EVIL~! alkeiper

I agree with a lot of what Failed Bridge said, except for the bullpen. Bullpen arms are one thing the Yankees' farm system has cranked out and now they have Edwar Ramirez, David Robertson, Phil Coke, Jose Veras, Jonathan Albaladejo and Brian Bruney providing depth there.

The Smokey Mountain Rumble has a decent roster of guys. The Rock 'n' Roll Express, the Gangstas, D'Lo Brown, Eddie Gilbert, Chris Candido, Boo Bradley (Balls Mahoney) and Unabomb (a young Kane). Unabomb is green as hell throwing powerbombs, he sure improved a great deal within a year.

Big laugh for Lanny Poffo coming out to the Bunkhouse Battle Royal in a suit of armor.

I bet that Circuit City would have survived if theone paid retail price more often.

Price will be a starting pitcher. They didn't trade Edwin Jackson just so they could clear room for Jeff Niemann.

I think she was the first female in WWE to really push the T&A envelope. The whole act was a relative novelty at the time.

I've got it shaped up like this, after much deliberation. 1. Red Sox 2. Yankees 3. Rays 4. Blue Jays 5. Orioles The Red Sox have an advantage because they have the most depth. And want some fun Sox fans? Next time your fanbase questions Jason Bay, point out that he has a better career OPS+ than Jim Rice. The Yankees added some big name talent but if guys get hurt, there's a cliff before they hit their second line talent. The Rays finished ninth in runs scored. Even with their talent acquisitions, I think they regress.

"The show was to end with a stunt where DDP and Jarrett were fighting on a scaffold or ladder. The idea was Arquette would hit Jarrett with a guitar and he'd take a bump through a gimmicked part of the stage. The only problem was that Asya accidentally stepped into the gimmicked part after she was eliminated, so everyone could see it. Then Arquette also stepped into it and actually fell in. So DDP and Jarrett had to improvise. DDP took the bump. " c/o The Wrestling Observer, DDTDigest.com Thank you, I'd been looking myself but couldn't find anything. That's vintage Russo-era WCW for you. Even beyond the bad booking, you have bad stage direction! I had problems loading the video, but after a minute or so it worked fine btw.

I'm in favor of maybe merging Other Indies with General Wrestling, but that's it. Otherwise, there's no problem that needs fixing. And how long is this La Parka thing going to last? Are we seriously preventing posters from boarding about WWE for the sake of a few guffaws? Lame, really lame.

Great call, and I completely missed the context. The Mancini/Kim fight was Nov. 13, Kim died five days later, and the Holmes/Cobb fight was Nov 26.

The 1980s kicked off with Larry Holmes scoring knockout victories over Lorenzo Zanon, Leroy Jones and Scott LeDoux. In October, Muhammad Ali returned from retirement to challenge Larry Holmes for the heavyweight championship. Ali was a shot fighter. Whether Howard Cosell was shot is your call. How dominant was Holmes in this fight? He won every single round on every single scorecard up to the stoppage. With the victory, Holmes earned the lineal heavyweight championship. 1981 saw Holmes defeat Trevor Berbick (W 15), Leon Spinks (TKO 3) and Renaldo Snipes (TKO 11). In 1982, Holmes fought the newest "Great White Hope," Gerry Cooney. While a punchline now, Cooney had won his last three fights over Jimmy Young, Ron Lyle and Ken Norton, all by early stoppage. Cooney for his part barely fought the rest of his career. Next up was the title defense that drove Howard Cosell away from boxing. Holmes fought a relatively untalented but granite jawed journeyman named Randall "Tex" Cobb. Cobb made a name for himself by TKO'ing Ernie Shavers in 1979. Shavers was the hardest striker in boxing but punched himself out on Cobb. Despite subsequent losses to Michael Dokes and Ken Norton, Cobb was tabbed for a heavyweight title shot. One judge scored a single round for Cobb. Otherwise it was all Holmes. Told of Cosell's abandonment of boxing, Cobb responded, "If I eliminate heart disease, if I walk on water, if I come up with a cure for crippled kids, I can't imagine a greater gift to mankind." 1983 saw Holmes defend against Lucien Rodriguez, Tim Witherspoon, Scott Frank and Marvin Frazier. Holmes defended just once in 1984, against James "Bonecrusher" Smith. 1985 saw Holmes defend against David Bey and Carl Williams before stepping in against light heavyweight champion Michael Spinks. Holmes was 48-0 (you'll recall Rocky Marciano retired at 49-0). Spinks was 27-0. Spinks won a close unanimous decision. The following April, Spinks took a rematch in a split decision. The heavyweight championship really fell apart at this point. Spinks seemed rarely interested in fighting top contenders and held recognition from none of the three major boxing organizations. He defeated Steffen Tangstad later in the year, and Gerry Cooney in 1987. We are going to skip over the alphabet soup from 1979-85, with one exception. In March of 1980, John Tate defended the WBA crown against Mike Weaver. Trailing after 14 rounds, Weaver needed a KO to win. Most of you no doubt are familiar with the Mike Tyson story. With the heavyweight title scene a mess, promoters set about unifying the heavyweight title. Tyson stepped in first against Trevor Berbick. Tyson added the WBA version with a decision victory over Bonecrusher Smith. He defended the WBA/WBC crown against Pinklon Thomas, and a unanimous decision over Tony Tucker added the IBF crown. Tyson defended the unified crown with KO victories over Tyrell Biggs, Larry Holmes and Tony Tubbs. Finally, Tyson landed a fight with the lineal champion, Michael Spinks. Both fighters entered undefeated. A quick word on Spinks' legacy. Spinks never lost as a light heavyweight, and beat one of the greatest heavyweights in Larry Holmes. He was an all-time great, just a poor match for Tyson. Tyson in 1989 knocked out Frank Bruno, and then stepped in against Carl Williams. The 1980s ended with Mike Tyson looking like the most dominant champion in boxing history. Tyson was fast running out of serious challengers. As 1990 dawned, Tyson prepared to travel to Tokyo to battle a journeyman named James "Buster" Douglas. A big match with Evander Holyfield surely loomed afterward.

That sounds like the George Chuvalo fight. Chuvalo was a tough fighter. I indeed can not find a single instance of a Chuvalo knockdown. His only TKO losses were to Joe Frazier and George Foreman. I can't speak to its ultimate importance, but I believe it was a significant fight.

Oh certainly, Ali was a polarizing figure in the 1960s. He was almost without question the most controversial sports personality of the 1960s. I'm not certain what the question is though here. Was it just the Liston fight in question, or is there something else there?

I don't think Lawler's situation was similar. Wasn't it USA who pushed for Shatner, wanting a "celebrity" influence? I'm surprised they haven't looked for a bigger name to induct Austin.

I will say that if Rice is in, there is no reason why Edgar Martinez should be denied next year.

Matches like that Thunder match are exactly why I refuse to watch TNA until Russo is gone.

I doubt they even remember Trammell managed the Tigers. Many HOF players have been terrible managers. Ted Williams comes to mind.

I got the Starrcade dvd today. It's got a stand-alone documentary along with the 25 matches. Good stuff, briefly covering the PPV wars.

I'm not a Morris booster. He did not have a HOF peak, his career best ERA+ was 127. His postseason heroics really boil down to a single game. The combination of wins and winning percentage though will eventually get him in the Hall. Trammell should absolutely make the Hall of Fame. During an eight year stretch, Trammell topped a 130 OPS+ five times. By comparison, Derek Jeter has topped that figure twice. And Trammell won four Gold Gloves. Lou Whitaker should probably be in the Hall of Fame as well. If you look at that 1984 Tigers team, there are no Hall of Famers apart from manager Sparky Anderson. The idea that a team won 104 games and obliterated the postseason without a single Hall of Famer is hard to swallow.

No one really stole bases in the 1950s, except for Luis Aparicio. Maury Wills came along and in 1962 stole 104 bases in 117 attempts. That's really incredible, and drawing up a quick list it was 40+ more than anyone had stolen in the last 30 seasons. If you're a fan and see that, obviously it's going to make a hell of an impression. Of course, the reason Wills could run at will was because with the lack of base stealing, teams didn't need to worry about their catchers' throwing arms. Henderson wasn't THAT much more prevalent of a basestealer than Wills. What sets Rickey apart is that he stole bases for 25 seasons.

Ditto on A Hard Day's Night. There's hardly a bad spot on that entire album.

Just basically who the star players are, the teams to pay attention to, which competitions are more important than others. The basic rules I've got a firm handle on. Strategies less so, but that doesn't hamper my enjoyment.

I actually had thought about this recently, not in relation to Jim Rice, but with Carl Yastrzemski. He hit a similar number of homers on the road, but if you look at every other number you can make a pretty good argument that his impressive totals are largely a product of Fenway Park. There are several counters to that argument. 1. His prime came during the 1960s, when offense was absolutely pitiful. When he hit .301 in 1968, he LED THE LEAGUE. Four times in six years he led the AL in OPS+. So when looking at his raw road numbers, remember that the league OPS in his era was once lower than .700. 2. Yaz played an awfully long time. The problem with Rice is that he has three seasons of a Hall of Fame peak, and was otherwise merely good. Yaz was productive into his 40s. In fact, the only player in history to play in more games than Yastrzemski is Pete Rose, and only Rose and Hank Aaron have more at bats. 3. Yastrzemski was an excellent fielder, winning seven gold gloves. So while Yastrzemski benefitted from Fenway, he also had to play a full decade in the 1960s, and that hurt him.

Fantastic. I got Fifa '08 a few weeks ago. I enjoy the game but I am absolutely clueless about the leagues, teams and players. Philadelphia is gaining an MLS franchise in 2010. I anticipate becoming a fan.

Rice's totals of course inflated from playing in Fenway Park, and the Black/Gray ink tests aren't intended to adjust for that. Most fans don't realize how much of a hitters park Fenway was at the time. Almost every other team was playing in a huge stadium, the Red Sox had a bandbox. Now most teams play in a park closer in design to Fenway, so the effect is not so obvious. I need to crank up the Dick Allen for the Hall campaign. You think Rice's prime is good? Check out Allen's http://www.baseball-reference.com/pi/shareit/DNFr And most of those guys are outfielders. Allen played his first four seasons at third base.