Dr. Tom

So you know, most football leagues that use an auction system have a salary cap of $100, which must be maintained throughout the season. So you can't ditch your cheap guys for the expensive veterans someone else has without freeing up some cap room.

One thing I noticed during the NFL season: the weekly threads were a nightmare. I'd be watching the RAVENS~! at 1:00, and because I don't sit there and type posts about a game while I'm watching it (try watching TV away from the computer sometimes, kids), the 1:00 games would get buried. I'd pop into the thread whenever the 4:15 game ended and find that all the 1:00 games fell out of the discussion 12 pages before. That's ridiculous. Who wants to read back thru 12 pages of "OMG WHAT A CATCH~!!1!!!!11!!!!" to find some discussion on the early games? My idea? Create separate threads for each time slot. Have a 1:00 game thread, then combine the 4:15 and Sunday Night ESPN games into one thread. MNF can get its own thread if needed. This way, it's easier for people to actually talk about the games they watched without taking the thread back to a topic that hadn't been glimpsed in the last 12 pages.

Yeah, I'd certainly be down for another game at Camden Yards. I had a blast at the '93 game. Anyway, I'm indifferent as to where they host the game. To me, they can do away with the idea of alternating which league hosts the game by making one simple rule to the way the game is played: always use the DH for the All-Star game. Really, after voting on the best hitters of the last year or two, who wants to see some chump hitting .135 come to the plate and either sit down after three feeble swings or lay down a bunt? Smell the EXCITEMENT~! And while the pitcher will usually be pinch-hit for in the All-Star game, having an actual DH means the benches don't need to be taxed so early in the game, so there's less of a chance that the teams will run out of players.

Spree pwns the other Brits. I demand a recount!

And how would someone new know about a website that folded about a year ago?

How does having monthly threads instead of weekly threads sol;ve the problem of OAO threads being overwhelming? They're overwhelming enough as it is. I don't see any reason to expand on 25 pages of one-line posts, which comprise 90% of the content in those threads.

Mike, would this get filed under "tough shit?"

Bah, I missed the draft and COMPLETELY forgot to update the pre-rankings beforehand. As a result, my team in the Yahoo keeper league is the suck. Rex Fucking Grossman? Jesus Christ.

Whenever a pitcher gets a hit to drive in a run, the announcers are lightning-quick to say, "he's really helping his own cause today." OK, he is, but don't say it every fucking time it happens.

Some, but not to the degree that many of the old-timers had. The thing I was getting as is that guys like Jim Palmer and Bob Gibson were playing baseball and other sports year-round, probably from the time they were 5 or 6 years old. Their arms developed a lot earlier and a lot better than young kids today, who have so many more distractions (video games, internet, etc) to keep them from being physically active. It's a much different era, and I think the fragility of young arms is one of the consequences of the more sedentary lifestyle we lead today as opposed to the 40s-70s.

As a Roto player, I'm leery of pitchers who have piled up high IP and Batters Faced per Game numbers early in their careers. That kind of arm abuse can damage someone for years, sometimes to the point that they never recover from it. I think one thing that's lost in this discussion of pitch counts is the society at the time guys like Palmer, Gibson et al were racking up 300+ IP per year. Kids and teenagers were much more physically active then. There were no malls to hang out at on the weekends, there were no video games to play, and there was no internet to suck people in. If kids wanted to do something, it involved doing something physical, which meant playing sports all year round. When fellows like Palmer and Gibson were young, they probably played baseball every day for six months, and then other sports during the rest of the year. Their arms developed resiliency early as a result of that. Now, today's young pitchers were raised in the era of malls and Playstations, and high IP totals and pitch counts are damaging to their arms. I don't think this is a coincidence.

The WC *should* play the team with the best record, though. Playoff structures are almost universally setup to favor those in first place.

I think the OAO threads work for things like hockey because it has a comparitively small following. The same thing for the baseball or football seasons would quickly become ridiculously cumbersome. Heck, I think the current TWIB threads are cumbersome, but that's because I'm not known for being patient. I remember during the NFL season, the threads made for the week's games would quickly become bloated. Usually, it was 7 pages of one-sentence posts about something that happened in a game. That's annoying to have to read thru for people like me, who prefer actual discussion to some random person going OMG over something I just saw described a lot better on my TV. For this season, I think a game chatter thread would be fine, with a separate thread for actual coherent discussion of the games, the impact of the games, which teams are hot/not, etc. That way, both sides win. Personally, I'm with Al in my dislike for OAO threads. If I wanted to read thru ten pages of garbage to find something meaningful, I'd buy more newspapers.

I've wondered why soda companies haven't cashed in on the carb-counting trend and made it bloody obvious their diet sodas are carb-free. Then I realized that the obvious answer is because that wouldn't allow them to make and sell horrid "half and half" products like C2 and Edge.

But that thankless job pays a good salary, gives you bodyguards for life, and an absurd number of other perqs. Oh, and you get to nuke other countries. Here's my take on the whole "OMG TEH MODZ ARE R00D TO TEH POSTERZ~!!!11!!1!" thing: Perhaps instead of immediately demanding an explanation the second something happens, people could be patient and wait for one. No one is dead-set against explaining their actions. Similarly, no one likes being blindsided by a dozen people before they've ever had a chance to say anything. The fact is that nothing needs to be explained. This board is not a democracy. It is run by a staff operating within a set of guidelines, with full discretion to act on those who step outside of those guidelines. That said, I think the staff is willing to be courteous and explain things, provided they're given a chance to, and not simply greeted by a dozen people calling for their head in the same thread. If you want courtesy, you should offer it in return. If not, go pound sand.

No, it really wasn't.

We're definitely on a roll. Good times.

Little commie kids would come up to me, asking if it was OK to get their news from CNN...

Well, I was going to use Chinese checkers there originally, but then I thought I might get branded a RAYCIST~! And as we both know, that's your territory, and a good General never infringed on his Colonels' territory...

This is not Moore Being a cheerleader. Moore is right in this statement, this is the truth. In their minds they are fighting to protect the "sanctity" of Islam and of their country. We are being captured and beheaded by the men who run in the same circles as people who 10 years ago were being beheaded by Saddam Hussein's thugs. If you can't see that this is about revolution and self-preservation to them, then you do need to open your eyes. I don't agree with Everything Michael Moore says, but he's right about this one. We don't stand a chance.These men's will is very strong, and it is feuled with hatred. Misguided hatred yes, but hatred all the same. This quote is not a "Let's get those Iraqi's fired up so they can win" statement. It's an observation on how those men feel about themselves and their cause. Fact is, we pissed too many people off, and now our boys are paying for it. Should we have gone to Iraq? maybe. maybe not. Should we have been out of there by now? Damn Right. And still, no justification for the use of the word "Bigot". If you are going to defame character, stick to the "fatass slob" jokes. Classy, no doubt. *edited to change "of" to "as"* Wow. None are more blind than those who refuse to see. This IS Moore being a cheerleader for the other side. The people we're fighting aren't the ones who were brutalized by the Hussein regime. The ones who survived that are the ones who support us now. We're fighting against the remains of Saddam's regime and his supporters. And since Saddamn was a remorseless murderer and terrorists, so are the people we are now fighting. BTW, the "bigot" comment was answered twice. Take the blinders off.

Good. The hell with the House of Saud. They've harbored and supported terrorists for years. I'd like to see every cent of that money stay in this country instead of going to those two-faced cocksuckers.

Five years of backgammon?

I imagine something similar might've led to one of the Crusades... Non-Christian: See how I have made these crude wooden figures? They tell the story of the silliness rampant in your Old Testament. Look at this woman, offering herself to a beast! And a rapist forced to marry a virgin after paying her father, basically making her a whore! LOLIMSOFUNNAY~! Christian Soldier: Die, infidel! Your close-mindedness has raised my ire. Despite the fact that Jesus told me to turn the other cheek, I have now decided to drive this sharp sword thru your chest. Non-Christian: YOU are calling someone close-minded? Aren't you the guy who takes the Bible at face value and pretty much refutes everything contrary he hears with chapter and verse? What about looking for the opinions of "Christian scientists" on things like evolution. Gee, I wonder what THEY'LL have to say about it. Physician, heal thyself. Christian Solider: ... Non-Christian: Shrug. Christian Soldier: Die, INFIDEL~! Non-Christian: You know, we're really not so different. Sure, you're a fundie and I'm much more of a free thinker, but other than that, we're a lot alike. Christian Soldier: Look, I've come all this way. Just let me run you through so I can move on. The rest is history...

Suicidial idiots who seek sympathy from strangers, especially online, are pathetic. Heck, if someone I didn't know wandered into a chat room and said they were going to eat a bullet, I'd encourage them, too. If you're stupid enough to seek sympathy from strangers online, then the gene pool is better off without you peeing in it.