Bruiser Chong

What he said.

Is this going to be a flat-rate type of deal or a pay-per-view thing, where you basically pay for blocks of footage? That'd be awesome if this were a premium channel type deal and not a PPV thing that'd cost $9.95 for every block you order.

Saw this trailer when I went to see Hitch. Looks like an unnecessary pile of garbage sequel that people will eat up with a giant spoon.

Why, do you enjoy the taste of bacon?

What's worse about the last error was that it should've been a doubleplay that ended the game.

That Dodgers defense was awful today. It was like watching a little league game.

I sold off my restraunt just to see if I could save up enough coin to invest in some concessions, since I'm still in the red for daily income. I understand this is a building process, so I'm not getting to down about this. It's frustrating, but winning it all in the first season doesn't leave much else to be desired in subsequent seasons. And just for future reference, my starting lineup looks like this: LF - Milton Bradley 2B - Alfonso Soriano 3B - Hank Blalock 1B - Derrek Lee RF - Willy Mo Pena C - Miguel Olivo SS - BJ Upton CF - Kenny Lofton I've got Carlos Zambrano and CC Sabathia in my starting rotation, Urbina setting things up and Lidge closing. Overall, my pitching is my saving grace until I get hitting in check. I'm looking to dump Lofton, but no one will take his hefty contract, so I may be stuck with him for a while.

Actually, it's not. eBay themselves have a rule against this. It may have worked once upon a time, but once it became obvious that some sellers were making a killing selling Bic pens that just happened to come with tons of bootleg footage, eBay was quick to make a rule against it. I got kicked off of eBay for a month in 2002 for having a pair of bootleg tape auctions shut down and I learned my lesson. Haven't even attempted to sell any sort of illegal footage since. It's just not worth the hassle. Just because others get away with it doesn't mean you should go ahead with it. Justice may seem to be lacking, but when you get caught, "well, he did it, too" doesn't really fly.

For those in Owner's Mode using existing ballparks, are there costs like there'd be with a created park (i.e. additional seating, scoreboard, etc.)?

I didn't overexpand. I have the second level of seating (20,000, I believe) and the lowest level restraunts. There was no money left to purchase anything else after that (aside from a promotional day here and there). The auto-draft of the minors is what killed me, since I overpaid on many of the players that were drafted for me.

What's everyone averaging for salary for the minor leaguers? I'm losing money daily and it's mainly because of player salaries. Further inspection showed that Zambrano is only being paid 300K a year, while I had a couple guys in A and AA ball making 400 and 500K. Needless to say, I raised Zambrano's salary and traded away some of the pricier minor leaguers. Anyone got any tips for turning profits in Owner's Mode, though? It's ridiculous for me, since I paid for the second level of restraunts, but since I'm short of funds, I can't actually afford to ya know, STOCK them, and thus, they're just an expense.

Has anyone tried out stealing bases yet? I remember last year's game made it virtually impossible to swipe a bag, but I haven't dabbled in it enough this year to see if it's still the same (although I have been thrown out each time I've tried). I also noticed that I forgot to turn off unlocked players being included in Owner's Mode, and thus, have the pleasure of pitching to Johnny Bench. Oh, and I still suck at hitting. I've become convinced that getting a single is fairly worthless, since I hit into a DP right after almost everytime. Since MVP 2005 lets players throw to someone who's not yet at the base, breaking up a DP is almost impossible.

I'm playing as the Cubs, but since I did a fantasy draft, I've only got two members of the actual Cubs squad. I just won my third nail-biter in a row against the Pirates. Thanks to my shitty hitting, I was down 1-0 until the 8th when Odalis Perez started to lose it. I got a pair of singles and then Jeter made a questionable play on the ball hit by my pinch hitter. Instead of getting the force at second, he threw the ball to home for a play that wasn't even there. So I had the bags full and B.J. Upton at the plate. Second pitch and bam, I get hit, tied game. Alfonso Soriano then drove in a pair, Blalock grounded into a DP (I swear to god I have at least three a game) and Lee drove in a fourth with a sac fly. In the bottom of the inning, Adam Kennedy hit a two-run shot, but I was able to close things down with Lidge in the ninth. Thanks to the fantasy draft, normally bad teams like the Brewers and Pirates actually have competitive teams.

I'm gonna get it. Heard about this a while back and think I'll sell off my separate C&H books to help supplement the cost.

I'll check MLB 2K5 out eventually, but it sounds like someone's finding a new glitch everyday.

I did the fantasy draft, so Smoltz is a member of the Pirates in my Owner's Mode and I've got Blalock playing third for me. We were in Pittsburgh when I hit the bomb in right field.

I'm hitting into a lot of double-plays, too. Seems like if I get a guy on base (which can be a rarity in itself), the next guy grounds into a DP. I guess I could credit it with the game being so realistic that the pitcher is wisely throwing pitches that'll induce a DP. Still frustrating. At the moment, I'm playing on Pro and finding that to be difficult. Not for pitching (as I said before, my pitching is amazing at this level), but the hitting still has a way to go. I won a pair against the Pirates last night and this morning, once beating Smoltz. They were both nail-biters, but I managed to edge them out both times. In addition to the less accurate pitches, I find the pitchers are throwing many more off-speed pitches, and that virtually every pitcher in the game has a NASTY slider or curveball. Still, it makes it that much more gratifying when you connect. I hit a two-run bomb off a nasty Smoltz slider with Blalock that sent the ball nearly 500 feet into the water.

Either pitching is tougher in this game or I just absolutely suck at hitting because of the lower strike zone. I'm thinking it's a mix of both, as it's much harder to hit than MVP 2004. My pitching is immaculate, but my hitting is abysmal. I'm finding myself very impatient when hitting, too, which obviously isn't helping. What's everyone's average number of pitches thrown by opposing pitcher? And is anyone else having more trouble hitting in this game as opposed to last year's? It's getting to be really frustrating.

I hear ESPN is filled with bugs.

Yeah, not only that, but the ball is incredibly hard to pick up because of everything that's in centerfield. I'm going nuts hitting when I don't sim the games. I may wind up scrapping it yet again, restarting, but this time, with the actual Cubs team and at Wrigley.

What's everyone's lineup look like? I decided to scrap my original one since I had stupidly chosen to be a medium payroll team, but my revised team on high payroll is still leaving me little money to play with. Perhaps it's because I decided to create my own ballpark, but after payroll, all I could afford was to add the second level of seats to the stadium and the second tier of concessions. I'm almost ready to just give up and go with Dynasty Mode. But for what it's worth, Vlad looked awesome in Cubbie Blue.

Owner's Mode seems like it's going to be almost too in-depth for my tastes. Setting up four rosters was a bit of a pain and when all was said and done, I'm going to be MILLIONS in debt. Obviously I'll need to do some trimming up if I want to stand a hope of not staying in the red.

I wanted to get out to Wrigley last season, but because getting a ticket was an exercise in futility, I had to set my sights on this season. A glance at their schedule reveals that they'll play the Red Sox in Chicago this June for the first time since the 1918 World Series. Cubs tickets are hard enough to get as it is, but this almost guarantees to be an impossibly hot ticket. I'm still gonna shoot to nab a couple, but reading horror stories of the virtual waiting rooms used last season (and back again this year), I'm not too optimistic.

I wish I had been able to get four or five, but three was the most I could snag. I'm already getting crap from the woman about not asking her to go, even though she's not crazy about baseball and I'm dragging her to a couple of Reds/Cubs games in July as it is.

I was lucky enough to score three tickets to the 6/10 game against the Sox. Surprisingly decent ones, too. I had to do that Virtual Waiting Room thing at the Cubs site, and got selected after about 40 minutes of waiting. Looks like I lucked out, too, because I had other VWR windows open and they still haven't been selected to purchase tickets.