EVIL~! alkeiper

I gotta say boxing is getting royally shafted here. What about Leonard-Duran I? Leonard-Hearns I? Pryor-Arguello I? Tyson-Spinks? Foreman-Moorer? Hearns-Hagler? Benn-McClelland?

I've gotten complaints that the NFL threads last season were too large, and suitable for those wishing to discuss the 1pm games after the fact. Here's my idea. I'd like to have one poster write a short preview each week for the 1pm games, and another write one for the 4pm games. Anyone up for it?

Here's the complete list thus far. 15. N.C. State dunks Houston in NCAA final 16. Bonds hits No. 71 to set single-season HR record 17. Laettner's buzzer-beater sinks Kentucky 18. Cal's five-lateral kickoff return shocks Stanford 19. Adam Vinatieri's kick wins Super Bowl for Patriots 20. Nicklaus birdies 17, wins Masters at 46 21. NLCS turns when fan interferes with foul ball 22. Villanova shocks Georgetown to win hoops title 23. Armstrong wins first Tour de France 24. Jordan's jumper secures 6th NBA title 25. Tom Watson holes in birdie chip at U.S. Open 26. World Series halted by Bay Area earthquake 27. Montana-to-Taylor caps Super Bowl-winning drive 28. Douglas knocks out Tyson, shocks world 29. Harding's associates attack Kerrigan 30. Tyson disqualified after biting Holyfield's ear 31. Walter Payton passes Jim Brown on all-time rushing list 32. Brandi Chastain's penalty kick wins World Cup 33. Sammy Sosa gets caught with corked bat 34. Len Bias dies of cocaine overdose 35. Rams win Super Bowl with game-ending tackle 36. Tiger Woods hugs dad after record Masters win 37. At age 44, Nolan Ryan hurls record 7th no-hitter 38. Messier leads Rangers to first Cup win in 54 years 39. Aaron Boone's home runs wins 2003 ALCS 40. Borg beats McEnroe in epic Wimbledon final 41. Giants win Super Bowl on Scott Norwood's miss 42. Serena Williams wins 1999 U.S. Open 43. Joe Carter's bottom-of-ninth homer wins it for Blue Jays 44. Annika Sorenstam takes on the men in a PGA event 45. Derek Jeter's backhand saves 1-0 playoff win for Yanks 46. Baseball's All-Stars pay tribute to Ted Williams 47. Titans stun Bills with disputed fantastic finish 48. Patriots win OT thriller thanks to controversial 'Tuck' play 49. Michael Jordan hits title-winning shot for Carolina 50. Jim Valvano delivers memorable speech at ESPYs 51. Kerri Strug overcomes severe pain to win gold for U.S. 52. Wayne Gretzky becomes NHL's scoring leader 53. Ben Johnson flunks drug test, loses gold medal 54. Elway drives Denver 98 yards to force OT in AFC Championship 55. Bird's steal and assist give Celtics playoff win 56. Cal Ripken homers in final All-Star Game 57. Larry Mize chips in from 140 feet to win the 1987 Masters 58. Mickey Mantle, nearing death, laments a "wasted" life 59. Chris Webber's timeout costs Michigan chance at title 60. Keith Smart's jump shots lifts Indiana over Syracuse 61. Gonzalez's single in bottom of 9th of Game 7 wins 2001 World Series 62. Hank Gathers collapses during a game, later dies 63. Magic replaces Kareem, leads Lakers to title 64. Justin Leonard's 45-foot putt completes stunning U.S. comeback 65. Magic Johnson's "baby" sky hook beats Celtics in Game 4 of '87 Finals 66. Roberto Duran cries "No Mas" to Sugar Ray Leonard in their title fight 67. George Brett goes nuts when his home run is disallowed 68. John Elway's gutsy, clutch run inspires Denver to Super Bowl win 69. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar becomes the NBA's all-time leading scorer 70. Mary Lou Retton captures all-around gymnastics gold 71. Snakebitten Dan Jansen finally wins Olympic gold 72. Mary Decker collides with Zola Budd at '84 Olympics 73. Michael Johnson blazes to world record at 1996 Olympics 74. Van de Velde blows British Open with triple-bogey on last hole 75. LT's tackle on Joe Theismann results in gruesome broken leg 76. Kellen Winslow carried off the field after amazing playoff game 77. Greg Louganis gashes head, goes on to win gold 78. Scandal on ice: Canadians voted silver medal 79. Jordan overcomes flu, scores 38 to beat Jazz 80. Emmitt Smith tops Payton's career rushing mark 81. Jordan's playoff buzzer-beater beats Cavs 82. The Dominator finally wins Daytona 500 83. Bryant says he didn't commit rape 84. Dean Smith sets record with 877th win 85. Hoosier coach loses cool 86. Happy Retirement: Bourque finally wins Stanley Cup 87. Dan Jansen falls after learning of sister's death 88. New York, New York: More 9th-Inning magic 89. Rulon Gardner wins Greco-Roman gold 90. Reggie Miller stuns Knicks with 11-second barrage 91. Michael Jordan retires at the age of 30 92. Eric Heiden skates into Olympic history 93. No team will ever issue Jackie Robinson's No. 42 94. Dad helps injured Olympian cross the finish line 95. Bizzare incident shakes up Subway Series 96. Dave Henderson homers in the 1986 ALCS 97. William Perry scores a TD for the Bears 98. Jack Buck helps us start over 99. Erving makes unbelievable shot vs. Lakers 100. Dan Gladden scores winning run in Game 7 of 1991 World Series

Those moments happened over 25 years ago, outside of the range of consideration.

Beltre has a better case than Win Shares gives him credit for, but I can't see giving the award to anyone but Barry Bonds.

You could figure average Win Shares just by dividing by games or plate appearances, but I don't see the good in it. If the A's had Giambi, he'd likely be injured, and not contributing. Hatteberg IS contributing. It isn't about which group has more talent necessarily, its about how much each group is currently contributing to their teams. I thought it'd be fair to add this. Closers. Arthur Rhodes/Octavio Dotel (1/3) Keith Foulke (10) Billy Koch (3) Jason Isringhausen (9)

Wow. Roy Oswalt is making a relief appearance.

Actually, this could be an interesting research idea..... If we took the 1994 Montreal Expos, kept them together, and added their win shares, how many games could they have won each season?

Chris Oxspring is decent, but he's not much of a prospect, and he's not a top guy the Padres are counting on for their future.

Its a separate issue from Moneyball, in my view. Its a demonstration on how free agent losses aren't as big as they seem.

I posted this at WDI, and I thought it would make good discussion. I think their lost hitters are overblown. Let's compare the 2004 A's offense to their "dream" offense, as they've performed this season. Win Shares in parenthesis. 2004 A's C Damian Miller (14) 1B Scott Hatteberg (15) 2B Marco Scutaro (8) SS Bobby Crosby (11) 3B Eric Chavez (13) LF Eric Byrnes (13) CF Mark Kotsay (15) RF Jermaine Dye (10) DH Erubiel Durazo (14) Dream A's Ramon Hernandez (8) Jason Giambi (8) Ray Durham (11) Miguel Tejada (22) Eric Chavez (13) Eric Byrnes (13) Johnny Damon (17) Jermaine Dye (10) Erubiel Durazo (14) The 2004 A's starting lineup accumulated 113 Win Shares. Their dream lineup accumulated 116 Win Shares. That works out to a single win this season, had they kept all of their stars. It gets better. The A's 2004 lineup earns $31.8 Million. Their "dream" lineup earns $57.8 Million. So for just $26 Million, the A's could've kept their players, and earned another win in the standings. That just doesn't sound like sound business.

Canada's hopes really died when Justin Morneau and Jeff Francis were pulled from the team.

Start a thread saying "this event today..." or something like that. I just grew weary of starting threads daily that might get 8-12 replies.

English Football I'm not touching, so you guys shouldn't worry about that. The NBA Fantasy League will continue as it did last year. I would split up the NBA Game Talk threads into different sections. I think 3-5 pages is a good guideline for a thread. We'll figure out how much NBA discussion we have when we get there.

I'm looking at Productive Outs again. It's amazing. Paul Abbott was the fifth best pitcher at preventing them this season. How did he give up so many runs?! And here's your Kazmir/V. Zambrano comparison thus far.... Zambrano 2-0, 3.86 ERA, 14 IP, 14 K, 6 BB, 0 HR Kazmir 1-0, 0.00 ERA, 5 IP, 4 K, 3 BB, 0 HR Another good start, and the Devil Rays win this trade before the year is over. -Rick Peterson, 8/3/2004

Well, since I'm not a fan, and since hockey fans never complain, you guys can have it your way.

You can. And the contest may continue. I just worry that pinning that thread, along with an NFL pick-em thread, game chatter threads for NFL and MLB, is overkill.

No, but I prefer you put a time frame on the NHL game threads. Please do not start one thread for the entire season.

A few posters have expressed a desire to have threads separated by times. For example a thread for 1pm games, and a thread for 4pm games.

They will be. And I am not opposed to game chatter threads. If you want to start a thread to specifically discuss a sporting event, feel free. The changes as far as those go are two-fold. One, I will not pin the threads (except possibly in the case of championship games), and two, I will not start the threads. The reason for the second part is that as moderator, I must create chatter threads for all relevant sports, and in some cases, such as some of the Olympic threads, these get few responses. This allows chatter threads to be dictated by poster interest.

Isn't that a petty comment though? Randa has the fourth best OBP on the team, behind DeJesus, Sweeney, and Harvey.

No. I entertained the idea of closing those threads, but I didn't want to have to close the English football threads, and I figured it was better to leave alone.

Yeah, that's an issue, as those threads have been worthwhile. The problem I have comes when I'm posting similar threads for the NFL, NBA, NHL, the Olympics, and what not. It gets to be a bit much after awhile. I'll give it consideration.

If that becomes a problem then we'll cross that road when we get to it. I feel having more specific topics will generate more worthwhile discussion.

-First off, there will be no more chatter threads. If you wish to discuss a specific game, start a thread. For example, "Yanks vs. whoever tonight." If you wish to discuss a trade, start a new thread. If you have an article you'd like to discuss, start a thread. -Second, I've worried about overcluttering the board with pinned threads, and its reached that point. Therefore, I am not pinning anything unless its of monumental importance. If you have something important, such as the OOTP thread, bump it. -Third, OaO threads are hereby banished, as I've wanted to do for a long time. As always, feedback is accepted.