Gregory Pratt

QUOTE(Brian @ Jun 30, 2007 -> 12:47 PM) I still LOL thinking that he wanted to meet ARod without Boras around.

QUOTE(bschmaranz @ Jun 30, 2007 -> 12:37 PM) Isn't Miggy Cabs a buddy of Ozzie's? And Santana/Zambrano are his countrymen. But the Future isn't bright when it comes to spending money. If this deal fell through for a NTC, that's a slap to Buehrle's face. I've said it many times before: this organization is not a good organization, from the terrible coaching (except Cooper) to the awful scouts to questionable general managing (although I GENERALLY like KW). We don't sign big free agents and we won't spend money on draft picks. So where the f*** do they expect to compete from?

Call me Greg, Gregory Pratt, Pratt or Greg Pratt. I hate GPratt. Thank you, mate.

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Jun 30, 2007 -> 01:16 AM) Mercy. Not that anyone cares about my fantasy team, but I am really taking notice after trading for him about two weeks ago. It's amazing. Someone dropped him so I added him. I imagine he'll bounce back. Just picked him up today, so his bad game today doesn't register for me. Hope he straightens himself up soon, though.

That's f***ed up. Oh, that's f***ed up.

Hi guys. I've had to rewrite this short little part because of the damn server. >( been writing about the Benoit tragedy. Wrote another column. Guess it's a sneak-peak for you guys since I'm not publishing it until tomorrow. And if you're interested in all the others I've written, go here: http://officeoftheindependentblogger.com/c...y/benoit-media/ Breaking Down the Walls At night, the freaks come out on Fox, galvinizing the galvinized and the tame, as evidenced by normally respectable Greta Van Sustren's asking former wrestler Chyna to speak about steroids and Chris Benoit on her show. Chyna took the opportunity to, first, make accusations about flagrant steroid use then deny ever using them herself. Now tell me, when you look at this woman, and take into consideration her confession in her autobiographies and interviews that she's had plastic surgery -- can you tell me with a straight face that you believe her when she says she's never taken steroids? Then look into her history and see why she might be a little bitter with Vince McMahon: her boyfriend was fired for drug use and generally being a mutt, while her longtime boyfriend Triple H wound up marrying Vince McMahon's daughter after dumping her. But hey: I guess she's speaking out in the best interest of the wrestlers and their families. Yesterday, Debra Marshall appeared on a talk show where she declared that Stone Cold Steve Austin (the Hulk Hogan of the 1990s, as well as her former husband) used to beat her (that's why she left him, which is common knowledge) and take steroids. The second revelation is not a surprise, and while I generally admire Debra's courage in speaking out about spousal abuse in wrestling, I question the way such information will be used in the media. "Wrestling creates wife-beating monsters!" will definitely be a charge when the truth is that it doesn't. You'll find spousal abusers in every field, but especially in athletics of all sorts. Let's not blame World Wrestling Entertainment, however, as I don't believe the federation encourages its workers to beat their wives. If evidence arises to the surface, I will personally slap Vince McMahon in the mouth. I'd like to express my appreciation of semi-retired professional wrestler Chris Jericho for his comments on the talk show circuit, including his interview with Nancy Grace, whose ridiculousness I've already discussed in detail. While she's still asking absurd questions and posting empty hypothesis' ("there is evidence that Chris Benoit himself was murdered"), it's nice of her to have featured Jericho, who has known Benoit for years and is closer to him than most. He's also more articulate than Bret Hart (with no disrespect intended toward the Hitman) and so I'm glad he was given the opportunity to point out that mental illness and drug use seem more likely culprits than steroids. Just a little bit more before we talk about the government and the Associated Press. Warrior's appearance on Hannity and Colmes was pushed back to Monday because of the attempted-but-foiled-by-incompetent-terrorists-themselves terror plot in London. I wonder what nonsense he'll find to say now that he has a few more days to prepare or better yet, to seethe. This article is from the Associated Press and it declares that too many pro wrestlers are dying young, which is true. It's definitely true, and it goes back to what was suggested by Keller that I linked to here. It's probably true that the WWE's Wellness Program needs to be stricter, like with most professional drug testing programs. It's a fine piece to read because it's about the tragedy that's become of so many young wrestlers as opposed to being, say, a smearjob on the WWE. The one thing about the article that I have critical comment about is here, First of all: I don't believe a Wrestling Union would not work because there are so many different independent promotions unless it were something like the Screen Actors Guild but I doubt that happens and question if it should. What I believe is that the Federal Government should mandate that full-time wrestling promotions like WWE and TNA set the limits that Keller has called for. That leaves a loophole that indie wrestlers will have to deal with but it's impossible to solve all problems because wrestling is so layered and has a a million different legs. The Indies are hard to help, but they are just as at-risk as anyone else, and something needs to be done about their schedule and everyone else's. Unfortunately, I know that if Congress gets involved it will become a mess. Grandstanding morons will take the hearings over and everyone will be so busy harping on steroids that they'll miss prescription drugs, injuries and the cost of health insurance, especially for independent wrestlers, focusing instead on the gruesome details of the Benoit murder-suicide and pictures of pecks instead of the fact that people are dying because of the workload. If I were a Senator, I'd call Vince McMahon, tell him to get something legitimate done about wrestling schedules (even if it is a brave new step, as Keller's is, and they're frightened to do it: they must get it done) or else the federal government will step in with hearings and legislation. McMahon has a reputation as a ruthless businessman, which he is, but he is no monster. He is known to help long-departed wrestlers and their families to pay for their rehab, surgeries, bills and rent. He is known to give jobs to people who can't wrestle anymore or simply have no business in the ring at such a stage in their life just so that they can find work. He's given hundreds of men second and third chances and helped them fix their lives. He's no angel, but I imagine that if the government took a good-faith approach, coupled with a tug of the arm here and there, he'd be willing to concede that the schedules need to be fixed. Of course, the government doesn't care about the wrestlers: they want the publicity, and to look good, so anything that could be called discreet is unacceptable, and so this tragedy will become a scandal will become a joke because the American government and the global media haven't the slightest idea how to handle something that is serious without an agenda. Sometime ago, the "mainstream media" decided that professional wrestling was a world of idiots and trailer trash and said, "We should stomp them with every opportunity we get." Now everyone will suffer, from the fans who have to watch their product trashed by the Ultimate Warrior and Nancy Grace to the wrestlers who will have to deal with the uncertainties of their profession in the coming months to the taxpayers who will watch as the government pays the world's respect to matters it should handle on the down low to the to those of us who hope that something can be done to ease the pressure on these athletes and provide them with something of an offseason. There are a lot of walls to be broken down before that can occur, and I'm not sure they'll ever fall.

I'm not sure I buy it, either. So because some guy posted, "Torpedo Joe" (or whatever the f*** he called him) "says they rejected the deal" everybody's believing? I'll wait and see what they say in the paper.

Bad call, I know.

QUOTE(RME JICO @ Jun 29, 2007 -> 09:19 PM) I agree. The Count obviously did not have his best stuff, and Ozzie could have limited the damage to 3 runs in 6 innings. Instead it is now out of reach and Count's trade value just went south as his ERA keeps climbing. I would say half of the Sox losses have came in this exact same fashion. Uh, no. Half the losses haven't been because Ozzie did this. Not even close. Today was a bad call, but I can't be upset with Ozzie for keeping his starter in after his starter told him he'd like to stay in. Ozzie's a player's manager and this'll happen sometimes with different results each time.

Thome's injuries are real bad. He needs to get dealt.\

Why's it gotta be in the suburbs? Come to the city. Better date locations. amateur /green

They're better than most expected, that's for sure, but Ichiro's had some negative things (by Japanese standards) to say about Seattle, so who knows.

QUOTE(iamshack @ Jun 29, 2007 -> 05:36 PM) He was posted quite a while back though. After his original 3 year, $14 million deal with Seattle (who won the bidding process), he re-upped with them for 4 years, $44 million. So in essence, he did in fact choose Seattle back in 2004. I suppose that's right, but he'd experienced much success with them and felt comfortable that they were serious about winning. Now? Not so much.

Uncle Jesse bought her the tits. Don't knock Podsednik, Kappy.

Yeah. Warrior's a big fan of "magic" angles where someone puts a curse on him. He's ridiculous. I'd like to give kudos to Jericho. I'll write about it tomorrow, but someone should say it.

QUOTE(WCSox @ Jun 29, 2007 -> 04:23 PM) I thought that the player knows the team AND amount of the highest bid in the posting system. If that's the case, he would've had plenty of say as to which team he would accept a bid from. Whoever bids the most money gets to negotiate with the player. No choice for the player. It's the team that posts him, sells him. Kind of like a couch doesn't have the right to say, "Don't sell me to him!"

QUOTE(Steff @ Jun 29, 2007 -> 04:20 PM) I'm somewhat being sarcastic and mocking, but I don't really doubt it. What says thou?

Instead of Ichiro we're getting Rowand. I'd be surprised if we even made a MOVE for Ichiro, let alone got him.

Comic Book Television The Ultimate Warrior will be featured on FOX News’ Hannity and Colmes tonight. I’ll tell you right now: Warrior is a maniac and everybody knows it. He might have something valuable to say about himself and steroids (he is, I’m sure, a former if not present steroid user) but whatever he says about the WWE or the wrestling industry should be taken with a grain of salt as he was exiled from the business for his cockamamie beliefs and erratic behavior. You might take that with a grain of thought and say, “Greg Pratt has a problem with the Warrior and is just trying to smear him before he tells the truth!” but if you say that, you’re fooling yourself. He is a man who changed his legal name to Warrior (just Warrior) because he wanted to own, and be, his character; he’s been involved in numerous pay disputes with the WWE and has been dismissed several times from the organization; he’s written a comic book about himself; he recently said, about an autobiographical book he’s writing, “I’m not interested in detailing the seedy underbelly of an industry I have no desire to be associated with.” So why is he speaking about an industry that he’s been out of for so long? Because he wants to smear the wrestling world. Why is FOX giving him air-time? Two reasons: they want to smear the wrestling world (obviously) and Warrior is a Conservative commentator in the same realm as Ann Coulter. He famously declared, “Queering doesn’t make the world work!” and that’s about the extent of his intellectual thought. If you go to his website, you’ll find endless, meaningless babble. There’s nothing wrong with reporters speaking to wrestlers about steroids, but don’t mislead the world by presenting clowns like the Ultimate Warrior as credible sources. There’s news on the Benoit-crime front: he was drinking, as several empty cans were found next to his dead body. That tells me that Benoit wasn’t right, as do all his drugs, and I eagerly await his toxicology report. Geraldo Rivera, upon hearing that Benoit had been drinking when he killed himself (if not when he killed his family), decided to kick a few back himself. How else can you explain the following, which is from his latest appearance on the O’Reilly Factor and is the most shameless, opportunistic bit of poor reporting that I’ve ever read. O’Reilly, Rivera and their producers should all lose their jobs for not doing any amount of fact-checking before letting him go on the air with this dribble. The last sentence is right and wrong. Of course the wrestling world doesn’t want to pour gasoline on the steroids did this! fire but the idea that there was a huge domestic dispute is not far-fetched in the least. Other than that, Rivera made an idiot out of himself and the people who watch Fox News now believe that the WWE is covering up its knowledge of the murder-suicides (and, perhaps, involvement) along with a bunch of crazy ideas that Geraldo made up about Benoit’s wife and ex-husband. Journalism is as journalism has been for the last ten years.

1. The Mariners didn't sign him as a free agent. He was "posted" like Matsuzaka. Ichiro may or may not have signed because of the city, too, but he had no choice, really, except between that of MLB or Japan. 2. He probably wouldn't come to Chicago unless we can prove we will compete to him. He wants a winner. 3. As for money, he really does pay for himself, but I understand the concerns.

That woman sure wants everyone to know that she has a lot of sex. Can I be on your mailing list so I can write her sometime? (She's right, of course.) (About gangs.)

So I take it that Buehrle/Agent were being coy and dishonest (but not necessarily in a bad way) and that ESPN1000 was wrong?

I love hecklers. I love watching hecklers, joining hecklers, being heckled. It's great.

Vaz-Kez is proper.

QUOTE(Greg The Bull Luzinski @ Jun 29, 2007 -> 10:07 AM) It is realy not that uncommon for a player to take less to stay with the same team. If you think back awhile, some guy named Paul Konerko did it. Not really. Besides, there's a difference here in that Konerko was a free agent and Buehrle's is an extension. So there are a lot of things going on. But I doubt anything happens with the Union