EVIL~! alkeiper

Yeah, the 11th Congressional district covers Hazleton, Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, and has Monroe County (where I live) tacked on to it. According to Wikipedia (for what it's worth), it's a safe seat for Democrats since Republicans took a lot of Republican districts out of the 11th and put them in the 10th in the last re-districting. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania%...sional_district

Bumping this quote since I'm watching a Phillies highlight video. There is indeed a Phillies song in existence from the 1950s.

Hard to say. Boxing lacked a truly good heavyweight champion in the early '80s (save Larry Holmes). Sugar Ray Leonard was unusually popular though. The period between Louis and Marciano had Jake LaMotta and Carmen Basilio. The '30s had the depression, so hard to measure that with any accuracy.

I'm wary about it, but the higher-ups don't seem to care. It's not my battle.

Jose Ceda According to Baseball America, "the Cubs could have another Lee Smith on their hands." They have him ranked as the Cubs' #4 fasttrack, and could show up in Wrigley once he finds his control.

Boxing. It's been popular at various points in this country for nearly 130 years. It just takes one compelling personality to get the public interested again.

Brad Lidge out 3-6 weeks apparently.

Fact is, your odds of being in such an incident are so low that it is hardly worth the trouble of taking precautions. You figure the odds that you go to a school or workplace that is shot up is a couple in hundreds of thousandths. Then you're in that vicinity, at that time, and then it's the odds that you're one of the unfortunate ones that gets killed. You take greater risks while driving.

I don't usually blog about politics, but I feel the urge. Pennsylvania runs their primaries quite late in the season, around late April. Consequently, we have little say in the Presidential primaries. Political ads have begun popping up, but I have yet to see a plethora of spots for presidential hopefuls. Some of the local politicians have started in earnest. Two candidates air ads on local television for the Republican nomination for Pennsylvania's tenth district (More on the district later). Here is one hopeful, Dan Meuser! A blogger for the Morning Call refers to Meuser as robo-candidate! Indeed, Meuser has that stereotypical conservative politician look about him. His commercial targets illegal immigrants, a popular hot-button issue when you have nothing else to offer. Here is what amuses me. The commercial refers to his ideas as "the Meuser Plan." I can just imagine him showing up for Congress the first day, when the House of Representatives tell Mr. Freshman Politician what he can do with his plan. Newbs do not exactly carry a lot of pull around Congress. (As an aside, part of this glorious plan is to make English the official language. Personally, I have taken to crossing out all the latin words on my currency. You need to start somewhere.) Chris Hackett also runs ads, his campaign promises to fight wasteful spending. There's a fresh idea. It bothers me mostly that campaigns involve such blatant pandering and empty promises, but I guess that is how the public reacts. I mentioned the tenth district, and here is where this all fits in. This seat is currently held by a democrat. It was Republican from 1961-2005. The first candidate became Governor after one term, the second has a stretch of highway named after him. The third, Don Sherwood, was caught in a love scandal and was defeated in the last election. This seat is easily winnable for the Republicans, so no wonder they are eager to fight Chris Carney. It's not my district, so I don't need to put much thought into it. We have our own long term Congressman (Paul Kanjorski-D) who is going to be opposed by Mayor Lou Barletta of Hazleton (he of the illegal immigrant crackdown). Democrats have won 24 of the last 25 elections there, so Barletta has an uphill battle.

I do. One of the best experiences of the last few years has been watching Coste defy the odds and reach the Majors. I'm a fan.

Four, unless Yahoo changed their account settings.

The big league is full. Seven spots left in the AL league.

Since I brought up ZiPS projections, they are freely available. http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/files/..._excel_build_1/

Taking a look at ZiPS, that projection has Manny closer to 2007 than his career averages. A 36 year old player may not bounce back. Of course Manny at that level is a valuable player for a ballclub, just not elite.

It all depends on Manny's 2008 season of course. $20 million is steep, but one year contracts are very attractive for teams. Adam Dunn and Pat Burrell are free agents after the year, potential replacement targets for the Sox.

Solie was the voice of Florida wrestling, where Wrestlemania is held this year.

Since he made it to WCW around 1989, he would have known Nancy longer.

If you go from April-August, check out an Akron Aeros game nearby.

I doubt it, unless that is their original plan. I assume they have something in mind already.

Honestly, the idea is funnier now than it ever would be in execution.

No. You could try the stunt here or in graphics testing, but the board community would be fully within their rights to hit you repeatedly with a rolled up newspaper.

Not in regards to the workers. But there might be some useful information on how perspectives change (or don't change) pre and post-match. Also, how effective were their promotional efforts for individual matches?

Mayweather and Big Show can't work a real match. But the idea of a 450 lb. wrestler battling a 150 lb. boxer is intriguing, if nothing else. And remember Chuck Wepner vs. Andre the Giant wasn't exactly competitive either. Still made great spectacle.

I really have an urge to post Chris Benoit editing assumptions at every opportunity and watch them turn into facts within five minutes.

Most of it is useful for marketing purposes. How often does their PPV viewer watch the shows, do they frequently buy events on dvd afterwards, etc.