EVIL~! alkeiper

Second basemen? Let's see. Obviously there's Joe Morgan and then a chasm. Craig Biggio is probably second, he racked up a huge number of win shares. Rod Carew actually would rank third on my list. An amazing 18 All-Star appearances there. I think Roberto Alomar has as good an argument as any player to rate fourth. A higher OPS+ than Ryne Sandberg. And this may come as a stunner, but Bobby Grich takes the fifth spot on my list. To summarize: 1. Morgan 2. Biggio 3. Carew 4. Alomar 5. Grich http://www.baseball-reference.com/pi/shareit/qNrs That's a list of lefty relievers in baseball history. The gap in ERA between Wagner and the rest is HUGE. I mean, I don't see any intangibles in the world closing the gap on that.

Check again, he's my first baseman.

Would WWE have drawn enough extra money though to cover the added expense of bringing in all those big names?

Bailing out newspapers? What good purpose does that serve? The entire industry is sliding.

No. Not everything in the world needs to be dumped into CTDWAT.

I was at that show!!

Ax this thread on the basis of spam?

Yeah, I don't think scaling back the graphic nature of the programming is a bad thing at all.

Listening to the talking heads whine about Michael Phelps was annoying. He let down his fans? Hasn't it been 15-20 years since we first learned about not putting athletes on pedestals? And yet every time we get a new young sports sensation, we get all the stories of what a great person he is. Hey sportswriters, want to not get disappointed again? Either stop putting your trust in athletes, or refuse to write about their shortcomings, ala Babe Ruth. But spare me the moral outrage.

This is a ridiculous criticism. WWE has also stated that wrestling is not real, yet it's portrayed as real in the shows. If WWE hasn't stated that wrestlers are independent contractors as part of a storyline on television, then what does it matter in basis of another storyline?

Someone made reference to the bird. Mark Fidrych was an absolute phenomenon. He went 19-9 his rookie year, started the All Star game, led the league in ERA and finished second in Cy Young voting. He was immensely popular, one of the few pitchers who legitimately drew big crowds. And just as quickly, he faded.

We desperately need some fresh baseball talk with the MLB Offseason being boring as !@#$^ this year. So here's a starter topic. I'll check in with some opinions later on.

I see Travis Minix and Jorge Padilla for Puerto Rico. This is a tournament that's been in existence since 1949. It's a heck of a lot of fun.

I looked for a list for Hotbeds: Florida. Apologies if this has been posted before. Matt Hardy vs. MVP (No Mercy 2007) Mike Graham vs. Bob Bradley (MSG 10/17/83) Michelle McCool vs. Natalya (No Mercy 2008) Paul Orndorff vs. Arn Anderson (Clash of the Champions XI) The Big Show vs. Eddie Guerrero (No Mercy 2003)

And 27 wins for a team that won 59.

You mentioned Davey Johnson. Hitting in Atlanta in 1973 and hitting in Baltimore in the late 60s and early 70s are two different animals. Had he played in the same environment earlier in his career, he might have popped 30 home runs a couple more times. Nick Esasky nah. He hit 21 and 22 home runs in part time play in Cincinnati. Then he goes to Boston, gets a friendly left field fence and 200 more plate appearances, and no wonder he hit 30 home runs. Kevin Elster, if adjusted for 162 games had three seasons where he was on pace for 20+ home runs. Now how about Darin Erstad? .355 batting average in 2000, he never hit above .300 in any other season.

Statistically it's Charley Radbourn in 1884. He pitched 678.7 innings, struck out 441 while walking 98. 59-12 win/loss record. He pitched every game for his team down the stretch when the other starter jumped the team. The problem is that pitching was far, far different. Radbourn was pitching underhand/sidearm, from a box and not a mound, and from 50 feet away. So much of pitching then was fielding dependent that it is difficult to take all the performances at face value. Pedro 2000 was incredible.

This is something like fluke seasons, but I see it a little differently. To me, a flash in the pan is a player who comes into the league, dominates almost immediately, and then disappears almost as quickly. Herb Score comes to mind. He was 36-20 with a 2.63 ERA when he was hit in the face by a Gil McDougald line drive. He was the first pitcher to strike out more than a batter an inning over a full season.

Maybe he was auditioning for a sports broadcasting job in case he doesn't make the team. Like Nuke Laloosh, Crash Davis taught him well.

In their Holiday '96 issue, Ring Magazine presented their 100 greatest title fights of all time. Here's the heavyweight fights separated from the rest of the list. 1. Muhammad Ali KO15 Joe Frazier, September 30, 1975. 2. Jack Dempsey KO2 Luis Firpo, September 14, 1923 3. Joe Frazier W15 Muhammad Ali, March 8, 1971 4. Joe Louis KO13 Billy Conn, June 18, 1941 5. Rocky Marciano KO13 Jersey Joe Walcott, September 23, 1952 6. Larry Holmes W15 Ken Norton, June 9, 1978 7. Jack Johnson KO12 Stanley Ketchel, October 16, 1909 8. Muhammad Ali KO8 George Foreman, October 30, 1974 9. Rocky Marciano W15 Ezzard Charles, June 17, 1954 10. Buster Douglas KO10 Mike Tyson, February 11, 1990 11. Riddick Bowe W12 Evander Holyfield, November 13, 1992 12. Muhammad Ali W15 Ken Norton, September 28, 1976 13. Jim Jeffries KO8 Bob Fitzsimmons, July 25, 1902 14. George Foreman KO10 Michael Moorer, November 5, 1994 15. Rocky Marciano KO8 Ezzard Charles, September 17, 1954 16. Rocky Marciano KO9 Archie Moore, September 21, 1955 17. Jack Dempsey KO4 Georges Carpentier, July 2, 1921 18. Joe Frazier KO7 Jerry Quarry, June 23, 1969 19. Evander Holyfield W12 George Foreman, April 19, 1991 20. Mike Weaver KO15 John Tate, March 31, 1980 21. Larry Holmes KO12 Mike Weaver, June 22, 1979 Since then Holyfield-Tyson I would probably make the list. I'm not certain if there's another fight that really qualifies, even amongst the alphabet soup.

Boxing probably has the richest library of any organized sporting event. When Thomas Edison developed motion pictures, some of his first films depicted boxing in a studio. Obviously a small, stationary area like a boxing ring made the event more ideal for rudimentary technology. With boxing establishing Marquis of Queensbury rules around the 1890s (gloved fighting and timed rounds), virtually all of its history exists on film. With that in mind, I thought it'd be fun to progress decade by decade over the last century plus and find the gems. Bob Fitzsimmons KO's Jim Corbett in the 14th round to win the heavyweight championship. The footage is shaky because it was pieced together from potato chip fragments of film. Another nitrate film bites the dust. Fitzsimmons lost to James J. Jefferies in his first defense. Here, Jim Jefferies defends the title against Bob Shawkey. Jefferies retired as champion, naming Marvin Hart the new champ after Jefferies refereed a Hart bout. That was dubious. After Hart dropped the belt to Tommy Burns, Burns managed to establish himself as a legitimate champ with a string of knockout victories over notable (re: white) challengers. Here's a fight between he and Jack O'Brien in 1906. Jack Johnson pursued Burns around the globe, finally landing a title bout in 1908. Johnson is the first black fighter to challenge for the heavyweight crown. Following that victory, Johnson defends against middleweight champion Stanley Ketchel.

What about David Schulz slapping John Stossel?

It's not personal. Morris would have the highest ERA of any pitcher in the Hall of Fame. That has to be a significant statistic to some voters. Red Ruffing is the highest but he had quite a reputation as a hitter as well.

This strikes me as something we can easily look up. http://www.baseball-reference.com/pi/pspli...a02&year=00 Scroll down and you'll find Morris's splits by inning. His numbers actually get better as the innings go on. It doesn't prove much about Morris's clutch performance, pitchers only get left in late generally when they are performing well. It does show that his ERA probably wasn't hurt by staying in games later. I don't think Morris would be a horrible selection though. That '84 Tigers team won 104 games and the World Series in dominant fashion, yet no Hall of Famers? They should have Trammell, maybe Morris and maybe Whitaker. For the record, Sandy Koufax 1965 was the greatest game seven pitching performance in World Series history. Complete game shutout, ten strikeouts, the Twins never got a runner to third base. And Koufax pitched on two days rest!

Utley's not exactly young, he just turned 30. 909, not everyone I listed is going to the Hall, or likely to. I just gave thoughts on guys who have a more than miniscule chance. I'm surprised I forgot to mention Jamie Moyer. He'd really need to pitch three more seasons at least though and get up to 290 career wins. That's unlikely.