CanadianChris

Has anyone been to NHL.com's stats page? If you go there, they list the top 5 for points, goals, assists, and plus-minus...but I shit you not, the heading for the plus-minus leaders is, "BUD LIGHT PLUS/MINUS." That's...yeah. I mean, did NHL.com not have the money to put the plus-minus on their website unless it was sponsored? Did Anheuser-Busch think the plus-minus standing was the best use of sponsorship dollars? Is it more viewed than any of the other stats? Was a study done? Why no sponsorship on goals? Very, very strange.

Geez, Vermeil should never have been let on the air. I can barely hear him most of the time.

Dick Vermeil with a bad voice, and Bryant Gumbel with a good voice. Not a good combination.

Wrong thread.

First off: http://forums.thesmartmarks.com/index.php?showtopic=76257 The spread is the number of points that are subtracted from the favourite's score or added to the underdog's score to make bets on either team more even. An example: For the BCS championship game, if you bet on Florida, you add 7.5 points to Florida's score, and if Florida has more points than Ohio State after doing that, you win your bet. So, if the final score is 23-17 Ohio State, any bets on Florida would win (because they only lost by 6, less than 7.5), while if the final score is 33-17 Ohio State, any bets on Florida would lose (because they lost by 16, more than 7.5).

There's no pitching to be had, except for Zito, and he's not about to come to Toronto. I would re-sign Wells before going after any of this year's free agents.

I kept expecting Pitt to make the big run in the second half. Doesn't look like it's going to come.

I don't think it's that big a deal. Two or three times a season is nothing compared to the 30-40 times it probably happened without point spreads (at least) . Sometimes people are just going to agree on everything -- there's no much you can do about it.

It's that time of year again. I'm making some changes to the pool this time around. More points for originality and guts! Here are the rules: Pick any 20 celebrities who you think will die between January 1, 2007 and December 31, 2007. I will be the sole arbiter on who is a celebrity and who isn't. The main rule -- if a major news organization reports on someone's death, that person is generally considered a celebrity, although there may be exceptions. You may designate any ONE celebrity as a BEST BET. Points will be allocated as follows: - Each dead celebrity is worth 10 points. - If a dead person on your list appears on less that half of all entries to the contest (16 or fewer), 10 bonus points are awarded. - If a dead person on your list appears on less than a quarter of all entries to the contest (8 or fewer), 20 bonus points are awarded. - If a dead person appears in your list and no one else's, 40 bonus points are awarded. - Age bonus: If a person on your list dies before the age of 65, all points are doubled. If a person on your list dies before the age of 50, all points are tripled. If a person on your list dies after the age of 90, all points are halved. - If your BEST BET dies during the year, ALL points for that person (base + creativity + age) are DOUBLED. - Whoever has the most points at the end of the year will be the winner. In case of a tie, whoever had the most people on their list die will win. In case of a further tie, whoever has the lowest total age of all dead people on their list will win. Deadline for submissions is December 31, 2006. No exceptions. Once you post your list, it is final, except if someone on your list dies before January 1, in which case you may post a replacement. Good luck to everyone!

The Vernon Wells extension is done: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2698288 It's a really back-loaded contract. Aside from a $25.5 million signing bonus paid in installments starting in 2008, he'll get only $500,000 in '08 and $1.5 million in '09 before the big money kicks in -- $12.5 million in 2010, $23 million in 2011 and $21 million the last three years. He also has an option to become a free agent after 2011.

Didn't they threaten to move already and nobody cared? Speaking of Pittsburgh, Crosby has four more points tonight. He's on pace for over 100 assists and 150 points.

They're not good enough to string three straight wins together. Then again, hardly anyone in the NFC is right now.

Sure, what the hell. Florida (+7.5) vs. Ohio State - BCS Championship Game - Jan. 8 (32 pts.) Michigan (+.5) vs. USC - Rose Bowl - Jan. 1 (31) Boise State (+7.5) vs. Oklahoma - Fiesta Bowl - Jan. 1 (30) Wake Forest (+9.5) vs. Louisville - Orange Bowl - Jan. 2 (29) Notre Dame (+8.5) vs. LSU - Sugar Bowl - Jan. 3 (28) Wisconsin (+1.5) vs. Arkansas - Capital One Bowl - Jan. 1 (27) Nebraska (+2.5) vs. Auburn - Cotton Bowl - Jan. 1 (26) Georgia Tech (+7.5) vs. West Virginia - Gator Bowl - Jan. 1 (25) Georgia (+2.5) vs. Virginia Tech - Peach Bowl - Dec. 30 (24) Kansas State (+7.5) vs. Rutgers - Texas Bowl - Dec. 28 (23) Penn State (+4.5) vs. Tennessee - Outback Bowl - Jan. 1 (22) Texas A&M (+5.5) vs. California - Holiday Bowl - Dec. 28 (21) Iowa (+10.5) vs. Texas - Alamo Bowl - Dec. 30 (20) Oregon (+3.5) vs. BYU - Las Vegas Bowl - Dec. 21 (19) Missouri (+3.5) vs. Oregon State - Sun Bowl - Dec. 29 (18) Navy (+6.5) vs. Boston College - Car Care Bowl - Dec. 30 (17) Florida State (+4.5) vs. UCLA - Emerald Bowl - Dec. 27 (16) Houston (+6.5) vs. South Carolina - Liberty Bowl - Dec. 29 (15) Northern Illinois (+12.5) vs. TCU - Poinsettia Bowl - Dec. 19 (14) Arizona State (+8.5) vs. Hawaii - Hawaii Extra Home Game - Dec. 24 (13) Kentucky (+10.5) vs. Clemson - Music City Bowl - Dec. 29 (12) Purdue (+1.5) vs. Maryland - Champs Sports Bowl - Dec. 29 (11) Middle Tennessee State (+10.5) vs. Central Michigan - Motor City Bowl - Dec. 26 (10) Ohio (+6.5) vs. Southern Miss - GMAC Bowl - Jan. 7 (9) Nevada (+3.5) vs. Miami (FL) - Blue Bowl - Dec. 31 (8) Minnesota (+6.5) vs. Texas Tech - Insight Bowl - Dec. 29 (7) East Carolina (+3.5) vs. South Florida - Pizza Bowl - Dec. 23 (6) Western Michigan (+7.5) vs. Cincinnati - Canadian Bowl - Jan. 6 (5) San Jose State (+3.5) vs. New Mexico - New Mexico Extra Home Game - Dec. 23 (4) Tulsa (+1.5) vs. Utah - Armed Forces Bowl - Dec. 23 (3) Alabama (+2.5) vs. Oklahoma State - Independence Bowl - Dec. 28 (2) Rice (+5.5) vs. Troy - New Orleans Bowl FOR AMERICA - Dec. 22 (1)

Well, this was unexpected: http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/news/story?id=2698928 Balsillie won't be buying the Penguins after all.

How is Boise State a bad pick?

This is great news. My only hope is that this doesn't turn into an albatross contract like Delgado's did. But, it looks like Rogers is committed to having a payroll around $90-100 million, so that may not be an issue.

I don't care what NBC has to do to make it happen, but they need to get Collinsworth out of the studio and into the Sunday night booth pronto. Oh, and Frank Gore is a beast.

Ohhhhh, let's just forget that and move on. There wasn't much Emery could have done about the first three goals. I turned it to the football game after the first and never looked back, so I can't comment on the rest. The Sens were also missing Alfredsson, Redden and Schaefer, and had two or three other guys playing through injuries.

San Francisco is wishing they had the Packers and Rams games back at this point. They should be leading this division.

Yeah, I found those today. WWE winning best and worst organization was funny. Also, first time in a decade that the winner for Best Wrestler doesn't work for WWE.

The Seahawks have no shot in the playoffs. Their offence is completely out of sync.

Huh? You mean like try to get over as faces after being heel? No, they were trying to get over as heels with the fake sincerity act.

His name is pronounced "dice-kay," so I guess the media thought they'd be really clever by giving him the nickname Dice-K. Which really isn't a nickname, since it's just his name. Twits.

From Montreal To Memphis, Parlez-vous Francais? Tell all the girls, The Rougeaus on their way! We're not pretty boys, We're not a muscle head, We hate that long haired look, We like that preppy look instead! We're All American Boys, All American Boys, We're All American Boys, All American Boys, We don't like Heavy Metal, We don't like Rock N' Roll, All we like to listen to is Barry Manilow, On peut pas les sentir, Dans le monde ils sont les pires, On aime les faire facher quand qu'on dit "We love the USA" HEY! It was a beautiful theme. During their heel period when they tried to ingratiate themselves with the fans by claiming they loved America.

He had one good year, one bad year, and one year where he missed time (so I assume he was injured). I've rarely seen a pitcher sustain a 6+ ERA over an extended period of time who was of Major League quality. He's got to be better than this. He wasn't injured in 2003, he was just bad. The Braves sent him to the bullpen, and then down to Richmond. Jack Morris, although I'm pretty sure you've done him before.