Balta1701

I'll believe his back can take it when I've seen him in the majors getting outs for a month. But seriously, even when is back was killing him last year and he was being hit hard, he was still giving up less runs than Cliffy now.

QUOTE(shoota @ Jul 5, 2006 -> 07:52 PM) Welcome back Mr. Garland. Now stop trying to F***ing leave us!

QUOTE(WCSox @ Jul 5, 2006 -> 08:38 AM) I'm still dumbfounded as to why the Dems are moving in this direction. The Republicans in a vulnerable position right now, but the strategy of putting nuts like Dean and Pelosi in high-ranking and high-visibility positions is not going to help them take advantage of that. Because when the Dems did it that way, running guys like Gephardt and Daschle at the top of each house of Congress and big business fundraising guys like Macauliffe at the top of the DNC, the results were a Bush White House and a Republican House, Senate, and Supreme Court. No matter who is at the top for the Dems, the Republicans are going to paint them as out of touch whackos unless they agree with the President on virtually everything. If you're one of the 60-70% of Americans unhappy with the Iraq war or how we got into it, you're an out of touch nut. If you don't want to privatize social security, or you aren't freaked out by the gays, you're an out of touch nut. If we're doomed to be losers, I'd rather be a loser standing up for something, instead of losing the way we have been.

Following a game on gameday from a hotel in Beijing? Nice. Following a White Sox Winner? even better.

QUOTE(Punch and Judy Garland @ Jun 30, 2006 -> 09:44 AM) I can't specifically recall the circumstances in the Rowand game but the stakes were damn high on the crips play. It's a tie game if he doesn't catch that The Rowand play was early in the game, but it also wound up that if he hadn't caught it, the Phils would have lost that game.

QUOTE(VAfan @ Jun 28, 2006 -> 07:06 PM) At 1 HR and slugging under .400, it is hard to know how cheaply he might have been let go by San Diego. They have no long term investment in him, and until recently he wasn't helping them at all offensively. I'm also still reasonably concerned that Brian Anderson isn't going to come around. If Uribe keeps hitting, and Pods hits closer to his May numbers rather than his June totals, we can get by with one out in the lineup. But to pass the Tigers and secure home field, it is going to take a torrid pace, and we are going to need all the help we can get. I'd still ask SD what they would want for Cameron. He's about the only outfielder that could be on the market who could approach Anderson's defense. Get by? Last time I checked, which was last night, we had the best offense in baseball.

Well, good to know some things don't change even when I leave the country. Thanks Juan!

QUOTE(Melissa1334 @ Jun 29, 2006 -> 09:59 AM) 2-2, whats been up with jose? he hasnt pitched that well since coming off the dl, hes been a differnt pitcher.... He's only had like 1 bad game since coming off the DL as far as I could tell, otherwise he's still been winning, even without his best stuff, which is what was propelling him at the end of last year. Hopefully that's the last bit of hope the Pirates see, and no one else bothers replying.

Come on Jose, Make that the last one, PLEASE! Chat is open and somehow I've gotten it to work here! Please join me folks!

Come on Jose, don't let me down

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Jun 29, 2006 -> 09:50 AM) Suzhou is right next to Shanghai. Suzhou is also interesting because its their version of Silicone Valley. Its a real high tech city. My new macbook was built at the apple plant that is a half a mile from our plant. You are getting to see a lot of China that I didnt get to see. Make sure you post pics when you get back. As many pictures as I've taken, there'll be a lot to post, that's for sure. Yeah, we're out in what would be called the middle of no where. Xinjiang province is basically the farthest place from an ocean anywhere on earth.

Goddamnit Widge

I wonder how the ZhongGuo ren would say "rally Crede"

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Jun 29, 2006 -> 09:44 AM) This is fun. No offense, but the fun you're having pales in comparison to the fun I'm having. This is the most enjoyable first inning of gameday I've ever had.

If I go to sleep before this game ends, it'll feel damn good to do so with the lead. Come on JD. Sink these butt Pirates!

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Jun 29, 2006 -> 09:40 AM) Have you seen the people spitting because of the smog, or is the city you are in not as smoggy. They are actually working on an awareness project now, to clean up this behavior before the Olympics. In terms of actual smog, the area I'm in is sort of interesting, in that you have everything that the industry in the area (large oil industry) has put out, combining with the wind-blown dust that China naturally produces like crazy (the Yellow River, or Huang He, is yellow because of this wind blown dust, the wind produces a plume that goes out into the Pacific for hundreds of kilometers). So honestly, I'm not sure what is smog and what isn't. We spent 1 day in Beijing about 5 days ago, and again I couldn't tell if I was looking at smog or actual weather, because it started raining after a couple hours, so while there were low clouds, it could very well have just been rain. Thus far though, I'd say that in the cities, the skyline seems to resemble L.A., in that you only get a very limited view of the buildings around. IT could be better than I've seen though, dunno yet (we get another day in Beijing in about 6 days)

QUOTE(Finkelstein @ Jun 29, 2006 -> 09:34 AM) 2 minutes This is just f***ing beautiful, MLB's Gameday is working for me. Can't get gameday audio to work yet (it's loading yesterday's schedule for some reason), but I've spent enough games on Gameday alone with the game thread to survive. 2 hits to lead off the game. Paulie, finish off that POTM award right here.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Jun 29, 2006 -> 09:32 AM) Actually the chinese have a great internet infrastructure, outside of the fact that you have to run through government controlled content filters, and the central firewall farm. We were able to get DSL at our plant in Suzhou with 2 3 meg circuits for dirt cheap. Their internet access for dialup is funny, you dial a 3 digit number and that is how you connect to the internet. Hope you are away from the big city there. Interesting thing is, once you get past the spots on the map that are just like 100 people, it seems even the small cities are 250,000 people. Everything is a "big city" here compared with the U.S., there's just that many people. You're in what would be a small city, you walk down the road, there's internet cafes, a dozen brothels within a few blocks, business districts, bazaars, and so on. The run down areas where the workers live seem to surround these central areas where we're staying, but everything seems to join togehter in a big city form.

Can someone on local time tell me how long until the game starts?

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Jun 29, 2006 -> 09:26 AM) How's the trip? On geology field trips, I've found 2 good ways of evaluating how a field trip is going. The more epidermis missing from your feet, the better the trip is going, and the more beers in you, the better the trip is going. Based on both of those criteria, this is thus far a darn good trip. I just wish I could get any of my email services to work in this internet cafe. We have about a 10 hour drive tomorrow with a couple of stops worked in...we're crossing the full Tien Shan range again and stopping to look at a few key spots before we spend the next week on the north side looking at recent structures. So if I want to, I can literally spend 3 hours in the game thread, using gameday, sleep 4 hours, get up, and sleep more on the buses. I don't think I can resist. Just wish I had yi ping PiJiu (another beer) to make it all the better.

Ok, I don't know how the Hell, I'm pulling this off, but it's currently 12:20 local time, I'm in the middle of an internet Cafe in the city of Korla, China, i have 4 large chinese Beers in me, and I've actually got Gameday open for Jose shooting for his 10th win, and I'm posting in the game thread. This is damn amazing. Kick some ass Jose!

Hello from the middle of the city of Kuqi, in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China (Zhong Guo). Finally we got to 9 in a row! A feat not achieved even by the great 2005 Chicago White Sox! DESTROY THE PIRATES!

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Jun 22, 2006 -> 02:58 PM) Didn't Pujols say that he didn't want to DH? Either him or someone in their organization...gave the ol "If he's healthy enough to hit he's healthy enough to play the field". I'd say they're crazy. DH him for 4 games while you have the chance. Yeesh.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Jun 22, 2006 -> 02:38 PM) I wouldn't count on that just yet. MLB announced that Ozzie will be fined and will have to undergo sensitivity training over that matter, no suspension.

QUOTE(jackie hayes @ Jun 22, 2006 -> 02:30 PM) That's the first thing that comes to mind. But they can't be so stupid. They've been playing well without AP, except for the last two games, and they're still comfortably in first (with guaranteed-to-slide Cincy next up). And clearly not Pujols or Zeus could have made enough of a difference in the last two games. So you'd think the initial reports had to be exaggerated. I dunno, it just seems like they'd have to be 120% sure he's okay to bring him back tonight. Which is why I just can't figure out why they'd bring him back yet, even if he says he's healthy. The last thing they want is to lose him for another 2 weeks from him twisting the wrong way.