EVIL~! alkeiper

The Sox' owner and announce team are horseshit. The players are fine and I think Ozzie Guillen is a capable manager. He's abrasive, but that's ok by me. I don't expect managers to be PR men, and some of the best were not exactly the type you'd invite to a dinner party.

And Czech, stop flaming. You don't like the Sox, we get it.

Oh well. Kudos to ESPN for sparing us and giving the Twins' feed.

Floyd definitely. He spent some time in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Pitchers sit in the stands charting pitches during games when they don't pitch, usually the next night's pitcher has the book. Often fans will recognize the players and talk to them or ask for autographs. Floyd was always accommodating, very polite. I always found it a bit unfair that Floyd struggles and Cole Hamels, who is a real jerk, thrived. As an aside, Floyd's only career shutout was the Aaron Rowand broken nose game. That was called after five innings. ESPN has the tv feed.

Yeah, baseball games are determined by what Czech posts on a message board.

I'm rooting for this one.

ok

5-28. They won tonight. Brian Mazone is claiming the Steve Carlton award for winning four of those games.

I got bored at work, came up with this list in my spare time. The top 50 stars in wrestling over the last 50 years. The basic criteria is popularity, fame and drawing power. The list is limited to appeal to U.S. wrestling fans. It's a work in progress, but I'm interested in hearing your thoughts. Andre the Giant Steve Austin Fred Blassie Nick Bockwinkel Jack Brisco Dick the Bruiser John Cena Ric Flair Mick Foley Dory Funk Jr. Terry Funk Verne Gagne Bill Goldberg Superstar Billy Graham Bret Hart Hulk Hogan The Junk Yard Dog Gene Kiniski Killer Kowalski Ernie Ladd Jerry Lawler Lex Luger Magnum T.A. Mil Mascaras Wahoo McDaniel Shawn Michaels Rey Misterio Jr. Roddy Piper Harley Race Dusty Rhodes The Road Warriors Jake Roberts The Rock The Rock 'n' Roll Express Buddy Rogers Bruno Sammartino Randy Savage The Sheik Sergeant Slaughter Jimmy Snuka George "the Animal" Steele Sting Chief Jay Strongbow Triple H The Ultimate Warrior The Undertaker Jesse Ventura Kerry Von Erich

On Eddie Guerrero: There are two problems with the AAA run. One is that his opponent was El Hijo del Santo, one of the greatest stars in the history of Mexican wrestling. If you can't draw against him, you can't draw against anyone. Second, after the run Guerrero didn't set the world afire as a huge star. He went to ECW and then on to the WCW midcard. Hardly their biggest star at the time. People get emotional about Guerrero, as I've well found out. This is not to discredit Eddie in any circumstance. There are just too many wrestlers on a higher level. What places Mysterio above him? Existing popularity, very popular among young fans. One way to know for certain though, does anyone have dvd sales figures of Guerrero and Mysterio's dvds?

By the same token, the supply side would dictate that supply would increase along with price. OPEC has shown incredible restraint.

FYI: - What happens in the event of a tie for a Division Winner, Wild Card spot, or home-field advantage? Tiebreakers for a 2-way tie are, in order: - Head-to-head record - Run differential - Coin flip Tiebreakers for a 3-way tie are, in order: - Best record vs. teams within division - Run differential - Coin flip

Nine games up with fifteen to play. Unless Bored's team sweeps tonight, I can practically start setting my playoff rotation.

One month in, would you change any of your preseason predictions?

This is a fairly interesting show. You have the Razor Ramon/Diesel stuff, with Jim Ross claiming their "appearance" proved it was not just a ratings ploy. The wrestling debut of Mark Henry, along with Bradshaw's PPV debut. Lothario/Cornette was awful, but at least short. Mankind/Michaels is still a classic. Was the giant poster a legit rib from Owen? It seems like something he would do.

Check the criteria, it's a list of STARS. Nothing to do with in-ring ability, promo work, etc.

Next month is indeed Gold Rush month. Highlights: WWE Hall of Fame: Nick Bockwinkel. Awesome. WCW Great American Bash '92. Fuck yeah. Vader wins the WCW World championship, and the NWA Tag Title tournament is concluded. WWE MSG: 1/23/84. A historic card as Hulk Hogan defeats the Iron Sheik for the WWF title. We've seen it before of course, but here we get all the festivities. TV Classics, Gold Rush: Five shows featuring championship matches from different promotions/eras. Saturday Night's Main Event, Championship Wrestling from Florida, WCW Thunder (wtf?), and Stampede! Shorties are Jericho presenting shocking championship clashes. This sounds like a great month.

It is quite likely that the FBI would just use the name Ashley Massaro, and the Rolling Stones author jumped to a conclusion. Two things jump out at me. 1. Wrestling fans are fairly obsessive. Why didn't we hear about this before? 2. Wrestling is a touring gig. It would be very difficult for Ashley to carry a dual career as female wrestler and escort.

Mexico no. AAA into LA is interesting, did they draw favorably among english-speaking fans or did they draw large portions of the spanish speaking community? I honestly don't know. I don't think the majority of American wrestling fans are familiar with AAA, but living on the east coast I'm probably not in the best position to know.

I can't. What it comes down to is that it is simply a crowded field, and every successful act can't quite crack the list. What holds the Midnight Express is that they never cracked the wall from wrestling into mainstream recognition. You can argue them over the Rock 'n' Roll Express, but they are not the strongest candidates on the list either. There are maybe 5-6 candidates on the list they could bypass, but that's not terribly strong.

There's a difference between a popular nostalgia act and true stardom. The Bushwackers fall into the former. If there's an obvious determination it's whether they could main event a major show. The Bushwackers never did, and I don't believe Chyna ever did either. Ted DiBiase is a good choice, and a tough cut if not on the list. Eddie Guerrero I'm not certain, I don't know if he has much mainstream exposure. Mil Mascaras was a star for decades on the regional circuit. If he toured a territory, he came in and wrestled on top, and drew money. Guerrero was a main event star for a year, a mid-card star otherwise. Great wrestler yes. But how big a star was he? Buddy Rogers is not well known today. In 1961 however, his match with Pat O'Connor set a record for a live gate and drew the biggest crowd for a wrestling match since Jim Londos. Rogers' mannerisms set the stage for wrestlers in the future. When Andy Kaufmann came into wrestling for example, Buddy Rogers was his template. He really was THE biggest star of the early television era.

That's a good qualification if you were arguing for Morton to be included as a singles guy, but it doesn't do anything for the RnR's as a team. As for the Midnight's inclusion, I think their main event program with Bill Watts and Stagger Lee in Mid-South makes a good qualification; it drew $1.2m for 14 dates, set gate records in every city but one, which was New Orleans at the Superdome, and even then they only missed out on the record by $6,000 with a crowd over 20,000. Good argument for the Midnights. The problem I think is that the big star in that pairing is Bill Watts, and Stagger Lee (Junkyard Dog) is on the list as it is. The Junkyard Dog and Bill Watts had many other main event feuds in Mid South. The Midnights did not. Looking things over though, I can see dropping the Rock n Roll Express in favor of Scott Hall and Kevin Nash. I think that switch needs to get made. One deserving wrestler I overlooked entirely is Bobo Brazil.

After my last trip to Citizens Bank Park, I would never take advantage of another cheap ticket deal. It attracts too many college kids who spend the money they saved on alcohol, getting pissed.

Tulowitzski's out until the All-Star break at least. I can't see the Rockies making another push this year.

Only half the crowd would have seen it at best, it was in one of the corners. It wasn't a throw, more of Taker stomping Holly and legitimately trying to push him down. No audible crowd reaction that I remember from the live broadcast.