EVIL~! alkeiper

I think it's worth noting that seemingly most of the great games of the decade have been LCS games. Besides Yankees/Red Sox, we had a few fantastic games between the Cardinals and Astros. And of course Mets/Cardinals in 2006.

Looking over next year's ballot, I'd put all four of the major candidates in. My 2010 theoretical choices would look like this. Alan Trammell Mark McGwire Tim Raines Bert Blyleven Andre Dawson Roberto Alomar Barry Larkin Fred McGriff Edgar Martinez And I'd be awfully tempted to throw a vote towards Doug Glanville.

Let's keep this civil guys. Bob said absolutely nothing disparaging about 9/11 victims.

God that game hurt. My entire body was hurting for three days after that game. Do you read the comic strip Get Fuzzy by any chance? They ran a strip where the lead character had to get away to Canada to escape. For all the "oh it's easy to second guess after the fact" columnists, I was screaming at Grady Little when it was still 5-3 Sox.

That World Series game seven was probably the second greatest game of the decade. I think 2003 ALCS Game Seven is slightly better. It's painful to watch, but it's EPIC.

I think after the 2000 episode, I'll open up another post for great non-title heavyweight fights. That'll be an opportunity to post Foreman-Lyle, Bowe-Golota II, Marciano-Louis, and other goodness.

In 1990, Mike Tyson suffered perhaps the most shocking upset in boxing history. I kid, I kid. The 1990s kicked off with James "Buster" Douglas challenging Mike Tyson for the heavyweight championship in Tokyo. Prior to the fight Evander Holyfield was in line for a shot at the crown. Holyfield had established himself first with a bronze medal in the '84 Olympics, and then as a cruiserweight boxing champion. With Tyson defeated, Holyfield stepped in against new champion Buster Douglas. Buster Douglas would not fight again for six years. Holyfield's next challenge came from a great figure in boxing's past, George Foreman. After ten years in retirement, Foreman had returned in 1987 as more of a sideshow act than anything. Foreman's revival turned serious when he scored wins over Bert Cooper and Gerry Cooney. In this fight, Foreman proved he could hang with boxing's elite. Check out round seven. Holyfield prevailed by unanimous decision. Holyfield would have next faced the challenge of Mike Tyson, but Tyson was injured in training, and the rape trial posponed the fight entirely. Holyfield instead fought and defeated Bert Cooper, and followed that up with a decision victory over Larry Holmes. (Holmes for his part earned the shot with an upset win over Ray Mercer.) Holyfield next fought undefeated Riddick Bowe. Bowe's first defense resulted in a first round knockout of Michael Dokes. He followed that up with a second round TKO of Jesse Ferguson. (Ferguson earned the shot thanks to an upset win over Ray Mercer.) During this time the WBC stripped Riddick Bowe for refusing to defend against Lennox Lewis. Nonetheless, Bowe stepped into the ring for a rematch against Evander Holyfield in November of '93. Oh yeah, the fight. Though Holyfield defeated Riddick Bowe, he lost his next bout to Michael Moorer in a rather unspirited affair. Michael Moorer had begun his career at light heavyweight and ripped off 26 consecutive KO victories off the bat. He was 34-0 with 30 KO's at the time of the fight. Moorer for his part took his first defense against George Foreman, who had not fought in 17 months since losing to Tommy Morrison. Over twenty years after losing the heavyweight crown however, Foreman made history. A great night for boxing, but a bad omen for the title. Foreman showed no intention of defending against the top heavyweight talent. He took a fight against Axel Schulz and won a controversial decision. Before long none of the major boxing organizations recognized him. For the purposes of the lineal championship, Foreman defended against Crawford Grimsley and Lou Savarese before losing to Shannon Briggs. Briggs lost to Lennox Lewis in 1998, thus preserving the lineage. The pieces of the belt meanwhile flew about. Lennox Lewis claimed the WBC version in 1997 when he won a bizarre fight against Oliver McCall, when McCall simply stopped fighting. The highlight of Lewis' claim no doubt was an impressive KO victory over Andrew Golota. Golota had established himself with two DQ losses to Riddick Bowe. On the other side of the ledger, Mike Tyson returned and steamrolled his way to two titles. The highlight coming when Tyson beat up some jobber named Bruce Seldon. With Tyson knocking out boxing simply with the wind of his missed blows, most assumed that Tyson would make short work of Evander Holyfield. Ring Magazine predicted a first round KO for Tyson. Let's skip over the atrocity that was Holyfield-Tyson II. Holyfield followed that up with a TKO over Michael Moorer, and decision win over Vaughn Bean. Finally, Holyfield met up with Lennox Lewis in March of 1999. Holyfield held the WBA and IBF belts, Lennox held the WBC and lineal championships. It was a true unification bout. The rematch settled things. As we leave the 1990s, Lennox Lewis is the undisputed heavyweight champion. No matter what the alphabet organizations say, he is the champ until he either loses or he retires.

Bob, weren't you the one who criticized me for my blinding Yankees hate?

I agree with a lot of what Failed Bridge said, except for the bullpen. Bullpen arms are one thing the Yankees' farm system has cranked out and now they have Edwar Ramirez, David Robertson, Phil Coke, Jose Veras, Jonathan Albaladejo and Brian Bruney providing depth there.

The Smokey Mountain Rumble has a decent roster of guys. The Rock 'n' Roll Express, the Gangstas, D'Lo Brown, Eddie Gilbert, Chris Candido, Boo Bradley (Balls Mahoney) and Unabomb (a young Kane). Unabomb is green as hell throwing powerbombs, he sure improved a great deal within a year.

Big laugh for Lanny Poffo coming out to the Bunkhouse Battle Royal in a suit of armor.

I bet that Circuit City would have survived if theone paid retail price more often.

Price will be a starting pitcher. They didn't trade Edwin Jackson just so they could clear room for Jeff Niemann.

I think she was the first female in WWE to really push the T&A envelope. The whole act was a relative novelty at the time.

I've got it shaped up like this, after much deliberation. 1. Red Sox 2. Yankees 3. Rays 4. Blue Jays 5. Orioles The Red Sox have an advantage because they have the most depth. And want some fun Sox fans? Next time your fanbase questions Jason Bay, point out that he has a better career OPS+ than Jim Rice. The Yankees added some big name talent but if guys get hurt, there's a cliff before they hit their second line talent. The Rays finished ninth in runs scored. Even with their talent acquisitions, I think they regress.

"The show was to end with a stunt where DDP and Jarrett were fighting on a scaffold or ladder. The idea was Arquette would hit Jarrett with a guitar and he'd take a bump through a gimmicked part of the stage. The only problem was that Asya accidentally stepped into the gimmicked part after she was eliminated, so everyone could see it. Then Arquette also stepped into it and actually fell in. So DDP and Jarrett had to improvise. DDP took the bump. " c/o The Wrestling Observer, DDTDigest.com Thank you, I'd been looking myself but couldn't find anything. That's vintage Russo-era WCW for you. Even beyond the bad booking, you have bad stage direction! I had problems loading the video, but after a minute or so it worked fine btw.

I'm in favor of maybe merging Other Indies with General Wrestling, but that's it. Otherwise, there's no problem that needs fixing. And how long is this La Parka thing going to last? Are we seriously preventing posters from boarding about WWE for the sake of a few guffaws? Lame, really lame.

Great call, and I completely missed the context. The Mancini/Kim fight was Nov. 13, Kim died five days later, and the Holmes/Cobb fight was Nov 26.

The 1980s kicked off with Larry Holmes scoring knockout victories over Lorenzo Zanon, Leroy Jones and Scott LeDoux. In October, Muhammad Ali returned from retirement to challenge Larry Holmes for the heavyweight championship. Ali was a shot fighter. Whether Howard Cosell was shot is your call. How dominant was Holmes in this fight? He won every single round on every single scorecard up to the stoppage. With the victory, Holmes earned the lineal heavyweight championship. 1981 saw Holmes defeat Trevor Berbick (W 15), Leon Spinks (TKO 3) and Renaldo Snipes (TKO 11). In 1982, Holmes fought the newest "Great White Hope," Gerry Cooney. While a punchline now, Cooney had won his last three fights over Jimmy Young, Ron Lyle and Ken Norton, all by early stoppage. Cooney for his part barely fought the rest of his career. Next up was the title defense that drove Howard Cosell away from boxing. Holmes fought a relatively untalented but granite jawed journeyman named Randall "Tex" Cobb. Cobb made a name for himself by TKO'ing Ernie Shavers in 1979. Shavers was the hardest striker in boxing but punched himself out on Cobb. Despite subsequent losses to Michael Dokes and Ken Norton, Cobb was tabbed for a heavyweight title shot. One judge scored a single round for Cobb. Otherwise it was all Holmes. Told of Cosell's abandonment of boxing, Cobb responded, "If I eliminate heart disease, if I walk on water, if I come up with a cure for crippled kids, I can't imagine a greater gift to mankind." 1983 saw Holmes defend against Lucien Rodriguez, Tim Witherspoon, Scott Frank and Marvin Frazier. Holmes defended just once in 1984, against James "Bonecrusher" Smith. 1985 saw Holmes defend against David Bey and Carl Williams before stepping in against light heavyweight champion Michael Spinks. Holmes was 48-0 (you'll recall Rocky Marciano retired at 49-0). Spinks was 27-0. Spinks won a close unanimous decision. The following April, Spinks took a rematch in a split decision. The heavyweight championship really fell apart at this point. Spinks seemed rarely interested in fighting top contenders and held recognition from none of the three major boxing organizations. He defeated Steffen Tangstad later in the year, and Gerry Cooney in 1987. We are going to skip over the alphabet soup from 1979-85, with one exception. In March of 1980, John Tate defended the WBA crown against Mike Weaver. Trailing after 14 rounds, Weaver needed a KO to win. Most of you no doubt are familiar with the Mike Tyson story. With the heavyweight title scene a mess, promoters set about unifying the heavyweight title. Tyson stepped in first against Trevor Berbick. Tyson added the WBA version with a decision victory over Bonecrusher Smith. He defended the WBA/WBC crown against Pinklon Thomas, and a unanimous decision over Tony Tucker added the IBF crown. Tyson defended the unified crown with KO victories over Tyrell Biggs, Larry Holmes and Tony Tubbs. Finally, Tyson landed a fight with the lineal champion, Michael Spinks. Both fighters entered undefeated. A quick word on Spinks' legacy. Spinks never lost as a light heavyweight, and beat one of the greatest heavyweights in Larry Holmes. He was an all-time great, just a poor match for Tyson. Tyson in 1989 knocked out Frank Bruno, and then stepped in against Carl Williams. The 1980s ended with Mike Tyson looking like the most dominant champion in boxing history. Tyson was fast running out of serious challengers. As 1990 dawned, Tyson prepared to travel to Tokyo to battle a journeyman named James "Buster" Douglas. A big match with Evander Holyfield surely loomed afterward.

That sounds like the George Chuvalo fight. Chuvalo was a tough fighter. I indeed can not find a single instance of a Chuvalo knockdown. His only TKO losses were to Joe Frazier and George Foreman. I can't speak to its ultimate importance, but I believe it was a significant fight.

Oh certainly, Ali was a polarizing figure in the 1960s. He was almost without question the most controversial sports personality of the 1960s. I'm not certain what the question is though here. Was it just the Liston fight in question, or is there something else there?

I don't think Lawler's situation was similar. Wasn't it USA who pushed for Shatner, wanting a "celebrity" influence? I'm surprised they haven't looked for a bigger name to induct Austin.

I will say that if Rice is in, there is no reason why Edgar Martinez should be denied next year.

Matches like that Thunder match are exactly why I refuse to watch TNA until Russo is gone.

I doubt they even remember Trammell managed the Tigers. Many HOF players have been terrible managers. Ted Williams comes to mind.