Gregory Pratt

http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Baseball/MLB/200...1651258-ap.html Good read. I found an even better one here, from last May, http://www.sportingnews.com/exclusives/20050518/620459.html :

A friend of mine had this to say to me about Freddy: "I just think he's lost it. The extra weight, the lack of concentration, the marijuana, whatever. He's not the pitcher he once was." That's how I'm feeling right now. Isn't it amazing how far Freddy's fallen, for a guy who led the League in ERA in 2001 to this?

QUOTE(fathom @ Jul 22, 2006 -> 03:39 PM) I seriously considered by a Blum jersey during the offseason. It's amazing how that whole acquisition paid off. I liked Jim Margalus' take on it in his "Dearly Departed" section on SoxMachine.com:

QUOTE(Jordan4life_2006 @ Jul 22, 2006 -> 03:34 PM) I think you're right. I learned my lesson after last year's trade deadline. Although that Blum guy did help us out a little. I love Geoff Blum, both when he sucked and when he hit that homer. I think it's great that he got to leave on the highest of high notes.

One out to go. Tigers lose. Now we've doubly gotta capitalize.

Two outs to go.

9-5 now. Too bad they miss Zito, but at least they're playing them hard so far.

No more. It's time to break this slump.

QUOTE(RME JICO @ Jul 22, 2006 -> 03:01 PM) Beating a sleeping defenseless horse? Why is Andrew Jackson beating up on Freddy Garcia?

Balta, you're paranoid. Bush simply wants NASA to focus on the colonization to Mars. Who says he lacks vision?

What a greedy fish. I hope I never hear him talk about "the love of the game"

QUOTE(LosMediasBlancas @ Jul 22, 2006 -> 12:36 PM) Anyone find it kinda funny that they plunked Pods...our speed guy....in the shin....in the 9th....with 2 outs....and the game out of reach? Yeah, we're going to hit someone, and with Freddy out there (who is pretty good about defending teammates), I expect it to happen for sure. Only thing I worry is that it might not hurt!

From SoxMachine: I thought it was interesting, but I don't like the idea of flipping Paulie and Gooch. Konerko grounds into too many double plays for my taste, and I wouldn't want him batting while Podsednik's on first.

QUOTE(dasox24 @ Jul 21, 2006 -> 10:55 PM) Man, that sucks. In the situation you were in, the teacher should really have been more understanding, especially if you behave and work hard in that class. Normally, a teacher will reward you for good behavior and hard work by maybe rounding up that .5, or at least by letting you turn in that binder after what happened to it. Also, I totally didn't think about the application deadline thing. I had my Tennessee application done in August b/c I had a 3.97 at the time, so I wasn't worried about admission. However, my other applications (St. Louis U and U of Mississippi) were done by November. Though, if you're worried about your GPA affecting admission to a school, then I would wait until after your 1st semester to apply. UIC's deadline is Feb. 6 and DePaul's is Feb. 1, so you'd have time to wait to apply if you think you can bring up your grades, and believe me, even though it's your senior year, you can. That way, you could maybe bring up the GPA enough to help you in gaining admittance. Are you sure those last two are the deadlines for UIC and Depaul? D'you know what Loyola's is, too? I absolutely know that I could raise my GPA by quite a bit if given until January, which I would have with those two deadlines. Awesome! By the way, you're better about this than my HS counselors.

QUOTE(Sonik22 @ Jul 21, 2006 -> 10:49 PM) I heard loyola costs like $40 grand a yr, am i right? Uh, no.

QUOTE(dasox24 @ Jul 21, 2006 -> 10:30 PM) Yeah, you'll be fine college-wise. Plus, with a strong senior year, you could get that up to above a 3.0, and you'd be more than fine. What schools are you looking at? I really like Loyola and UIC. Perhaps DePaul. I don't think I could get it above a 3.0 in time for the application process. I could surely be up by the end of the year, even by January, but applications go out in November/December. This whole things been gnawing at me, and I didn't catch any breaks leading into the June report card. I missed a C in my Math class by .5 percentage points, and the teacher refused to round it up to a C, and that infuriated me, because we were good friends, and, besides that, ".5" difference = ROUND UP. It's simple math, and preached often by math teachers! Besides that, I moved in late May, and on the weekend I moved, she collected a binder worth ten percent of my grade. My mother misplaced iti n a box, and the teacher refused to allow me to turn it in late for a late grade, even after my mom called her to explain the situation. The binder was worth ten percent, and it drastically brought me down. I was furious about it, because I thought it was unnecessarily b****y to take such a hard-line stance on a student who never misbehaved in her class despite the fact that it was a misbehavior class, as she's a soft teacher. Hell, I had a B in the first Semester. I felt she should've been a bit more lenient to me as I've been a consistently good student in her class, and let's not bullspiff ourselves: if a kid handles his work, takes care of business, does well on tests, and behaves, and he happens to be half a point between grades, you give him the better grade. But she didn't do it, and that's really eaten at me. I narrowly missed an A in her class the first time around, by .7 points. I wish she'd rounded up for me then, but I understood it then, and wasn't so upset. A wide variety of unfortunate events brought me down a bit in the second semester of school, and I missed a 3.0 by .1 percent. Bummer.

That's very nice of you to calculate that for me. I'm glad to see that it isn't a 2.0 GPA. A 28 ACT. A 2.9 GPA. I'm frustrated with this result, but I should be fine, College-wise.

QUOTE(BigSqwert @ Jul 21, 2006 -> 10:13 PM) Have you ever heard the term "heat of the moment"? Apparently not. Why are you obsessed with me? Since when was replying to something incredibly stupid someone said the equivelant of an obsession? "Heat of the moment" doesn't quite work out well as an excuse on the Internet, either, unless you're a chimpanzee banging on keys. You've got a moment to think about what you're going to type, time to type it, and then the "submit" button to click. It's not like you were sitting around a coffee table and suddenly said, "SHOOT, I HATE THIS!" I'm so not obsessed with you that I'm going to put you on ignore now. Farewell!

QUOTE(BigSqwert @ Jul 21, 2006 -> 10:10 PM) I haven't given up on the season. I'm severely frustrated. Big difference. Words mean things, but whatever. I'm not going to get into a pissing contest with you.

QUOTE(BigSqwert @ Jul 21, 2006 -> 10:08 PM) That's ok. If they make the playoffs I'll be at the games. Congrats. I was there last year, and would this year, too. Except I've never given up on the season in July.

QUOTE(BigSqwert @ Jul 21, 2006 -> 10:05 PM) You can do that when you start your own message board. I was merely thinking aloud, though I don't think it's a bad idea.

QUOTE(BigSqwert @ Jul 21, 2006 -> 10:00 PM) Phuck this. Season is officially over IMO. I think people who say that should be suspended during the playoffs, if we reach.

All right, this is miserly.

This is the flattest I've seen them all year.