pitchleague

. . . with breath sounds, though. I enjoyed last night's episode. Except the First Husband storyline can't possibly be ending already. Although I wouldn't mind--it's kinda lame. I am trying to keep an open mind and "big picture" attitude with it. Jack's method of dealing with Agent Walker (is that her name?) was good but I couldn't tell if she caught on to him and, if so, when she did. I think she did in the truck when the guy was talking on the phone to confirm with his FBI informant.

2. When my folks first got internet, it was just a standard dial-up line. For some reason, I would get telephone calls daily stating that they couldn't get onto the internet. They called a tech out and everything checked out. But as soon as he left, they couldn't get online. Finally, after a few days of this madness, I went over to investigate myself. I was stumped for the longest time until I checked out the dial up connection box. Every time they tried to dial up the internet, they typed in THEIR HOME PHONE NUMBER instead of the dial-up number from the phone company. I think the neighbors heard the "head-slap" I made on my forehead when I discovered what the problem was. DUH!!!!

my goodness, where do I start? First of all, these stories are all about my parents and their lack of understanding. I love my folks but sometimes they can be the most dimwitted people ever when it comes to electronics and other technology. Secondly, although I know a lot about tech and can usually (but not always) fix my own problems (or at least know how to find out information about the problem), I still have never used MySpace or Facebook and probably never will. I know what they're for (I think) and I highly doubt that I need to network socially. I have a wife. I have friends. I really have no need to share stuff on my own "page" (i.e. pictures, blogs, etc.). With my job (teacher) I also don't need my students and/or their families looking me up on Facebook or something. And now. . . . . . on with the stories (there's a lot. Heck, I wrote down 3 more just while writing the above paragraph!) 1. When my wife and I got engaged, we celebrated by going up to Vegas for a nice meal. My folks came, too, because they wanted to shop for an inexpensive computer from the Gateway store and they wanted my advice to help get them what they really would need. Of course, everything, and I mean EVERYTHING went out in and out of their ears in less than an hour because instead of buying some fairly inexpensive computer that they could use for internet, email, etc. they walked out of their with a $2800 desktop, speakers, printer, and scanner. On top it all, the desktop was loaded with WINDOWS ME! Ugh! Oh, the computer died about 4 years later, the speakers only work with a digital sound card (so they're useless on most computers), the printer still works but is really crappy, and the scanner, which was purchased so they could transfer old photos and slides was never used.

Rather than post this huge 3-page diatribe of stories on this topic, I decided to break it into twelve parts, making them separate posts. I didn't want to do one jumbo jumbo sized post as I know that I find those annoying every now and then. Just be aware that my list started with only five items and jumped as I continued to remember more and more stories. Also, I am not trying to run up my post count. Who really cares anyways? edit: I also will be posting these in intermittent times so they don't all run consecutively. But they're all written at this time (unless I think of some more.)

I'm guessing that the original poster is from Wisconsin so this is a non-issue but I thought I'd put it out there for those out-of-staters (out-of-marketers, technically speaking), so they don't get confused: You will not get Brewers baseball on your Dish Network or Directv receiver unless you have the Extra Innings package (and I'm pretty sure it's STILL not being offered on Dish Network anyways.) And channel 669 will only work if you have the Sports Pack activated (that's another $12/month fee). Extra Innings channels are something like 725-740 or so.

Double congratulations to you and your family!

I thought Merideth was golden last night. She had 3 tremendously funny lines. Creed's single line was also great. Kelly's line, too. Except for the speed gun thing, the whole first half of the episode was kinda slow and dull. But it picked up towards the end.

it's amazing that everything "worked out" in the end. Somebody had a pair of broken legs--that was the worst that I read about. I got a good chuckle out of this: my wife and I were watching CBS on the New York feed (on Directv) and they were doing one of their commercial break "coming up on the 10 o'clock news" kind of ads, which was all about the landing of the plane. The very next commercial aired was an ad for the Bahamas with these kids jumping off an airplane onto a sandy beach with big smiles on their faces.

Incorrect. I don't even have to look this up. It was Greg Harris. Williams pitched like 2 innings of solid relief before Harris entered the game in the 9th.

maybe the people who vote for Sanchez and other undeserving people are just casting the ridiculous votes to "protest" that the Brewers shouldn't be putting it to a vote in the first place and just name a person or two every year or so. I think it's pretty much dorky that some of the great Brave players (Crandell, Burdette) aren't there already and maybe these reporters are trying to get the club to say, "you know, these guys aren't taking this very seriously. Let's just do this ourselves." I would probably vote in Crandell, Burdette, Bamberger, Caldwell, Higuera, Haas (maybe), Oglivie, Plesac (maybe), Scott, Vuke, and Logan for starters. Heck, just open it up to anybody that was pretty darn good in a Brewers/Braves uniform. Fill the plaza with plaques for everybody to walk all over. Does it really matter? I've yet to see one person on game day stopping to admire all the plaques in the sidewalk. Now if they did a real HOF like the Packers did? Well, first of all, it'd be a pretty small building. All joking aside, yeah, then just put the Brewers/Braves immortals inside and keep the other guys in the walk of fame.

excellent first four hours (finally finished tonight). Sure is set up to be an interesting season. During the first 30 minutes, I wondered out loud to my wife, "I wonder if Tony is just in really, really, really deep cover or something," since both of us found it kind of incredulous to believe he was a bad guy, although he had all the reason in the world to do so (as he stated tonight, re: Michelle getting blown up, President Logan being really really bad, etc.). I got the biggest rush during the reveal in the third hour; my wife couldn't believe I was right. I still kind of get pumped up about that. However, I wouldn't doubt that Tony will end up as a bad guy pretending to be a good guy pretending to be a bad guy. Also, I believe that the secret service agent in charge of the First Husband is undercover for the group that threatened the son's girlfriend for revealing information about the "murder." Although, I think that's pretty much fairly obvious. As for the mole and the whole Walsh character (I have not seen Entourage either, so his character doesn't mean anything to me), all I know is this: the Walsh guy is horrible for this role as he doesn't (to me) seem to be doing a good job of acting; Jeanine Garafalo is really short and not aging really well; the head FBI guy reminds me of Craig Kilborn; and the mole is probably somebody we haven't seen yet but we'll all *GASP* when we see who it is (someone from a previous season). Didn't Jack's father escape last season, too (James Cromwell)? I'm guessing we'll see him at some point this season, too.

I turned it on finally last night while heading to bed. The only thing on was "Prime 9". It was the episode that apparently was Baseball's characters. I only saw #2 (Yogi Berra) and #1 (Casey Stengel) before going off the air for another episode; this time Baseball's best single season pitching performance. #10 S. Carlton 1972 #9 Ron Guidry 1978 #8 Christy Mathewson 1912 (I think, I started dozing by now), #7 Greg Maddux 1995; that's all, I was asleep by then. But it was pretty nice to see baseball anything on television in the middle of January. Sometime I'll check out their other programming.

I could be wrong but I thought Tim Hudson had Tommy John surgury last year and will miss some decent time this season, not to mention his effectiveness and stamina when/if he does return this year will be questionable.

It's because some voters think that their very strange philosophy that "no player will receive 100% of votes" is correct. It's the only reason that I can think of. Well, maybe the "not on the first ballot" thinking that is out there, too. I find it strange but who cares? There's a minority in everything--somebody trying to take a stand, etc. Rickey's still in and in a few years nobody is going to care what percentage of votes he got in by. It's not like they put it on the plaques or anything.

hawing, I've got those calls on my computer. I did the EXACT same thing you did back on that Easter Sunday. Still have the tape. But 2 summers ago I finally digitized them. I don't think their in mp3 format (probably wma) but that's not the issue here.

I think this is the third time in three years I have typed this more-or-less exact paragraph. I should probably make a copy and put it in "My Documents" to recycle every year. Every year, a player is bound to get what is called a "courtesy vote" for the Hall of Fame. This courtesy vote is pretty much an "agreement" by a writer or broadcaster who got to be pretty good friends with a player over the years. When the player then retired, the two of them, knowing full well that the player was not Hall of Fame material but only Hall of Very Good Material, came to an agreement that the writer/broadcaster friend of his would cast a vote for the player so he'd be able to tell his grandchildren that yes, he was given a vote for the Baseball Hall of Fame. It happens all time. In fact, I could probably come to a pretty good guess of who voted for Jay Bell. Luckily, the voters in these cases do their homework now so they don't have a repeat of the Wes Ferrell induction of 1984. It was through the veteran's committee vote, but it still worked out in exactly the same way. Here's the story in case you don't know it: "Rick Ferrell was a pretty good catcher form 1929 through 1947, a pretty good farm system director and general manager for Detroit, and, by all accounts, a pretty good guy. Rick played eighteen years (admittedly in eight of these he didn't catch 100 games in a season). He hit .281 lifetime, with twenty-eight career homers. His brother Wes had hit .280 lifetime, with twenty-eight homer. Of course, Wes was a pitcher. While he was still eligible in the writers' balloting, Rick got one vote in 1956, another in 1958, and a third in 1960. For years, reporters covering the Committee on Veterans would tell tales of how its memeber, old sportswriters, players, and executives, would cast 'courtesy votes' for old buddies, knowing full well that these guys would never actually get elected. It was a nice, folksy touch. You know: Hey, Smiley, you didn't get in, but look, I voted for you, old pal, old sport. Everybody was happy but nobody got hurt. Then in 1984, it happened. Apparently everyone case a courtesy vote for Rick Ferrell. Bingo--he's a Hall of Famer." --from The Big Show. Olbermann and Patrick, 1997. In sum, my feelings on the whole vote were, good for Rickey and Rice. Boo for Blyleven getting the shaft--again. And no big deal for the Jay Bells and Jesse Oroscos of the world getting a few courtesy votes.

are people posting about this on any Braves fan sites? If so, are they indifferent to it or are they letting out a huge Dukes of Hazzard-ish "YEEEEEE-HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!" ?

3 1/2 quarters of dull boring Fiesta Bowl action, so I go watch an episode of the Office on DVD with my wife. Then, when it's over, I check the score and see Texas doing interviews and Ohio State scuffling off the field. I figured the score stayed pretty much the same (17-9 when I turned it off). Man, tivo is the greatest invention ever. I missed a great ending, but then again, I didn't miss a thing since I got to rewind and watch it as if it was live (plus skip all the in-between play analysis.)

Benny Distefano I believe was the guy Kennedy was talking about.

how well do these things stream the audio, though? If you hook it up, I can understand (sort of) getting a 1080p HD picture. But are you getting good quality Dolby Digital 5.1 surround (or DTS if that is your thing?) Or is it just blah audio quality of everything else I have ever watched streamed from the internet?

Just thought I'd throw this out there, but the Feb. 2009 issue of PC Gamer magazine has the FULL version of Baseball Mogul 2009 included on this month's DVD. Nice bonus to this month's issue! I'll probably try it out and dink around with it.

jeez, that's 32 movies on your list! How do you guys have the time (and money for that matter) to see 32 movies in a year?

boy, I guess I missed this one when I was younger. Never played Punch Out! Of course, never had the Nintendo system in it's hey-day. Only after the fact (when Super Nintendo came out) did I get my hands on my cousin's old NES system. Played the heck out of Tecmo Bowl but that was about it. Call me back when they make the "Punch Out!" movie, though. That could be entertaining.

It is very possible that the Brewers-Twins game is the Alternate broadcast. Believe it or not, ESPN has had an ALT game on selected Sunday nights during the season.

I know that I'm way behind the curve, but I just finished Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic today. Only took 45 hours of gameplay, which took about 2 weeks of on-again off-again playing on my laptop. Great game. Those of you that said I would enjoy it were right.