Dr. Tom

She'd look much better in a Ravens outfit...

My point was (and is) that Bonds is doing something many people have never seen in their lifetimes, me included (I'm 29). I'd rather see highlights of that than a baseball game that doesn't mean anything. The pennant races shouldn't be bumped aside unless he really hits an important number (660 and 661 being next on the list), but more pedestrian highlights can wait their turn behind the best player of his generation.

I thought we'd hear about this from the women's tennis or golf tours before the WNBA...

Um... abortion is a medical procedure. Rape is a violent, dehumanizing crime. How the hell are they anything alike? My take on abortion has always been this: ideally, I don't think the federal government should be involved in the debate, but they need to guarantee abortion rights for all women. Otherwise, girls and women will go to Mexico or back-alley "clinics," for their abortions, where a pocket knife and folding table are the "facilities." Since it seems to matter all of a sudden in this thread, I'm a social liberal, and a fiscal and foreign policy conservative.

... which is why I'd rather watch a home run than clips from a Detroit-Tampa Bay game. Unless someone's holding the standings upside-down, a game between those two teams means precisely jack shit.

Hope you have a good b'day, APO. And I hope family reunions don't piss you off, your car doesn't break down, or your computer doesn't become possessed, or whatever else it is you always bitch about at the beginnings of your columns.

No, it counts in nuclear war, too.

And Sega's baseball franchise > High Heat. I liked the first WSB for X-Box better than HH2003 (and HH2003 was VERY good), but HH2004 was a letdown. WSB2k3, however, was excellent. I'd be extremely disappointed if MS buys High Heat and doesn't allow next year's WSB to come out on X-Box.

They have one. The problem is, Antowain Smith resides in Belichick's doghouse at the moment. A shame, since he could get 1200 yards on the ground if they let him be the full-time back. The combo of Smith and Kevin Faulk should be effective enough, though. I don't see the Pats throwing as much as they did last year, so they'll need those two to step it up (or just let Smith do his thing).

Exactly. It's not that they're a terrible team, but they're definitely the worst team in their division. Because of that, they're going to miss the playoffs. I also think the loss of Coles is really going to hurt them, since they don't have a go-to receiver in his absence. Combine this with Edwards' desire to make the passing game more vertical, despite losing his best deep threat and having a weak-armed QB, and I think the Jets are in for a long year.

Because having to manually add the paragraph break tags at the end of each paragraph is fucking annoying. I'll probably slog thru it after school tonight. TSM's Article Manager > whatever crappy system you have

It was proven by betting slips, on the Reds, with Rose's fingerprints all over them, as well as notebooks and papers in Rose's handwriting, all full of betting information. Call it "circumstantial" if it keeps you warm at night, but also remember there's no legal burden of proof here. This was a baseball proceeding, not something conducted in a court of law. If Rose really felt the Dowd report was flimsy (and that baseball breached the contract), why hasn't he sued them? But his career wasn't over. He was actively involved with the game, as a manager. Sure, his playing credentials, not his managerial ones, would be the ones to get him in the Hall, but the fact remains that he bet on his own team while he was the manager, and got the penalty called for by the rules of baseball. It's not that it doesn't mean anything; it just doesn't override the fact that he committed the game's cardinal sin. Rose made his bed, and he's been lying in it ever since. I have no sympathy for him.

I covered this. Search this thread for the words "Dowd Report."

I think it has to be Pujols. He's been much more consistent this year than Sosa, who only seems to have caught fire once everyone was accusing him of being a cheater. Nice to see that motivates him more than helping his team win. I wouldn't argue overmuch with Bonds as the MVP, but I think Pujols is more deserving.

I don't know about some of you, but I haven't seen someone hit 650 HR in my lifetime. That's an important milestone, simply because milestones tend to be nice round numbers like that (3000 hits, 300 wins, etc.). I'd much rather see "meaningless" highlights of Bonds hitting two homers than see "highlights" of a truly meaningless Detroit-Tampa Bay game.

A Win98 CD should be bootable, and should allow you to format. If not, you should be able to make a boot disk from within Windows, unless that functionality is gone to you now.

God has nothing to do with it. I do. MUAHAHAHAHAHA~!

Al took care of that on page one of this thread. Because gambling is defined by baseball as a cardinal sin. If you don't like this policy, draft a letter to Bud Selig, but you're not going to change it by arguing about it in here. It's their job to get that help, and addiction doesn't excuse any rules they break or any crimes they commit.

Oh come on. You can't expect people to take an "argument" like that seriously. Sosa gets seven games for corking a bat, and you're trying to compare that to a lifetime ban for breaking the cardinal rule of the game and betting on your own team? Sell that bill of goods elsewhere, because we're not buying any here. See above. That was Frank Robinson, and who gives a shit if he heckled someone on the other team? Howe was a cokehead; if he couldn't handle the criticism, he should have stopped putting shit up his nose. That someone's heckling a cokehead? I don't see how. Canseco doesn't deserve it based on his playing career. Really, moral relevancy isn't going to help you cause. I don't care if Ty Cobb was a drunk, or if Babe Ruth had two bitches on the side in every city, or if Sosa corked his bat. None of them did anything remotely approaching what Pete Rose did. You're trying to equate jaywalking with murder one and expecting everyone to come along for the ride. Sorry, I'll stay here by the curb and ride with someone who can stay inside the lines.

If Dean had $10 for each of Limbaugh's listeners, he'd be pretty well-funded already. Note: I don't listen to Rush. But a lot of people do, so it's pointless to say no one takes him seriously.

Nope. Not in the slightest. Heaven and Hell are inventions of early religious leaders who used them as tools of behavioral control. When we die, we spend "eternity" rotting in a wooden box.

Rob Johnson has all the physical tools to succeed as a QB in the NFL, so teams will continue to give him a chance, based on that. The problem is, he's a head case in the pocket and doesn't deal with pressure well. Another example of this type of player would be Jeff George, who continually got chances because of his strong arm. The Redskins are definitely better than the Cowboys. And considering I loathe the Redskins, that pains me to admit.

No point in keeping everyone waiting, then... I'm not going to directly quote anyone else, since I'm at work and don't feel like digging for them. You'll probably know if I'm replying to something you said by the points I make. 1. Betting on baseball is a cardinal sin, explicitly banned in the rulebook, and betting on one's own team is a mortal sin on top of the cardinal sin. These rules are posted in every major-league clubhouse. How someone feels about the weight of the offense is immaterial: these are the rules of the game. The penalty for breaking the rules is known and published right along with them. There is no excuse for breaking this rule. 2. Dowd compiled numerous betting slips with Rose's fingerprints on them, as well as pieces of paper and notebooks in Rose's handwriting, detailing bets and betting lines. 3. Rose never bet against the Reds. That doesn't change what he did, but there it is. 4. Rose deserves his lifetime ban from the sport: he broke the game's cardinal rule. There is no rule that a drunkard or a philanderer is eligible for a lifetime ban, so arguing for people like Ty Cobb or Babe Ruth to be banned is pointless. Their off-field actions might not have been commendable (and really, who cares?), but they didn't break any of the rules of the game. Rose did. There's the distinction. 5. Other sports, including pseduo-sports like boxing, likely have very different rules regarding gambling. These are also irrelevant. In short: Fuck Pete Rose. He's done nothing but shamelessly promote and whore himself out to an American public eager to forgive him for his sins without understanding their context. Considering his memorabilia sales, I think he's made a good chunk of change off the sport, at the expense of people who actually believe in him. I hope he's never let back into baseball, and if he ever does taint the Hall of Fame, I hope his election is a posthumous one.

Just in case John Henry Williams needed something else to make him look like a complete fucktard, this story comes out. With the DNA samples missing, I wonder if someone's already gotten around to cloning old Teddy.

Divided concerns can equal divided loyalties. That's the last thing we need in the White House. The President must focus on America and its agenda, to the exclusion of other countries. He is charged with preserving, protecting, and defending the Constitution of the United States, not the government of any other country.