The Critic

I hear a lot of players talk about "being respected", and it's usually tied directly to dollar signs. If Robbie says respect does not = money, then how is respect measured? The fans seem to like him, teammates, management, everyone seems to be VERY happy to have Robbie on the team. Does popularity = respect? If not, then what?

garbage killing garbage = no big loss.

3 or more nipples and this topic might be interesting... BE INTERESTING

Remember, when parking on a hill or incline, it's UP UP AND AWAY or DOWN AND IN. and hitting a pedestrian is a SURE FIRE way to fail your driving test. Good luck!!!

...and that's ALL you need at season's end to make the playoffs! JR insists on early payment to reserve your seats, so it's not so much a Faith Affirmation on Steff's part as it is a REQUIREMENT to get her "potential" playoff tickets...although I don't know if I'd ever personally say it was NICE to spend a grand.

Buying them is the easy part - USING them is what will be nice!!!! GO SOX!!!!!!!!

He worked the last three innings, and in MLB's goofy rules, working the last 3 innings in a blowout gets you a worthless save.

Bruce Levine was as right about Frank as he ever is about anything else. Just another minor-league hack "expert" trying out for the "Big Show" in Bristol... :dips*** Brooth Levine

Cardinals picked up Sterling Hitchcock and Mike DeJean today. They need pitching, any kind of half-decent pitching. If these two give them any production at all, and Matt Morris can do MOST of what he normally brings, that could be enough to take the weak-ass NL Central.

Does Jose pluck his eyebrows??? Those are some scary-ass Liza Minelli eyebrows right there!!!!

only if you look like maury... remember hes heathers hottie..... HSC is getting maximum mileage from the tailgate....

The Cubs and Tribune company, in an effort to get in on the lucrative scalping business, set up a scalping service called Premier Tickets. They tried to set it up as an independent business, because the Illinois Scalping Act forbids the persons staging an event from selling tickets to that event at more than face value. What the Cubs did WRONG, however, was to entangle themselves in EVERY step of the business. The bills for Premier, even for the SIGNS on the doors, went to the Cubs billing department. Cubs management are also Premier management. The Cubs set up a direct printer from their ticketing computers in Premier's offices, meaning that they didn't even have to send someone to the box office at Wrigley Field to BUY the tickets - they could print Cub tickets in their office! The Cubs f***ed up BIG TIME, and the SunTimes ( specifically Greg Couch ) are all over it. The Cubs are being sued civilly right now by disgruntled customers who were told that NO tickets were available for the Yankee series, while over at Premier, they were PRINTING tickets to those games and charging 1500 bucks for a 45 dollar seat. If Lisa Madigan decides to, she can proceed with criminal charges against the Cubs for violating the Illinois Scalping Act, which could lead to the punishments I described earlier.

The Trib would have to sell, though, that's what I'm saying. And if they HAD to sell, they'd never get fair market value, and they really couldn't INSIST on the buyer keeping the team in Chicago. Also, the new buyer would have to wrangle with the City Council about night games, and the Landmark status of Wrigley Field, the parking problems, and all those other headaches that the Trib doesn't care as much about because of the benefit for their other ventures ( TV, newspapers, etc. ). The Wrigleyville area brings a lot of problems that I don't think a new owner would really want to deal with. MLB would hawk the new owners to do things "the right way", and be all up in the bookkeeping, etc. The Cubs and Wrigley Field would be a hassle for a new ownership group, I would think. It's made for some really fun reading, at any rate.

Anyone see the article in the Times today that hinted at the ( slight ) possibility that the Cubs could lose their license to stage baseball games because of the Premier scalping situation? It says that if Lisa Madigan pursues criminal charges against the Cubs and Tribune Co., a conviction could result in major fines, and THIS very interesting clause in the Illinois Scalping Act: "[Any] owner, lessee, manager or trustee convicted under this Act shall...forfeit the license of such theatre, circus, baseball park, place of public entertainment or amusement." WOW - VERY interesting little wrinkle!! From everything I've seen and read, I think the Trib and CubCo are going to have a VERY hard time pulling their asses out of this fire! They are SO intertwined with Premier, even installing a direct printer from their own ticketing computers, that I can't see any way to prove that they are a separate entity.

Homeless, crazy "punk rocker" Wesley Willis died today of leukemia at age 40. His nearly identical, babbling rambling "songs" were kind of interesting as a novelty act, and he was fairly well known in the alternative music scene around Chicago. If you're curious, I'm sure you can find some of his stuff on a P2P such as Kazaa or something - you'll only need to d/l 1 or 2, because all his songs were basically the same.

Nah, I started out that low!! Always an admirer of the female form, and always appreciate it when an otherwise unwatchable TV show gets desperate enough to sprinkle in naked chicks! Not specifically referring to Playmakers as an unwatchable show, just saying IN GENERAL...

Gotta take 'em out sometime, Show...for ANY relationship to last, you have to fill the time in between "sessions"! ...that poor sap Lachey looks like it's finally sinking in, what he's gonna have to listen to for the rest of his....I mean, until the separation and divorce.

Quote of the year so far, from the MTV "reality" show about Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey... "So is this chicken or tuna that I'm eating? I mean, I know it's tuna, but it said chicken on the label, so is it chicken....or tuna...?" Then her husband, understandably, did this - I'll tell you what: she has a nice body and all, but if I had to talk to her for more than a half-hour ( or listen to her whining, which she seems to do A LOT ), I'd have the worst headache in the world!!! HOLY JEEZUSS, what a spoiled little princess SHE is!

Nahhhhhhhh, I'm not interested. I don't like soap operas, even when they include a sports theme. Maybe if it was on HBO they'd let the hot chicks be naked, and THAT would be a reason to watch.

Definitely the one where Rob Gallas was dragged screaming out of the ballpark, beaten with sharp objects, thrown into the trunk of a car, driven to a remote forest preserve, taken out of the trunk, beaten some more, tied to a tree, covered with poison ivy and left to be eaten by West Nile-ridden mosquitoes. Oh, sorry, that's the commercial I'M writing....oopsie, my bad....

Dude, do you even REALIZE what a horrifying mental picture you just painted??? And is it true that Ribbie and Roobarb were created in JR and EE's images??

...or Carlos Lee!! s*** - that just doesn't feel right - Carlos is actually playing pretty well out there this year!

not everyone. There's a REASON I'm going on Saturday, and NOT Friday. goddamned gimmick nights............. The only gimmick nights I want to see are Turn Back The Clock nights to the red pin stripe uniforms and the 1983 toothpaste tube uniforms. I'd love to see them wear the 1970 blue-and-white uni's, but that'd never happen.

Doesn't matter. In January, the Red Wings will be at least 10 points ahead of the BHawks in the standings. Aww, c'mon!!! We've got NHL elite guys like Korolev, Karpovtsev, and Dempsey on our team. Our blueline is so tough, nobody will be even able to get to our goalie!!! YEAH, and don't forget all those KEY free-agent acquisitions............oh wait.........s***!!! THERE ARE NO key FA acquisitions!!!!!!!!!! :fyou SlackHawk "management"

A good-hitting team can afford to carry a catcher who doesn't hit AS well, if he can call a good game and throw runners out. This is supposed to be ( and CAN be ) a very good-hitting team, and Olivo can do everything you want defensively. So even if he doesn't hit ( and I still think he'll be a solid .250-.260 guy with a little pop ), he's valuable to have around. Just keep a veteran backup ( like Sandy ) around for spot duty and you have a nice combination behind the plate.