iamshack

I'm sure I'm viewed as a pretty big homer around here, and I can't really dispute that. I think it's pretty difficult to honestly say that Kenny hasn't done a pretty solid job for us in terms of deals at the major league level though. Sure, there are some moves we would like to take back in hindsight, but I think that applies to every GM in baseball over the course of a long tenure like Kenny has had. That being said, I find it a bit disappointing that when a prospect of ours is hyped a bit, there are those that will immediately discount him as flawed and overrated. Even more disappointing to me is the fact that often times, those posters that pointed out the flaws in those prospects are the first to criticize Kenny when that player is later traded. Seems a bit hypocritical in my opinion.

I'm 54-35, have Tennessee tonight as well.

Happy Birthday, Ger! Enjoy your day!

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Oct 18, 2010 -> 05:27 PM) Seen it in person as well buddy. I just dont understand why they go through with it. The one girl said "because I was mad at breaking up with you" WTF? You are clearly one crazy b**** then. The wild thing is this guy's family is supposedly billionaires. Made her sign a prenup. However (and I did not know this when her and I dated), her father is a multi-millionaire, and she has a lot of money herself. She basically implied that she would never have to work again if she didn't want to, and if she were to get divorced, and we were to get married, neither would I. It was a pretty crazy talk we had...

QUOTE (3E8 @ Oct 18, 2010 -> 03:24 PM) I believe I know what you're getting at. It is a close friend, and she's a 6 or 7. Not worth it When I was in my early twenties, and I was managing stores for Abercrombie & Fitch, this crap seemed to happen to me all the time. And I'm not trying to sound arrogant, it's just that I was managing 100 college-age kids who were for the most part, very attractive, sex-starved, and prone to drinking in their free time. As you might imagine, there was plenty of drama and plenty of fighting over guys and girls. My advice would be to continue what you're doing - it's not worth all the trouble - even if she was a 9 or a 10. Even if you were to never get caught, the guilt and awkwardness alone is enough to make it not worth it. A friend of mine, not my best friend, but more than an acquaintance, started dating a really hot girl a few years younger than the two of us. He introduced me to her. Then, I just happened to get transferred to the store she worked at as her manager. I think she spent the next two months flirting with me, being blatantly suggestive, while she was still dating my friend. I tried and tried to resist her, but we worked so much together, and often times had to go on recruiting trips together to universities (and the bars at the universities), that eventually she broke me down one night and I caved. The next several months were awful as the drama played out. We continued sleeping together, she was breaking up and getting back together with my friend every other day, he eventually found out, etc. Well, that was 10 years ago now. The girl is one of my best friends. The guy has never forgiven me. I guess it turned out ok. But I learned to never, ever do that again. The amount of grief it caused outweighed the sex (even though that was outstanding) by far.

QUOTE (knightni @ Oct 17, 2010 -> 05:13 PM) I'm doing really good in picks so far today. The Texans pushed, Steelers covered, and Bears defense was not dominant with Briggs out of the game. Should have anticipated his loss would have more of an effect on stopping the run, but honestly thought we would get up early and blow their doors out. The Seachickens are horrendous on the road, especially when traveling east and playing in the early game. This was really a horrendous performance on the part of the Bears. The Texans made Matt Cassel look good, something that hasn't been done in 2 years. They are going nowhere with that secondary. I should have taken the Eagles, but wussed out.

QUOTE (jasonxctf @ Oct 17, 2010 -> 06:16 PM) does anyone know the answer to this question. If I bet, $10 at a sportsbook in Vegas, with or without the points, I know that the payout is even money, minus the juice. What is the juice? For some reason 9% sticks in my mind.. meaning that if I bet $10 and won (again w or w/o points), I'd collect $19.10. Is that correct? Actually, it isn't that simple. If you make a bet on the point spread of a football game, the juice, or vig, is usually 10%. Thus, if you desire to win $50, you would bet $55 to win $50, for a total payout of $105 if you win your bet. There is no juice or vig if you win your bet. You only pay that if you lose the bet. However, sometimes a point spread is weighted, because the book wishes to hedge itself a bit, but not so much that they want to move the entire point spread. Therefore, sometimes you will see a pointspread that looks like this Bears -6 (-120). What this means is that you'd have to bet $60 to win $50, for a total of $110 payout. Again, you pay no juice if you win your bet, but only if you lose. Now if you choose to bet without a point spread, but merely on the winner of the game, you will bet on what is called the "moneyline." This allows the better to take the point spread out of play. However, it also means you have to bet more money on the favorite in comparison to potential winnings, since the odds of the favorite winning the game are in your favor. The Bears, for instance, on a -6.5 point spread, may have been -250 on the moneyline. Meaning you'd have to bet $250 to win $100. However, this can work in your favor if you like an underdog to win the game outright. For instance, if you had bet the Seahawks to win the game outright today, you might have been looking at a moneyline around +220. Meaning for a $100 bet, you would win $220 in profits, for a total payout of $320 on a $100 wager. There are a lot of intricacies involved in sports betting, with each sport different bets one can make. Hope this helps.

I was back in Chicago for a few weeks just recently and met up with one of my exes who got married just last January. She was never over me, should have never married this guy, and despite my warnings not to do so, did so anyways. We met at a bar on Wells and she spent about 3 hours getting loaded and telling me how much she dislikes being married to her husband, and harrassing me about why I broke up with her (she does this almost every time we meet for drinks when I am back in town). Then we made out. Oops.

Took the Bears -6, Texans -4, and Steelers -13.5 tomorrow. Normally don't like taking this many favorites, but these were the three games I liked the most. Don't let me down.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Sep 30, 2010 -> 08:08 AM) I think the Bears have a good shot of winning this one too. The Giants O line has had similar problems to the Packers, Eli has been far from hassle free. If Peppers gets going like he did last week there will either be many sacks or many flags, and both of those bode well for the bears. I want to see the offense tee off on someone. You can see that they have been close(Dallas) but havent quite reached that level yet. I want to see it happen It looks like the Giants have given up a lot of rushing yards per game (136), but have done well against the passing game (169 per game). Should be interesting how much Martz tries to force the run, or whether he just tries to play to the Bears' strengths rather than against the Giants' weakness. I haven't seen the Giants much this year, other than the thrashing at the hands of the Colts, in which case that defense didn't really stop anything.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Sep 30, 2010 -> 08:55 AM) everyone is looking at the Giants as a trap game. I hope they make Eli look as bad as he did against the Titans. Another lefthanded shuffle pass would be nice I understand the fact that we're coming off a big, emotional win on MNF against our historical rival, but I just don't see this team resting on their laurels quite yet. I see that Panthers game as a bigger trap game than this one. The Giants may have played terribly the past two weeks, but they are still the Giants, this is still Eli Manning, and they still play under the bright lights. And this is a nationally televised game. I don't see us letting up here. We will shut down their running game, and Eli will hit Steve Smith about 12 times, but if we keep them out of the end zone similarly to the way we did against Green Bay, I don't see us losing this game.

QUOTE (MurcieOne @ Sep 30, 2010 -> 08:51 AM) Bears are +4 this weekend right? Kind of surprising given how poorly NYG played the last two weeks. Yeah, 3.5 or 4 point dogs. I sense a trap...

The Bears are +190 currently in Vegas. I got them at +140 for the Packers game Monday night. Is this that big of a trap game for us, or does anyone else see this as easy money like I do?

QUOTE (flavum @ Sep 29, 2010 -> 04:39 PM) Comedian Greg Giraldo, dead at 44. OD on prescription pills. And Comedy Central roasts will never be the same.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 28, 2010 -> 01:44 PM) Yesterday was the hottest day ever recorded in Los Angeles. It was so hot that the official weather service thermometer actually broke and couldn't record peak temperature. Oh, and Lake Mead is about to hit the danger/water conservation point. LADWP declared an emergency Monday afternoon, and was forced to be a price taker on any power they could get their hands on. It was quite fun for us here in Vegas

QUOTE (ChWRoCk2 @ Sep 28, 2010 -> 08:40 AM) I like this quote from the Packers board however, "It took 18 penalties, two interceptions negated by penalties, dropped interceptions from Nick Collins and Charles Woodson, a Jermichael Finley touchdown called back because of a penalty, a blocked field goal, a punt return for a touchdown and a late fumble that somehow stayed in bounds for the Bears to squeak by the Packers." This is one of the dumbest things I have ever read. You can't count interceptions that come as a result of illegal hits to the quarterback, or by basically tackling our receivers. The Packers basically played outside the rules for 25% of the game and then are going to whine that the results of those plays don't count?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 28, 2010 -> 07:36 AM) At least 2 of those picks were probably completed passes without the penalty. The deep ball/Pass interference at the end wasn't a pick unless the Bears' receiver couldn't move. The pick over the middle was only a pick because Cutler had a helmet bounce off his in the middle of the throw; a legal hit and he completes that pass. That was a vicious hit. I would be shocked if that guy (Zambo?) doesn't get a very hefty fine for that hit.

QUOTE (Tex @ Sep 27, 2010 -> 01:26 PM) How clean is the database? I mean will twenty different versions of the same thing pop up with some being more complete than another? That's what i'm starting to get annoyed with this ap. There is definitely some redundancy....I didn't find it that annoying though.

I love the Bears to pull the mild upset tonight. 31-21. Bears.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Sep 27, 2010 -> 08:05 AM) I'd always had great luck with computers, in terms of not ever having any major hardware failures. Then yesterday, I dropped my laptop, and the screen is now toast. I can hook it up to the TV and see the computer itself is fine otherwise, which is a relief. But it doesn't project well on the TV, and I'd be taking up the one TV in the house. So now, I have a debate. I see that they sell replacement screens online - and I found a manual on how to do it. Looks like major surgery. New screen is $80, but a lot of time, and who knows if I'll screw it up. Or, I can buy an external LCD monitor for like $200, and turn my laptop into a desktop. Easy, but I lose portability. Or, since its a 3 year old laptop with s***ty Vista on it, maybe now is the time to just get a new laptop. Anyone every changed out a laptop screen before? With the cost of laptops these days, that just sounds like way too much of a hassle to even bother with....There are some pretty amazing deals to be had out there right now. Seems like a good excuse to upgrade to me...

QUOTE (Tex @ Sep 26, 2010 -> 09:44 PM) After trying and trying to lose some weight, I downloaded an ap for my new phone that adds up the calories and I've lost 10 pends in a little over 2 weeks. I am down to 216, working on sub 200 as an early goal. I am a little more active, but it really is mostly counting the calories. 1815 per day. Congrats, Tex! I used the Livestrong one for a while, which I enjoyed, because it had basically EVERYTHING you could possibly eat in their database, including brand name stuff and popular restaurants. I highly recommend it.

Had a good day at the sportsbook yesterday, so I decided to take the plunge and update my desktop from a late 2006 iMac to the newest 27-inch 2.8 GHz Intel Core i5 iMac. Holy crap, I could land all the planes coming into Midway airport on this baby! And the new mouse and trackpad are incredible. I'm in heaven...

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Sep 21, 2010 -> 01:15 PM) I think the question should be, what can be done now? If maple is a problem, and ash isn't a practical alternative any more, then what IS a practical alternative? Maybe its not the wood, but the treatment or coating that needs to be addressed. One thing that could be done is to impose a minimum threshold for the diameter of the handle. Of course, this would add weight to the bat, which the players would not view as a good compromise.

I was remembering this article, I think. Here is Passan's article.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Sep 20, 2010 -> 05:50 PM) Actually, the real cause isn't about players or the MLB. American Ash is a species leaving this earth thanks to the Emerald Ash Borer. Maple was the most highly considered alternative. Not to say they shouldn't continue trying to find ways to improve, but, people seem to have this odd idea that maple bats were some sort of MLB desire. They weren't. I thought that maple caught on because Barry Bonds starting using them during those huge years in San Francisco? I believe there have actually been tests that show that the ball does not come off a maple bat any harder or faster than bats of other types of wood. This is purely an issue of the players insisting on using a product they believe gives them an advantage, when in reality, it does not.