very telling if we learned more about what happened with the other two samples, but I'm not holding my breath for that.

This should really be the end of the discussion right here. MLB has to be the one to prove that nothing happened in those 44 hours that could produce the result. They apparently failed to do that. Handing out a suspension to Braun when they can't prove the whereabouts of the sample other than the testimony of the guy that had it (who would like to keep his job) for two days presents plenty of doubt to lead to the exoneration. If my company required a drug test, and my test comes back positive, you better believe I'm going to call into question the process that led to the positive test. I know that I'm innocent, so SOMETHING had to go wrong with the test. I may not be able to show a scientific basis, but the accuser should absolutely be able to show a scientific basis that the test is accurate.

I think the exact opposite. I was worried he was going to get suspended even if he presented a strong case because it had gone public and all the pressure was on Das to side with baseball and burn the witch. I'm actually pretty shocked given the situation that he ruled in Braun's favor. Yes, but if all of the information gets out in the way that we're hearing it, and everyone is exposed to the same logic patterns that we're seeing, it would be extremely risky for him to come across as an MLB pawn. If, in the past, the independent arbitrator ever felt the need to side with MLB for the sole purpose of not pissing of MLB, that variable was removed the moment this got into the public. In a way, the after-leak process worked as perfectly as it could for MLB. They still can defend their testing process, but they can also say that the panel system worked (though they aren't, but they could). Perhaps to MLB, in a confidential situation, the testing process worked fine. But to an independent arbitrator, I think he also has to take into account how the public will see this when given all of the information. If anything, he helped MLB by deciding the way he did, so they don't have to face any more scrutiny over the fairness of the appeal process.

This may have been mentioned, but I have to wonder if the original leak wasn't a blessing in disguise. I know nothing of Das other than what's on paper, but is there a possibility that perhaps he would be more inclined to side with MLB if he wasn't under such a microscope? IF this is the first time a player won an appeal in a case like this (and that's a big IF since we wouldn't know if they had won), it seems a bit strange that this is also the only case that got leaked far before the process was completed.

I'm not sure what you're referring to with Prince's comments. He seemed fine. Prince was never the type to make an overjoyed OMGZ type comment, and I'm sure he wasn't paying that close of attention while wondering if he was getting screwed by Boras.

I think we also have to keep in mind that it's not like this guy is getting paid tons of money in this side job. There are about a billion things that could have happened with him both personally and professionally (at his actual job) that could have pushed this sort of thing down the priority list. I'm not saying it's acceptable; I'm saying that if MLB wants to have a flawless testing process, then they have to pay for it. There's no reason MLB can't afford to pay a full-time living for one person assigned to each team to administer this task. Frankly, I'm shocked that a part-time courier had so much power over a process that can have such a significant impact. It reminds me a bit of officials in football. Someone that can have a significant impact on every single football game is a part-time employee. MLB and NFL are highly successful businesses...time to pony up for things that put their reputation on the line. I pray that Brewers fans will act with class in this situation. I wouldn't ever buy the guy a beer, but I'm not going to spit on him. Braun is the affected party in this...the one who had to go through this nightmare, so if he isn't showing up on the guy's doorstep, there's no reason for anyone else to.

This is just killing me...please, someone answer this for me. I keep hearing over and over that Braun is the first person to overturn a suspension. But as I've understood it all along, no one would know if a suspension had been overturned because in EVERY OTHER CASE, the confidentiality wasn't breached. We never should have known about any of this, especially now that he's been exonerated...am I wrong on that?

Wow, he said there were 18 FedEx locations between the ballpark and the collector's house. This whole thing is just remarkable. Very good job by Braun with the announcement and all of his follow-up answers. I especially love the part about ongoing litigation. Take 'em to the cleaners Braunie!