EVIL~! alkeiper

This one certainly doesn't belong on a list of bad ref calls. Referee Dave Barry simply followed the rules, which were created because of Dempsey's penchant for hitting his opponent the instant they got on their feet. Tunney was down for 14 seconds. However, the film shows him nodding with the count 8-9 seconds into the knockdown. He stayed down until the nine count to allow him more time to recover. For a controversial boxing fight, how about Ali-Liston II? Ali knocks down Liston in the first round, and dances over him. As with Dempsey/Tunney, referee Jersey Joe Walcott tries to get Ali to his corner, and then counts Liston. Liston has no idea what the count is, and apparently gets up in time. However, afterwards timekeeper Nat Fleischer informs the ref that Liston had been down longer than 10 seconds, and the fight is stopped.

Latrell Sprewell is vastly overrated. I don't think he belongs in the top 30. Shawn Marion probably belongs higher on that list. Tracy McGrady is clearly better than Kobe Bryant. Karl Malone probably should make the bottom 10 at least. And Michael Redd deserves some consideration.

Disagree. Not to put Ray Allen down, but there's just too many guys I'd rank above him.

Breaking news in, courtesy of Comcast SportsNet. Tug McGraw has passed away at the age of 59. McGraw won two World Series titles in his career, with the '69 Miracle Mets, and '80 Phillies. McGraw was a two time all star.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylc=X3oD...ov=ap&type=lgns So now everyone expects that Rose will be let back in. I don't get it. If Rose really did bet on baseball, then the last thing that should happen is his reinstatement. Oh well. If this process takes its expected course, Rose would become eligible for the Hall. He would get one shot with the BBWAA, and if he doesn't make it then, he would need to get in through the veterans' committee, which consists of current Hall members. With over 4,000+ hits, Rose is a shoe-in for Hall inclusion on stats alone. The issue is the gambling, which WILL figure into his HOF chances. The writers will certainly take that into account. Rose would need 75% to forget all about the gambling. I'm not sure that'll happen. If and when it goes to the Vets, I'm happy letting them decide. If 75% of former players decide Rose is worthy, then I really can't argue with it.

For baseball, how about Gary Sheffield?

Should I even dignify that?

On another note, I'd like to pimp an excellent weekly column titled The Pinstriped Bible. While the author is a Yankees fan, he presents an intelligent and balanced view of baseball, and is often humourous to boot.

White Sox pick up Cliff Pollitte, for $800,000. Nice signing for the price. Pollitte had some rough spots last year, but he's put up good numbers most of his career.

Talk about good timing for the Sixers. Corey Maggette misses tonights game, and Kenyon Marin misses Friday's game, both against the Sixers.

An interesting twist on Dickie Kerr. He too was banished from Major League Baseball for a time. After going 53-33 his first three years in the majors, including 2-0 in that fateful series, Kerr demanded a raise from the Sox, and sat out the 1922 season. During that time, he appeared in a semi-pro game, and Judge Landis banned him. Kerr got the banishment lifted by the '25 season, but he had lost his effectiveness. Later, as a manager for Daytona Beach, he turned Stan Musial from a pitcher with an injured shoulder into an outfielder.

What really happened, as far as I understand, is that the players weren't paid what they were promised, and then went full-throttle. The gamblers threatened the wife of Lefty Williams to coerce him to lose the 8th game.

I've got them in the top third yet. They do have a fairly solid 1-5 rotation. I do have some serious reservations about their future however.

However, Jarvis' contract is up after this season....

FrigidSoul, trust me on this one. Its not worth your time. We've done this argument 3-4 times. Nothing changes.

I'd certainly be surprised. Qualcomm stadium wasn't exactly hitter's paradise, and Jarvis stunk last year. He's 34, and only twice as he won more than four games in a season. His home run rate is beyond awful, and that's with playing in one of the toughest parks to hit a home run. Jarvis isn't even in the rotation at this point. He'll sit in the bullpen as a mop-up guy, unless Seattle suffers a slew of injuries. Of course, the way Bill Bavasi's going, he'll probably give him the ball on opening day.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/stor..._rob&id=1702483 Rob Neyer checks in on the history of gambling.

See for yourself. John Smoltz Smoltz certainly seems to dial it up during the postseason, which flies in the face of my argument. EDIT: By the way, www.baseball-reference.com is insanely useful as a reference tool. If you've never checked it out, do so.

I would take off Cone and put in Petitte, but the rest looks pretty good. I'll give you the same argument I gave for Glavine. Brown trumps Pettitte in every rate stats. Less home runs, less hits, less walks, and more strikeouts. As with Glavine, the only advantage Pettitte has is that he had better teammates.

I don’t agree. I think Nomar gets the shaft here quite frankly. If Jeter didn’t play for the Yankees with his 4 rings, no one would be mentioning him as a shoo-in for the HOF. I compared some of their stats. Check this out Regular season: Jeter: 1212 Games played 1549 Hits, 127 HR’s 615 RBI’s 178 SB’s .317 Avg. .389 OBP .462 SLG. Nomar: 928 Games Played 1231 Hits, 173 HR’s 669 RBI’s 82 SB’s .323 Avg. .370 OBP .555 SLG Post Season: Jeter: 99 Games Played 123 Hits, 13 HR’s, 33 RBI’s, 13 SB’s, .314 Avg. .385 OBP, .469 SLG Nomar: 25 Games Played 31 Hits, 7 HR’s, 21 RBI’s, 2 SB’s, .323 Avg. .391 OBP, .625 SLG Fielding: Jeter: .973 Fielding Percentage, 132 Errors Nomar: .969 Fielding Percentage, 130 Errors I wanted to highlight this post to demonstrate how much of a farce playoff aura is. If you look at the stats of guys who played a ton of postseason games, you'll find that their career stats usually align with their career postseason stats. Players don't magically gain ability in October.

For the 90s? No way. Glavine won two Cy Youngs and four other top-3 finishes, had four 20-win seasons, was a World Series MVP, and had an ERA in the 2s or low 3s for most of those years. He was consistently excellent for the entire decade. Brown's numbers with Texas and Baltimore went from mediocre to downright pitiful...and those numbers spanned more than half the decade! He didn't start to be good until he got to Florida in 1996. I looked at Brown and Glavine's BB and K numbers. Brown walks less batters, and strikes out more. Glavine benefitted much of his career from Andruw Jones patrolling center field. Brown allows less home runs than Glavine, and less hits. The only advantage Glavine has is that he played on better teams.

Without game films, its tough to say how Joe Jackson really performed. We've got his hitting stats, but fielding is an entirely different matter. Missing a cutoff man, and things like that are good ways of throwing a game which will never show up in the stat book. The best way to look at the Series itself is to look up game accounts from Hugh Fullerton, who suspected something was awry and took notes on who might've been involved. In any case, regardless of what Jackson did during the games, he accepted $5,000. He admitted this in open court, and that the money was in exchange for throwing the 1919 World Series. That's expulsion right there. As for the Hall of Fame, no rule existed before the Rose banishment stating a banned player could not enter the Hall of Fame. In all those years, Jackson drew two votes in 1936, and two in 1946. Obviously the voters didn't think he deserved tha hall of fame. He doesn't deserve the hall. Being stupid is not a defense, either. We wouldn't tolerate it for any other crime, so why this? Actually, the players were found innocent because if they were found guilty, Arnold Rothstein would get pulled into the scandal. The chicanery was done to get the gamblers themselves out of trouble. For a good account of the scandal, read the book the movie was based on. Eight Men Out, by Eliot Asinof. You can likely find it in your local public library.

D'backs sign Robbie Almoar for 1 year/$1 million. At that price, I'm really surprised the Cardinals didn't get ahold of him.

Helton's career road numbers: 294/385/523

I missed that part. Are you trying to imply that the Yanks put effort into the Series this year? Or are you just saying that in general? That's one thing about fans that annoys me. Competitive sports are extremely difficult. Not performing well is NOT the result of lack of effort. They just didn't connect. The best hitters only get hits 30-40% of the time. Are they not trying the other 60%?