iggymcfly

Hey, can you give us Juan Gonzalez's stats for that year for comparison? I'd look them up myself, but I don't know where the hell you find stuff like VORP and win shares. Griffey might be interesting too since those two were the people ultimately kept of A-Rod from winning the MVP.

Could you get any more pretentious? Jesus Christ, if you don't like a thread, just don't read it.

Thank god for the dark horse candidate. Toms isn't even going to make the cut after a 77 today, but Leaney's in pretty good shape at -5 with almost the entire second round still to go.

Those pictures are amusing. It's funny because from a distance the HHH one looks really hot, and it's not until you see the taped up hand that you're like "ew, that really does like HHH, gross".

Awards MVP: Kobe Bryant He's been the most dominant player in basketball this year and without him, the Lakers are lucky to win 25 games. You can't tell me any player in basketball is more valuable to his team than Kobe. I'd give Dirk a close runner-up spot though, as he carried the Mavs to 60 wins. Rookie of the Year: Chris Paul I don't think anyone else is even close on this one. He led all rookies in points, assists, and steals, and at the age of 20 was the unquestioned leader on the Hornets. Coach of the Year: Avery Johnson The Mavericks made a huge leap on the defensive end this year due in large part to the intensity of their coach and it translated into the win column, as the Mavericks narrowly missed the one seed. I think too often, coaches that make a good team great are passed over for awards in favor of coaches that make a bad team good. Johnson deserves coach of the year this year. I'll give runner-up to Phil Jackson, as this year's squad that got the 7 seed has no more talent than last year's squad that missed the playoffs, and I think that the Lakers could have easily imploded watching Kobe shoot the ball 30 times a game if not for the veteran presence on the bench. Other awards: ??? I haven't really followed the NBA well enough to comment on these this year so I won't. I guess Artest would be a cute choice for defensive player of the year since he improved Sacramento so much on that side of the ball, but I really haven't broken down multiple players for that quality, or paid much attention to sixth men either.

Set your TiVos. Tomorrow night on Adult Swim, it's a very special episode of Saved by the Bell where Jesse gets addicted to caffeine pills. Too fun.

Back on the original topic, don't forget that WM is probably going to be about 200,000 buys below expectation due to the fact that no one at WWE would admit to themselves how shitty the card was. As far as See No Evil goes, I'd guess that it makes about $5,000,000 to $10,000,000 since that's what really shitty horror movies with a little bit of a commercial push tend to get nowadays. I think the WWE's banking on their movies to succeed because The Rock's movies have done well, but they're missing the fact that Kane has no fanbase that even approaches that of The Rock. In that same vein, I'd guess that The Marine actually does a little better since Cena's fanbase follows him so strongly and stubbornly. Nothing monstrous, but maybe $12,000,000 or so. If they really are spending $20,000,000 per film though, they'll have a hell of a time recouping that investment.

So far so bad. Talking vaginas and assholes don't exactly make me laugh out loud.

Chyna was simply a face when tangling w/ JJ and a heel when assisting HHH in beating down JR. Yeah, it didn't make any sense at the time either. So basically you'd rather that the WWE stick stubbornly to face/heel designations at the expense of common sense? Personally, I liked it when they actually put some effort into keeping characters consistent rather than trying desperately to get someone "over as a heel" or "over as a face" regardless of their history.

The O's are hitting awesome tonight. 13 runs now through 6 innings.

I'm pretty sure that a "porkupine" is a pig/porcupine cross right? Then it would smell bad like a pig, and it would be able to stick quills in you. If I knew such a thing to exist, I'd definitely be more afraid of it than a skunk. Since I haven't heard of any being sighted ever, I'll have to go with the skunks though.

We were looking at women as being "good for Tom Cruise". Unless he finds one that's magically immune, I'm pretty sure that any woman he dates is going to end up with the Herp whether or not they had it to begin with. As for asymmetrical, I don't even know what the fuck you're talking about. She looks fine to me in that regard.

In their respective primes, it's a close decision and I could see different opinions. But you can't tell me that 39 year old Nicole Kidman is higher quality than 27 year old Katie Holmes. Hence, Tom found something better. Oh, and Katie Holmes didn't "age poorly". She got pregnant. A few months from now, she'll be looking good as ever.

I'm in this time too as "Don't HHHate the Game". I've never played either, but that doesn't stop me from feeling great about my chances of victory. The only thing that keeps it from being a slam dunk is the fact that I refuse to watch Smackdown.

Wait a minute. What's this Oprah story? I hate when I watch South Park without knowing the background story and then miss half the jokes.

There's a difference between "allows to go to waste" and "finds something better".

I heard about MVP getting locked out due to the exclusive license, and I just assumed that there was only one baseball game out for PS2, so I bought 2K6. What a huge mistake. I hate the pitching controls on this game. You can barely aim your pitches to begin with, and then if you have a runner on base, every pitch out of the strike zone is a wild pitch. I dug through the difficulty menu looking for a wild pitch or catcher adjustment, but there just isn't one. Supposedly, moving the catcher's supposed to take care of it, but I can throw a pitch that would normally be just out of the zone in the direction where the catcher is, and it goes outside the fucking batter's box. My strategy with a runner on has actually devolved to "throw a fastball right down the center of the plate every time". It's fucking awful. Oh, and then there's the "payoff pitch" thing where if you hit the zone you're aiming for, the pitcher's stats go up, and if you don't, they go down. Well, the problem is that the pitchers have such awful control that they almost never hit the zone. When I throw a pitch softly down and away, and it ends up on the upper right corner, I really don't know what I'm supposed to differently. Interestingly though, I haven't had much problem with the fielding control, especially in the infield. The only thing that's annoying is when you have someone run out to the wall, only they run into the wall, and basically get knocked unconscious, leaving the hitter time to go for an inside-the-park HR. That only happens rarely though.

http://forums.thesmartmarks.com/index.php?act=SF&s=&f=96

All right. Everyone else has playoff predictions up, so here are mine: Pistons in 5 Michael Redd will make sure the Bucks pick up one game at home (yes, I think Milwaukee's slippng to the 8 seed), but there's no way they can give the Pistons a real challenge.. Cavs in 7 The Cavs and Wizards are really even, but I'll give Cleveland a slight edge due to home advantage, and the fact that I think LeBron will make the big shot if he needs it to win the series. Heat in 5 The Bulls have been playing really well of late, but I think they've reached their goal just by making the playoffs. They just don't have that extra gear like D-Wade and the Heat. Nets in 4 New Jersey's been gelling and playing really good team basketball lately, while Indiana's been doing just the opposite. Outside of O'Neal, no one's even really trying right now. Spurs in 6 Artest and the Kings are for real, and they'd have a chance in a 7 game series against a lot of teams, but I just can't see them beating San Antonio. Mavs in 5 Dallas is absolutely legitimate, and Memphis just.....isn't. I mean, can you really see Pau Gasol taking over a playoff series? The Mavs are ready to make a deep run and they won't let the Grizzlies stand in their way. Lakers in 7 There's almost always at least one real upset in the first round, and this looks like the right spot for it. Phoenix's lax D should give Kobe a perfect chance to take over games, and without Amare to deal with down low, there's no really bad matchups for LA. Clippers in 6 Carmelo's a great clutch player, and I don't want to dismiss Denver here, but the Clippers finally have a complete team, and I think karma's finally going to bless their fanbase with a win.

The "Cranky Old Men" came back really strong in Week 2 after a 3-9 start, beating the previously 11-0-1 Pawtucket Patriots 9-3. I don't want to say anything to jinx them, but with Soriano filling a gaping hole at second, and with plenty of solid pitching to replace Pettite, I think they could be a hell of a squad the rest of the way.

I really disagree strongly with that statement. Dallas has been right there for years, and with Duncan getting older and hobbled, this could really be their chance to break through. They've actually held the nucleus together for a couple seasons without making any big additions, and I think they've got at least a 30-40% chance to win the conference. The way I see it, there's four legit contenders to win the NBA title right now (Detroit, Miami, SA, and Dallas), and they all have a pretty equal chance to take it. Phoenix would be a contender if Amare was healthy, but there's no way they take that next big step without him.

Umm, the third option was "who the hell is UTSU". Isn't that pretty much the same damn thing? Try reading all three choices before making your smarmy little witticism.

Thought I'd look for some opinions here. There's already a thread on the subject in Site Feedback, but I thought a poll would be interesting to see what the general consensus is. I figure General Chat is a little more high traffic than Site Feedback, so voila. NOTE TO MODS: I'm not looking to challenge anyone's authority here. If anything, I'm giving you more information to work with in case you want to consider bringing him back.

I now expect iggy to be banned at any moment. LOL. I threw that in there on purpose. I only saw him a couple times, but from what I saw he's dreadfully dull. He just does punch-kick 1999 WWF main event style at its worst. Well, mixed in with boring kayfabe heel style from the 80s. I really can't understand why all the fanboys are cumming all over themselves watching his matches.

I'm not saying he can't take a loss here and there. I'm just saying that if he gets jerked around any more when it really matters, the fans are going to give up on him. He was red hot in 2001. They gave him a loss in the Triple Threat at No Mercy, and then teased a program with Jericho for RR before shunting him back into the midcard. After that, he never had the nuclear level heat again, but was still very over with the fans. Then in the summer of 2002, they let the fans think he won the title in the Dusty finish match, and they erupted, but it turned out to be all for naught. They made it look like they were building to a title win at Unforgiven, which also turned out to be a loss, and then gave him a loss in the EC before sending him back to the tag ranks. After this, he lost a ton of overness. The fans got sick of caring, and he basically lost the ability to be a true main eventer. Anyway, he got injured, and now he's coming back with a fresh start and a strong push. The fans are ready to get behind him one more time, and the ECW PPV is the perfect venue for him to win the title. He'll be back on his home turf against the hated WWE loyalist, and he really can't get a better opportunity than this. If he loses this though, the fans are going to give up on him for good. They'll just never care about him the same way if he loses at ONS. This is where the Goldberg comparison comes in. In the elimination chamber, Goldberg absolutely destroyed the main event roster inside the best gimmick match the WWE had, totally regained all of his monster aura, got a monster pop and then............................. lost to HHH. After that, it didn't matter what he did, he could never top that moment, and the fans never felt the same about him again. When he won the title at Unforgiven, it was completely anticlimactic, and his reign was doomed to failure. If RVD jobs at ONS, they might as well release him, because he'll never be a top face in the WWE again, and he won't draw a dime the rest of his days.