Brush with Greatness

If by "greatest player to ever play the game" you mean, greatest Hab to ever play the game, then you are correct. Otherwise, he has trouble cracking the top three, depending on one's criteria. But if you think he is the greatest to ever play the game you need to take off your rose (or in this case bleu, blanc et rouge) coloured glasses.

Glengarry Glen Ross is up there.

The NHL also has restricted free agency where the team has the right to match. The reason you never see restricted free agents signing contracts elsewhere is because the compensation is WAY too steep. If I wasn't lazy, I'd look it up. You can probably count on one hand how many guys have been made offers from other teams as restricted free agents. Only two major ones I can think of where the Blackhawks offering Tkachuk a big money deal when he was with the Jets and Carolina's offer to Fedorov. And both were matched.

Bitter that America lost out?

3-1 Canada. Brad Richards with the "game winner".

Actually, I called Canada v. Fins before the tournament too. Thought that the style that Finland typically produces would benefit them come the small ice. Over the past few years, no team has impressed me as much at the international level as Finland has. Granted, alot of this is based on their World Junior performances, but Finland appears to be developing a hybrid of European skill/North American grit and they will only continue to get better. As well, Finland was the only team apart from Canada who I have faith in their goaltender to make the big saves when needed and who had the potential to steal games. Esche, Bryzgalov, Tellqvist/Salo, Vokoun, those guys just don't inspire that kind of faith in me and honestly, I couldn't see any of those goalies carrying his team to the finals. On top of that, none of the teams of the aformentioned goaltenders were strong enough outside of their goaltending to beat teams that may be inferiorly skilled but have superior goaltending. That's why I picked Canada v. Finland. For what it's worth, I thought Sweden had the third best shot at making the finals and they didn't even crack the semi's.

The top world junior moment will be John Slaney's goal in 1991. I wouldn't be surprised to see the Punch up in Piestany on there as well. Bertuzzi/McSorely incidents could be on there, as well as the McSorely illegal curve call in the 1993 finals. Eric Lindros, first overall and refusing to go to the Nords could be one too. And for sure '87 Canada Cup will be on there.

So that's why you're voting for Gary Sheffield, who's taking the lovable loser Yankees to the postseason for the first time in 11 months? Or Manny Ramirez, who's playing for those lowly Red Sox? I think we need to see that Win Shares statistic posted again, Al. I honestly don't remember any specifics for the MVP contenders. The top 10 in Win Shares, as of September 2. Win Shares is nice because it works backwards from wins. That gives it the advantage of giving a player's true value, relative to his team's performance, and it is also quite innovative in judging defense. It does take clutch hitting into account. 1. Gary Sheffield 2. Hideki Matsui (wow) 3. Carlos Guillen 4. Vladimir Guerrero 5. Miguel Tejada 6. Manny Ramirez 7. Jose Guillen 8. Hank Blalock 9. Alex Rodriguez 10. Michael Young 15. Ichiro Suzuki I am not sure off-hand what pushes Suzuki so low. I need to look into it. Now really though, does clutch hitting exist?

HOw awesome was the Sweden-Finland game? I always get pumped for that matchup, my third favourite behind Canada v. Russia and Canada v. US, and it did not fail to deliver today. What a game.

ummmm.....WHAT? Where did you read about this? I know Jennifer Jason Leigh has a sex scene in the pool shack, but that isn't deleted. Who did Phobe Cates get down with in the pool shack, and why was it deleted? Fuck, my bad, meant to say Jennifer Jason Leigh, but I just can't think about Fast Times without Phoebe Cates popping into my head. But yeah, the original sex scene with Jennifer Jason Leigh and Rat was deleted. If they would have included it, the move would have been rated NC-17 and all that shit. The one they show is actually a more tamed down version. I'll try to find a source. EDIT: Among, others, the review for the original "Fast Times" special edition at dvd.ign.com "I was looking forward to seeing the whole pool house sex scene which was cut to avoid an X-rating. I'm not ashamed."

It says most memorable, not greatest, so yeah, Seoul will be up there. For me, however, it could be August 9, 1988. Thinking about it, the summer of '88 was a very traumatizing time, for a seven year old sports fan. First Gretz was traded and then Ben Johnson was stripped of the medal. And it was that age where you saw what was going on, could (somewhat) grasp what was going on, but couldn't fully understand why these events were going on.

Wow. As for Fast Times, how much different will it be than the original. All those features sound exactly the same. Unless of course they include the deleted Phoebe Cates sex scene in the pool shack.

Who would be the tougher opponent for Randy in the cage? 1) Rampage 2) Vanderlei The thing with Silva is that Couture could still muscle him around, whereas Rampage would be one of the few LH that the Natural couldn't toss around.

In preseason, I thought the computer was supposed to start (or at least sub in) 2nd team and 3rd team players for both my team the computer team. For some reason, it always plays my starters and the CPU's starters the whole game. Anyone know for sure?

And in an eerie piece of news, coach Ivan Hlinka passed away from injuries sustained in a car crash. Ivan Hlinka Dies in Car Crash The weird part about this is that is just over one year ago that Herb Brooks died, also in a motor vehicle accident. Both men had led their respective countries to Olympic gold medals in what would have to be considered upsets (one moreso than the other). Hlinka probably has similar standing in the Czech hockey community as Brooks had in the United States hockey community as a result of their coaching exploits. Even stranger is that the man that succeded Brooks as coach of the Penguins around 2000, was none other that Hlinka himself.

Yes. You pay his bonus, his penalty to the cap, and for Jackson's contract for that year. So if Curtis is being paid 980k for a bonus, his penalty is 1.21 million, and Jackson's contract is worth 1.66 million, you'll be paying out 3.85 million. Are you sure you pay the cap penalty? I haven't played it, but I thought in real life you didn't pay the cap penalty. However, you are (or should be) responsible for the entire bonus (not just the bonus for the remainder of the season) as the bonus is prorated over the lifespan of the contract. So, I figured in a trade you would pay whatever bonus is left for the remainder of the season, as well as any bonus money owed in forthcoming years. Bonus money is money guarenteed to a player no matter what. I may be wrong however.

Signing bonuses likely. You are required to pay off all of Martin's money to him, on top of taking on Jackson's contract. I don't have the game (yet) but the one flaw with that system is that in reality, trades and cuts are supposed to count against next year's cap, where as in 2k5 they count against the current year.

Why not just add my name and not send money?

A few have already been said, but I'll mention them anyways... (most of these are sports related somehow) Life Capturing the Friedmans - really good doc on a Long Island family torn apart because of a sexual scandal Bowling for Columbine - Interesting movie about America's fascination with guns. Also, haven't seen, but have heard that Michael Moore's Roger and Me is pretty good. Sports One Day in September - Awesome doc about the 72 Olympic terrorist attack Hoop Dreams - Can't believe this isn't on DVD. Really good doc on the whole growing up with basketball aspirations thing. Beyond the Mat - Should know this Wrestling with Shadows - Even better than beyond the mat, imo. Basically turned out being about the Bret Hart Survivor Series incident. The Smashing Machine - reallly good doc about ultimate fighting When We Were Kings - excellent documentary on the Ali-Foreman Rumble in the Jungle Music Welcome to Death Row - interesting documentary on the formation and background dealings of Death Row record. Also Tupac Resurrection, Tupac and Biggie, and Some Kind of Monster (about Metallica) are all supposed to be good but I haven't seen them yet. Also This is Spinal Tap - a really funny documentary about this aging band, I haven't really heard of them, they must be British or something.

I actually go with the low fat protein shakes. I'll have a protein shake in the morning when I wake up, one after a workout, and one right before I go to bed. For the latter two, I mix in about 10g's of Glutamine as well. Often times, and always after a workout, I will throw a banana into the mix. Other times I will use strawberries or what have you.

Good read.

Hey, fantasy question and, instead of starting a new thread, figured I would just post in here. Anyways, in our league, we're allowed two second baseman, count their total bases, + RBI's. You can have up to a 100 man roster, however, only a 25 man active roster. Roster moves from the major roster to the minor roster have to clear waivers, with the exception of an injury callup. Anyways, my question is, is Scott Hairston going to be playing 2B all the time in Zona now? I have Hairston in my minors and desperately need him at 2B (where I have Aaron Miles - not bad, and Willie Harris - not good). However, I don't want to call him up only to see him return to the minors/playing minimally at which point I would have to consider sending him down again. I'm not at all worried about losing Harris right now (only 8 teams, so only the 16 best 2B are worth anything). Any help here?

So just out of curiousity, for those who have played both, is the full action highlights on Xbox much better than simply the stills on PS2, or what?

Does anyone know of a site where you can get a text based cheap (preferably free) download of baseball stats? The purpose of these stats would be to copy and paste them into Excel spreadsheets for a draft. Yahoo used to offer this but have since discontinued it. Anyone know?

No, no, its not just that he voted for the Bloc in this past election or any election. He voted in the referendum back in 95(?) for Quebec to seperate. The one that you know, was marginally rejected by what, 0.5%? Big difference between voting to seperate or merely voting the Bloc in a federal election.