CanadianChris

7-yard punt. Whoops. Bucs looking good to get the first score.

Quitcher bitchin'. I turned 29 3 weeks ago and no one said a word to me...but you didn't see me whining about it. Dammit. *slaps forehead*

And that year would be...? Hm. I was right the first time I wrote it. That's what I get for checking my facts...the page I checked was wrong.

First of all, teams CAN'T make as much as they want. There are certain places where you just will not make the kind of money the Yankees make. Hence, you can't spend the kind of money the Yankees spend. Sure, the Yankees haven't won the last two years, but they've made the playoffs every year but one since the strike. The Yankees and Braves have combined for 18 division titles since 1991, and it's not because of luck. Second, teams which have more money to spend do better in the playoffs do better for one reason...DEPTH. They have the money to throw around for good spare parts when the time comes. They can rest their players more frequently, which means they'll be fresher in the playoffs than lower-payroll clubs, who have less-talented bench players, and have to ride their starters for all they're worth just to get to the postseason. Finally, why is a free-market system a good thing? This isn't the real world, where only the strong survive, and you need to compete to stay alive. The Yankees and Braves NEED teams like the Royals and Pirates in the league, and they need them to be competitive to maximize business. They're not trying to force them out of business, because pretty soon there'd be no one left to play! What's the best league in North American sports? The NFL. Why? Because they have complete revenue sharing and a salary cap. There's no squabbling over salaries, or one team having the means to spend more than another because of where they happen to be located. As a result, every franchise is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and the league will be viable for decades to come. Teams succeed or fail based on the talent in the front office and on the sidelines, as it should be, rather than being able to sign away a team's best players because they can no longer afford them. MLB cannot sustain itself in the long term with revenue sharing and some kind of meaningful drag on salaries.

He wanted to sign a player they had no use for just so another team couldn't have him? I wish I could be that careless with MY money. This is why MLB fans are screaming for an NFL-style salary cap. Fuck the salary cap. The Yankees haven't won the last two years. There's no competitive balance problem in baseball. All the salary cap does is rob teams of any kind of identity. What kind of identity do they have now? Salary caps don't guarantee player movement; free agency does. And there IS a competitive balance problem when ZERO teams in the bottom half of MLB teams in payroll have even made it to the World Series since the strike, and I'm pretty sure you could count the number of playoff series they've won in that time on one hand, and still have fingers left over. Spending doesn't guarantee you'll win it all, but NOT spending guarantees you won't.

Best matchup of the week. Someone gets 11 and loses.

Well, that was a shitty call. But still...YEAHBABY!

No, that's pretty good...although I enjoyed the Jesse Ventura commercial for Superpages(?).

Joe Nedney is out of the Titans/Raiders game with a knee injury. The Titans are now without a place kicker.

8 penalties for 83 yards. That would be a mediocre-to-poor game for most teams. Oakland did that in the first QUARTER.

Well, shit.

Not so fast - you have 8 wins, and I have 7. The Titans/Raiders game looks to decide the winner. PLEASE tell me you have the Titans, Spiff. I don't want his bad taunting karma to interfere with my picks.

Irvin and Boomer are out as well. They both went for the easy pick -- the Dolphins.

Mine was a joke, incidentally. You should NOT be able to change any games after kickoff of the first one, particularly if you're in the head to head contest. It would allow you to change from a situation where you could lose to one where you must win, because you know how you're doing relative to your opponent.

The Niners game is a slaughter. They should get to 50 easily. Bears are as horrible as I figured they'd be.

OK, just to balance things out, I'm going to change to the Eagles.

What a catch by Robinson! Goes up to get the ball, bounces off 2 tacklers as he comes down, and takes off for the end zone. 14-3 Seahawks.

We only differed on the Redskins (yours), Lions (mine) and Bucs/Eagles. I have the tiebreaker (4-7) but it doesn't matter, since we can't tie.

As am I...if I'm not mistaken, our match comes down to the Monday night game.

Geez, I've seen double posting before, but never a double thread-starter. And with WWE trying to control every little reaction to get what they think should be a correct response, it can NEVER happen. Austin was someone who got a completely unforeseen response, and Vince had no choice but to put him on top. It can't happen now.

Oh my GOD. Michael Bolton is singing America The Beautiful before the men's final. Worst. Decision. EVER.

The offence choked in the fourth, from what the CBS guys are saying. Fiedler threw a pick that got turned into a score.

It's over! Texans beat the Dolphins, 21-20!

Houston LEADS Miami 21-20, 25 secs left.