Gregory Pratt

Haha, God bless America where a Union can get mad at you for taking 14 million a year for four years

All of them.

The question is more like, "Is there precedent for them blocking it because the player's taking a little less money?" I don't think there is, but I don't know. Someone enlighten me.

Raines, probably.

The Benoit story is getting real creepy.

Yeah, she had some illness or something but it's gone away now, I've heard.

Yes, that is Tammy. I loved her. Previously, I had had Beaulah. Next is probably Dawn Marie.

There is no such thing as "judicial activism." There's only "judges whose opinions you disagree with." Rehnquist and Roberts are big scrappers and overturners and precedent-setters. Is it a bad thing? Debateable. But they're just as "activisticcccc" as anyone they've replacedddddd

Yeah, I'm impressed, but I'm going to wait and see.

Well, thank you very much. I'd heard it before and it was re-stated by my SPARRING PARTNER! on another site. Guess I'll have to go correct him. Thank you.

The Ultimate Warrior was on Hannity and Colmes. I repeat: the Ultimate Warrior was on Hannity and Colmes. Oh, Fox. Oh, Cable news.

No, I'm rooting for him, I'm just saying everybody's so quick to say, "Javier's fixed!" after a few good outings and the truth is I don't think he ever will be as consistently good as a guy with his electric stuff should be.

News: Chris Benoit was drinking. So was Geraldo Rivera. Looks like I have a start to a post on my blog tomorrow.

well there's this guy on a forum I frequent who's saying that this'll kill WWE and I'm saying, No way, man! and that's the extent, really, but I wanted to make sure nobody thinks I'm crazy. They've been losing money and haven't been too profitable for awhile, but I doubt they're in any real trouble.

It's possible that we could still compete this year if we brought in a reliever or two, a few young kids and everybody started to hit like they can, but I'm not holding my breath.

What happened after that first half? I'm just going to wait and see before I declare victory for Don Cooper and Javier Vazquez, is all I'm saying.

I would counter that Vazquez is the exact same pitcher. Good starts here and there, still strikes out a ton but ultimately doesn't get it done consistently. He's having a better year than I've expected but I expect him to have his usual blowups here and there.

Does anyone think that this might kill WWE? That Benoit might? I don't think so, but some people do, and they think WWE will wind up out of business in a year based on this scandal and the recently declining number of fans. I disagree, but will someone else tell me what they believe and why?

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Jun 28, 2007 -> 10:29 PM) Is there any place to see this interview? I checked youtube, I don't think it's up there. It'll be up relatively soon, I'm sure.

QUOTE(Heads22 @ Jun 28, 2007 -> 10:23 PM) Also tell your kids that he played baseball the way it was meant to be played. One of my very favorite players. Like someone else I know. -- Congrats, Craig Biggio.

Bret “The Hitman” Hart was a close friend of Chris Benoit, as many of the Canadian wrestlers were, but their friendship was deeper than country. Hart’s father, Stu, trained Chris Benoit to be a professional in the prestigious Dungeon and they remained close over the years, with Hart serving as a mentor in World Championship Wrestling where they worked together and they were quite familiar with one another’s family, which is why Bret Hart has hit the talk show circuit following the death of three close friends. Hart is, like Benoit was, a World Champion. Yesterday, Bret Hart was on CNN for an interview with Nancy Grace. It was a fairly uneventful interview as Grace asked him the usual (grating) questions (”You’ve known him for decades: did you ever know that he could do something like this!?”) until she asked him a question that perfectly illustrated the media’s lack of knowledge, research and understanding of the situation that has rocked the wrestling world and overtaken Paris Hilton as the media’s taste de jour. “Do you think Benoit became depressed after going from the elite Four Horseman to Raw?” (It is a slight paraphrase: specifically, she mentioned that he’d gone from “the Four Horsemen to Raw” and that that’s “a little bit of a demotion” so “how bad do you think he took it?”) First, I’ll explain: the Four Horsemen were a wrestling “stable” (group) in old wrestling promotions and the now-defunct but formerly powerful World Championship Wrestling organization. Benoit was a member of WCW in the nineteen nineties until he decided to leave the federation along with three of his dearest friends for the World Wrestling Federation which was at the time the leading company in wrestling having just reclaimed that title from WCW after a long, exhausting ratings war that spanned much of the nineties. “Raw” is the name of WWE’s Monday night wrestling program, and so you see the question’s history and, I hope, flaw. The Four Horsemen were at that time a declining stable in a company that was crashing and burning and he was moving to an organization that he wanted to wrestle for, that pushed him to the top immediately and that eventually gave him a reign as World Heavyweight Champion that began at Wrestlemania XX (arguably the biggest event in wrestling history), so there was no “demotion.” Bret Hart should’ve answered: “Yes, Nancy. Chris Benoit murdered his wife and child then hung himself because he left the Four Horsemen by choice in 1999 and wound up at a better federation with better pay and an eventual run at the World Championship along with an immediate ‘push’ up the organization’s depth chart. He was also upset because the WWF was forced to change its initials to ‘WWE’ a few years ago because it meant that there’d be a little blur in all the DVDs of his old matches under the WWF banner.” Instead he politely said, “I couldn’t say,” and went off to explain how much both of them loved wrestling, pure and simple, drawing a parellel between them because of the fact that they both used their real names on stage. The interview was hard for me to listen to not just because Grace asked such graceless questions as that but because of some painful details that it brought to light. Grace mentioned the love and adoration that Benoit seemingly had for his child and the fact that it appeared mutual (next to his son’s bed was a statue of Benoit), but then said, “It leads me to believe that he was under the influence of steroids.” That may very well be true, but there were a ton of different prescription drugs in the home and I’d imagine them to have just as bad an affect as steroids, if not more. I don’t think that steroids would’ve created such a situation as “roid rages” are rages and they don’t last for days, as Vince McMahon and others have said, and the point raised by Bret Hart that it’s likelier to have been the result of a domestic dispute seems to carry more water. One interesting thing that’s come out in the last few days, though, is that Benoit’s son suffered from a disease called Fragile X Syndrome which is similar to autism and the child took steroids for that, so at least we know that Benoit wasn’t a sick freak injecting his child with steroids for kicks, and it’s possible that he wasn’t on steroids, although I do doubt that. Who knows? We’ll see what happened but I firmly believe that steroids had little to do with this. It isn’t just Bret Hart being interviewed and interviewed poorly, though. World Wrestling Entertainment chief Vince McMahon appeared on the Today Show today and was asked a variety of questions about his wrestlers and steroids. There were two things that really bothered me about it: 1. The continuing lack of knowledge: Guerrerro didn’t die of steroids, at least not per se. Guerrerro died because he was a heavy drug user and alcoholic years along who used to use steroids. As a result of that, his heart enlarged and he died, young, and as a result of that, WWE instituted a drug testing program that Bret Hart, among others, applauds. So let’s not try to turn Eddie Guerrerro’s ghost against Vince McMahon. 2. The continuing lack of shame. The host who interviewed McMahon asked him, “In any way does pro wrestling contribute to the creation of monsters?” The correct answer, given by McMahon, is No. These are men who decided when they were children that they wanted to entertain the masses like the wrestlers who had entertained them, men who were dazzled as children by the graceful acrobatics and charismatic promos, by the bright lights and theme songs, fireworks and commentary, passion and sacrifice of professional wrestling and decided that that line of work would fulfill the evenings of children and their families, along with themselves. Wrestlers inspire millions every day, and I know many of them set out to do that at the beginning of their careers. On the other hand, I don’t see how anybody can watch this media “firestorm” and listen to these interviews with half a handle on the situation and say, “I’d like to be a reporter one day!” In fact, I would point out that wrestling has never had a tragedy quite like this and yet the wrestlers are coming together and people are asking questions hoping to make sure that this never happens again, wondering how it happened and why. This shameful display by the media occurs every few days with all sorts of different topics, from political ones, to ridiculous ones to tragic ones, and yet the media allows itself to degenerate into a smorgasborg of stupidity with every disaster that comes its way. I guess I’ve never truly realized how bad the media can be until I listened to Nancy Grace ask Bret Hart if Chris Benoit killed his family because he was “demoted” from the Four Horsemen.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Jun 28, 2007 -> 07:41 PM) The only problem with Lester's cancer returning, is not the return of the primary cancer, but the secondary cancers due to chemo if he had that as his primary treatment. My wife is an oncology nurse and educator. She administrates and deals with chemo on a day to day basis. They consider chemo itself toxic and they have to follow strict guidelines on handling it, and administrating it. If a nurse is pregnant they dont allow them to administrate chemo because it can be absorbed through the skin and cause all sorts of issues with the baby. Chemo itself kills the cancer, however it also kills healthy cells around it as well. Due to the toxicity of it, it also has and can cause secondary cancers a few years down the line. That is why you see someone cancer free, and then a few years later they get a different type of cancer. She couldnt tell me the ratio of chemo patients that come back with secondary cancers, but she sees some frequent return patients. When you are battling a life threatening disease you will use whatever to fix it. I am sure that the person that is told they have 6 months to live doesnt think about secondary issues 5 years down the road. He could be 100% healthy, however he could also have another issue a few years down the road. Its definately a risk. Okay. Thank you. I don't know much about cancer or different types of cancers and remission and all that because I've never had anybody close to me get sick with cancer. Thanks.

Did Kazmir strike out the side? How the f*** does Hawk Harrelson still have a job? "There's a 92 mile per hour fastball that looks like it's seventy to the hitter. There's a 92 MPH fastball that looks like it's ninety. It's a true ninety two. And there's a Nintendo 92 MPH fastball that looks like it's 100."

100%

Damn it, server. Yeah, Kemp punched Razor Shines.