Gregory Pratt

Shocking that he doesn't have a sponsor, isn't it? I really wish I had the money.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 13, 2008 -> 09:49 PM) Sarcasm? It simply doesn't get worse than Hawk and DJ.

Hawk and DJ are at their absolute best today.

I was always a voice of caution on Wasserman. I admire him very much. He's living the dream. But I suspect he isn't going to stay in the Majors all that long, or be that effective.

I have great seats right behind the visiting dugout at Wrigley for the Cubs-Padres game Thursday. It might be Maddux' last game at Wrigley Field, and I want to be there to witness it. I just hope the Padres can score some runs off of Ryan Dempster.

http://baseballevolution.com/gregory/weekreview6 The last week was an intense one in the life of Gregory Pratt, and it took him from four different exam rooms to several bars on Taylor Street, from the arms of his dearest friend to St. Mary's Lake and Mundelein Seminary. Fortunately, he believes he achieved his academic goals for the semester and only needs formal confirmation in a couple of classes. In the meantime, he's got baseball as he prepares his plan of attack for his summer's work. The Virtue of Ozzie Guillen -- So, Gavin Floyd throws eight and a third innings of no-hit ball, then gives up a double to Joe Mauer. Can you guess what Ozzie Guillen does? He pulls Floyd from the game. Why? Because Floyd is a young pitcher with potential who should not be pitching unnecessarily in a blowout. If there is one thing the rest of the league could learn from Guillen, it is how to handle a starting pitching staff. He isn't bad with relievers, either, but he operates too much like Tony LaRussa to be distinct in that regard. Guillen places trust in his starting pitchers, lets them work out of their own jams, and gives them every opportunity to win the ballgame unless it is clear that they do not have the opportunity to win the ballgame. That is as it should be. Nothing to Apologize For -- On another Guillen note, I thought his latest "rant" was hilarious: "[i'm tired of] all the managers in the press box and at home, watching the game on TV and spilling food on themselves." It inspired great copy, too: "Guillen heaps bleeps on critics." In a league that has become increasingly phony, from the physiques and abilities of the athletes to the standards imposed upon them by media and commissioner alike, Guillen is a throwback to more honest days, and I appreciate it very much. Is it going to be murder, Dusty Baker?* -- Twenty four year-old Edinson Volquez has thrown five straight hundred pitch games, including a 118 pitch performance on Wednesday in a game where the Reds were leading 7-0 after the fifth inning. Someone in the front office ought to tell Baker to end this madness or be fired. There's no justification for his war on the game's young starting pitchers. I just thank God he isn't managing in San Francisco. Not Wells At All -- Toronto's Vernon Wells fractured his wrist Friday night. That's awful for the already-mediocre Blue Jay offense, but worse for Wells, who has always been an inconsistent player year-by-year and has only recently broken out of his more-than-year-long slump, but will now have to deal with this recovery in addition to typical slump-busting. I certainly wish him the best, even if I believe his contract is one of the worst ever given to a position player in baseball. Regressing to the Mean -- As surprised as I have been by Gavin Floyd's fluke start, nothing has been more shocking to me this season than Sidney Ponson's first three starts for Texas in which he went 2-0 with a 1.33 ERA. Fortunately, he went back to being Sidney Ponson on Sunday, and all is right with the world again. Au Contreras -- There have been questions about Jose Contreras' future since his miserable second half of 2006 all the way through his terrible 2007 campaign. The Bronze Titan has answered these by going 3-3 for the Chicago White Sox so far this season with a 3.61 ERA. Of course, these are not ace-like numbers, and his ERA is certainly going to rise by the end of the year (it isn't something to brag about to begin with), but I have a deep respect and admiration for Contreras, and I'm glad to see he isn't done as an effective pitcher yet. I will always root for exiles and underdogs that are as fundamentally decent as he is. Article of the Week -- Read this, "Baseball, Dominican-style." About a trip to the DR to watch baseball. It is a fantastic read. Defense I -- The only baseball-related editorial I ever wrote for the Chicago Flame was titled "Ankiel Biting" and I recommend it to you here. That said, did you see Rick Ankiel's throws from the warning track to nail runners at third this week? There's nothing more exciting than a battle between a competent outfielder and a charging baserunner, especially when the outfielder wins. Love Foreverett, or: Defense II -- In the seventh inning of Sunday night's Red Sox-Twins game, Adam Everett made a great diving play on a ball hit by Kevin Youkilis. I'd take him on my team if it were otherwise well-built offensively, because watching Everett field is a treat for the heart. That, and hearing that Robin Ventura (my favorite player growing up) was pitching batting practice to the White Sox on Sunday, have made me wish that the Hall of Fame had a defense-only wing. Or simply placed a greater emphasis on defense in the voting. "It's pretty representative of who I am." -- To celebrate the end of the semester, a friend invited me and several other people to play a little softball on Friday afternoon and I was happy to join them. At one point, I was playing first and someone popped it up weakly midway up the line. I ran over and when I realized that it was too shallow to catch standing, I dove for it, covering my left side in infield dirt. With the ball in my glove, I stood up and said to the pitcher, "I know what it's like to pitch" then I tossed him the ball. I hit a deep drive to centerfield way over the centerfielder's head a little while afterward and watched it with pride. Later, I was pitching baseballs overhand and struck out my friends, which is one of life's greatest pleasures. I think the euphoria from acing final exams gave me added velocity with which to throw heat. When we finished playing, we had hotdogs and brats. Is there anything better? Heart Warmers -- There are two stories I recommend to all human beings reading this: "Cancer-stricking high school player gets one last hit," and this touching story about the first and last homerun one girl will ever hit. Sportsmanship is definitely not dead. 350 -- Maddux made it. No more needs to be said at this moment. Except congratulations. History of the Week -- Jake Peavy recently said something far more offensive than anything that has ever come out of Ozzie Guillen's mouth. He says that he watched clips from 1970s baseball and that "there would be a no-hitter a week with the guys' stuff today and those swings. Everything is evolution. The game's gotten to be a whole different thing." Now I don't want to sound like Ben Stein warning that a belief in evolution means you're a step away from committing genocide, but this is a troublesome claim that can easily lead us down a slippery slope. Let Jake Peavy pitch to Reggie Jackson, Frank Robinson or Roberto Clemente and talk about "evolution" and "near no-hitters" with a straight face. Now, let me pivot and say that Peavy has a point, to a point: the average major leaguer is certainly better, offensively, than past major leaguers, as can be evidenced by middle infielders particularly. But to put down an entire decade's baseball players with such a broad oversimplification is an insult to the game's history, and there is no sport whose history is more integral to its present than baseball's. For insulting the game's continuity he should be ashamed of himself. I just hope his argument doesn't take greater hold: there are already people who believe that Barry Bonds is greater than Babe Ruth, and I am absolutely mortified by such statements. Baseball players today aren't, necessarily, better than players from the past, but the greater point isn't about which generation has more disadvantages in comparison to others or who has produced the best players. This is a false argument that degrades baseball's continuity from generation to generation, and the greater point is that we must understand context to understand the past. The keywords there are context and understanding. Not pitting against one another in competition. But I promise you, if Babe Ruth faced Jake Peavy in one of today's tiny stadiums he'd hit it out the park and across the street. *"Is it going to be murder, Dusty Baker?" is derived from an article in The Nation from the 30s called, "Is it to be murder, Mr. Hoover?"

Ripken's is not unbreakable. All it will take is someone whose name and ability allow him to call some shots and play through, with some health luck. I'm not sure Ryan's Ks will ever be beaten.

Ichiro is amazing.

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ May 9, 2008 -> 09:46 AM) They don't have a network security guy at this high school, its probably some dolt who has been there for years that hired a consulting company to come in and put up a firewall. I bet they haven't had a security audit and wouldnt know what happened. And from what I heard this kid didn't "hack" into the system. He got his hands on a password ( much like Wargames) and got in. Today we dont have hackers, we have jackass kids who run tools they downloaded and have no clue what they do, then you have bots as well. The real hackers are the ones dropping malware on your system sending that data back to China. I also had the men in suits come to the house. That could of ruined my life. What happened?

It was a big deal in the 60s and 70s when Richard Nixon went bowling, because he genuinely loved it and some people related to him. To say that we've "trivialized" campaigns now is not true. We just think it's worse for some reason. From Peggy Eaton to Grover Cleveland's wife to Gennifer Flowers and the Swifties, politics have been full of "minor distractions" as some people call them, and they've always gotten good coverage. Voters have always been interested in these things.

I consider that a relatively minor quibble.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 8, 2008 -> 09:49 AM) And what if they weren't? 2 of the 3 guys who made a run at 60 home runs in 1998 were juicing. Does that mean we should assume the 3rd was also? And furthermore...there's an old adage that "The coverup is worse than the crime". Belicheck lost a draft pick, apologized to everyone else, etc...but for a moment, let's say he told the NFL Commish that the Jets were the only team who's signals he videotaped. Suddenly video shows up that proves he's taped many other teams beforehand. Doesn't that fundamentally change things, if he's going to lie to the commish? Belichick told Goodell he'd been doing it from the beginning. I doubt he said, "I was only taping the Jets." In fact, the League put out a statement saying that what Walsh has given them isn't new. And that's really all this is.

Belichick has apologized to his fellow coaches and the league and he has been punished. I don't see any reason to defend him at this time. Suffice it to say, I don't think "Spygate" is a big deal, and it's just about over.

No. I'm saying, you can have your preferences for coaches as you wish, be it Lovie Smith or Andy Reid or Mike Shanahan or Sean Peyton, and I will take Bill Belichick each and every time.

When Belichick is asked about being a genius he politely demurrs that he coaches football for a living. Is he a football genius? Yeah, I'd say so. There's a book written by one of America's best historians about that. So, you dispute that he's a genius. Well, that's your opinion, and you should keep it. I don't know what to say to that. I already know how you feel about Belichick, and I have nothing to say about it. You keep Lovie Smith. Edit: I just mean we're all entitled to our opiniomns and I have no interest in convincing anyone that Belichick's X or Y or Z. I mean, that's up to you all to figure out for yourselves. The other point is that Walsh is bitter, creepy and has very little up his sleeve besides what we already knew. He just wants the attention.

QUOTE (Palehosefan @ May 7, 2008 -> 10:20 PM) But he's still a genius right? Aren't you the Steelers fan? Your organization took the classy, honest approach and came out to say that the tapes had no effect on the games. And yes, Belichick is still a genius. -- One of the more insightful articles was this one: http://www.boston.com/sports/football/patr...ulating_bitter/ Seems like that is the case. Is this anything we didn't already know? Maybe Belichick gets suspended, but that's why they brought in Capers. I would hope he doesn't get suspended for this, but if the NFL wants to punish New England further just for the sake of it then that's their right. All I know is Walsh is a creep who seemingly has no new information. One of my favorite articles about him is the one previously linked, and this part especially: That this whole story is still going on is outrageous.

How to Flirt with a No-Hitter From ESPN Page 2 (there is no available link to the article, as it's pasted on the front and not an article): White Sox starter Gavin Floyd flirted with a no-hitter Tuesday night against the Twins, the second no-hitter he has flirted with this season. What a flirt! Want to be a successful flirt yourself? Follow my tips: 1. Get a little bit intoxicated Flirting requires you to loosen up and let your guard down. It's not the time to be a teetotaler. So knock a few back. And if you doubt the value of this relaxed, inhibition-free approach to flirting with a no-hitter, then talk to David Wells. Or better yet, talk to Dock Ellis. 2. Don't try for the hottest girl at the bar Everyone wants to take home the hottest girl at the bar. But be reasonable -- it's probably not going to happen. So set your sights a bit lower. Don't go after the Red Sox. Try the Twins, for example. Or if you're really hard up, the Giants. 3. Get in touch with your wild side We all know that girls don't necessarily want a goody-two-shoes. So don't be hesitant to be a bit wild. Jim Maloney of the Reds had 10 walks in a no-hitter in 1965. A.J. Burnett walked nine in his no-hitter seven years ago. Nolan Ryan, the biggest no-hitter flirt of all-time, walked eight in 1974. Rawwwrrrr! 4. Have a wingman You're in the zone now. You have that no-hitter smiling and laughing, and she has her hand on your leg. Don't mess this up. It's close. The last thing you need is for someone to walk up and jinx you with a reminder of how close you are. So get a wingman to keep others away. 5. Lean on your strengths You have a pretty good job: your 95 mph fastball. You have most of your hair: your reliable 12-to-6 curveball. Don't blow this no-hitter at the end by stupidly throwing that screw-knuckle-slider you worked on for 20 minutes back in spring training: Don't tell her you still live with your parents. Oh, jeez. You choked and threw that pitch anyway. There goes your no-hitter. Your shutout, too. You are done flirting with that hot no-hitter. It's time to pass on just getting a little bit intoxicated. Now it's time to get really drunk and focus on taking home a win, even if it's ugly. -- DJ Gallo Hilarious.

Depends on who you're talking to, Obama is more electable against Republicans.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/dot.comment.../clinton_1.html

This isn't a save opportunity, is it? No way.

Does anyone here still think Cooper sucks? Last year, and in 2006 especially, some people were talking about how overrated and mediocre Coop was. Guess not.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ May 6, 2008 -> 09:15 PM) So, surly all the time and you are also the grammar police. Here ya go? Its a good game;yes It is a great game.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ May 6, 2008 -> 09:11 PM) Is there any time when you actually enjoy watching this team. When Roy Halladay pitches. I'm enjoying the game -- I haven't tried to jinx Floyd. I've just been enjoying the game. I wouldn't have even posted if someone hadn't explicitly called me out. And what I said is perfectly sensible. Calm down. And questions have question marks.

QUOTE (daa84 @ May 6, 2008 -> 08:51 PM) the jury is still out overall, but if this continues.....nobodys got more of that on their plate than pratt.....he has a whole buffet line of that to eat Good for Floyd and the team, but the season is young as hell and we'll have to wait and see.

Also: Team SoxTalk (Kap, Southsider, Tito, Pratt, Northside) Team SoxTalk and Team WSI Let's get something done! The team pictures don't even begin to tell the story how much fun last year's game was.