feistyboy

Floyd is just as inexperienced as Danks, even a bit moreso, and while I am happy he too has performed well this year he has in zero way outperformed Danks in 2008. Vazquez is a very good pitcher in general yet always a poor performer in big games.

It was total BS Danks was not used in this pivotal series, and they instead rearranged the rotation order just to make sure to use others even on limited rest instead. He has been the White Sox best pitcher almost all year, and he proved in his recent starts he is not getting tired and had more in the tank. I can tell they were planning on passing him over for the playoffs too, but it looks like they probably wont have to worry about that anymore now.

Good riddance. I wont miss him.

QUOTE (SpringfieldFan @ Aug 22, 2008 -> 03:38 PM) Dang, I think we need an olympic event in sarcasm. I didn't make the "more medals for the Chinese" comment, but I did raise the trampolining issue. To set the record straight, I didn't raise it because the USA sucks at trampolining. I don't even know if we do, and for that matter we aren't such great golfers these days anyway. I brought it up simply because IMO golf is more worthy of being included. If you have ever watched the British Open, you'd swear it was at Epcot with all the nations represented. And yet they have trampolining... SFF Golfers would not even want to be in the Olympics. Tiger Woods basically said it woudl be a joke when asked about the idea.

I will remember most: Canadian mens eight rowers- after the devastation of 2004 for these guys, the 5 of 9 that were able to return, to come through with the gold medal they were expected to win in 2004 was amazing to see. Of all the events this is the one I would have been most devastated if Canada had not won. Rebecca Adlington- this little known British up and coming swimmer shocks the world by first stealing gold from Katie Hoff in the final stroke of the 400 free, then smashing Janet Evans 19-year old world record in her best event, the 800 free. Misty May/Kerri Walsh: possibly the most dominant female athletes in history in any sport. It is just incredible to watch them. You often talk about it not being enough to be a champion just to do everthing very well but nothing that stands out, or something that stands out but have a glaring weakness or two, and that to be the best these days you need to do everything very well and atleast something that stands out. They though do pretty much everything better then everyone else except serve, hitting for power, digging, overall defence, blocking, variety of shot, team communication, setting, they all do more outstandingly then any other team. Just incredible to see how dominant they are. Michael Phelps- what can you say. 8 gold medals, two of them seemingly that should have never happened the way the races played out. As Rowdy Gaines said it was almost like it was his destiny to win 8 golds here. 8 golds, that is halfof the swimming events for men. The scary thing is with swimming spread out over 2 weeks he might have been capable of winning even 9 or 10 golds, since he may have had a shot of winning one or both of the backstrokes even. Usain Bolt- With all due respect to Michael Johnson and Carl Lewis I still think this is the single greatest display of sprinting, yes taking into consideration the timeframe each were in, that has ever been witnessed on the Olympic stage. What can you say about breaking your own 100 metre world record while gliding the last 20 metres and showboating, as much as some may not have liked it. Then coming back and breaking Michael Johnson's seemingly untouchable for many more years 200 metres world record, in a race he simply could have cruised to gold without going for the record by going relatively easy again, showing how far ahead of everyone else he is right now. His relay leg was fantastic too, and I really think with those long strides he could even be a contender to win at 400 metres if he really chose to focus on it, and if it were at all managable given all the stress and effort of sprinting. U.S mens gymnastics team- The way this underdog team all pulled together and won their bronze medal with so much heart and passion was just incredible to see. The bronze was like a gold medal for this particular group of guys. So many great stories amongst these six. I was actually much happier to see them win a team medal without the nauseatingly overhyped Hamm twins. Jan Frodeno- I always like to see the underdogs come through. It was exciting to see someone who had been on the podium in World Cup triathlon events 6 or 7 times the last 3 years but still never quite winning one come through to win gold in a sprint finish over a trio of much bigger names, even if in the end he denied Canada a gold medal. He seemed like a nice guy and really cool, and very excited with his victory so you couldnt help but feel good for him. Nastia Liukin- I am sorry but I have to concede I am not a big Shawn Johnson fan. I know Shawn is a great kid and a very good gymnast but her gymnastics is just not my style for a female gymnastics star. I do believe star women gymnasts should be more artistic and elegant by nature and for Nastia to perform brilliantly and overhaul the Shawn bandwagon that seemed unstoppable for the AA gold I was thrilled with. It was nice to see this exquisite gymnast come out of Shawn's shadow she has been in for the last couple years by winning the most coveted prize in the sport. Chen Ruolin- Again even though this also denied Canada a gold medal it was incredible to see a tiny 15 year old perform that extremely difficult 3.4 dive for 10s under all the pressure to win the gold she was favored for, and to keep China's hopes of a gold diving sweep alive. Rumana Neykova- It was great to see this great Bulgarian sculler who has done it all in the sport except Olympic gold finally get her elusive Olympic gold, which she so heartbreakingly lost in a long delayed photo finish to her great Belarussian rival Karsten 8 years ago. Also great to see American sculler Guerette win a surprise silver, when people would have thought she would be lucky to even get a bronze with Neykova, Karsten, and Knapkova all in the field. Japan and Korea winning softball and baseball golds- Nothing against the U.S women or Cuban men but it is just nice to see the apple cart shook up once in awhile. The sheer elation for both teams as they made the final winning play was an incredible sight to behold. Low points of the games for me: He Kexin- This is supposed to be a 16 year old!?!? Please, what a crock. She definitely is the 13 or 14 that the documents caught on the web briefly indicated. God, she looks like she is 11 years old. So horrible to see this massively underaged phone entried gymnast who does not even belong in the Olympics as the only female gymnast to win 2 gold medals. Cheng Fei- this extremely talented WOMEN (I emphasize women in contrast to the disgraceful He) Chinese gymnast had a rough games. Picked by most to win both vault and floor she faltered miserably in both finals. She could have cost her team the gold to the U.S with her fall on beam, except for Sacramone's own sad meltdown. Instead of the 3 or 4 golds some predicted for her she leaves Beijing with only a team gold that had more to do with some of the underage phonies on her team then her usual excellence, and a couple pity bronzes by generous judges in the event finals for subpar (in the case of vault disaesterous) performances. Tyson Gay- very sad situation for him. One year ago the king of sprinting. Injures himself at the trials, losing out on the 200 metre, cant recover in time for a good Olympic 100 metre, and then the baton drop in the relay. Leaves games with zero hardware, when a year ago he was the Bolt of mens sprinting, and like everyone else completely lost in Bolt's humungous shadow now. Adam Van Koeverdan- dissapointing to see our flag bearer who I really thought had a great shot of 2 gold medals leave with an 8th place finish, and a silver medal after losing a huge lead in the final 200 metres. Most Canadians thought anything less then atleast 1 gold and 2 medals from him would be dissapointing. He is that good and has been that good this season. I feel badly for him as it is clear the pressure got to him as it does most of Canada's flag bearers. Theo Bos- very sad to see this Dutch sprint cyclist who has achieved so much in the sport over the last 4-5 years flop miserably at his 2nd Olympics. Still all he has in his Olympic collection is one sole silver, and one wonders if he can come back at all from this.

I saw it only on TV but it was a great match. Sadly for Young since he reached the 3rd round last year he drops more points and will have to be playing satellite events again.

Uribe has not shown squat in the past except he is a crummy player, especialy offensively. Of course it is surprising he played so well the last few weeks, so surprising it was a total fluke and it would not have lasted. I am grateful he did it, but it would not have continued and glad to have our real starting 3rd baseman back before Uribe reverts to what he really is.

Crede is awesome. Who cares if Uribe is having a fluke (and it is a total fluke) stretch of great play. He would have reverted to his usual self soon enough anyway, but thankfully while Crede was out he played above himself which is the best that could have been hoped and now Crede is back as our 3rd baseman and Uribe should be soon back to the bench before the wheels fall off.

QUOTE (SpringfieldFan @ Aug 25, 2008 -> 09:22 AM) Okay, it has to be asked. Who impressed your more at the time they happened: Bolt at these olympics or Michael Johnson in 1996? SFF Bolt. Johnson's 96 performance was still absolutely outrageously great, but this was a bit more. Bolt broke the WR in both his events, and one of them he didnt even look like he was trying. Johnson didnt break the WR in one of his 2 individual events. Bolt also had that great relay leg while Johnson due to injury didnt even run on his team relay for the final.

It seemed from the start of camp this was going to happen. Despite the talk of an open competition I think they had decided beforehand Grossman was just a cheap insurance policy as backup and they were going to see what Orton could do after a couple years on the sidelines. Grossman is close to gone, and if Orton doesnt prove himself with this opportunity he will be relegated to backup or gone as well and they will go in a new direction at QB.

Absolutely proposterous and insane that Maria Sharapova won the ESPY for tennis over Justine Henin. Just shows how little substance and true merit has to do with this marketing whore awards show. Entertaining to watch still, but of all the winners that is the one I laughed at most.

Rowing. They always have some dramatic races to the wire.

I would hope the players are always confident in themselves and their teammates. I dont think they have a prayer in hell of even making the playoffs this year personally. With Grossman or Orton at QB it is pretty much impossible anyway.

I think this year he has been getting used to his new back after finally getting the long delayed surgery. I expect him to be even better next year offensively and defensively and I hope it is with the White Sox.

Danks is already a better pitcher then Burnett ever was, and as far comparing them now it is Danks in a blowout IMO.

QUOTE (knightni @ Jul 5, 2008 -> 05:15 PM) They'll be a lot of "magical" Chinese gold medal-winning athletes, I bet. Somehow, they got a lot better, very quickly, for the glory of the Chinese People's Republic. Yes China will definitely win both the gold medal and overall medal tally for the first time IMO, and I predict they will have some "interesting" winners in various sports, mainly racing sports of course.

QUOTE (shipps @ Jul 5, 2008 -> 02:48 PM) What is he doing,about 8 or 9 right? He is doing 8 events. 200 free, 200 IM, 400 IM, 100 fly, 200 fly, 4 x 100 free relay, 4 x 200 free relay, 4 x 100 medley relay. He is the favorite to win all 8 and win 8 golds. I hope he does it since even though I am not an American and dont know much about his personality, it is exciting to see dominance at that level and he is so worthy of such a record. He is so versatile he had to drop some events a the U.S trials he would have been a contender to make the team and even win, but were just less probable/certain then these 8. Some he pulled out of at trials at the last minute were 200 back, 100 back, 100 free, 400 free, with the 400 free the only one he probably wasnt a factor in.

I am a Canadian so I will be rooting the Canadians who are at the Olympics on of course but I fear for a really bad showing (even for our standards) Olympics for Canada this time around. Probably 7-9 medals, only 2-3 gold.

Hell no. I hope they wouldnt even pay $1 million to get him. I dont want him starting over any of the Sox current starters. He is the worst starter on the Blue Jays who have a pretty good rotation currently, but I think the Sox have an even better one (damn you all star selectors who know bull!) so they have no use for him. I think he has always been a terribly overhyped pitcher anyway, more flash then substance, more potential then performance, more expectations then results.

QUOTE (BFirebird @ Jul 6, 2008 -> 08:02 PM) I would much rather our pitchers get rest anyways...considering Danks and Floyd have never really pitched a full season. Very good point. I think they will both have many more all star games in their futures, especialy Danks!

Well I am still very happy Crede made it since I think he has been robbed so many times of worthy recognitions. He should have been picked for the All Star game in 2006, he should have won a Gold Glove in either 2005 or 2006, he should have won either the AL series or World Series MVP in 2005 or both. So he is often times bypassed for worthy honors and so I am glad he made it even if I am not totally sure he should have been.

I dont like Federer at all and think he is one of the most overrated of all time greats who was super lucky with timing. Dont get me wrong, he is outstanding player still, but he could easily be only a 4 or 5 time slam winner without certain factors working in his favor IMO, and I laugh at the Sampras comparisions since I think Sampras at his peak would school him. Nadal is really a far more talented overall player IMO and it is nice to see him taking over the mens game.

QUOTE (dmbjeff @ Jul 6, 2008 -> 01:51 PM) varitek and his 219 avg make it over AJ...what a joke Does everyone around the league hate the White Sox or something.

I love Joe but there is no way in hell he should make it while Danks and Floyd do not. A true crime.

So Fields has lost his starting 3B job even with the Knights?