iamshack

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jan 2, 2011 -> 12:16 PM) I like St. Louis and Pittsburgh. I know Belichick generally doesn't sub players, but I think losing Welker last year might make him rethink his philosophy on that, perhaps playing them for a quarter or a half. Plus, this seems like a game Miami can win just because they've underperformed all year. I also can't trust Houston's defense, no matter who is in the backfield, both at QB and HB for Jacksonville. With regards to Pittsburgh, they have to win, so they are going to play their ass off and they're playing a very mediocre Browns team. I don't think McCoy can beat them, so as long as they stop Hillis, they'll be fine. And with regards to St. Louis that's a must win game for both teams, but the Seahawks backfrield is absolute garbage, Hasselbeck is mediocre now a days and won't be 100% if he does play, and Whitehurst is absolute garbage if Hasselbeck is out. St. Louis is ismply a better team. Yeah, I agree, it's kind of a crapshoot all-around this week. Hillis is active but isn't going to play much it doesn't look like. Houston is the biggest wild card for me, since they find a way to lose every week, but I am going with them simply because Edwards is bad and the Jacksonville secondary is horrific. I hope NE plays their starters for more than a quarter and a half!

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jan 2, 2011 -> 11:28 AM) JR is not the majority owner of the sox. He owns very little of the team, I believe it is still under 15%. However, he is voted as Chairman of the board so he runs the team for the investors. He onws more of the Bulls b ut I'm not sure of the percentage. Again, he is the Chairman of the board of the Bulls which is why he runs the team. Each investor can do what he wants with the money, if it's approved by the board. Each of cannot just say "here is extra money go ahead and use it." It would need to be approved. Some investors may not agree to it based on individual politics within the investor group. I doubt it would happen but all decision need to go through the Board just like any other company. The groups for the two teams are separate and they cannot just move money from one to the other. They are different companies and one comapny cannot give another company money without board approval. I don't think anyone was really referring to the technical aspects of the accounting, other than ss2k, who is in agreement with you. The question seemed to be whether it was against any MLB rules to use profits from another corporation or organization to fund an MLB team. It's not.

QUOTE (zenryan @ Jan 2, 2011 -> 11:50 AM) I was watching the lines this week and I think this is a very tough week. A lot of lines moved between last night and this morning. Yeah, it definitely is. Didn't bet a whole lot this week.

Plays today are: New England - 5 Pittsburgh -6 Houston -3 St Louis -3 Hopefully I will do a little better than last week's 1-5 or whatever

So yesterday I was bored at work and was playing around on the interwebs and decided to check on the resale value of my vehicle. I have a 2001 Audi TT Quattro coupe. While researching this, I discovered that apparently there is an issue with the timing belt on my particular make, model and year vehicle. The belt can go at any time and cause "catastrophic engine failure," requiring repairs well into the $5k range. I've read that once you surpass 60k miles, you are playing "russian roulette" if you drive the vehicle without getting the belt replaced. However, the manufacturer (Audi) suggests in the owner's manual that you need not change the belt before 105k miles or so, but then they discovered the flaw and intentionally concealed it from owners. They were sued in a class-action lawsuit, and have since settled. Basically, the settlement provides for the free inspection of your timing belt during any regularly scheduled maintenance, but if the belt needs to be replaced, it is the owner's responsibility. This costs some $1,400. The settlement also puts the owner on notice of a new maintenance schedule, which requires you to replace the timing belt every 30-40k miles, at $1,400 a pop. I decided I am not sure if I have a desire to deal with this issue, especially for a vehicle that is only worth about $10k at this point. So I began looking into getting a different vehicle. I've always thought there was really no debate - used was the way to go. But apparently, used car prices are at all time highs and new car prices are fairly low because of intense competition. Between these prices and the difference in financing, I am starting to think buying a new vehicle may be smarter in the long term than buying a used vehicle. What do you guys think?

Ugh, you guys will just make every excuse til there simply are none that remain.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jan 2, 2011 -> 09:03 AM) I dont know if the analogy hold up, but dont the yankees fund a bunch of their payroll from the YES network? If the Yankees are using profits off of a cable network owned by the team owner, wouldnt it stand to reason that the White Sox could use profits off of another team the owner has? Correct me if Im wrong, I have no idea. The Yankees own the YES network, just as the Orioles own MASN and the Red Sox own NESN and the Mets co-own SNY and the Cubs used to be owned by the same company as WGN. You can certainly shuffle money back and forth because there is no salary cap is baseball. You can spend every dime you can get your greedy hands on if you're willing to pay the luxury tax.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jan 2, 2011 -> 02:43 AM) If this is a big deal and KW thinks it's a big deal, he should just fire Ozzie now. I can't believe this is a big deal, but if it is a big deal to KW, then fire Ozzie now and bring in Buddy Bell. Some of you should love the plastic type manager who doesn't say anything interesting ever. This should be cut and dried. If people think this is an important thing that's happened with Oney, just let Oz go now. If it's not a big deal, just let big Bobby rejuvenate his career in Boston, which he figures to do. And the Sox hopefully will win big time with Thornton as the closer. Ugh. It's not about Ozzie having a personality or being sometimes a little too colorful. It's about his son making private matters public and jeopardizing the integrity of the clubhouse and the organization.

I'm pretty convinced this is just a ploy to get the Yankees to cough up more money.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jan 1, 2011 -> 09:38 PM) Boras is playing games with Kenny again. I heavily doubt that Soriano would take a cheaper deal just because of Ozzie. Besides, is there even a history between the two? He's trying to drum up competition for his services in any way possible.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 1, 2011 -> 09:12 PM) Except it doesn't sound like a team option. It sounds like it only happens if they win the division. There seems to be no other way for the option to be picked up. Well, without knowing the language of the contract, it's hard to be sure, but my guess is Phil just worded it this way to make his article seem as compelling as possible. However, on cots baseball contracts, it lists it strictly as an option, and not a club option, as the other options in Ozzie's last few contracts were termed, so who knows.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 1, 2011 -> 08:15 PM) The wording of that story makes it sounds like the only exercise for the option is if the Sox make the playoffs. Well, the option vests if the White Sox win the division, and with the roster he's being given, it's hard to say that option would be picked up if he didn't do exactly that.

Soriano is interested in any team worth a damn right now because the market for relievers has dried up for the most part. His best shot is LAA or NYY, two teams that actually have some $ left to spend.

QUOTE (daa84 @ Jan 1, 2011 -> 07:23 PM) agreed...especially because we basically saw this exact script a few years ago with the boise oklahoma game...tcu is a legit program with a rich history too. yes they play in a non AQ, but its not as if they came completely out of nowhere like george mason The Boise-Oklahoma game was a bit different though. That was a classic cinderella upset with Boise pulling out trick plays left and right to catch Oklahoma off guard. Yes, they executed almost perfectly all game, but you didn't get the sense that Boise would win that game more than once or twice if they played 10 times. This game tonight was a much more traditionally played game. There wasn't much razzle dazzle and TCU went toe-to-toe with Wisconsin until that final drive, when it was clear they were getting warn down by Wisconsin's size advantage on the OLine. I had the feeling that TCU would beat Wisconsin 4-6 times if they played 10 times. It was a pretty evenly played game. I don't think many of these non-automatic qualifiers could survive in a big-time power conference, but the Boise State, Utah, and TCU programs of the last several years are getting awfully close (yes, I know, this year's Utah team was not particularly strong).

Happy for the Horned Frogs...taking down the team that was probably playing the best ball towards the end of the season. Hard to say though what would have happened a month ago, because of these ridiculous layoffs between the end of the regular season and the bowl games.

What kind of play call is that on the 2-point conversion? Talk about outhinking yourself...

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 1, 2011 -> 04:03 PM) I count what, 15+ guys who have made legitimate NFL impacts already there? Yeah, depending on what exactly you classify an impact as, I came up with 15 or 16.

And finally...a game I actually have some interest in... Very excited to see how TCU's defense holds up against Wisconsin's awesome running attack.

CMoooonnnn...I wassss onlllyyy kidddddinnng!

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jan 1, 2011 -> 03:13 PM) lol now thornton likes the nose candy, whaaaaaaaaat? No, but it was rumored that someone else might have...

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 1, 2011 -> 03:08 PM) Probably. Like when you ask one of the Bulls guys about their team this year and they say how much better their schemes are. Probably was just finding a way to look the other way for so long so that it wouldn't bother him. I guess it could mean just staying out of trouble, in general. At first I took it to mean more literally...

Is there a slip in there when he mentions he keeps his nose clean?

QUOTE (DirtySox @ Jan 1, 2011 -> 01:56 PM) Thornton irritated with Oney's Tweets: http://sports.espn.go.com/chicago/mlb/news/story?id=5977705 oooohhhhhh Baaaaalllllttttaaata....

QUOTE (knightni @ Jan 1, 2011 -> 01:53 PM) Parseghian was 36-31 at NW before coming to ND. Devine was a losing NFL coach Faust was in HS Holtz was 10-12 at Min before coming to ND. Davie was a coordinator Willingham was 44-36-1 - mediocre Weis was a coordinator in the NFL I guess Willingham was over .500, but barely. Dan Devine was 120-40-8 as a collegiate head coach prior to coaching at ND. Lou Holtz was 120-65-5 as a collegiate head coach prior to coaching at ND. As you pointed out, Willingham was over .500 as a head coach prior to coaching at ND. There are no coaches who were head coaches at the collegiate level who were not over .500 prior to coming to ND betweem Parseghian and Kelly.

QUOTE (danman31 @ Jan 1, 2011 -> 01:51 PM) Yeah Willingham had a winning record at Stanford. I think every coach who coached collegiately prior to coming to ND had a winning record.