EVIL~! alkeiper

Outstanding. Thank you. It's a good thing Muraco did at least make the move to do the knee or it would have looked really bad on Dynamite's part. It's always interesting to see wrestlers, Orton in this case, improvise due to injury.

If you really want a thread that never ends, put ESPN in the title.

Ankiel's prospects are iffy. Those 32 home runs in AAA came along with a .314 OBP. It makes me wonder that if that's what he does against AAA pitchers, how much can big league pitchers exploit his swing? I'm pulling for him though.

Wrestlescale - Results You are slightly modern in your views about wrestling. You still have some traditional beliefs but you believe that the business must be more entertainment-based and must move away from the old and into the new. Most similar booker: Eric Bischoff Most similar promotion: TNA 2007 Got any feedback on the poll? We would love to hear it so we can improve the Wrestlescale project. Click here

To add to the Mike Bacsik trivia, he pitched to Barry Bonds when Bonds had 755 career home runs. His father, Mike Bacsik Sr., pitched to Hank Aaron as Aaron had 755 home runs as well.

He will. Many beloved players, Ted Williams the most prevalent, had poor reputations as active players.

Coldest game I ever attended was April 25, 2005, Red Barons against the Syracuse Chiefs in 45 degree weather. Bacsik started for the Barons against Francisco Rosario. Bacsik got us through the game in 1:56, a 4-1 victory. Also the fastest game I've ever been to. I've been a fan ever since.

Hank Aaron is a classy person. Little surprise there. Despite all the controversy, this is a legitimately incredible achievement.

The "favorite team" stuff was never funny. Knock it off.

One of those deals where the Von Erichs have been struggling to win a world title and Kerry finally wins it in front of I believe the biggest crowd WCCW ever drew in honor of his dead brother.

A discussion a couple days ago prompted the statement that we can not compare Bonds' MVP awards to Ruth, because modern MVP voting did not exist until 1931. This is true. What if modern voting did exist however? I decided to come up with an MVP for each season from 1915-35, the years Ruth was active. My intention is not to demonstrate how many MVPs Ruth should have won, or deserved. Rather it is to predict voting patterns. With that in mind, a couple notes. One, voters would likely look for a player on a contending team. In an eight-team league, first division (top four) would get the job done. Second, remember that certain statistics such as On Base Percentage and Slugging Percentage did not exist. RBIs did not become an official stat until 1920. THE most important statistic of the time was batting average. 1915: Ty Cobb Cobb won the batting crown by a 37 point margin and stole 96 bases, 45 more than the nearest competitor. His performance kept the Tigers in contention, falling just 2.5 back of the pennant winning Red Sox. 1916: Joe Jackson Tris Speaker was the dominant offensive player of the season, but would voters go for a player on a sixth place team? Odds are the voting would come down to Cobb and "Shoeless Joe" Jackson. The White Sox finished just two back as Jackson hit .341, a 33 point increase over his previous season. Voters love a step-up performance, so my gut tells me Jackson would take this award. 1917: Eddie Cicotte The White Sox won the American League by a sizable margin. Cicotte won 28 games and lost 12. His 28 wins were 10 over his previous career high. In addition, Cicotte led the league in earned run average. 1918: Walter Johnson Here is a tough one. Ruth went 13-7, led the league in slugging and OPS. The problem is that neither hitting statistic existed at that time. Ty Cobb was again the dominant offensive force, but would voters again take a player on a seventh place team? Walter Johnson takes the award for winning the pitching triple crown on a team that finished just four games out. 1919: Ty Cobb The Tigers went 80-60, and yet another Cobb batting title would prompt the voters. Ruth led the league in OBP, slugging and OPS. The problem is that the Red Sox finished fifth. When the trade occured the following winter, writers were not jumping all over themselves to declare the Sox traded the best player in the league. At the time, observers considered hitting for home runs a foolish endeavour that prized the individual over the team. 1920: Babe Ruth Three team race between the Indians, White Sox and Yankees. There are three possibilities here. One is Ruth and his 54 home runs. A second is Tris Speaker and his .388 batting average for the pennant winners. A third is Eddie Collins with his .372 batting average and being one of the "clean" Sox. I think 54 home runs is too much to ignore at this point. 1921: Babe Ruth 59 home runs along with a .378 batting average, third in the league. 1922: George Sisler The St. Louis Browns finished a mere game behind the Yankees. While Ruth fell back to 35 home runs, Sisler hit .420. Voters at the time would have loved batting average. They have never voted for a guy having a down season, no matter how good that down season still is. 1923: Babe Ruth No contest. The Yankees finished 16 games up, Ruth hit .393. 1924: Walter Johnson Johnson won the actual MVP award in this season with another pitching triple crown. The Senators won their first pennant this season as well. 1925: Roger Peckinpaugh With Ruth on the mend the race becomes wide open. Stan Coveleski finished 20-5, and led the league in ERA as the Senators won their second consecutive pennant. Peckinpaugh won the damned thing though. 1926: Babe Ruth Bounceback season as Ruth hits .372 and leads the league in RBIs by a healthy margin. 1927: Lou Gehrig The RBI crown gives Gehrig the award here as the voters likely would like to switch up the award here and there. 1928: Lou Gehrig Again Gehrig would have the batting edge here. Ruth and Gehrig tied for RBIs, but I think Gehrig would have more team credibility that the voters might go for. 1929: Al Simmons Simmons barely missed a batting crown and led the league in RBIs for the league champion. 1930: Al Simmons A batting crown, second in RBIs. A note that I would not underestimate the voters giving Mickey Cochrane one of these awards. 1931: Lefty Grove 1932: Jimmie Foxx 1933: Jimmie Foxx 1934: Mickey Cochrane 1935: Gabby Hartnett (NL) Four for Ruth, best I can manage. You can argue for him getting six or seven. That said, let's see what Win Shares has to say about the best players in each season. 1915: Ty Cobb 1916: Tris Speaker 1917: Ty Cobb 1918: Babe Ruth 1919: Babe Ruth 1920: Babe Ruth 1921: Babe Ruth 1922: Red Faber 1923: Babe Ruth 1924: Babe Ruth 1925: Al Simmons 1926: Babe Ruth 1927: Babe Ruth 1928: Babe Ruth 1929: Al Simmons/Jimmie Foxx 1930: Lou Gehrig 1931: Lefty Grove 1932: Jimmie Foxx 1933: Jimmie Foxx 1934: Lou Gehrig 1935: Arky Vaughan (NL)

On my way out for the Scranton/Buffalo game, where hopefully we'll confirm or deny the Joba Chamberlain rumors. The pitching matchup is Kei Igawa vs. Jeremy Sowers.

Is it really necessary to use a spoiler tag to talk about a show in season seven?

Number six, Bonds hits the ball harder because his arm is heavier due to the elbowpad? Number one regards the hinges. It's not like your elbow itself has a myriad of directions it can turn. That aside because I'm not a mechanical mind, this is really nit-picking. 50-100 home runs? Is there ANY factual basis to that claim? The elbow-guard is allowed by Major League Baseball. Maybe it shouldn't be, but there is nothing preventing Bonds from wearing it. The only thing you can claim is that it allows Bonds (or any hitter) to stand in without worry. In any case, to use it to cast doubt on Bonds' achievement is silly. Babe Ruth used a corked bat sometime in the early 20s. If you want to cast doubt on Bonds because of the pad, you have to do the same to Ruth's record as well.

If you went to a house show and they hot-shot a title change, you think fans would sit on their hands?

I believe that's the Jimmy Hart battle royal.

No doubt experience comes into play. Brower is having an excellent season though, he's been just about automatic coming out of the bullpen this season. I don't think they're enthralled with Britton's conditioning. There is no other reason for him not to be in the majors as he already had a good season in Baltimore last year. But if you want a guy who doesn't flatten out the mound every time he pitches, that's a valid reason. Edwar left a bad impression his first time up. Hopefully he gets another shot because he's obviously too good for AAA. Brower's pitching great now though, and since he's a guy that has gotten the job done before in the majors, I think this is a solid move for the Yanks. As for Joba Chamberlain, I'd really like to see him stay in Scranton long enough to catch at least one pitching appearance. I don't know how wise it would be to call up a 21 year old kid to your bullpen who has only two games of experience in relief.

Rejoice, friend! Mike Myers DFA'd I did hear Sterling and Waldmin talking a few days ago that Joba was in New York getting his passport. Tomorrow, the Yankees are in Toronto... The AAA Yankees were in Ottawa last week, that's why.

At least you got rid of him. He's on Scranton now.

For Bored when he does the next thread. Throw Mythbusters in on the schedule. 9pm ET Wednesday they are tackling the National Pastime.

I've been going by my real name for years, never had a problem.

At a glance I'd say Ruth wins in 1920, '21, '23, '26, and 1928. Voters then wouldn't have known about OBP or OPS, and Slugging was a novelty stat. Batting titles were extremely important. 1922 would probably have been George Sisler (.420 batting average for a Browns team that barely missed the pennant). 1924 perhaps Goose Goslin, who led the league in RBIs. 1927 they give it to Gehrig who had a higher batting average and more RBIs. 1929-31 they probably bypass Ruth for the Philadelphia A's.

There were awards but they weren't the same as today. Ruth won the MVP in 1923 for example. Why didn't he win another? Because the voting rules at the time excluded prior award winners from winning.

Gold gloves did not exist in Ruth's era of course. For most of his career he was an average fielder, not a liability. His defense did become problematic late in his career, especially in those last months with the Boston Braves. What's interesting about Ruth's defense is that he usually moved to left field on the road. He couldn't do that in Yankee Stadium because of Death Valley, so he played right there.

In Ruth's era batting averages were 22 points higher, OBP 31 points higher and slugging percentages were 9 points lower. Overall Ruth's era was better for offense than today. If you bring steroids into the discussion, the debate is going to be framed by your personal beliefs and there is no use in trying. You're not going to change someone's mind and there is little concrete evidence to go on. The Barry Bonds argument is fueled by the fact that in two seasons, he broke the single season OBP record. Steroids or not, those statistics resulted in real wins for his team. Bonds in 2004 was perhaps more valuable at the plate than any player in history. There are a few points in Bonds' favor in the discussion. One, the quality of play is remarkably higher in this era. The league in general is tougher, with players coming from a greater segment of the population, better structured to ensure the best players are in the majors, etc. In Ruth's time you could find dozens of players in the Pacific Coast League just as qualified to play MLB. Second, Ruth was an average fielder at best while Bonds won eight gold gloves. Third, Bonds aged better than Ruth. You can argue steroids for Bonds in that regard, but regardless Ruth was not in playing shape in his late 30s. Ruth was probably better than Bonds overall. But Bonds entered the debate the last few years, and blasting McCarver and Buck for simply entering a popular debate is a stretch.