SI1020

I don't disagree with you at all about ownership. I've seen the fur fly on this issue even worse than Frank Thomas, Jose Valentin, Royce Clayton combined. I have never been comfortable with this ownership group, not in 1981, not now. Lease or no lease, I'm not convinced the Sox will always be in Chicago. The country has undergone significant demographic shifts in my lifetime. Chicago is not the big deal it was when I was a kid. The LA metro area has double the population of Chicago now. As for Gammons, he just comes across as another self important east coast elitist type. Having lived outside of Chicagoland since 1985 it is my observation that most sports fans across the country have a negative attitude towards the Sox vis a vis the Cubs. Many times the Sox don't even seem to be on fans radar in any way at all.

How about wanting to contract us?

I agree completely. It is the worst trade in the history of professional sports. Sorry for the bad memories. I was just feeling mischevious and knew the good posters would get this thread back on track real quick.

Doesn't Boston have that twenty something GM. Seems like a real bright guy that is not taken easily. Lots of posters have been anxious to make a deal with the BoSox it seems.

I had a 61 Bel Air. Had a chance for a 67 Impala. Still kicking myself over that one.

Lou Brock for Ernie Broglio. Esposito, Hodge and Stanfield for Martin, Marotte and Norris. Gene Freese for Johnny Callison.

Many of you here know this stuff much better than I do but it appears if we have a strength is it pitching. It seems like we're thin elsewhere. I have some high hopes for Webster and Reed.

On the contrary I have a very high opinion of you. Humor, and ones individual personality do not always translate well over the internet. If we were speaking you probably would have laughed at my comment.

I'm not an old fart embedded in the past. There are high school girls today who swim faster than Johnny Weismuller in his prime. I take it on a case by case basis. I don't think the quality of play in the NBA is at an all time high, in fact I think it's deteriorating. I won't even watch hockey anymore, Mario Lemieux was dead right in his criticisms of the game, and I'm sure many nights he regrets coming out of retirement. I love the NFL but again I see no golden age there either now. Call me nostalgic or an old coot or whatever, I just know what I see. Genius doesn't always progress on a straight line. I've yet to see a RB as breathtakingly skilled as Gale Sayers. I'd take him over Barry Sanders in a heartbeat. I'm one of the most humble guys around. If you're smarter than me great. I seek those types of people out, instead of avoiding them like most folks do. Boxing is one subject I'm stubborn enough to think I know a little something about. Technology, size, speed, athleticism, throw it all at me I don't care. Todays boxing is in a less than sorry state. Lennox Lewis is a nobody fighting nobodies. The Klitschkos are tomato cans. Roy Jones Jr. is great, there is some of your athleticism, but he has nobody to fight to test his greatness. We here who are alive in 2003 are not in a "golden age" of anything, least of all boxing. Let me see one of them fight 76 rounds. Let me see one of them fight over 10 rounds of a 40 round title fight with a broken arm. I'd like to see one win a middleweight title in a crowded division, and hold the crown for three years while blind in one eye. I'd like to see one throw a left jab and turn it into a hook in mid punch so fast that you can't tell the difference. You are dead set that everything and everyone in the world of sports gets better with time. I look at it one thing at a time and make my judgements.

Thanks, I looked at that big long web address and took the easy way out.

Go to page three of this forum, near the bottom. Again my best. The beer will taste real cold when you get home.

There is some evidence to support the "quit on us" opinion. Not to change the subject but wasn't Zambrano fired up? What got into him? Was he just caught up in the intensity of the rivalry or was it something personal? In any case there was no "quit" in Zambrano that day. I was one of the ones who roasted Manuel for taking Colon out. Maybe Colon took himself out. Only 97 pitches right? He's supposed to have the most stamina of just about any starter in MLB. A chance to really make a point. You'd have to pry the ball from my hands. "Quit on us?" I don't dismiss it, his after games comments (at least the ones I read) left me wondering.

I appreciate the innings and the complete games but looking at it objectively he may not be a bust, but he's definitely a dissapointment. No way he is a stud or has he lived up to the preseason hype, which I might add I totally bought in to.

You were remembered by many here in a recent thread. Great to hear from you. Stay well.

There's so much strife on message boards, Ive been trying extra hard to be agreeable, but on this point I couldn't possibly disagree with you more. I don't care how big, strong, fast blah blah blah blah modern athletes are, they are not automatically better. Is the quality of play in the NBA better than it was one, two, three decades ago. Hell no, I say. The NFL? Everybody has forgotten simple things like tackling, hell Kyle Farnsworth recently made on of the best textbook tackles I've seen in years. Lewis may be the best of todays heavyweights but he wouldn't even make my top 20. Anybody that can watch todays boxing and say this is anything approaching a "golden age" is tripping. Pernell Whitaker and Roy Jones Jr. come to mind as great fighters of recent vintage but after that I'm stuttering and stammering to name anyone else. Technology marches on at a breathtaking pace, but athletes today are not necessarily better and most certainly are not tougher. BF you have a wide array of knowledge about a number of subjects but you are flat out wrong on this one. Todays boxing is pathetic and Lewis and the current sorry class of heavyweights are a prime example. If i ever did buckle down, do the necessary research and write a boxing book I'm sure you wouldn't read it, or if you did it would get flung against the wall like I used to fling my algebra books when I was a school kid LOL.

Perry Mason. I'll bet he's real popular here and everybody wants to come over and borrow mine.

I want one.

Oscar DeLaHoya and Eric Lindros should be ranked "higher" on this list.

Couldn't agree with you more.

Gammons recently called for the Sox to be contracted.

Listen, you have to realize that guys my age dream of their expensive sportscar (mine would be a 55 or 56 Thunderbird), the wind whipping through what is left of our hair and someone looking like that sitting next to us. Like the song from the old musical goes "To Dream the Impossible Dream" !

A great guy, helped direct me to this site, gave me some technical assistance and one of a miniscule few that actually sent me an email. I hope all is well with the guy. Great baseball knowledge and a great loyal Sox fan too.

Humana is one of the worst HMO's, or at least it was a few years back when I attempted to look into this. I don't want to get into chapter and verse of all my dealings with my particular HMO, it would probably bore people. This is a complicated multi faceted problem that is getting worse all the time. Cost is only one factor. I would like to add a thing or two. For all the problems I do not want to see a Canadian or British style system installed here, although I believe its only a matter of time before it is. Things will get progressively worse as they are in almost all facets of daily life. Sorry for being a downer, that's just the way I see it. Pick a topic or subject on almost anything imaginable, quality is going downhill, nobody seems to notice or care. American medicine is technically awe inspiring. The technical expertise of American medicine is without compare. The diagnosis and treatment of chronic and wasting diseases is another story. Medicine is much more of an art than its practitioners would have you believe. You can accept that or not, I've come face to face with it. Another thing, I've found most doctors (with some notable exceptions) have the personality of a table top, and very poor communication skills. Medical schools are finally beginning to come to grips with this, and many curriculums are undergoing major adjustments. If you are truly sick and hospitalized you just may find that nurses are your best friends. Again I know from where I speak. Often times they know you and your situation better than your doctors and can run interference for you with them. They often times can and do get you what you need when you need it the most. If any of you know a nurse, give that person a big hug for me, they are one of the unsung heroes of todays American workplace. Lastly, BF is right, every society needs its sharpest critics. Michael Moore is still a big fat idiot.

Another winnable game lost. One of way too many this year. In Wrigley in front of the governor and all his cubbie faithful. People are frustrated. Of course we're not in the dugout and aware of all that's going on. Colon looked strong. The book and the percentages can get banal and anal IMO. Got to go with your gut sometimes. Managers used to do that believe it or not. Not running to a frikin computer printout for every move. In any case, Manuel seems to have lost his touch where pitching changes are concerned. It used to be his strong point. I plead guilty. I wanted this game. It was big.