EVIL~! alkeiper

The best part of Backlund's entry in 2000 was him entering the crowd afterwards, apparently to continue campaigning.

This is a valid point. Dave Meltzer has sources within the company, yes. Those sources however have their own biases, and they're apt to make their favorites look better and others look worse. There is rarely one side to any story, and for this reason Vince and co. might not always receive a fair shake when it comes to the newsletters.

http://www.dailymotion.com/visited/search/...-iron-sheik-684 Sgt. Slaughter vs. The Iron Sheik - Boot Camp Match

Curry, that's borderline trolling. Knock it off.

I'm just dropping in to predict a Bears victory.

Rumors going around of a Todd Helton to Boston trade. This would be awful. Helton hit 20 home runs in 2005 and 15 in 2006, in a park that heavily increases home run production for lefties. He would move to one of the most difficult home runs parks for left handed hitters. A .400 OBP is nice, but you don't need to pay $8-10 Million for it. Kevin Youkilis had a .381 OBP with 13 home runs and cost $354,000. We're looking at an upgrade offensively of maybe 15-20 runs, and it only costs eight figures!

Perhaps. But this is a GM who traded Carlos Guillen (.319 batting average since) for peanuts, and traded worthwhile players to acquire a DH who slugged .395 last year. As far as the road stats though, I don't think it's enough starts to merit terrible concern.

I'm proud to announce that the TSM Veterans' Committee has conferred, and the following posters are now full members of the TSM Hall of Fame. Alkeiper Bruiser Chong The Man In Blak Dr. Tom Crucifixio Jones ABOBO MARTYEWR Lightning Flik The Last Samurai Congrats to the TSM Veterans' Committee class of 2007!

It's not like the road parks in the AL West are hitters' havens (besides Texas). I'm very surprised this is a one year deal. VERY surprised.

Bob Walk? Awesome.

That's partly true, but it also has to do with structural changes that have changed the wind patterns, or so I've heard from those way smarter than me. It's near impossible to hit one out in Fenway (Drew's PECOTA projects 12 HR this year!), but you can rack up doubles big time. It's plays neutral I guess, if you consider neutral to be one foot in ice water and one on fire. Looking at ESPN's park factors, I can see where you are coming from. I would caution however that park factors are extremely susceptible to yearly surges. A lot of the park factor is David Ortiz hitting ten more home runs on the road and Josh Beckett's gopherballing. Looking at three year park factors (2003-05), Fenway Park is a very tough home run park for lefties, but a great home run park for righties.

If there was one recent instance of "Passing the torch," I think Trish vs. Mickey James would qualify.

I'm a little surprised Tatu isn't on the list. I mean c'mon now.

I don't think Fenway Park changed as much as the other parks caught up to it.

Colorado's got a ton of prospects. Detroit ranks lower because they dealt Humberto Sanchez and graduated Justin Verlander and Joel Zumaya. Personally, I'm surprised Philly ranked that high.

How did you end up voting on best GMs? I thought the top 10-15 were basically right, but I didn't necessarily agree with the order. I don't rank Kenny Williams or Omar Minaya as high as they ended up, but then again Williams won a World Series a year ago and Minaya was right there last season. I honestly don't remember. If I had to rank them now, my top five would be Schuerholz, Beane, Jocketty, Shapiro, Cashman, in that order. Bill Bavasi is number 30, obviously.

Fuji also won five tag team titles. His pairing with Prof. Toru Tanaka is one of the more famous teams of the 1970s.

What amuses me about that poll is that five of the managers have yet to manage a single MLB game! My ballot isn't terribly different from the totals though. I ranked Clint Hurdle dead last for his overuse of smallball in Coors Field. It's not like he's ridden this strategy to a winning season. Phil Garner wins most overrated, Bruce Bochy or Bob Melvin wins most underrated.

Each of these will last for one week. There are two portions to the ballot. The first is the direct Hall of Fame voting. Vote for up to ten (10) whom you feel deserving of the WWE Hall of Fame. Write-in votes will be disregarded. The second are new nominations. Select up to five (5) whom you feel should go on the next ballot. The voting will end 3pm ET on Tuesday, January 30. Part of this project was to illustrate how voting patterns work. I would just like to point out that without a runoff, only two wrestlers (Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage) would have merited induction, garnering over 75% of nominations. Hall of Fame Ballot Select up to Ten (10) Hulk Hogan "Macho Man" Randy Savage Bret "The Hitman" Hart Bruno Sammartino Andre the Giant "Rowdy" Roddy Piper Bobby "The Brain" Heenan Gorilla Monsoon "Superstar" Billy Graham Bob Backlund Those who receive 75% will remain on the ballot. Those receiving less than 5% will fall off the ballot, and those in between will remain on the ballot next time. Hall of Fame Nominations Select five (5) not currently in the Hall or on the ballot. Please note that if you intend to nominate Vince McMahon, you need to indicate Jr. or Sr. Good luck, and thanks for voting.

Nominations for this week are closed. Keep an eye out for the weekly Hall of Fame threads.

Nominations will remain open until 3pm ET tomorrow (Tuesday).

Something fun while I'm digging through stats. Ryan Howard's .313 batting average is the highest single season batting average in history for a hitter with 170+ strikeouts. Only 14 times in baseball history has a batter struck out 150+ times and still hit .300.

I'm sure you're not the first person who emailed him. And just for fun... PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES 2006 STRIKEOUTS SO 1 Ryan Howard 181 2 Chase Utley 132 3 Pat Burrell 131

Introducing the worst baseball article I have ever read! http://www.timesleader.com/mld/timesleader...es/16516447.htm

The fun part is that I would not get to see Phillies home broadcasts if I subscribed to DirectTV. I hate this deal, but I was never an extra innings subscriber anyway. This certainly won't entice me to buy DirectTV. I've still got my XMRadio and that gives far less hassles as far as blackouts go.