Grenouille

That would be a steal. Ellsbury was awful last year and seems to still be living off the good feelings from October of '07. Buchholz unfortunately threw that no-hitter making him Cy Young to some people. After the game in Chicago this season, I had seen enough of him until he got further seasoning with the Paw Sox or hell even Portland. From reports his time in the Arizona Fall League wasn't all that impressive. If Theo could pull this off more power to him, but the Marlins would be foolish.

I won't cry too hard about the Pats missing the playoffs this year it's almost a fitting bookend to how things went in 2008 starting with the 18-1 finish. Overall this season was bleak at times; it was still a hell of year and fun to watch. Just remember the last time they missed the playoffs they won the next two Super Bowls . Not that I expect that, but at least one would be nice. As for Tom Curran's report, aside from Peter King refuting it, Jonathan Kraft did the same on a local station before the game Sunday. I'd figure a Kraft family member would be more reliable than a "league source".

I went to a small Catholic grade school so there weren't that many fans. It was really just me and core group of about three other guys that liked wrestling. Before graduating 8th grade in '98 things had changed with it seeming like everyone liking or talking about it. Of course one of my friends had to be the idiot doing the Macho Man during graduation too. Right before I started High School I went to my friend's cousin's place for SummerSlam '98. There must have been at least 100 people there, all of the popular upperclassmen that I got to know. There was a bunch of the usual Austin, nWo, DX, Rock stuff that many people wore. The day after a house show in '99 I think half the school had some form of WWF merchandise on the next day. Before senior year everything died off again and it went back to the small clique of wrestling fans.

I don't deny his preparation. I know all the pitchers credit him for his game calling ability, but his detriment at the plate has gotten horrendous. The guy is really up there in age for a catcher and like most old catchers will most likely break down soon enough. If they go with a young catcher from the system like a Dusty Brown I wouldn't mind Tek being around for a year or two to groom him in a reduced role. Tying him up for Posada money and for the number of years he wants doesn't make sense though. That may be a case of Boras being the influence, but who knows Varitek was a difficult case even when he came out of college. Best case in my opinion is working a deal for someone like Salty, but I don’t see it happening right now.

After that game I really see why Belichick has such a hard-on for Ed Reed. I wish the Pats had a Safety like him because Brandon Meriweather annoys the hell out of me. For every great play like he had at the Seattle game, he makes about 5 boneheaded ones.

Good riddance. Watching the Sox every day this guy was the most frustrating guy in the lineup. He somehow had this power to get himself good counts and proceed to strike out usually with RISP. Good luck to him trying to find a multiyear deal anywhere for what he's looking to get paid. See ya later Captain Clutch.

My mom kind of steered me toward it one afternoon by shipping me to my cousin's place for WrestleMania IV. She probably thought that it would be an easy way to get rid of me for the afternoon, not thinking that it would turn me into a fan. The feeling with her after I became a fan was that it was just something I'd grow out of anyway. Ever since then I've pretty much followed some form of wrestling (WWE/Puro/Indies) except for a while in college. My father always hated it. Even though he hated it he usually took me to all the house shows and TV tapings in Portland back in the early to mid-nineties. Around the time of the Attitude era he really wanted me to stop watching and was hesitant about going to the live Raw in December '97. Of course that episode featured the DX strip poker segment, at which point I could see he'd rather be anywhere else. He made it through that night, but that was it for him, for anymore shows he'd drop me and my friends off and find something to do in the city for next 2-3 hours. Even now he gives me shit like a few weeks ago when I went to Survivor Series .

Come on, there really isn't such a thing as Uecker seats at the Civic Center. The place is too damn small. I dream some day Portland will wake up and build something similar to what Manchester has, since they get TV all the time, not to mention concerts and other shows real arena receive. I'll probably just drive to NH for Raw.

That was a frustrating half hour of television. Even when he had the balls to speak up for himself it seemed half-assed.

Not a bad episode tonight. Hopefully this is the end of Maya for good. I made the mistake of going to IMDB board for Heroes where tonight they are discussing whether or not Claire will be a virgin forever due to a regenerating hymen. Just a reminder to stay away from the IMDB boards I guess.

Kind of odd, but I noticed they blurred the old logo and World Wrestling Federation in the Mr. Perfect DVD. It just happens once during a Perfect/Hart match. Weird that they'd choose to blur one banner.

Liked: -Patriots playoff win over the Chargers -Patriots 2007 season thus far -Gators dismantling OSU in the National Title game -Red Sox winning the World Series -Celtics getting Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen -Tim Tebow winning the Heisman -USC’s tribute to Mario Danelo -BC Football falling flat on their face when it counted -Hank Steinbrenner – I can only hope that he emulates his dad in every way and we can have a return to what the Yankee’s were like in the 80s. -Colorado Rockies run all the way to the World Series Hated: -AFC Championship game and Super Bowl -Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts in general -The Auburn Tigers who started the downfall of another Gator season -Maine losing to Michigan State in the Frozen Four -Avalanche missing the playoffs by a point -Eric Gagne -Spygate -WEEI, yet I continue to listen -Boston media’s all of sudden love of BC Football -ESPN

Sean already has affected a football game. It was just that he liked Vince Wilfork and Brandon Meriweather more than the Raven Canes. However Sean couldn't help Brandon catch the sure interception that he helped steer to him.

No kidding. I wouldn't be surprised if Kornheiser tried to slip Shula his room card. The other two weren't much better. The long pause and then disappointment after Gostkowski's kick should tell anyone who they were cheering for tonight. Now, I’ll listen to the WEEI cheerleaders and try to feel better about this win that shouldn’t have been.

Sure, here it is... Duke Keomuka VS Ricky Starr Fritz VS Bundy Flair VS Kerry – Cage Iceman, Kevin & David VS Freebirds Iceman VS Buddy Roberts – Hair Match Fritz, Mike & Kevin VS Freebirds Chris Adams & Sunshine VS Jimmy Garvin & Precious Kabuki VS Kamala Fantastics VS Midnight Express Chris Adams VS Kevin Brody & Missing Link VS OMG & Rick Rude Brody VS Abdullah Disc 1 also has a bunch of interviews and other vignettes like Jimmy Garvin’s day as David’s valet. Best of all the Badstreet USA music video is included.

Austin and Warrior aren't mentioned. Foley talks a bit about being there around the time of the change to USWA.

Earlier this afternoon I stopped by Bull Moose Music a local CD/DVD place that breaks street date pretty often. I wasn’t too surprised to see that they already had the WCCW DVD out for sale so I picked it up. Here are a few thoughts and comments after watching the main feature. -Fritz is portrayed in a relatively even manner some defend him like you would expect others didn’t seem to care about him, Jimmy Garvin in particular. Speaking of Garvin he looks as though he has missed many meals since retirement. -The Freebirds get quite a bit of play and seem to be trumped up almost as equals to the Von Erichs in terms of WCCW’s success. One cute moment is Michael Hayes calling Kerry Von Erich a steroid abuser. Considering today’s product I couldn’t imagine someone being that overt about the topic. Also seeing and hearing Buddy Roberts speak is kind of hard through the voice box. -The piece on Gino Hernandez is done quickly, but is very good. I won’t spoil it, but Gary Hart’s speech about Gino is pretty touching. -There’s a bit of contradicting going on when the topic of drugs comes up. Skandor Akbar claims he never saw it in the locker room, while Bill Irwin says it was there and he participated. -The general consensus is just like the Heroes documentary pointing at David’s death as downturn point for the company. The heaps of praise found in the documentary for David is found here too, but to the point where it seems like they really shit on Kerry. -Their choice of matches seems kind of odd. For instance they chose the Kamala/Great Kabuki match from the David memorial show. I would have thought that the title change with Kerry would have been a more significant choice for inclusion. Overall it’s a good effort from the WWE, but most of what’s here was covered in the Heroes of World Class documentary in most cases with more depth. If anything this is a good supplement to that and it includes matches which is a nice bonus.

Damn, that describes me perfectly for the last year as I continue putting off going to graduate school. I’d just need to replace stoner with alcoholic. It’s a sad existence, but I can’t keep the 17 and 18 year olds away.

Apparently the Pats have also signed WR Kelley Washington to a 5 year deal according to Mike Reiss of the Boston Globe. Sadly Ron Borges is unavailable to write about how this will sink the Pats. I would imagine this marks the end of the Troy Brown era in New England unless they carry a 6th receiver.

Yes, and it upconverts SD DVDs. As for the "war" between the two camps most of the hardcore A/V boards I frequent seem to be firmly in the HD-DVD camp. Personally, I started buying HD-DVDs and have been very happy with the results.

I'll add another vote for Dan Shaughnessy. Nothing like ruining Sunday morning by reading a column by Dan. He usually whines about pretty asinine things. Such as one from last winter where he blasted the Sox for dumping the Friday night game on TV-38. Dan stood up for old people in nursing homes who wouldn't get their Sox fix because they lived in places that didn't have cable, thus no NESN. Ron Borges is up there too, but I find his little feud with the Big Show hosts to be funny with the occasional back and forth. Steve Buckley seems to annoy me to no end. It almost seems like he tries to be a poor man's Shaughnessy.

I wonder how long the Heyman promo will go on TV. Sitting there it felt like it went on for 20 minutes, but the guy had the crowd the whole time. The six year old yelling obscenities made it fun though, until his father who was sitting a few sections away came to check on him, good parenting, there chief. Smartly though, he didn't let the kid take a beer used by Sandman that was left near our area.

According to the McMahon DVD, both Jr. and Sr. are part of the walk of fame.

I wonder if I can play a prejudice card by pointing out that there's no Mountie action figure. Supposedly Mountie will appear in CS 13. According to some dealer at the wrestling figs board here are the next two sets. CS12: 2x Ultimate Warrior 2x Dean Malenko 2x Arn Anderson 1x Handsome Jimmy Valient 1x Steve Lombardi - "Brooklyn Brawler" 1x Nasty Boy Brian Knobbs 1x Nasty Boy Jerry Sags 1x Captain Lou Albano 1x Killer Kowalski CS13 Rick Rude (2) Mr. Perfect 2nd Version (2) Bret Hart (1) Al Snow w/ Head (1) Bad News Brown (1) Brother Love (1) Droz (1) Dusty Rhodes Newer Version (1) The Mountie (1) Luna Vachon (1 out of 2 cases) Ernie Ladd (1 out of 2 cases)

This is a tough tossup between hockey and baseball. Hockey crowds can be fun due to the intense nature of the game. It always helps if the there's a full house too. For the first time in years the Portland Pirates played to a mostly full arena. Thank god we got the Ducks as the parent affiliate (never thought I'd say that). Cheering for your team on the road can be a little difficult too. The fans down in Manchester didn't take kindly to drunk Pirate fans after their team lost a shootout. Thankfully I only got water dumped on me, while my friend got beer. Baseball crowds can be fun and into the game depending where you go. The minor league games I attend for Portland Seadog are usually quiet passionless affairs with parents intent on watching a game with their kids jumping all over, which takes away from the enjoyment of the game. The crowds at Fenway are usually pretty good for the games I go to. Someone already mentioned the frat boys who can be a pisser, but thankfully they stick to the bleachers with the others that are there to spend $6.50 a beer. The last time I sat in the bleachers I ended up with some guy in my lap because he lunged at a Yankee fan who wouldn't shut up. That was it for the bleachers for me. Nowadays I stick to the field boxes and end up sitting with the pleasant enough people who pay top dollar to actually see the game.