NYU

Spoken like a true jinx.

If the Met offense plays the next two games against the Phillies the way they did tonight, you're going to have an awful lot of Mets fans screaming the sky is falling come Monday morning. Me included.

And Niese is done already with no outs in the bottom of the fourth. What an unsatisfying start.

Ah, back in first place. All is right in the world for at least one day.

Great inning. But I just wish we weren't handing the ball to Pedro Feliciano AGAIN.

The major concern is whether they re-sign Delgado for next year or not. He's been very hot since the All Star Break essentially but does that make up for the past two years?

Okay yeah, this might be the bias talking -- in fact, I'm sure it is -- but Il Corleone, you're starting to bug me. Cut it out.

Oh, I completely agree. But this isn't a Johan Santana case where the starter had a stellar outing but the bullpen came in and ruined it for him. Pedro was just as awful as the pen tonight, if not more so. And then we have the offense that stranded nine runners on base, not scoring once after the fourth inning against a bullpen that, for all intents and purposes, is just as bad as theirs. Terrible baseball tonight all around. From all sides.

To be fair to the bullpen though, it was Pedro Martinez that took a 7-0 and gave up five earned runs in five innings. I'll just be glad once the season is over so we can finally unload him and quit pretending that 88 mph fastballs are good for a supposedly #2 pitcher to have. Good for the first year -- pretty much a disaster every one after.

If the Mets end up missing the playoffs this season, this is precisely the reason why the Wilpons need to take a long, hard look at Omar Minaya before giving him the green light for next year. To keep essentially the same bullpen that collapsed so brutally in 2007 is just mind-boggling. Coming into the 2008 season, the only bullpen change he really made was dumping Mota and acquiring Matt Wise -- what a stellar deal that was.

I don't think there's anything wrong with the movie. I just think that Warner Bros does not have a big release planned for next summer. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince was really the only film in their ranks that could be considered a guaranteed money maker for Summer 2009 so they felt they had to push it back to compete. It wouldn't look good for them to be making such tremendous money this summer with The Dark Knight and then fall off next year with nothing that could even come close to bringing in so many millions. Not saying I agree with them doing it so close to the release date -- because I don't -- but this looks like it was a strictly financial decision they made.

Yeah, that's frustrating. Eight months is a long time to push this movie back.

Christ, you're not one of those rabid Madden fans, are you? Yes, I see that Madden has tried to cater to the casual fan with the last few editions. But if you don't think this ability will be abused by players, think again. Every time an untimely fumble or interception happens -- and let's face it, that's part of the game, whether in real-life football or the video-game kind -- someone can simply decide "Oh okay, that never happened." Where is the challenge in being able to delete anything that just simply does not go your way? How does that make you a better player? It's bullshit coddling. You no longer have to face the challenge of stopping a late-game rally following a blown interception. You can just rewind it back to where you had it before and try the pass over. And if you fuck up that one too, hey why not, let's do it a third time. It's a terrible concept because it's not helping anybody become a better player. It's just guaranteeing that the person will win the game, whether by hook or crook. And yes, I am aware that the function can be turned off, but I just think it was a silly function to put in the game to begin with. I'm sure there will be countless arguments between players in the future where one wants to play with the rewind feature on, and the other one does not want to because they realize how poorly conceived the idea really is. Guess what...losing is not the worst thing in the world. It's part of the process. And surprise, surprise, people might also become better after losing a hard-fought game but knowing how to change what they did the second time around. Your attempts to be a smart-ass here were ill-based.

The Rewind option sounds like such a dumb concept. You shouldn't be able to just completely erase what happened on the previous play -- it's unbelievably cheap and goes against the entire fabric of Madden actually being a realistic football game. The idea seems more at home with Blitz.

From the New York Daily News: That's a shame. At the beginning, I was a huge fan of his TV show. RIP.

Like a lot of people, I'll remember him most for the Shaft theme song and playing Chef. It's a shame -- I always hoped he would be able to make up with Trey & Matt for some type of reunion. Either way, R.I.P. As we all know, these things happen in threes. And right now, the trio theme seems to be chubby black guys. So it could either be James Earl Jones or Mo'Nique that gets it tomorrow.

I love Jericholic. I really hate Jericholic with a passion.

"She's the most beautiful woman in the world, but she wears glasses, because she's the smartest too." might be my favorite quote in the script but I also really liked "Every time BATMAN is about to crash into a civilian, the camera enters ultra slow motion and we see him barely squeeze by, frame by frame. This happens seventeen times."

It was also used in the movie "21", which might be why the expression is being used more nowadays.

Aaron Heilman needs to be run out of Queens tonight by a mob with pitchforks. Jerry Manuel needs to go with somebody else -- ANYBODY else -- to cover for Wagner while he's gone. Go with Eddie Kunz if it's necessary. It's better to go with an unproven player than a proven failure.

Season 3 would have sucked, whether it ran the full season or not.

So Smartly Pretty, should I assume my advice was helpful or just move on?

That god damn Billy Wagner. I'm waiting for Bruiser to come in and be a smartass. Besides the 0.00 ERA he had through April, Wagner has been a complete and total disappointment this season.

Had the same problem with my old Verizon phone. As OldSchoolWrestling posted, it's from water moisture. I'm not sure if this will work for you but it worked for me everytime. Just take a hair dryer and lightly blow the steam into the open phone slot where you plug in the charger for several minutes. It should hopefully dry up all the remaining water and have it working again. Be careful not to keep the dryer too close to the phone and risk short-circuiting something, but this was a wonder cure I don't see floating around the internet nearly as much as it should.

Chris, this is where your theory falters. Visibility IS fame. The more visible you are to the public, the more famous you are as well. Conversely, the less visible you make yourself to the public negatively affects your fame status as well. Dave Thomas is indeed more famous than Al Copeland because he starred in his own commercials. If Copeland can be considered a celebrity because he founded Popeye's Chicken, then where do we draw the line? Are all company founders now considered celebrities? What about inventors? Hey, Art Fry invented Post-Its. Is he a valid selection next year? There are modicums of fame, and Dave Thomas is indeed more famous than Copeland. Just as Warren Buffett is indeed more famous than JR Simplot. Considering perhaps 90-95% of the board had probably never heard of Simplot before, could he fairly and objectively be considered a celebrity? Well, that's what the panel would decide. This is your contest and if you don't support the idea of regulating it a little more tightly next year, then there's not much I can do. I respect your opinion but still, it doesn't change mine.