Styles

No offense meant, but you're obviously ignorant of the O's rotation (and that's ok, I a lot of the mainstream is, but you all will soon learn!). We have 3 former first round picks, 3 lefties and all under 27. Most people in the know following the Orioles consider Ponson probably at most the 3rd most talented. Ainsworth, who he was traded for is a can't miss prospect. This guy will be our ace, maybe by the end of the year. Dubose had a an arm injury that kept him out 2 years ago but he was our top pitcher at the end of last season but is probably the most hit or miss of them all, but he was a first roung pick by Oakland who has an eye for talent. Riley was brought up when he was only 20 by Hargrove and nearly had his career ruined, he's back now still at a young 24 and was picked by ESPN.com as one of the suprises for this year. He's a HARD throwing lefty. And then Bedard, who hasn't pitched above AA might be the best of the bunch, and made the rotation based on his flat out awesome performance in the Spring (2-0, 2.04 ERA) and was Gammons third pick for rookie of the year. You might not have heard of many of these guys, but you will. We will be the new Oakland, with young phenoms leading our staff. 3 young lefties? Who else has that in the AL (especially east?) No body! Oh, yeah and Ponson's pretty good too!

What an awesome openeing night! That felt like a playoff game. The O's WILL earn respect. New team slogan painted on the clubhouse is: "Got to find a way". And we will! Bold Prediction that I will get flamed for, but I don't care. If I'm right, I'll have my vindication, if I'm wrong, oh well it was a risky prediction, I was wrong. The Red Sox will be a huge disappointment, and will miss the playoffs. In fact the Orioles will finish second, the Red Sox will finish 3rd. Flame me, I don't care, that's my prediction. I will be at game 2 on Tuesday at Camden Yards. Go O's!

But, it's like would it kill them to throw Couture/Belfort or Sylvia/Arlovski on 48's card just to give that extra incentive to order besides Ken Shamrock and Kimo which is a pretty fringe main event to me...

Gladly marches troops into vaccant territories of France and Spain, expanding the British Empire... ...Wait, we're playing, Risk, right?

Are you declaring secession?! Because if you are... shakes fist I'll send THIS GUY after you:

That has to be the most outrageous suggestion I have heard in a long while. Israel took the Palestinian's land because the Palestinian Government couldn't conrtol their own people from carrying out terrorist attacks on Israel. Israel has always been at war with someone though... As far as Bush attacking Iraq, that happened long after 9/11. If your referring to Bush Sr. that attack on Iraq was even more justified as Iraq was trying to overrun Kuwait, and Kuwait pleaded for help. THAT whole operation was a U.N. supported one though. Agree with the current occupation of Iraq or not, ousting Sadamn was something that needed to be done a long ass time ago. Finally, if these folks are fighting for religous purposes, since when does ramming planes into buildings equal peace? There is no excues for crap like that, religious or not, so please don't sympathize. pssstt.....APRIL FOOLS! Hint: Every post in this folder made on April 1 is not to be taken seriously as we all took on inflated, characature versions of our OPPOSITE views. I LIKE Israel, a lot. You should have seen my sig with "Bleeding Heart Liberal" and Nazi style Blood For Oil: GOP sign, and Bush saluting the Israeli flag in my avatar with ("Is there a conspiracy?" under it?) Oh, AND your suggestion that Israel TOOK Palestinian land calls in fact for another http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/myths/index.html Myth and Fact Of The Day! BONUS Myth and Fact!!!

Main Event Bradshaw...you know it's funny, a couple years ago after the first brand split and they made Bradshaw Austin's buddy and he was working RAW main events, my friend and I were discussing ways to make it work. We came up with the gimmick "Main Event Bradshaw". Basically Bradshaw would turn heel and be dellusional about his standing in the company. He'd refer to himself as "Main Event Bradshaw" and do backstage sketches where he introduces himself to people like The Undertaker and The Rock as a "locker room veteran" and in interviews talks about all the money he's made in all the year's on top. Of course, the joke would be he's the same old midcarder and preferably gets squashed most of the time, but he's dillusional. The fact that it's kind of come to fruition (albeit with the financial broker gimmick) and the fact that he actually IS main eventing takes away the humor or irony and is not so good.

Prepared to be supressed, bi-atch!

WOW! What an awesome show. Kyle/Simms: Simms is the fucking man for taking this fight on 1 day's notice, and staying in there for most of the first round. He nearly had him a couple times with those head and arm chokes (Im sure there's another name for it, but that's my analysis). Knockout combination was sick and was like Wanderlei Silva with the knees and then the knockout punch. That bite mark was glaring though, and Kyle loses some cred for that, that's just low. It was nice to see the crowd totally behind Simms after the fight and booing Kyle. Simms is turning into an Austin like anti-hero on UFC, just a fucking badass who will fight anyone, doesn't care about the rules and plays to the crowd constantly. Now, he just needs to win 1! Diaz/Lawler: Match of the night here! Diaz was totally feeling it here. I was marking out big time for his taunting and "Bring it on" mentality. Both guys were just throwing bombs at each other, a total slugfest, it was just the question of who would go down first. I expected like everyone else for Diaz to take it to the ground, but he never did so it was even cooler. Knockout shot was right on the chin and Lawler dropped like he was doing a Flair Flop! Arlovski/Cabbage: Oh god, is Cabbage a beast or what? I couldn't believe how he just took those barrage of shots from Arlovski and then would just back out slowly and stalk him like nothing had happened. It was like the Terminator, or old school Undertaker. Arlovski had this "oh shit, now what?" look on his face. I would have liked to have seen if Cabbage could have continued after the knockdown, but I guess he wasn't complain about it so it's all good. Second best match of the night here. So, any chance Arlovski/Sylvia happens at UFC 48? They both trained for each other tonight and would have a couple months to retrain, could it happen? I don't understand why it takes so damn long in UFC to put matches together. It's like they avoid having more than 1 "main event" match per show if they can help it. I don't know why... Edwards/Franca: Probably the "slowest" fight of the night and certainly the longest. But it provided a different pace than the previous slugfests. Franca's kicks and takedowns are just crazy. I would have given it to Franca since he seemed to be on offense more and trying for the submissions while Edwards seemed to be on the defensive and just reacting most of the time. Hopefully both of these guys will be back. Lytle/Tiki: I guess this wasn't a prelim afterall. Another straight up slugfest basically. I find it funny that Lytle got the tapout on basically a side headlock when in wrestling a move like that is just a rest/transition spot. Decent filler match. Now, I was watching this show on tape, but because of a power outage the VCR used was set to SP mode, meaning that the tape cut off after this match! GASP! Luckily, I called the cable company and stretched the truth saying the show itself cut off, so Im being comped the replay tonight, and hopefullY I'll get the tape in a couple days. But no way I was waiting until then to see the main event. A quick visit to the internet and within seconds I had the main event on my hardrive! Liddel/Ortiz: OH YEAHHHH! I called a second round knockout by Chuck, and I was right. I had no doubt that Chuck would knock Tito out. Tito had been running his mouth while Chuck remained calm. You just knew he was prepared and that Tito was being talkative to compensate for his still existing anxieties. First round there wasn't any action until the last few seconds when Chuck landed a flurry including a high kick. I knew Tito was in trouble at that point. Second round was just beautiful as Chuck got in a few good ones, Tito covered up, Chuck smelled blood and just went to town on Tito's pretty face. To the guy who thought it might have been faked PUH-LEAZE. Chuck's punching power is immense and a gash was opened up on Tito's face. Joe Rogan was even commentating that Chuck screwed up Tito's face. And yeah Randy Couture was awesome on commentary here, bragging in such a matter of fact way! I was happy to see Chuck shut Tito up for good. I don't see why the fans were chanting for Tito though. He's more like a cowardly heel rather than someone like Wes Simms who's a badass heel. Anyway, Chuck will get the winner of Randy/Vitor (why couldn't THAT match happen at UFC 48? It's like they could have a freakin supercard in June if they wanted to, but I guess unlike Pride they like to have 1 match get all the attention. Is that it?) As for Sudo/Brown I didn't see it because of previously mentioned tape problem, but I'll check it out as soon as I get my tape of the replay. Big thumbs up for UFC 47, nonstop action from start to stop, some great knockouts and a really satisfying finish. Shamrock/Kimo? I might need to be sold on that one though...

Well this is all over the Fa(ux)ir and Balanced Network, and its a pretty strange case. Should be interesting to hear what's found out... http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,115770,00.html

May I throw my reccomendation for MLB 2005 for PS2? Now, before you say I'm crazy hear me out because this game is so much better than it's past versions and I feel just as good as MVP. I rented both MVP and MLB 2005. They are both very good games. In the end I decided to buy MLB. It was 10 dollars cheaper, had more updated rosters and more deep franchise mode. Plus the gameplay is less of a hassle. It's very similar to the High Heat engine if those of you are familiar with that. Pitching still takes skill since pitches won't always break where you aim them, and hitting is timing and zone based (plus hot and cold zones change over the course of a season which is really cool I think). Plus for sim freaks, all the stat tracking and career tracking that's largely absent in MVP is avaliable in MLB. The franchise mode as I mentioned is incredibily detailed, you literally control everything. Take out loans, and update facilities, down to setting the pricing of the hotdogs and beer. There's also a cool career mode where you create a player, start off in Spring Training, try to meet some goals and make the team. There is also a standard season mode for those of you that just want to play through a season without the hassle of running a franchise (which is not avaliable in MVP). For those of you skeptical, since it's no secret that MLB series has been really bad in recent years, it's been totally revamped this year. The graphics I think are nicer than MVP too which are a little cartoony (MLB's faces I think look much more realistic). Anyway, this is not to say MVP is a bad game, because obviously it's very good too. But it's game controls are a little too convoluted at times, the slowness of the outfielders and amount of triples and inside the parkers attained by the computer is frustrating and the roster's are the most out of date (granted you can update them) and stat tracking is basically non existant. I think it's cool though that MVP has the real minor league teams in them though, and its fun to sim through your franchise and control your minor league rosters too (although most are made up players). If you really like control, MVP has gameplay sliders and you control the players right down to how they slide and how effective a pitch will be (although I find these options a little tedious). Anyway, both are really good games I think. It just depends on what you like. I will say if you were a fan of the High Heat series, give MLB a shot. Plus, it's 10 bucks cheaper than MVP (as are ESPN and All Star which both have yet to be released and haven't gotten as glowing reviews as the other 2). Here's a really excellent review for MLB 2005 for those on the fence (hint: he's an O's fan too!): http://www.nlgaming.com/nl/asp/id_871/nl/reviewDisp.htm and just for parity, here's one from the same guy for MVP 2004: http://www.nlgaming.com/nl/asp/id_871/nl/reviewDisp.htm I will also include my own quick comparisons: Pitching: MVP. The 2 bar system is actually really cool and makes you feel very in control, but MLB's pitching system is good too and as I mentioned you need to know how the pitches break to be effective. Hitting: MLB. Maybe it's just me but I had a hell of a tough time figuring out the hitting in MVP, it just felt so random. MLB is great because there are 3 disctict levels to hitting. Rookie is just timing based, simple. You also use the right stick to influence grounders or fly balls. Veteran adds zone guessing where you have to guess inside, out, up, down, etc. And on All Star you need to actually guess the pitch being thrown too. Easy to pick up from the start and high learning curve. Fielding: MLB. This is a big edge for me. The outfielders in MVP are SO SLOW. I couldn't reach anything which led to tons of triples and inside the parkers for the computer. Relaly frustrating. I know there are slider adjustments but that didn't make much of a difference to me. Plus, double plays and infielding in general are so much smoother in MLB since you don't need to hold down to fill up a bar to throw. This led to a brief delay in MVP which led to many runners beating out infield hits or double plays nearly impossible. Game Mode: MLB. This is a close one though. I really love MVP's dynasty mode and playing with the minor league teams is really fun, but MLB simply offers more. There's a regular season mode in case you just want to play and not worry about front office moves which MVP doesn't have. There's a regular homerun derby too which is still fun, while MVP has the much less fun version where there's a split screen and you have to "races" with another batter. Yuck. Also, the Franchise mode is just incredibily, deep to the point of being anal. You control every little detail. I've heard reviewes say its deeper than Madden (not a football fan so I don't know what that means, but for those of you who that means something to, there you go.) Also Career mode is really fun. I don't have an eye toy, but if you do, you can put your face on your created player which sounds like fun. Its a really unique mode and you've got to produce every day so you don't get benched, or worse released, and of course gain some leverage come contract time. Customability: MVP. Got to give the big edge to MVP here. Since it has adjustable gameplay sliders, while MLB does not. Also in MVP you can edit players which you can't in MLB. MLB, does thought have the most updated rosters with Arod, Maddux, etc. all on the right teams and everyone has updated player pics with their correct team hats, so there. Stat Tracking: MLB. No contest here, there's career tracking and every little sim freak stat is viewable. MVP doesn't have much in that regard. Graphics: MLB. I'm serious, this game has some of the most realistic player models I've ever seen. The faces for a lot of the players look spot on. MVP's graphics are good too, but they're a little cartoony and less realistic in my opinion. Sound: MVP. I'll give this to them, MVP creates an awesome stadium experience with unique fan interactions, etc. My favorite part was playing a minor league game which had totally different crowd accoustics (more quiet, with a small smatterings of applauses, and you can more clearly hear fan conversations, really cool atmosphere. Price: MLB. Hey it's 39.99 instead of 49.99 go to give it that (in fact both All Star and ESPN will have the 39.99 price tag too.) So overall those are my long winded opinions. I just wanted to spread the word about MLB which is a very good game that I think more people shoudl try. Next year I with more improvements I would bet it becomes the undisputed top baseball game.

I get the UK! Just try to invade us bitches, many have tried, all have failed.

Slapnuts!:

Typical cowardly European reaction: stick fingers in ears LALALALALALA....come on, they're just Jews....

Tyler, I'm disappointed I never got to hear April Fools Tyler's opinion on Dean.

Well, don't we feel special for wasting time on this? I agree I feel really bad for anyone who truly is abducted because less concern might be exhibited. So, should she be punished? Counceling? Time Out? Death Penalty?

Nice preview RRR! I too see Chuck getting a second round knockout. I'm really interested to see this Cabbage guy fight now, as he doesn't look like anything good but you made him sound like a beast. Im getting my tape tommorow so I'll watch/give my thoughts then. Until then I'll hibernate away from the board for a day to avoid results. Enjoy the show!

So is this an April Fools or not? If it isn't I want to hear an audio clip!

That's the last time the smartmarks Current Events crew goes partying at your house, KKK. Like, whoa.

This can't stand! Just one more step towards overturning Roe v. Wade and god (lower case, not referring to any one denomination, just a figure of speech) knows what else! Not only are we now defining a fetus as a person, but we're also further harshening sentencing. Now, not that I agree with murder, especially of a pregnant woman, that's not cool, but still, this is just a way to further opress the opressed by convicting them of more crimes that are only defined by the "President's" religious views to begin with! Unbelievable! [

Did someone say INVASION? We can have this guy lead it! So what do you guys think? Not so good, eh?

From: The #1 MST3K Mark Title: WEBSITE HELP!!!!!, Aug 5 2002, 10:26 PM Hey how are you? This is Scott Keith's Biggest Fan from the Smart Marks board. I have created my own website at http://www.angelfire.com/wrestling3/wrestl...olic/Page1.html and need help with it. So, I need ppv reviewers and column writers. Wanna be one of those? Please respond back ASAP. Thanks ..... Facsinating.

gasp It's Friday! runs to check Wrestlecrap

Holy shit, Mullato that's one of the funniest sigs I've seen in a while. I mark for Fifitude!

Gotta love it! Most haven't heard of our pitchers now, but by season's end they will! I have no doubt most will deliver, my concern is longevity. The scary thing is that Dubose, Riley and Bedard are all coming off arm surgeries in the past 2 years, and certainly haven't ever pitched the amount of innings they'll be expected to pitch this season. By August, I see at least Bedard and maybe Riley being shut down, hopefully to preserve them and not because they burn out or reinjure their arms! As much as I think Rodrigo Lopez deserved a rotation spot based on a good Spring and basically carrying our asses 2 years ago, I think this is bold move by Mazzilli. He said the best 25 would go on, no ifs ands or buts and no one looked better than Bedard. This is the type of decision Mike Hargrove would have never had the balls to make (no offense to Grover but he was way too complacent and veteran partial as nice a guy as he is). The backup catcher decision in picking Osik over Gil (although much more minor) is another good example. Season starts this Sunday! Then I'm going to game 2 on Tuesday (Opening "Day"). I can't wait! Go O's!