The Czech Republic

Is it acceptable to refer to fielding as defense nowadays? I mean, I never call it defense.

I Wonder if you're Targeting a certain Person with this Line.

By no means. Michaels made his name from '93 to '96, during his string of great matches and shitty attitude thanks to the Clique. DX was just Shawn shifting into a different role on the way out. Just for the record, the Michaels/Helmsley/Chyna/Rude lineup was much better than the Helmsley/X-Pac/James/Gunn/Chyna lineup. The second one is remembered the most and lasted longer and basically did more, but the first one was so much more cutting-edge, in retrospect.

This whole deal should constitute segments on the economic successes, failures, and changes for the Big Four. I want to concentrate on the NHL's franchise instability and subsequent market failure, the NBA's marketing of stars above teams, the effects of free agency on baseball, and the pros and cons of a socialist system in the NFL. Here's an excerpt on the hockey portion, help me out where you can. --- Until 1991, the National Hockey League was economically successful by operating on a smaller scale than the other major leagues. By concentrating its focus into the Midwest and Northeast U.S., along with Canada, the NHL was the most successful it had ever been. When Wayne Gretzky was traded from the Oilers to the Kings in 1988, hockey became a hot fad in Los Angeles, a traditionally struggling hockey market since its inception in 1967. With interest picking up across the rest of the southern U.S. with the newfound success and subsequent popularity of the L.A. Kings, the NHL tried to capitalize on a short-term fad in the long-term by expanding the league into the South at the expense of the league. The National Hockey League, in its effort to market itself to the general population across America, has not only failed at that, but also alienated its existing and most dedicated fans of all. With at one point eight, but now just six franchises located in Canada, the national economy north of the 49th is more influential to the NHL than any other league. From 1990 to 2000, to league expanded from 21 teams to 30. With additions to the Bay Area, Tampa Bay, Dallas, Miami, Anaheim, Denver, Phoenix, Raleigh-Durham, Nashville, Atlanta, and Columbus, one would presume that popularity of hockey would skyrocket in America. The Winnipeg Jets are the textbook example of this market failure in the NHL. Located in a metropolitan area of approximately 650,000, the Jets did not have the dispensable income to contend with big-city teams like the Rangers and Kings. Notwithstanding, the Jets had one of the most dedicated fan bases in the league, were able to build strong teams over the years whose only flaws were drawing powerhouse teams like Edmonton and Calgary in the early rounds of the postseason. The greater flaw of the franchise, however, was a lack of luxury boxes in the antiquated Winnipeg Arena, and a lack of major businesses in Winnipeg to rent them. No matter how many fans were purchasing seats, the “big money” needed to pay the inflated contracts was not there. When plans were announced to move the franchise to Minneapolis, the team’s fans came together with enough money to purchase the team from franchise owner Barry Shenkarow. However, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman requested that a new arena with luxury boxes be built to keep the team in town. The consortium could not collect the money, and the team was sold to interests in Phoenix, Arizona. The franchise has had less monetary success in a major American city with more sheer numbers than Winnipeg in population, dispensable income, and seating. But in the area of consumer preferences, the demand for hockey in central Canada was unsurprisingly higher than it is in Arizona.

Okay, let's see here. Squall was my pick, because everyone and everything related to Final Fantasy VIII was the drizzling shit and turned me off the series for good. Cloud was just too boring. Spiky-haired hired mercenary with a love interest. Whatever. I don't consider Terra the lead of FF6. If anything, Kefka was the lead character. Sure, you get her first, but I think all 12 principals are of equal value. Gogo and Umaro were nothing, though. Cecil was a good lead, and FF4 is not overrated at all. That's all I've got. I've only played and beaten 4, 6, and 7; and still working on 5 when I can. Not touching 8.

Also nasty cities: Kenosha and Racine. Think of them as the Gary, Indianas of Wisconsin.

Who did that Return Of The Mack song?

No, I was not fooled by the underline text. Nopers. "Well, here I am. I'm Rikishi. I'm not a major Rikishi fan." That's a keeper right there.

To the person who liked an episode about Colonel Potter: Bah. M*A*S*H ended when Henry Blake's helicopter went down, as far as I'm concerned. I remember when I was younger and I would watch Fox Kids on channel 32 in Chicago, and M*A*S*H reruns would usually be on at some point during the day on that channel. And I would ask my parents, "Mom, Dad, is this show good?" and my dad said "Only up until Henry Blake dies." And even in elementary school back in 1993 I knew that if Klinger wasn't in a dress, change the channel.

He's on the January 04 cover of Downbeat magazine, and there's a great article on him. Hats off to an extraordinary composer for all genres.

Wow, it's like my e-mail inbox, in convienent message board form! Now just post "Top 10 Osama Jokes," "EARN MORE MONEY NOW," and some some bullshit chain letters, and we'll be well on our way to resembling what happens when you end up on people's mailing lists.

Keep the Titantron, just make it a normal freaking screen. I mean, Raw's is skewed, Smackdown's is all jagged on the edges and off in the corner. Just go back to the video walls of the mid 90s that were made of a bunch of smaller screens that made up one big one. Those were cooler and had better picture quality anyway because it wasn't a projection.

I'm going to have to chime in here. Since I was the one he initally contacted to help him get back on the board, because "I seemed like a really nice cool guy, he really meant it," and now reading all of this, I'm starting to feel really worried.

I called Detroit as #1 before this loaded. And Milwaukee, I'm surprised isn't higher. I believe they have the highest murder rate per capita. They also have the largest number of bars per capita if I'm not mistaken. So noodle on that one for a while. Correlation? You tell me.

I nominate for being rawkin' Angelslayer AndrewTS ISportsFan RavishingRickRudo Ground Zero Marvinisalunatic frozenblockofpiss(reborn)

"Bisexuals are gays in denial." -Other people

fgjkdlfgnlfdgnqwoicmdslkdgnjkdfahAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! ... That was me, banging my head into my keyboard.

Yeah the guy's been here since August 19th he should be aware by now...

fgjkdlfgnlfdgnqwoicmdslkdgnjkdfahAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Would freedom-order-equality make me a libertarian?

Yeah, it has its own time zone. Nova Scotia seems like Maine to a higher degree.

I'm starting to enjoy following Utah to see how many more games they can win, I mean, they're already at the number of wins they were expected to get for the whole season.

So is he really gay?

Give her a bite of the mint before she blows you and you will know what beats that.