jasonxctf

plus i'll take it to another level... when your party nominates you for the 2nd highest office in the land, is it ok to be a turncoat and ditch the party when its not conveinent for you anymore?

QUOTE (Mplssoxfan @ Apr 16, 2008 -> 08:01 PM) True, although there are some states with laws that prohibit that, which I don't think is right. so would this scenario be ok... Candidate A runs as a Republican. Loses Republican primary, so then jumps ship to the Green Party. Loses the Green Party Primary, so then runs as a Libertarian. Loses the Libertarian Primary so then runs as an Independent. This certainly didn't happen here... but is it ok for a candidate to bounce around parties until he finds one which he can win in?

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ Apr 16, 2008 -> 07:43 PM) I am sure that Mr. Lieberman feels all sorts of warm and fuzzies when the anti-war fringe radical wing of the party decided to trump him and run another candidate because he wasn't anti-war. plus, the people of Connecticut spoke. they wanted Ned Lamont as the Democratic nominee 52-48%. What's wrong with that?

its not uncommon for challengers to show up in the senate primary race. Look at John Kerry... On January 24, 2007, Kerry announced he would not run for President in 2008, instead choosing to run for another Senate term. He is being challenged in the Democratic primary by attorney Ed O'Reilly.

i dont know that much about Ramirez and his speed, but lets be honest... when Richar is ready, Ramirez is back in Charlotte. He really needs to work on his plate discipline and pitch selection. There's plenty of time to get him big-league ready. His skills are strong, but raw. as for ozuna, all we can look at are the numbs. He's 28/42 in stealing, thus a 66.67% success ratio. Owens success ratio is 33/41, thus a 80.48% success ratio. also, as much as we want to knock owens for his offense, the guy did hit .267 last year and .278/.339 post all star break. compare that against Anderson's 2006 post-all star numbers of .257/.301. Anderson is a better defender Owens is a better base runner Ozuna is a better hitter so with Richar replacing Ramirez, which 2 of 3 do you want? The best defender/runner The best defender/hitter The best runner/hitter

oops, and I almost forgot Mr. Lieberman ran for President as a Democrat in 2004.

so here's the question... all indications point to the Dems picking up between 3-6 seats in the Senate this Fall... Republican Held Seats Warner (VA) Stevens (AK) Allard (CO) Coleman (MN) Sununu (NH) Domenici (NM) Collins (ME) Smith (OR) Democratic Held Seats Landrieu (LA) with the other seats being held by the incumbent party. Will the Dems cut lose Lieberman is they have a greater than 51 seat position?

anyone else getting tired of this? - You were the VP nominee of the party in 2000 and declare yourself a life long Democrat. - In 2006, you lose the Democratic primary fair and square by the people in your home state. - In 2006, you decide that you really are a "sore loserman" and pull out of the Democratic party to become an Independent allowing you to still run for your Senate seat. - You win the Senate contest by pulling Republican votes away from the Republican nominee. - In 2007, the Democratic party still convinces you to caucus with you and give you some prominent positions. (they need you at a 51-49 split) - In 2008, you decide to support your life-long friend John McCain for President. - In 2008, you decide to start campaigning with McCain for his party's nomination. - In 2008, after winning his parties nomination, you begin campaigning with McCain against the Democratic nominee, whomever that may be. - In 2008, you are stripped of your superdelegate vote for the Democratic Party. - Now there are talks that you may appear at the Republican Convention and may even give the keynote speech, 8 years after standing on the Democratic Convention stage accepting the nomination for VP.

9th inning, Sox down by one with 1 one out. Thome/Konerko/Dye/AJ/Crede/Hall/Uribe whomever singles or gets walked. Time for a pinch runner... I want Owens on this team as a 4th OF.

Sox need to send Ramirez down when Owens is ready. Alexi isn't big-league ready yet.

this topic is not to re-hash calls from the first game of the year. However, as many of you know, I took the liberty of writing Mike Port the head of umpires for MLB about the blown calls in the game. I was quite impressed by his follow up and contact to discuss the calls. In any case, here are their final determinations... You were one of a couple of fans who inquired about plays in the game of March 31. Please note that due to manpower, and an increase in the number of plays we look at as the season goes on we are not always able to respond to inquiries in this fashion. It is just that given that your inquiry comes at the beginning of the season, we are able to get back to you. We appreciate your interest and concern. Another point. The plays you inquired about were reviewed by one of our umpire supervisors who umpired close to 2,000 games at the Major League level. Sometimes such review leads to suspicion of umpire favoritism. However, like all in this department, supervisors work with active umpires to assist them in getting their calls correct. Sometimes this leads to correction and constructive criticism; but the correct call is what we all aspire to. Nonetheless, it is a fact of life that umpires do miss calls and pitches. It is just that, given their ability at the Major League level, their "misses" are held to an unbelievable minimum, given the number of calls they deal with. Here is the supervisor's analysis: 1. Play in the second inning involving Orlando Cabrera. Unfortunately did not see play or get video. 2. Top of the 7th inning. Pierzynski grounds to shortstop who throws to 1B. Throw pulls first baseman off the bag. Umpire calls runner "out". Viewed at multiple camera angels. The momentum of the first baseman toward right field most definitely forced the first baseman to pull his foot off the bag. However, his foot was on the base at the time of the catch, and then, by momentum, his foot followed his body and came off of the base. Oft-times, fans see the foot off of the base and assume the timing was such that the foot was not in contact with the base as the catch was made. Having been on the field and having experienced this play many times, I can appreciate what the umpire saw from his angle and understand why he called the runner out. Certainly the play relates to where the first baseman is positioned only at the time of the catch, which is where the ball met leather. I have reviewed this play from different angles, in slow motion, and still frames and believe the umpire was correct in his judgment. 3.Top of the 8th inning. Cabrera grounds to shortstop who throws home to try to prevent Crede from scoring. Even seen from several angles and with slow motion views, it is still difficult to evaluate that the tag was applied. An inconclusive call given available video which it must be (at least) allowed could have been "missed". Nonetheless, a tough play for an umpire as it is difficult for one to get into a more desirable position in order to view this particular type of play (the throw coming in from the infield). 4. Top of the 8th inning. (Next play). Jim Thome grounds to second baseman who throws to shortstop to try to turn double play. Slide by Cabrera is called interference. The premise of the interpretation is to judge the intent of the runner; in this case (from video) what the runner's intentions appeared to be as he slid into second base with arms outstretched to their limits and "grabbing" at the shortstop, and making contact with his body. The interpretation of this play in the Major League Umpire Manual is as follows: "If in the judgment of the umpire, a runner willfully and deliberately interferes with a fielder attempting to catch a thrown ball with the obvious intent to deprive the defense of an opportunity to make a double play, the umpire shall declare the runner out for interference and shall also declare the batter-runner out for the interference of his teammate." Also, "A runner who, in the judgment of the umpire, contacts or attempts to make contact with a fielder with a slide or roll block that is not a bonafide effort to reach and stay on the base, may be called out for the interference and, when appropriate, a double play may be called." From the video-the runner did not meet the requirements to be ruled legal in his actions. Thus, the double play was called. Hopefully, the above will be helpful in responding to your questions. We understand how a great many of Baseball's rules can be misread or misinterpreted as our rules are (sometimes) not written with the greatest clarity. For this reason, Major League umpires are also provided with a manual that goes into greater detail as to how some rules are to be applied. With best regards, and thanks again for your interest. Mike Port

From Realclearpolitics.com, here are the major pollsters averages per state... McCain vs Clinton FL: McCain + 0.3% PA: Clinton + 8.5% OH: Clinton + 2.8% NM: McCain + 3.0% WI: McCain + 4.7% IA: McCain + 9.7% NJ: Clinton + 2.4% McCain vs Obama FL: McCain + 0.4% PA: Obama + 3.5% OH: McCain + 5.2% NM: Obama + 3.0% WI: Obama + 2.0% IA: Obama + 10.0% NJ: Obama + 1.3%

for proper disclosure, i am in obama's camp on this... but i do see a strategic electoral college advantage to Hillary. if it's Hillary vs McCain, i come up with the following numbers... Hillary 278, McCain 260. Swing states such as Iowa, Wisconsin, FLorida and Colorado go McCain's way. Other states such as PA, NH, NV, Ohio and Arkansas go Hillary's way. if it's Obama vs McCain, i come up with the following numbers McCain 264 Obama 238 with the following states undecided... PA and NJ. Swing states such as NH, OH, FL go McCain's way. Swing states such as Iowa, Wisconsin, Colorado, Nevada go Obama's way. Which means that he has to win both PA and NJ to secure a 274-264 win. bottom line is that Hillary adds OH and safely keeps NJ, NH and PA. While Obama opens up those 4 to competition, but can win in swing states such as Iowa, Wisconsin and Colorado where Hillary cant.

but.... neither candidate can win without super delegate help. thus, Hillary still has a chance of winning this thing. If McCain wanted, he could go after Clinton with Obama and thus make her have to fend off 2 challengers and potentially striking the knock out blow. btw, not sure if it has been discussed here, but I've heard rumors of a Gore/Carter call on Clinton to drop out, either publicly or privately. Not as an endorsement of Obama per-say, but as a "save the party" call.

**Exclusive** Republican presidential hopeful John McCain has confided to his inner circle that Hillary Clinton may yet be the Democratic nominee, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned, a development the senator from Arizona would personally welcome! "Look, I know something about long odds, they had me written off last summer," McCain explained over the weekend, according to a top source. McCain would prefer to go up against Clinton in the general election, insiders reveal. He has instructed his campaign staff to "chill out" on countering Hillary Clinton's torrent of claims and promises as primary voting comes to an end over the next 6 weeks. McCain made the tactical decision to downplay Clinton's tale of Bosnia sniper fire, leaving some McCain staffers frustrated and perplexed. Instead, the critical focus has been on Barack Obama. McCain's official website features 14 press releases taking on Obama since the first of the year, only 3 for the former first lady. Developing...

i listen to satelitte radio alone... when my car was in the shop I nearly cried everyday on having to go back to regular radio. the pain was horrific.

i read on another board that Artie was on the plane to Amsterdam tonight, along with Teddy. apparently this was a Steve Langford report. Also, Howard himself nixed the replay of today's show for either the evening re-broadcast or over the weekend.

im hoping to catch him on the replay tonight on my drive home (or listen on youtube) where its already posted. interesting fact about stern... its estimated that he specifically brought 4-5 million ppl to sirius alone. cut it down the middle to 4.5 million people each paying $12.95/mo= approx $700 million a year in revenue (+ ad revenue) for Sirius.

he's the best.

QUOTE (Gregory Pratt @ Apr 6, 2008 -> 06:24 AM) Posing as Lenin, with Mr. Sunglasses as Trotsky. In happier times. In front of the mic, opening a fundraiser for the Vagina Monologues with a dance and then poems by Lucille Clifton. Puffier hair, on the day of my biggest competitive defeat. In a debate round. Preparing for a soccer match. ... If you can't tell, I have very different faces depending on whether or not I've shaved, what I'm wearing and what sort of hair I have at the time. obviously a UIC guy here.

hey there's a simple way to not have to pay $7.25 for a beer at the game. Don't buy them... beer sales go down enough, maybe they'll wise up and drop the price to a more acceptable level.

There are really 2 issues at hand here. 1) Does the US boycott the opening ceramonies? 2) Does the US boycott the entire Olympics? As for #1, I really don't care if the team walks out in some fruity outfit or not. As for #2, there is no way that the US should ever boycott the Olympic games. Politics and Sports should not mix. I will also disclose some personal issues that make up this decision. A coach of mine qualified for the 1980 Olympics which of course was boycotted. This individual spent hundreds of hours training for many years to qualify for the US team, just to have it taken away from him over a silly political spat. In addition, issue #3 could be that of corporate sponsorship. Doesn't Coke and McDonalds sponsor the Olympics?

we are canning DHL at the office here too... nothing like sending a package to say Chicago from the burbs and DHL sending it to Ohio first.

Since I started this topic, I feel the need to ask the Mods to close it. I think the points have been made. Bottom line, the point of the topic was to provide fans with a written outlet to share their feelings about yesterday's umpiring with Mike Port, the head of MLB Umpires. Some people here wrote Mike directly, myself included. Mike wrote back seeking additional information which was provided back to him. He thanked me (and probably you too) and said that the plays would be examined and reviewed by the "powers that be". I don't know about you, but going through the letter writing process certainly makes me feel better about the situation.

QUOTE(Athomeboy_2000 @ Apr 1, 2008 -> 02:06 PM) I got a reply this morning... I told you... say what you want about MLB... but they do care about their fans and creating an open relationship with them.