pitchleague

when you apply for a Capital One credit card can you really put whatever image on the card that you want or are there restrictions?

just brainstorming an idea here (not saying it's any good): what if they have a salary cap but you can go over that cap with a fairly severe penalty hit, such as double the difference over the cap. Example: The salary cap for 2010 is $440 million. The Yankees decide to spend $470 million in 2010, so they went $30 million over the cap. Thus, in 2010, the Yankees have to pay the league double the difference back to the league (they could have to donate it to the RBI program, the old player fund [bAT?], or cancer research, or whatever.) So that's $30 million over the cap, so $60 million paid back to the league. Sure, a team could be persuaded to do this every now and again but if they do it every year it'll hurt the team in the long run. You could further prevent the over-cap by reducing that team's cap by that difference every year. So, in the above example, the Yankee's cap would only be $410 million in 2011. And of course, the penalty would be the same so if they would continuously go over that cap every year, eventually they'd have a cap of $100 million dollars but with their continued over spending, they would be paying upwards of $400 million back to the league every year, crippling the franchise (sort of; it is the Yankees after all.) Think of how that would factor into the welfare of people--all that money donated to cancer research or whatever? Wow. True, most teams would stay under the cap. And the above scenario would completely crush a franchise such as Cleveland or Milwaukee. But I think it would work. However, no owner would go for it (I would think) and the player's association would never go for a cap. FYI, this plan is what our Diamond Mind League actually uses. We have a cap of $440 and if you go over the cap, your cap for the following year is reduced by double the difference. It really keeps the owners on their toes so they don't go over the cap, although it does occasionally occur. We had a team a few years ago that kept going over just by a few bucks a year until his cap fell below the $400 level and he had a roster of a few way over-priced stars and then a bunch of bench-warmers filling in the rest of the lineup. He figured out fast that that season really sucked and hasn't done it since.

A wise man said, "If you want to stay young, you must play. And if want to play, you must stay young." This applies VERY well in my life. It's no wonder my wife says I'm a 7-year old trapped in an adult's body.

My father-in-law's burial was today (funeral was 2 weeks ago--had to wait for snow removal, etc. at the cemetary). I found out that my wife and I received an additional Christmas present. My mother-in-law bought burial plots for everybody--her husband, her, my sister-in-law, and my wife and I. All next to each other. Strangest "gift" I've ever been given. Although, I did find out that she really didn't buy the plot. She bought the "right" to be buried in those spots.

oh, WOW! Now THAT'S a blast from the past. I haven't even thought of that one in a long time. I remember when it premiered on HBO, followed by Rich Little's A Christmas Carol, another classic show. Thanks for the flashback!

Woot.com I knew that the Random Crap was coming at midnight, so I stayed up, continually clicked refresh at 11:59 until it changed. Immediately after it changed I clicked "I want one". Of course, they're lame servers crashed immediately. I hope Santa gave them a new server system for Christmas.

Since it is officially Christmas Day in about 5 minutes, I figure I'd get this started now so everybody can post their loot haul lists in one centralized place this year. Collectively, the wife and I got: 1 -- Wild Card locker room T-shirt 1 -- Wild Card Pennant 1 -- Quesadilla Maker 1 -- The Office Season 3 1 -- Heroes Season 2 1 -- Green Bay Packer Lounge Pants 1 -- Wild Card Game Official Program 1 -- Gone with the Wind Holiday Ornament 1 -- ESPN Holiday Ornament 1 -- Pair of Green Bay Packers Crew Socks 1 -- Bottle of body soap (Pineapple) 1 -- Green Bay Packer luggage tag 1 -- Scrapbooking tool 1 -- set of Photos from Wild Card Game 3 taken by sister-in-law 1 -- Vintage Poppy table cloth made in Venice, Italy 2 -- Candy Canes filled with M & M's

Since I'm scanning the TV late tonight I noticed that TBS is running the annual 24 hour marathon of "A Christmas Story." Many people consider this a holiday classic while still many other people think it's moronic. Question is: how many of you watch it and do you think it's a classic or one of the worst Christmas movies? And why? I like it. I remember seeing it in the theater with my aunts who took all the family kids to see it. I realize now that they did it for their own nostalgic reasons but I can understand why. It's not great but it's got some genuine funny moments in it. And if you've ever read Jean Shepperd's (sp?) books, he's a very gifted writer. And Bob Clark's adaptation of the book is spot on. What other Christmas/holiday traditions do you all have? We also have to watch Christmas Vacation every year, as well as Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (sometimes the wife even gets out her action figures and plays along with the show), we put the CD jukebox onto just the holiday shuffle play for the month, and whenever we put up/take down the tree, we pick a random movie from our DVD collection and play it with a commentary track to listen to. (okay, that's a weird tradition but it has become a tradition so it's on the list.)

I read today on another Yuku board that I visit that the MLB channel is already on the air in select markets as a preview type thing. They explained it as a "trial run" type of thing where they can work out kinks and such. Supposedly, they will be airing classic games (first broadcast is going to be the 1956 Don Larson perfect game, complete with original commercials and everything.) However, the guy who posted this (I trust him pretty good) works in the television industry and applied for a job/transfer to the network. They turned him down, but his impersonations from seeing what they are planning on doing, is going to be a baseball-only ESPN show. In other words, at the start, at least, they will be feeding us all Yankees and Red Sox stuff most of the time. Take this for what it's worth, but the guy is an insider. I'm not much for posting stuff like this, but the story and information was intriguing to me.

yes, I've read this on TMQ also for at least 2 years. Heck, even Mr. TMQ, Gregg Easterbrook, did it with his son's jr. high football team this season. Needless to say, they won their "league" pretty handily. Not saying it had anything to do with the lack of punts but he thought it played a role, keeping his defense a bit more fresher each game because his offensive possessions were each longer.

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I'm thoroughly enjoying tonight's Badgers-Texas game. Up-and-down scoring (albeit a bit more scoring that I thought), nice runs by both teams, and overall good, hard play. Hope they can pull it off. 4:00 to go.

this is vent thread material. nah, I'm kidding. Congrats on your 500th post. It was very well thought out and worth celebrating.

I went to the mall with my wife, mother-in-law, and sister-in-law last night. Now I remember why I've done all my Christmas shopping online for the last 8+ years. Ugh.

you could always go sit in a Sears store and try to watch the game. Or a barbershop.

woo wee! that was fun--snow blowing the drifts and plowage (I named it "Leviathon") at the foot of the driveway in -30 degree wind chills this morning. When is our flight back home? Not until the 31st????? Darn it all, anyway!

I will agree about OOTP being the best baseball GM sim on the market. There are tons of things you can do with it. However, if you want the best simulation of the game of baseball (i.e. historical season replays, etc.) then Diamond Mind Baseball has it beat. The engine they use in their game is the engine that many baseball historians and news outlets use for simulating upcoming real-life seasons/series/games/etc. Heck, the Boston Red Sox even hired the game's designer to work for them, they were so impressed with the accuracy of the game engine. I've tried OOTP and the GM stuff was fun but the way it played games was too unrealistic to me. Season replays were not all that accurate. So, if you want to run a team as a general manager, yes OOTP is definitely the number one choice for you. Diamond Mind, though, will sim the game of baseball most realistically. There's little in GM business in DMB, though, so you wouldn't enjoy it if you want to handle a team's GM duties. /shameless plug for DMB

Although this is true (to a point) about taking a break from being intellectual, you make the comment about a vent thread after a gut wrenching loss. Well, there haven't been any losses (or wins) in about 2 months now. I don't understand the need to post one or two line vents about things happening in the off-season, not even counting a whole separate thread to vent during the off-season. A vent thread during the season when games are actually being played? Okay, I can understand the need for it. In the middle of December? I don't run the show here but I would vote no.

my wife and I have probably missed the single greatest weather day in the history of Kingman, AZ by being up in Wisconsin so early. Our school has one of those Weather Bug cameras and stuff and it is still snowing at 2:00 PM! Unbelievable! In fact, it's still a winter storm warning until tomorrow morning 11 am! I had to postpone tonight's Christmas concert at our school with me coming up to Wisconsin for the funeral and such, but it's looking like I would have had to cancel it anyway!

got to use the snowblower this morning and shovel 5-6 inches here in Appleton. Don't miss this at all living in AZ, but it was good to get back to my roots again. I also checked and it snowed back home overnight. I guess Kingman got a few inches of snow but they didn't close the town down like last time. Wonder if it'll last past 11 AM or not.

when I saw this a week ago I kind of rolled my eyes and went on with my life. All sports seem to have their eye-rolling off-the-field/court/ice moments each season. That said, I think the NHL over-reacted. Six games was unnecessary for a comment like that. I could see 1-2 games with the his salary for those 2 days donated to children's charities/hospitals.

I found out today that while I'm up in Wisconsin, it's going to snow in Kingman, AZ. Of course, I'm not going to be here to see it. Figures. But I've got plenty of the white stuff up here in Appleton to see, so it all evens out.

for the next 3 1/2 weeks, this thread is actually relevant to me.

Every time we visit Wisconsin for the holidays, summer vacation, etc. I always ask my in-laws for Hardee's one meal. They're not Hardee's people, which is fine. But I love that stuff. Sure, I get Carl's Jr. out here with some of the same menu items but it's just not the same thing.

Milton Bradley is another one.