CanadianChris

Upper-level major league tickets. I like sitting in the upper deck, especially if you're somewhere behind home plate. What events would you add to or remove from NBA All-Star weekend?

Back to normal, then. It's only been recently where the Southeast winner has actually been good. It's just another reason I hate the way the league is set up. Let the division winners into the playoffs, but don't give them an advantage in seeding.

1) Fine. 2) Fine. 3) I'd support dropping waiver time to one day. 4) I'd be OK either way with minimum innings. 5) Excellent idea. 6) That's fine. 7) I'm OK with this. Maybe a hard deadline of November 30. I like the alternate idea, but we'd need to spell out under exactly what conditions someone can replace a keeper -- i.e. retirement, season-ending injury, or something else along those lines. 8) I like the 4/5 idea better than exactly 6. With such a large league, it can be hard sometimes to find six guys worth keeping. Using my team as an example, the only reason I kept Oliver Perez and Dmitri Young is because I needed a fifth and sixth guy that wouldn't cost me a high pick. If I had the choice, I would've only kept four, because they were really the only four worth keeping. 9) I would favour Option B out of all the options presented. I was also intrigued by thepinjockey's idea. I'm OK with the idea of keeping players past three years, as long as their value is adjusted somehow...it makes it seem a lot more realistic. A major league team wouldn't be signing Hanley Ramirez for the league minimum for the rest of his career, and that's not what should be happening in this league. 10) I would go with a hard cap on the number of years a player can be held at a particular draft value, regardless of his movement within the league. Same reasons as above.

My wife and I are going on a cruise through the southern Caribbean. We're stopping in the Dominican Republic, British Virgin Islands, Antigua, Barbados and St. Lucia. We arrive back in Miami just in time for us to see the Lakers beat the Heat.

Someone in the crowd holding up Hogan's half of the Ultimate Challenge sign at SkyDome for VI, then bringing it back for Hogan's match against The Rock at X-8, also at SkyDome. I loved that.

Alfie has singlehandedly ended the Senators' losing streak with a six-point night. EDIT: Make that seven. He's taken over the league scoring lead.

I like Krankor as commissioner already. I have some thoughts, which I'll get to by the weekend. One thing I just thought of -- when are we starting the draft? I'm going to be in the Caribbean from January 31 to February 11, and I'm going to need to know where I'm picking so I can start thinking of draft lists to submit before I go, as I'll have very limited internet access, if any.

Before anyone asks, no, no one had Heath Ledger.

Read the JFJ thing when I woke up this morning; when was Fletcher announced? Interim or full-time? Interim. They're looking for a long-term replacement. I'm going to disagree with Bob only in the sense that the real problem is with MLSE, which has no idea how to run a hockey franchise and yet insists on having final say on absolutely everything (and then takes forever to make a decision). They need to hire a GM who has final authority and then just get the hell out of the way.

I'll take a crack at this... OTTAWA SENATORS Forwards: B+. A+ for the top line which continues to be one of the best lines ever assembled. Still need more production from the second and third lines. Defence: A. Phillips not making the All-Star game was criminal, but somewhat expected when you consider that a blueliner's worth among people who hand out accolades is judged almost exclusively by how much he scores. Volchenkov was sorely missed when he was out of the lineup. The rest of the defencemen are having very good years. Goaltending: C. Gerber (2.61 GAA, .913 Sv%) was excellent at the start of the year, but has been pretty inconsistent since. The Emery extension may turn out to be an even bigger mistake than the Gerber signing, as Gerber at least doesn't have all the off-ice crap that Emery does, which could make Emery (2.83, .893) quite undesirable in the eyes of teams looking for goalie help. Coaching: B. John Paddock is an OK head coach, and really, you don't need to be much more than an OK head coach with this lineup. Overall: A. So far, so good. No more Capitals on the schedule is a bonus. The real test will be surviving without Heatley and possibly Alfredsson for a lengthy period. The other top-six forwards have to step up, and the goaltending situation needs to stabilize, to avoid giving ground to the other contenders in the East.

Well, JFJ is FINALLY gone. Cliff Fletcher is once again Leafs GM.

Coughlin is going to go for it on every fourth down until he gets within chip shot range. No way does Tynes get to kick anything longer than a 30-yarder.

Favre's going to drill an 80-yarder on the first play like he did against the Broncos.

Oof. That one looked like Vanderjagt against the Steelers.

Oh my God, that was almost another disaster.

1992 is head and shoulders above the rest, IMO. Besides, 2004 never happened.

Dude, just get down on the ground.

We now have a tie for first. Updated standings - January 19, 2008 (changes in red) 45 - Darthtiki, Vern Gagne

I don't know how it'll be this weekend, because a lot of poker players that might normally go to Turning Stone will probably be in the casinos in Ottawa and Montreal for the grand opening of their poker rooms. You should probably get pretty good action late on the weekend, though.

1999, and it wasn't really close for me, with the Russo booking and complete lack of star power. It badly exposed how thin the roster was under the very top guys. Plus, it looked like the crowd was just totally flat after the I Quit match.

Unless she'd been carrying it for 18 years, yes.

It has to be mid-90s Ken Griffey, Jr., doesn't it? At the height of his powers, he was one of the five best CFs ever. I can't think of a good question, so I'll go with something silly: What's your favourite commercial involving an athlete? (Mine is the McDonald's commercial with Larry Bird and Michael Jordan playing HORSE for MJ's Big Mac.)

You've obviously never played holdem at Turning Stone. Play tight aggressive and you'll get the money. Tipping -- Standard tip at a poker table is $1 for any pot of reasonable size, maybe $2 if it's a really big pot. Don't tip if you just stole a $5 pot. Always tip dealers in chips. Dealers rotate every half hour, and they keep their own tips, so don't wait until you leave to tip or one dealer's going to get it all. Tip the waitress $1 if you order a drink. Seating -- When you get to the poker room, talk to whoever takes care of seating for the games and ask him to put you down for whatever stakes you want to play. They'll call your name whenever a seat opens up. You're not allowed to just sit down in an empty seat at a poker table. Any other game, just sit down wherever there's space. You're not allowed to take money off the table playing poker unless you're getting up to leave. Also, you have to play $2 to the poker room before you even sit down at Turning Stone. They make you buy a "poker room membership" which is good for 24 hours. You're supposed to have this card on the table at all times, and you must have it when changing games or you have to pay up again. I can answer any other questions you might have.

Vern Mikkelsen of the Minneapolis Lakers, with 127 career DQs. How many majors will Tiger Woods win this year?

Al King