Gregory Pratt

Wait a little for the price to go down. It's not like they're going to stop running the Rumble anthology.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Jun 27, 2007 -> 06:20 PM) So apparently Buehrle told Farmer that he's looking for $14M a year. Seems odd that he'd just mention a fact like that during the broadcast as if it's nothing. Fourteen a year ain't bad.

QUOTE(IlliniKrush @ Jun 27, 2007 -> 05:51 PM) They aren't athletes...they are entertainers. They said so themselves to the government, hence steroids et al aren't regulated there. They said so to avoid legal trouble. People say a lot of things to avoid trouble. They're definitely athletes and actors and anybody who says so, IMO, is ignorant of wrestling, what it takes to be a wrestler and what it takes to be in the ring.

They were playing the beat to Eminem's The Way I Am as Hawk introduced the "season one day at a time" whatever he was talking about. That's weird as hell.

By mentioning Molly instead of Crash, I was making fun of the reporters that don't have a f***ing clue.

QUOTE(barnes @ Jun 27, 2007 -> 04:47 PM) BRING BACK THE BEACHBALL!

QUOTE(southsida86 @ Jun 27, 2007 -> 04:38 PM) Has anyone actually seen him pitch? I keep hearing that his fastball is back up to 94, but have heard that he has pitched at 96 sometime this year. Having a starting pitcher with that kind of fastball would be great for the Sox. If Gavin has success at the Major league level I wouldn't be opposed to trading Masset if Mark is re-signed. The Sox have to keep Gavin at the major league level next year. If(and this is a big if) Buehrle is re-signed, and Jose won't waive his NTC, then would we keep him in the bullpen? I can't imagine the Sox giving up on him so soon, especially with the way he has been pitching at Charlotte. Who would want Masset? He's never been successful. Except in Mexico, where he left his fastball. Allegedly. BHAM told me Floyd's consistently at 92-94.

What the f***, man. Now every jackass who knows nothing about wrestling is going to go out and make s*** up about Eddie and Benoit and Molly Holly.

Who the f*** is using it as an excuse?

Benoit sounds really f***ed up. Seems like it might have a lot to do with drugs. It doesn't absolve him but it definitely adds a layer of depth.

If this is bulls***, someone's got to pay.

Konerko's hip. That's, perhaps, the biggest reason to do such a deal. But no way does it happen.

Well, the sickest thing about it all besides the murders themselves was "Benoit was giving his kid steroids, what a freak!" Now that might have changed. Nothing excuses what Benoit did but if it turns out he was warped by steroids and all his medications, things are a little different.

Except Thome can't play first anymore because a week of playing first would kill him. Not LITERALLY. -- I'd love to deal Konerko away, but it's not going to happen.

QUOTE(LowerCaseRepublican @ Jun 26, 2007 -> 09:42 PM) It's a case of damage control and CYA right now for the E. They're taking it on all sides from ignorant motherf***ers and opportunist morons. Yeah, I know, and I understand taking him down short-term but if in twenty years they still pretend he never existed, and they've rewritten Wrestlemania XX and other things, something's seriously wrong.

I can blame them. I think people who like to pretend that important people existed because they did something incredibly awful are cowards. We'll see what comes of Benoit's mental state. Though we won't ever really KNOW what was on his mind.

I'm really not a fan of deleting Benoit forever from the WWE. I'm not a fan of kicking someone out of the HOF in any realm just because of something terrible, even something like this. It's an integral part of the company's history, and Benoit's been a very important part of wrestling history. Besides, I think he's mentally ill, and the drugs whacked him out, which I believe the toxicology report will show. It kind of annoys me to see them change Wrestlemania XX from 3ple threat to "HHH versus HBK" on their marketing page. That's just not right. I understand why they're doing it, I guess, but I hope it doesn't last FOREVER. Years, maybe, but eventually, someone has to talk about Benoit as a sick man who needed help instead of pretending that he was an Eric Kulas-type.

Good luck!

WARNING SIGNS THAT SOMETHING WAS WRONG WITH CHRIS BENOIT By: Bob Ryder 1Wrestling.com 6/26/2007 5:08:55 PM In speaking with close friends and confidants of Chris Benoit contacted this afternoon, apparently there were some warning signs that something was wrong with Benoit. Some of the information learned by 1Wrestling.com by colleagues and friends that did not want to be quoted: "This wasn't roid rage, this was insanity. Roid rage doesn't last for 48 hours. There were signs that something was wrong. Stories have emerged that a year ago he became paranoid and believed he was being followed. He wouldn't let Nancy leave the house because he believed someone was out to get them." “Chris hated religion. He didn't believe in it. I cannot comprehend him putting bibles by the bodies. I am shocked.” In addition, 1Wrestling has learned that sources close to Nancy are reporting that she had a safety deposit box with evidence of past rages and that authorities should check the box if anything ever happened to her. AND J.R. Remembers Chris Benoit I am in shock, as I’m sure many of you are as well, at the horrific tragedy that occurred involving Chris Benoit, his wife Nancy, and their son Daniel. I knew them all well and this is a terrible and unnecessary loss of 3 lives. Monday in Corpus Christi was surreal and overtly challenging for everyone. Broadcasting the 3 hour tribute show on Raw seemed befitting to recognize Chris’ career, but it wasn’t an easy show to execute. As of this writing, I couldn’t pass a quiz as to what actually aired. The details that are now coming out of the police investigation are beyond my comprehension. I don’t even know how to respond to them. I knew Chris for many, many years and knew his wife Nancy even longer. Daniel was a precious, little gentleman. While the news media reports on this senseless and tragic event, my thoughts turn to the families of Nancy and Chris and especially to Chris’ two other young children, David and Megan, notwithstanding the Benoit’s many friends and business associates who will miss them all so dearly. For those of us that knew this family on a personal basis, this tragedy is especially heartbreaking. I did not sleep Monday night thinking about the last time I saw Chris, Nancy, and David. I remember the smiles on their faces. I will try and retain that memory for as long as I possibly can. This is a surreal, unfathomable occurrence. For all of those that are hurting as are my wife, Jan and me, we wish you our sincere condolences. We are all hurting, but we all must move forward. May God Bless and comfort the Benoit family and their many friends during this time. J.R. PS: Kyle. He also said it was from the CNN Headline news. Wrestling boards have been very good to keep up to date with this with. All boards are good for this sort of thing.

QUOTE(Shadows @ Jun 26, 2007 -> 06:28 PM) 22 yrs old, in college ill edit in that I am a Kinesiology major Why would you be interested in taking steroids? And why does your friend take steroids?

QUOTE(The Critic @ Jun 26, 2007 -> 06:27 PM) The placing of the Bibles by their bodies actually makes it much more creepy and sinister to me. I wonder what brand of Christianity he followed. What he thought he was doing. It's all so crazy and complicated, we might never know.

Well, I'm curious, how old are you Shadows, and what do you do for a living? Are you in College?

QUOTE(Shadows @ Jun 26, 2007 -> 05:46 PM) No, I have never actually injected steroids into my body with a needle like what these professionals would be doing, but I do know a lot about not only steroids but a lot of performance enhancing drugs and what not because I am really big into working out and physical fitness. I do have friends that take steroids, and not only do they not have any side effects like are listed from it, they don't have rage or depression either.. The problem is abusing steroids.. If you abuse them, then you do have the chance to die from them. Once you stop taking steroids, you pretty much lose everything you had gained from them. Thats why steroid abuse is widely regarded with professional wrestling because of the duration of a career and the size that they need to maintain over that career.. Why don't you take steroids? I don't say that in as snarky a manner as it sounds. I'm just curious. Why don't you juice up and tell the world what it's like? -- I wrote this. It's just my thoughts on the whole situation. It's not really about Benoit, but it is. Wrestling With Tragedy The late 1990s are considered to be a golden age in professional wrestling's history, due in equal part to the fact that viewers returned to the industry after they'd left in droves following Vince McMahon's steroid scandal. Reinvigorating the world of professional wrestling were the Monday Night Ratings Wars between World Championship Wrestling and the World Wrestling Federation; the third-party shenanigans of Paul Heyman's Extreme Championship Wrestling; the introduction of adult storylines; the infusion of hardcore wrestling; the arrival of Japanese and Mexican talent; and the rise of an anti-hero in Stone Cold Steve Austin and popular pretty boy The Rock, who were the first true superstars in wrestling since Hulk Hogan took over every child's living room in the 1980s. The 1990s, popular with the mainstream, were not so with the critics, who claimed that the brands were becoming too violent, too edgy for children, but they were often rebutted not by the wrestlers or promotors but by the fans, and the merchandise sales, and the ratings, which combined served as a powerful silencer. Unfortunately, the critics found an equally powerful silencer in a young girl's abrupt silence and a villain they turned into an anti-hero in more dramatic, disturbing fashion than almost anything ever broadcast by the World Wrestling Federation. Tate, if you don't remember, was a twelve year old, one hundred and sixty six pound boy whose mother was babysitting the six year old, sixty six pound Eunick when he killed her in a manner so brutal that the prosecutors at his trial cited doctors claims that the injuries were the equivelant of falling out of a third story building. Her skull was fractured, her brain swollen, her liver split in half. Her ribs were destroyed, as were countless other bones, and it was said that she screamed and suffered for hours, to which her babysitter's response had been, "Be quiet or I'll spank your butt!" (Tate's mother didn't even go look to see what was happening with Tiffany Eunick that she was in such pain. Tate's mother belonged in prison as much as Tate did.) At his trial, Tate claimed that he'd merely been wrestling with her as a friend and it had all been an unfortunate accident, which was a ploy by the Defense to turn the media on the World Wrestling Federation and transform Lionel Tate into an innocent boy possessed by Vince McMahon. The media, all too happy for a story, took the opportunity and soon much of the country was wondering why a television program so violent would be allowed to continue, or have been started in the first place. Conservative activity L. Brent Bozell's Parents Television Council declared war on professional wrestling and the media took the over-the-top atmosphere of a wrestling show into the press box and attempted to lead it into the courtroom. The Courts, however, found Lionel Tate guilty of all charges and sentenced him to life without parole, which he appealed, and he found himself out on the streets in due time, where he wound up stealing a car, undoubtedly taught him by wrestling. Professional wrestler and New York Times best-selling author Mick Foley wrote in greater detail about Bozell's antics, the media's unfair treatment of professional wrestling and the Tate incident, but this all leads to the terrible news out of Atlanta this weekend that Chris Benoit (famed as a technical wrestler without much flash) killed his wife, seven-year-old son and self. I, for one, was shocked by the story when it broke that there'd been a murder in the Benoit household as Benoit's always been known as a class act and nice guy, so it stunned me, and it saddened me because Benoit was a favorite of mine, then it shocked me and depressed me when I learned that it had been a double murder-suicide. My thoughts at first turned to prayer, as I wished for the best for the Benoits and all those who knew them. I then wondered, Why did this happen? How could he do this? and so I turned on CNN at two o clock today, June 26th 2007, to hear what the policemen had to say about it. The lead-in to the Benoit Press Conference involved something about "A violent life of wrestling. A violent end," or something to that effect, and I felt numbed by the painful reminder of what had occurred until I realized that it was more than a reminder, or a summation. It was a crack. It was a crack about the violence in wrestling and an implication that it has something to do with Nancy and Daniel Benoit's terrible deaths. I knew then that the media would Lionel Tate World Wrestling Entertainment using Chris Benoit's tragic end, and I feel sick knowing it now. In the coming weeks, we will hear about steroid abuse in wrestling; the violent nature of matches; the grueling schedule; the disturbing effect a Randy Orton match can have on a child. All of it is cause for some level of concern amongst parents, academics and the wrestlers themselves, but none of them caused Chris Benoit to kill his family. People don't become killers because of professional wrestling. Since the story broke, it's taken more and more twists, from the disgusting revelation that Chris Benoit may have been giving his child human growth hormone to the release of Nancy Sullivan's attempt to divorce Benoit for prior abuse to the details about the murder itself, but it should not be taken as an indictment of professional wrestling. Vince McMahon and his company might deserve some blame for not noticing what had allegedly been a steady breakdown in Benoit's psyche for the last several weeks. World Wrestling Entertainment's steroid policies are a joke and they should be scrutinized and criticized. But let's not pretend that this case of extreme violence has to do with the "violent nature" of professional wrestling, because you wouldn't be close to the root of the problem, whatever it was, as the problem is in Benoit's head, not the industry's soul. The industry and its fans grieve as much as anyone. And rest assured, they are violent tears, not inspired by wrestling but by tragedy. I, for one, can't understand what Chris Benoit did or why. I can't fathom what would drive a man to kill his family. I don't know the man or his situation, and I don't hate him for what he's done. I hope he and his family can find closure in another life, on the other side, if there is another life or other side. I'll leave it for God to sort out, because that's all I can do but feel this sickness in my stomach. I hope that his remaining children can be okay. I pray for Nancy's living family. I wish it hadn't happened. It did, and it's all terrible, for the children who enjoy wrestling to the adults who might as well be children to those who have never grown up and make no excuses for it. I hope this tragedy can end -- for us -- with the investigation into what happened, why and how, and what, if anything, the rest of us (wrestling fans and non alike) can learn from it for when someone we know is losing it. I hope this situation isn't exploited by the media to go after their old, favorite whipping boy in professional wrestling, because that isn't appropriate to the situation, and the situation is too serious for scapegoats or to scrape up old wounds as the newest wound runs deep enough.

QUOTE(Shadows @ Jun 26, 2007 -> 05:05 PM) Yes, you can abuse steroids and that is the real only way to die from them.. however, when you look at those people, and yes they may have been linked to steroids, it was the abuse of hard drugs like cocaine etc. that was the reason that they actually died.. And you're right, the wellness program is a joke but at least it is something instead of them just saying do whatever you want to do, we don't care.. I'm curious. Do you take steroids? -- I can't believe that Benoit was giving his child HGH. This is sick.

QUOTE(fathom @ Jun 26, 2007 -> 04:05 PM) Oh yeah...I find it funny that some people are pointing to it as reasons why steroids can't be blamed. I'm with you though, it's going to get annoying the next few months with the crap wrestling's going to get. Yeah. I'm writing a small article about it. I'll post it later.