AirScott

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Aug 9, 2007 -> 04:31 AM) and Scott Linehan And he lost his center, Matt Birk. But if he was legitimately as good as he was with Moss, he would've been even in his touchdown-to-interception ratio without all those people. Instead it was six TDs and 12 picks. But who is more integral in this: the all-world wide receiver who caught 90 touchdowns in seven seasons with the Vikings, or the offensive coordinator and his center? Remember, Brad Johnson came in and posted a 88.9 QB rating with 12 TDs and four interceptions.

This thread would be more fun if it would've been titled "Derek Jeter may have given Jessica Alba herpes..." Elias Stats Bureau reports the last incident of a professional athlete giving someone herpes was Michael Vick, who did so under the moniker "Ron Mexico."

QUOTE(greg775 @ Aug 9, 2007 -> 10:32 PM) You'd think Buehrle v. Laffey would be a laugher for Sox at home. But nooooo ... we lose. Too bad. The Sox are what they are, not so great. You'd think...until you first see he wears the glove on his right hand.

I'd been switching to the Cardinals game every few commercial breaks hoping to see Rick Ankiel hit, saw his home run, the curtain call, and then switched back to see A.J. hit his homer. That was pretty cool.

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Aug 9, 2007 -> 03:39 AM) Can you think of any other record in American sports that's as heralded as the all-time home run record? I can't. Brett Favre is going to set like every meaningful record for a QB this upcoming season, and I'm not sure how many people, football fans included, even care, and that's really the only other sport on the level of either baseball or football. So yeah, I'd say he broke the greatest American sports record. How about Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak? I think that really becomes the most heralded record now. Everybody mentions it every time someone hits in 30 or 35 straight. And football's records are less heralded because of the history. The record Bonds broke stood for 33 years. The record Aaron broke stood for almost 39 years. Now look at the NFL's all-time leaders in passing yards and touchdowns, and a lot of those quarterbacks played in the 1980s and 1990s. When Dan Marino passed for his 343rd touchdown, surpassing Fran Tarkenton's 342, it was 1995 and 19 years after Tarkenton had retired. Maybe the individual aspect of baseball carries some weight (somebody has to catch the balls Brett Favre and Dan Marino throw), but football doesn't have the same history baseball does. Baseball really hasn't changed since the 1920s, when the home run became a bigger part of the game.

QUOTE(Milkman delivers @ Aug 8, 2007 -> 07:04 PM) Pretty sure it was against the rules even before that. They just hadn't come up with a system for testing yet. I don't know about that. The NFL instituted its policy in 1987, with suspensions starting in 1989, and the NBA first put in a policy in 1999. Steroids were made illegal in America in 1991, but my source for all this is Wikipedia, so...well, I don't think they were against the rules. QUOTE(Linnwood @ Aug 8, 2007 -> 11:09 PM) No, I really would. And there is no way that is going to go for a million, let alone millions. It'd go for a pretty penny. But you'd sell the ball. It's easier to say you'd destroy it when you aren't holding a baseball worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

QUOTE(Steff @ Aug 8, 2007 -> 03:29 PM) Just because the guy is about as articulate as a box of rocks doesn't mean he's FOS. Raffy confirmed that for him. I wouldn't doubt that a lot of his stuff about him and Palmeiro or McGwire in the bathroom stalls or whatever is true. And I even think Bret Boone could have been a user. But to come out now and say he has "stuff" on A-Rod, when he hasn't been in the majors since 2001 and hasn't even been in spring training for a few years. So how did he get his information on Rodriguez when everything else he had in his book were hunches, hearsay and personal experiences? And fill me in if I'm misinformed, I wasn't about to drop $20 for that book.

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Aug 8, 2007 -> 03:20 PM) And for anyone to think for a second that ARod or Pujols are just going to storm to the record and take it with no one booing or questioning how they got so big, you're wrong. There will always be controversy. It hasn't been brought up yet because they aren't close and nothing has come out yet. Well Canseco apparently has "stuff" on A-Rod for his next book. Why not just put it in Juiced? He's not exactly on the level of the guys who wrote Game of Shadows, so I question his investigative reporting skills -- especially when Juiced had anecdotes like "early one season I hit a double and at second base I told Bret Boone he looked like he gained some muscle. Boone winked at me, so I think he did 'roids."

I think the worst part of watching Bonds' pursuit of 756 is that he walks half the time. I started tuning in to all the ESPN2 games once he hit 754, and the redeeming factor was that there were some pretty good games without Bonds homers. My favorite aspect leading up to 756 was Scott Hairston's finest hour, when he hit a three-run home run in the eighth to tie the game and then hit a walk-off home run in the 10th inning.

QUOTE(WCSox @ Aug 8, 2007 -> 11:36 AM) Yep. Show me a pro athlete without a massive ego and an occasional mean streak and I'll show you a someone who won't be playing at the professional level for very long. FWIW, a former roommate of mine played college ball with a guy who ended up in the Orioles farm system. Apparently this guy got called up one day back in the late '90s and, when walking out to RF one day, Cal Ripken completely b****ed him out for (gasp!) walking across the dirt on the left side of the infield. Even the nicest guys in professional sports can act like complete asses at times. I forget where, but I've heard/read a lot of that kind of stuff about Ripken.

QUOTE(Steff @ Aug 8, 2007 -> 11:20 AM) I've never heard Bonds do it either, and I've met the man and gotten his autograph over a dozen times at a park and away from a park. There's plenty of instances of Bonds being a jerk to fans. There was an ESPN.com spring training article a few years ago that began with an anecdote about Ray Durham arriving and being met by a bunch of fans asking for autographs, and he obliged. When Barry showed up, he yelled or said something to the effect of "Don't you people have lives?" But there's also plenty of stories about him being gracious and kind to people. When I read Jeff Pearlman's Love Me, Hate Me, I would hate Bonds one moment and almost like him a few pages or a chapter later. As for the record...it sucks that it came to this, it's very likely Bonds did use performance-enhancing drugs (I think he did). But he hasn't tested positive, and he wouldn't have even been breaking the rules of the game until 2002. If they put an asterisk next to this record, or wipe it clean, the same has to be done for EVERYTHING from about 1980 to 2004.

I think it's split between the outfield and the bullpen, because there's some decisions to be made for the outfield (can Pods be counted on, should Fields play left field, should Dye be brought back) and the bullpen needs a couple proven, reliable relievers to bridge the gap to Jenks.

QUOTE(kyyle23 @ Aug 4, 2007 -> 08:36 PM) Hawk just said he was obsessed with having a better year than Yastremski in 1968, and then said he did have a better year. What do you think? http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/BOS/1968.shtml More homers and RBIs and a better slugging percentage for Hawk. He finished third in MVP voting, six spots ahead of Yaz.

QUOTE(MurcieOne @ Aug 4, 2007 -> 08:24 PM) its scary.... but AJP might be the 4th best Catcher in this division.... behind Mauer Martinez and I-Roid intangible wise.... he is number 1. I think it would be the consensus that the AL Central has the best collection of catchers in baseball...you know, if people talked about that sort of stuff.

QUOTE(kyyle23 @ Aug 4, 2007 -> 07:55 PM) I didnt really see the feint. He flipped the ball really quick and his momentum was taking him forward, thats all i saw That's the thing. He ran a bit towards the runner once he fielded the ball, he didn't have momentum going forward.

QUOTE(AirScott @ Aug 4, 2007 -> 07:49 PM) Anybody else notice how Richar made the DP a little easier for Uribe by feinting tagging the runner before he flipped the ball to second, causing the runner to slow up and preventing him from sliding in to try and break it up? Am I still the only one who noticed this?

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Aug 4, 2007 -> 07:52 PM) Moose sounds exactly like Grandpa Munster. It was entertaining for all the wrong reasons when he got into the booth with Hawk.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Aug 4, 2007 -> 07:49 PM) Catfish Yaz Sam McDowell Frank Howard Rocky Calavito Luis Tiant Hawk I think 7 is correct. C'mon.....you forgot the best one... MOOSE SKOWRON! His guest appearance in the booth a few years back made for excellent television. Funny stuff.

Anybody else notice how Richar made the DP a little easier for Uribe by feinting tagging the runner before he flipped the ball to second, causing the runner to slow up and preventing him from sliding in to try and break it up?

QUOTE(BearSox @ Aug 4, 2007 -> 05:56 PM) Owens, CF Fields, 3B Thome, DH Konerko, 1B Pierzynski, C Dye, RF Podsednik, LF Uribe, SS Richar, 2B Granderson, CF Polanco, 2B Casey, DH Ordonez, RF Guillen, SS Rodriguez, C Hessman, 1B Monroe, LF Inge, 3B Now that I think about it...does Fields batting second lately have everything to do with the bunt he laid down to win that game against Detroit last week?

QUOTE(Heads22 @ Aug 4, 2007 -> 05:02 PM) Ehren Wassermann? I dunno. Him and MacDougal. I just found it interesting/pointless.

QUOTE(iamshack @ Aug 4, 2007 -> 04:43 PM) Actually, this could have been done, but we blew it. If we would have come out of the all-star break and won a lot of the games we threw away, we very well could be 7 games back right now. Instead, Jenks blew two games, a couple other games were thrown away, and we're still 12 games back. The Tigers have been in a free-fall the past 2-3 weeks, the Indians have been very inconsistent. The Twins are still hanging around because of them. I believe 87-88 wins could very well win this division. Unfortunately, what we are doing is too little, too late. Unless of course......naw.... Don't forget the seven series leading up to the All-Star break, when the Sox played the Pirates, Marlins, Cubs, Devil Rays, Royals, Orioles and Twins. In the time to really make a push before the break and possibly become buyers at the trade deadline, the Sox went 12-12, breaking even after starting the stretch out 2-7 and getting swept by the Cubs. On the bright side, the Sox are playing their best ball yet. The bullpen is as stable as it has been this year, Buehrle and Vazquez have been really good, we have a respectable team batting average (.267) since the break, during which time we've scored the fifth most runs in the majors. But to make a run at the playoffs, just about every pitchers needs to perform well and the hitters need to keep up what they've been doing since the break ended.

Hey, without looking at the roster, who are our other two switch hitters, other than Alex Cintron.

QUOTE(JUSTgottaBELIEVE @ Aug 4, 2007 -> 03:28 PM) sox are 45-43 in games that contreras doesnt start, damn, if he was even having a decent year (12-9) the sox are right in it (57-52, 4.5 GB) Yeah, and we're in first if he's decent and the bullpen didn't suck ass. And we're the best in baseball if everybody didn't come out of the gate hitting their weight.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2960857 So he says he was diagnosed with ADHD and prescribed Adderall. I guess that explains the third positive test while he was supended -- it's a pretty crappy alibi if you say you have ADHD, then don't take the medication when you're out of the lineup. Or maybe he has ADHD...it just took 12 years in the country to figure it out. But maybe that's the source of his .267 career average and .297 career OBP.