The Critic

That is a great picture, subject matter aside. Perfect timing ( or supreme luck ), to get the ball in the picture with the pieces of the helmet flying around.

Perfect example is Scottie Pippen. Great second banana, awful leader.

MAN, I just got back from my company's Groundhog Day party, and I am f***ED!! UP!!!! Groundhog Day parties are the BEST, because you do shots until you can't see your shadow!!

While they won't win the division, or even come close, the Tigers will be much better and they WILL make life difficult for the AL Central teams. They may even play spoiler for TWO of the teams in the division this year, not just one like last year. Vina, White, Rodriguez, Johnson, Guillen are all upgrades, at least in the short term.

It's a good move for the A's, Karros is a heck of a videographer!

...or "weighted down in back"...

5 years without any Fiona Apple is indeed a "good 5 years".

This is fascinating. It's a first-hand look at how something can get contorted and blown out of proportion. I don't know about YOU guys, but when an athlete says "My quote was taken out of context", I'm going to remember this little episode and think twice......AHHHHHH, who am I kidding??? I'm STILL not gonna believe the athlete!!! See what you started, Steff, you belligerent ruffian, you???

Rat Sees Shadow....Big Whoop. Winter lasts til May in Chicago every year anyway, so what's new?

Nahhh, that's the awards presentation from their Spelling Bee - they BRING IT HARD when they spell, yo.... "Spell PRESCIENT." "P....R...E...S...H..." "WRONG!!!!" THWACKK!!!! "OW!!!"

My top 5: ( in chronological order ) Dick Allen Terry Forster Greg Luzinski Ivan Calderon Frank Thomas ( his first 7 years, he was "stop what you're doing and watch this man hit" TV - he still gets there quite often, but there was something downright scary about him back then ) other favorites include: LaMarr Hoyt Robin Ventura Jorge Orta Magglio Ordonez Bobby Thigpen Mike Sirotka and I enjoyed Jurassic Carl Everett's 1/2 year here very much, too

I, for one, don't really like any of the four of them much. Harrellson - grown on me *a little bit*, but still too small-town hokey for my tastes Jackson - doesn't really add much, IMO, plus Harrellson doesn't seem to like him, which makes for some weird tension in the booth sometimes Rooney - would be great if he didn't have that "radio voice" Farmer - his monotone puts me to sleep, and his talk of golf and love of ShamME bothers me as well I almost always turn the TV volume down and play music while the Sox are on, and rarely listen to them on the radio anymore, except for Spring Training - I'm suffering for the sound of baseball right now, so I'd listen to RON f***IN' SANTO if I had to!!!! Last spring's Ed Farmer silliness - claiming that Frank Thomas "has to have a good spring or he may not make this club".

It's stupid-ass "party metal", but I actually like it for a laugh. It rocks pretty well, but it's REALLY simplistic. I hear his follow-up "The Wolf" is not very good even by AWK standards, though.

Well, just in case that troll can access the page, he does deserve an answer to his question, and the answer is: "Yes it's true.......you're banned."

I agree. Right now, Frank and all the other Sox players are on vacation. If I was on vacation, I don't think I'd return my boss' calls either. A discussion about comments my boss made about me wouldn't merit an immediate response - it would fall under "we'll talk about it when I get back to the office". We can't really equate our work situations to his, anyway - he's guaranteed 6 million bucks this year regardless of whether or not he returns phone calls, or whether or not the Sox release him. As long as Frank shows up on time and in shape, I don't care at all what he does right now. I just hope that if he IS pissed off, he uses it as motivation and doesn't sulk. Maybe my opinion on his non-attendance at SoxFest would be different if I enjoyed going to fan conventions or wanted to get his autograph, but I don't care too much about those things. If he wasn't contractually obligated to attend SoxFest, then the choice is his. It's not like his attendance at previous SoxFests helped prevent the negative reaction he gets from some fans anyway.

Detroit is trying to get back to some level of respectability, with the signings of Vina, Rondell, Jason Johnson and I-Pudge. "I-Pudge" is a decent compromise, right? If I have to call Rodriguez "I-Rod", then I'll call Fisk "C-Fiss". This nickname controversy is just silly. The Sox are still better than the Tigers, and should win the season series against them if they just play up to their capabilities and don't take the Tigers lightly. Not to say they will, but they should. The White Sox have NO reason to take anyone lightly....ever.

For me, it's the US release of "Riff After Riff After Motherf***ing Riff" by the Wildhearts. Adding a few songs and removing one from the Japanese EP, the EP has been lengthened into a full disc to coincide with their first-ever US tour this March.

I put it here to point out the SunTimes article, and it may have gotten lost in a 7-page thread. Sorry if it's wasting bandwidth.

You can't fight the Law Of Averages. Also file in the Blind Squirrel File. Yes, the Flames do in fact stink.

I'd love to be able to have a job that allowed me to use major-league Spring Training as a Fantasy Camp. You know that there'll be EVEN MORE Royals jerseys in Branson, MO after this...

Headline of Sun-Times: "RIP FEST" "SoxFest turns sour as angry fans take their swings at management during annual winter convention" WHAT have you kids been up to???? So I'm guessing that Maury made it AFTER ALL!!! And bad news for me - KW says that JosE6 isn't going anywhere....I knew that, but it's still bad to hear that kind of news. EDIT TO ADD: It turns out that the "female fan" who made Ozzie fire back and told KW that "I'm not finished yet" was our very own STEFF!!!! BIG respect to Steff for causing SUCH A SCENE!!!!

Uhhhh....excuse me??? SLACKHAWKS???? HELLOOOOOO???? Didn't the Canes make a really nice playoff run a little while back? DON'T YOU TELL ME ABOUT SUFFERING, YOUNG LADY!!!!!

This is PRECISELY the reason why I laugh my fool ass off whenever a Southern state gets 2 inches of snow and 857 car accidents!! I honestly don't mind winter, but walking to the bus in -5 weather really bites ass. Wind chill of like 20 below, it goes WAY beyond "winter weather". I don't know how I'd deal without all four seasons - it would kinda suck to not experience winter. Of course, that could be the masochist in me talking....after all, I DO follow the White Sox...

Anonymous Interchangeable CLTV host: "So, Harold, what do you think about Frank Thomas?" Harold: "Well......ummm......Frank is a great player.....one of the best all-time.....and.....I think he's gonna have a banner year......he's a consummate professional....." I'm sure Baines is the guy you go to to get that JUICY QUOTE!