Bruiser Chong

I'm actually hoping Bowa's fired just so I can see if it actually makes a difference or not.

Name names.

The lengthy first inning for Zambrano kept him from going the distance, as he ended up going eight shutout innings, only giving up four hits. He threw 118 pitches, so people can't get on Baker today, since he's not running him back out there just to get the complete game shutout.

I hate to keep sounding like a Bowa defender, but now it's his fault that they've got Paul Abbot on the mound? In an impressive first inning, Zambrano had runners at the corners with no outs, wound up throwing over 30 pitches, but struck out the next three batters, thus giving up no runs.

At this point, there's no need to tamper with anything in regards to the Cardinals. With the best record in baseball, they don't seem to have any holes in their team, so any additions wouldn't seem necessary at this point.

No need to do so until the question's given a solution. None thus far. And considering how he's continued to pitch, it could be a while until we get one.

Dumb Fuck just became one of my favorite posters. I let it slide when I hear people say they "could care less," but it's pretty irritating, since what they're saying clearly isn't what they are trying to say.

Can we have this idiot banned? He seems hellbent on bringing up Pedro's performance in Game 7 last year every place possible. Just because no one else thinks your idiotic opinions are true doesn't make them "closet Red Sox fans." It's pretty bad when you can't even get AS to side with you on an anti-Boston argument. Jackass.

I couldn't help but feel a bit for Valentin, since you just had to know that error would come back to cost the team. After three nights of having to listen to Daron Sutton, I need a drink and a gun. I thought Chip Caray was a fanboy. My god.

Cubs look like trash tonight. Just when you think they're learning a bit about how not all of their runs have to come from the longball, you've got guys like Aramis Ramirez taking swings like he's got a golf club in his hand. Doesn't help that Kerry Wood gave up a two-run homer to BILL HALL, of all people.

Because his team can't score runs?

You know, I am convinced that it's a better idea to let Jason Schmidt pitch 130+ pitches and go the distance, instead of letting him go seven or eight and rely on the pen to actually nail it down. He went eight tonight, threw 123 pitches, struck out seven and only gave up two earned runs and at the moment, it's at risk of going to waste, as it's been narrowed to a two-run game, with two on in the ninth and nobody. They're already on their third reliever of the inning. People will bitch that Alou let Schmidt throw too many pitches, but they could've won the damn game by now. Of course, I care about this primarily because I've got Schmidt on my fantasy and a complete game would've helped out a lot. But it's still sad to see his great outings squandered by horrible relieve pitching.

He's senile, but he'd have to make you laugh to be considered that.

Cubs had me damning their season to hell for the first six innings of the game, but they actually came through for the final three. Matt Clement FINALLY gets a win, after a near two-month drought. He only got three runs of support, but it was enough, as Glendon Rusch was awesome and Hawkins pitched like I've expected him to do all season. The Cubs still have some issues to address here. Being that reliant on the homerun ball has hurt them heavily before and it almost did tonight. Luckily they were able to put a couple of hits and a walk together to produce the difference in the game. The Brewers announcers are annoying as hell most of the time, but they were right on the money by noting that few of the Cubs in the lineup aren't trying to hit it out of the park when they're up there. Corey Patterson, a guy with decent power, shouldn't be striking out and taking such swings as a number two hitter, for example. And what's with Rivera blowing a save against the BLUE JAYS? I needed that win for Vazquez for my fantasy team. Even after he blew it, I knew they'd win, which made it that much more annoying. I flipped by the Mets game just in time to see Franco get tossed, forcing them to bring in the lights-out Todd Zeile. I felt like I was watching some sort of celebrity game or something. As well as he hits those fastballs, Wily Mo Pena's weaknesses are becoming greatly exposed on the field, as he defensive blunders throughout the game basically cost them the game tonight. And what a bust this Pettitte signing has been. Tonight's game summed up the Astros 2004 nicely.

I'm in the minority here. I like Smith. Yes he's a loudmouth, but there's something highly entertaining about that. I guess it's no surprise that I'm also a Max Kellerman fan.

Fan-friendly Carlos Delgado just smacked a foul ball out of the glove of a fan's hand, obviously upset with him, as he thought he had a chance to catch it until the fan got in the way.

I get the feeling the Astros are going to remain buyers. They're back at .500 with their win yesterday and with a four-game set against the worst team in baseball, this week, they've got a good shot to get back in the WC hunt. Can't forget that despite their horrible record since June, this is still a talented club; there's really no reason they shouldn't be able to make at least one run at it.

Aside from the grammar thing (which is more or less true) and me not dancing much, everything else is pretty off. And please refrain from ever comparing me in any way to Sam Cassell.

I can understand that, but hard as it may be to end one big chapter of your education and having to go right into the next one, I think it's the right move in most cases. College isn't nearly as tough on you as high school, schedule-wise. Classes may be a bit tougher, but I found in my first year of college that unlike high school, class time was actually used constructively. I suppose that was because there was only a few hours collectively each week to get things done, whereas in high school, there was a lot of busy work to fill in the time gaps. The summer break is closer to four months, too, which is plenty of time to recharge the old batteries, IMO. Any more than that and you probably won't feel like going back. As I see it, being in school is a lot like when you're working hard and getting a lot of things done. The moment you stop, it's tough to get going again. The longer you wait, the tougher it gets. That's why I didn't fool myself with this year off bullshit. School hasn't usually been a delight for me, but I know that chances are, I'll need a degree to obtain a position in the field of work I want to pursue some day.

I didn't ask about your personal tastes in music. I'm not asking you to like hip-hop. But since you're not a fan and clearly have little knowledge in the area, you should probably lay off the slams or at least know what you're talking about before you go spouting off. Um, what? I guess I'm not getting your point here. Because someone buys a CD, they're a sheep? And for the record, I was talking about his FIRST album, not the album talked about in the article. What the hell are you talking about? I mentioned his previous success and how long he's been in the game because you were making it sound like he was some one-note, flash-in-the-pan schmuck. Excuse me for trying to inform you. I don't, buddy. Saying he's going to be yesterday's news when he's already a proven success and has a buzz that's only getting bigger (and not because of this stupid 9/11 line, either). Uh, yeah there is. But of course, people like you, who pigeon-hole hip-hop as being nothing but talk about guns, bitches and bling, all while sticking your fingers in your ears for fear of realizing you're wrong, won't see that. Why? Because you refuse to. Yeah, there's a lot of rap that focuses on those things, but not all of it does. And if you'd take the four minutes to actually listen to the track instead of bashing it from the outset, you'd realize it's actually a thoughtful track. That's fine if hip-hop's not your cup of tea, but you look like an ass when you're too stubborn to even listen to a particular song, yet insist on participating in a discussion about it.

No, of course not. Smokers are entitled to special rights, it would seem.

Reading that, I instantly thought about the episode of Seinfeld where Kramer turned his apartment into a smoker's lounge and wound up with bad teeth and crinkly skin after three days. Jerry summed it up nicely. "Your face looks like an old catcher's mitt."

What a rebuttal.

No, it's a horrible idea. I don't know how anyone could feel burned out after the easiness that is senior year, but maybe that's just because education in my school didn't exactly take a front seat in the grand scheme of things. I've known a lot of people who "take a year off" and believe me, the number of those who wind up going to school is very slim. When someone tells me that they're taking a year off, I take it as their way of saying "I'm going to lie low for a year and hope people don't realize I'm not going to school." I hated most of school, but figured I should do something after high school, if for nothing else than the slim security it provides if I go all the way through. Community college is just fine by me and I hate how it gets such a bum rap from so many people who think only idiots go there. It's quite false, actually, as I think there's an equal amount of intelligent people between community colleges and Universities. The only real difference is the latter pays a helluva lot more to get the college experience (aka living away from home, claiming you're on your end, but having the rents still foot the bill for everything). But I digress. The college life can be stressful, but I've found it a bit easier than high school, since you don't go to the same classes every day. I can say that if you do take a year off and wind up actually going to school, you're going to feel behind in comparison to your friends. My girlfriend took a semester off and only two years later is she feeling like she's caught up with where she should be, thanks to summer classes. It doesn't matter if you know what you wanna do with your life or not. Just go and at least take your basics. Gotta keep yourself busy and without school, you'll prolly just have some dead-end job and a lot of time to do nothing on your hands.

Ah, nothing like the completely uninformed. Not only do you come off as a sheep yourself, since you basically just echoed what had already been said, but you obviously don't know what you're talking about. Jadakiss isn't exactly some flash in the pan, bub. He's been around for a while and his debut album nearly went platinum. On top of that, he's dipped his fingers in a lot of other projects, showing up on a lot of other people's albums. So to say he's going to be yesterday's news by this time next year, when he's already a proven success, is stupid. And it's not like that's a focal point of the track, anyway. If you actually listen to the song, you'll see that a vast array of other topics are covered.