Bruiser Chong

AoO's gonna have to quit his job to finish this.

What just happened is exactly why I can't ever understand why AS gets so bent out of shape about anything before the full nine innings have been played. Even if they don't come back, it shows that they've got the ability to come close or get the job done other times. Not many teams can say that.

It's not blind positivity. Believe it or not, both teams aren't that far apart in terms of quality, so it's only natural that neither one get the definite upperhand in the year-long series.

And they say soccer isn't a manly sport.

You might get hit by a car, though. I've never smoked in my life, but that's mainly because the smell it leaves everywhere you go, what it does to your voice, appearance and body, have been enough to kill any interest I ever had of even trying. Surely most regular smokers do it because they're addicted, like it, or both, but I know a lot of people who seem to do it just because of the image it conveys.

Given our history and my general attitude on this board outside of the sports folder, I can only imagine what AoO has to say about me. That's enough to pique my interest. Go for it.

Nah, you mean it's time for Hawkins to blow the game. I love him as an addition to the club in the set-up man role, but he's awful when it comes to the ninth inning. I figured they were going to win, so I'm just happy that they didn't get no-hit and made things interesting for a bit there. Remember, though, it would've just been a tied game at 3-3 if Sosa had been able to get the job done and get a hit in the 9th.

I LOVE Doug Glanville. Poor guy. He should probably have bodyguards on his way out of the stadium today. Bowa should've pulled Milton after the no-no went by the boards, though.

The eighth was probably the Cubs' last real good chance to break it up and they didn't, so it's looking almost like a sure thing that Milton's going to get the no-no. My hat's off to him, but this is a pretty embarrassing thing to happen to a team that's supposed to be so sharp offensively. But like I said before, they're really nothing without the longball.

Oh my god, the Cubs are going to be no-hit. You know it's serious when I'm just hoping they can get ONE hit in the game.

I would just like to be the first one to put the jinx on Eric Milton's no-hitter. He's through five and making the Cubs look like morons with some of the swings they're getting. Even though it's 1-0 so far, it's starting to look like them not being able to beat Abbott yesterday may have cost them a chance to win the series.

Because if you actually think people should share your opinion, just saying that you like it isn't going to change a god damn thing. You need to give some reasons. You may just say that you're saying what you like and not trying to change anyone's mind, but I can see this becoming like the Spider-Man thread, where you just say the same thing over and over, never really listening or taking in what anyone else says.

Um yeah, I guess you could say that. Or you could say that he was staring out at the pitcher as he walked to first before he started yelling "Fuck you" at him. Yup, all he was doing was taking his base, all right. Of course, I'd expect that sort of perspective from a band-aid.

Why can't Yankee fans entertain the idea that A-Rod, like the rest of his teammates, have become so captivated by this bitter rivalry that they'll blow every single thing out of proportion just to add another chapter to it? I won't lie, I found the brawl to be entertaining, but this shit gets old. Pitchers hit batters from time to time. It happens. Yet, it seems that everytime it happens when these two are involved, people like to think it certainly means it was on purpose. If you ask me, it looked like A-Rod was just getting caught up in it all and was looking for a fight. It wasn't as if the Yanks had just scored or done something that would suggest the beaming was on purpose. Who the hell cares how calm A-Rod usually is? So is David Ortiz and look what happened with him last week. There are occassions in which even the most sensible guys have their moments of pure rage. I think today was one for A-Rod. And Drury, please stop posting. You've gotta be one of the most annoying people in these threads. At least Anglesault conveys a sense of knowledge when it comes to the Yankees and their history. I see your posts and they just scream bandwagon fan. I didn't see anyone really gloating about the Sox winning; so get the stick out of your ass; grow some thicker skin and please, remove this site from your bookmarks. For the sake of us all.

I'm a bit concerned that out of the last 26 runs the Cubs have scored, only THREE of them haven't been tied to the homerun ball. I guess I shouldn't complain, since a couple of weeks ago, it looked like they weren't going to score that much in a month's time, but you take out the homerun and they're right back to scoring next to nothing. I'd much rather see guys get key hits with runners one consistently, with the occassional homerun thrown in there. But whatever. The Cubs are a homerun team, so it's not a complete shock. I am too worried about Zambrano. He just seems to be losing it lately. He's always been firey, but as of late, he's just all over the place. Couldn't be easy to deal with the fact that had he not balked in the first or given up a base hit to the pitcher, they would've won fairly easily.

Because who the hell wants to wade through discussion about basketball, football, hockey, soccer, rugby, chess and hop-scotch, if they only want to discuss baseball? It's this thing called aging. Not everyone is Barry Bonds and gets better with age. Most deteriorate, just as Jason's doing. It's only natural.

I was actually thinking about starting something like this up after the other thread popped up. For the Cubs, it'd be Paul Bako, Ramon Martinez and either Alex Gonzalez or Kent Mercker. Bako's horrible offensively. Defense is one thing, but I think it's a waste to have a guy around if he can't hit. You may save some runs with good defense, but chances are, you'll eventually cost your team as many or more runs when you can't come through offensively. Martinez is an okay utility player, but he's only around because he's one of Dusty's boys. He seems like a nice guy, but his bat is quite weak. Gonzo's great with the glove, but he's too inconsistent with the bat. Mercker just doesn't seem like he was a good pick-up. He struggles a lot, which isn't good for a guy who's basically supposed to be a left-handed specialist. Overall, I guess the only guy I think they REALLY need to drop is Bako, but they've got quite a few older guys who simply drag them down more times than they help.

Because they want to tease us by letting us watch the first couple innings of the Cubs/Phillies game before they send us to the Sox/Yanks game. Sucks we can't get a choice of which game we see. I'm pretty worn out on this whole "my dick is bigger than yours" rivalry the entire nation has to watch 20 times a year.

Even though he made his debut under a Spider-Man title, I've always considered Kingpin to be more of member of the small Daredevil Rogues Gallery, than Spidey's. And MiB mentioned Kraven as one of the few good Spidey villains. Chalk me up for Batman's Rogues Gallery. It's not just that they're deeper character-wise or that they're basically all tragic figures; it's that for the most part, their individual stories are unique. I was a fan of Spidey's Rogues Gallery, but thought that too many of the top villains shared a similar story on how they came to be. And Dama, you may have some of the worst reasoning skills I've ever seen around here. To each their own, but your reasoning rarely seems to go much further than "I like it."

Correct, Mr. Hoffman. Who'd be the token black teacher?

I think his AIM screen name's worse.

No, what's fucking hilarious is that you can't spell ESPN right, unless you're in fact NOT ripping off Cheap Seats, and instead referring to some entity of which I bear no knowledge. Agreed. Ban Plz. Thanks.

Nope. Urbina isn't available according to the Tigers; Smoltz definitely isn't now that the Braves have put it all together and are in first and any other team that has a formidle closer seems to believe they're still in a race. I'd say another bat is needed, but a closer is needed more. No one's on the market, but that doesn't take away from the fact that the spot's pretty shakey for the Cubs. The rest of the pen isn't perfect, but they've shown on many occassions that they can hold the other team off.

I was going to post the exact same thing. It's odd that all the talk in regards to Pirates pitching is about Kris Benson, when I've been more impressed with Perez. Calling the Sox' season over is pretty foolish, since they'll still be contenders for the WC. They won't catch the Yanks, but they may slide in for the fourth AL postseason spot. Since the game wasn't on here, from the sounds of it, the Phillies left quite a few guys on base tonight. And not to jinx the Cubs or anything, but without Thome there, the Phillies' lineup isn't nearly as intimidating. Here's to hoping he takes the rest of the weekend off. I also just noticed that the D-Backs dropped another one (with my boy Castilla getting two two-run jacks). They've lost 12 in a row; just one of many long losing streaks this team has had. Forget the Expos; this is the most pathetic team in baseball.

I don't know what the deal is with MLB Extra Innings and Phillies games, but they rarely carry them. Of course, I only complain about this now that I realize that I can't watch the Cubs play tonight, since the game's not on WGN and MLB Extra Innings isn't carrying it, either.