Precious Roy

Larkin was already taken!

Depending on who you believe HBK was slated for an on-screen return at that point, as well as a few other times when he'd pop up to ref a match and then disapear, but that he was still doped up and Vince didn't trust him. Definitely happened in 01 or 02 and they had to push his return back. It wasn't until he got himself sober and "found Christ" that they were willing to take him on full time.

I give him no credit for CTA, JP or Incredibles. I didn't even know he worked on Incredibles. I don't really give him any credit on Star Wars, as they would have drawn with Bryant Gumble in his role. A Time To Kill and SWAT were ensamble pieces with several stars, and he co-headlined in DHWAV and XXX. I dig Jackson a lot, but the fact that he's at the top of this list is a total fluke. And honestly, I don't know anyone who paid to see XXX or SWAT

I'm a big Aesop Rock fan, but I prefer Labor Days to Bazookatooth. That record, and it's themes, hit me at the perfect time in my life, and it's incredibly melodic for such a down-tempo hip-hop album, very cohesive overall and throughout with just some killer beats. Wander the Wind, what was that last cover you posted? As for my Zappa collection: Freak Out! Absolutely Free Lumpy Gravy We're Only In It For The Money Hot Rats Weasels Ripped My Flesh Fillmore East, 1971 200 Motels The Grand Wazoo Roxy & Elsewhere Bongo Fury Joe's Garage Lather Lost Episodes Strictly Commercial Strictly Genteel Obviously I'm a bigger fan of his stuff with The Mothers than his later prog-rock stuff, though I'm a fan of most of his output in some fashion. I'm proud of my collection, all of it store bought, but one of my friends owns legit copys of every album he put out, quite impressive.

Oh god, I remember that now

So what if I do?

refresh my memory, what did Russo say?

Because he played for the Rangers and Orioles, both rivals of the Yankees, at least they were during his prime. Plus, there's just something about him that annoys me, can't put my finger on it......

Agreed, but the discussion was more about guys with poor skills juicing, not guys who more or less have what it takes to get a shot in the bigs if things go well for them. If a guy with good power and a shitty eye who K's and pops up constantly takes steroids he's still going to have a shitty eye and k and pop up constantly, the only difference will be the one's that he does hit well will go a little further. But you take a guy, I'll use Caminiti as an example, who's a hard worker with good but not great skills and enough physical ability to get as far as the pros, steroids can accentuate what they do possess. In Caminiti's case he had good bat speed and a good eye but was a flyball hitter who made too many outs, and juice made him a homerun hitter. You have to have the building blocks in place for steroids to make a difference, to use another drug analogy it's like Hendrix playing his best licks when he was spaced out on acid. Yeah, the acid took it over the top, but if he didn't have his talent and creativity it wouldn't matter, it would be like you or me trying to play guitar on acid, a fucking mess. The only reason I even got into this was because 2Gold (?) was harping on this point when I assumed that it was absurdly obvious to everyone how steroids work and why they work for only certain people as far as sports like baseball go. But now I've had a couple people not understand what I said, so apparently it isn't as obvious as I thought. Sorry for being a dick earlier, 2Gold

I'm not a Rafi fan, but your team is looking good. I wanted Matthews

I think a more intriguing question is WHAT IF they were forced to rehire Bobby Walker and put the world title on HIM, and then Ted Turner had to become his butler.......

So how do you guys feel about your teams so far? I'm pretty happy as my strategy has been panning out how I hoped. Missed out on a couple players I really wanted, but the talent pool is so large that it's nothing I can't compensate for. I wanted to set my infield early with an eye on all-around skills, and I like my combo of Jackie Robinson and Derek Jeter up the middle. Both speedy, both have pop, and both have good gloves. Jeter is only slightly better than league average defensively, but his offensive talents off-set that. At the hot corner I selected Negro League star Ray Dandridge. It's tough picking a Negro Leaguer as the statistics aren't as complete as you'd like them to be, but he has a .355 career average, and is lauded as THE premier defensive third baseman of all-time by those who saw him play. Hopefully Al has a good system in place for judging these guys, I expect he will, and thus it was worth the gamble. Jim Thome wasn't even on my board, but I set myself on rounding out the infield with a true slugger, and he was the best available. Too many K's, but a great OBP makes up for it, I'll probably hit him 5th. Having my defense set up the middle was a key, thus I selected Joe Dimaggio at center and Joe Torre behind the plate. Joe D was a no-brainer, as my team is representing NYC and I needed an old time Yankee legend and Ruth, Gehrig and Mantle were off the board. He's not quite as powerful as I wanted from my #1 OF, and he didn't steal bases, but he's a monster on extra base hits and the sort of character I wanted to represent the Highlanders. Torre, current Yankee skipper, will be pulling double duty for me, managing and catching. I'll be his pitching coach (3 years varsity and 2 JC, WHAT!?!!). Catchers are a rare commodity, and Torre was very good in his day. I was thrilled with this choice. My pitching staff needs the most work thus far as I've only drafted two pitchers so far. A few guys I wanted went earlier then I'd expected, but I did manage to get two of my highest rated guys. I grabbed two guys from the "deadball" era, Addie Joss and John Ward. Both sported outstanding ERAs and WHIPs, which is all I was looking for. Neither lasted very long by modern standards, 9 and 7 years respectively, but longevity isn't really important given Al's methods. I consider this the equivalent of having a pair of Greg Madduxes at the top of the rotation, which isn't a bad start at all. So how you guys doing? let's hear it!

No, no, no, that's not at all what I was saying. I said that steroids will not make a bad ballplayer good. If you don't have the tools to make it in the bigs, taking steroids probably won't change that. They're a talent enhancer, they don't make up for a lack of it. McGwire, Bonds, Sosa....whoever, are all talented players in their own right who were given a boost by steroids, but they made the pros on their own merit, in Bonds case he was great before he started doping, it just made him greater.

No shit. You say this as if it's some great discovery you made. It's COMMON FUCKING SENSE. Why harp on something that has never been in contention? Whoever made the .275/25 ----> .300/40 argument is spot on. It makes good hitters better than they were naturally. Why do we care about guys who juice but were never good enough to make it anyway? That doesn't cause any change in the complexion of the game. Guys who are already professional hitters getting super strength does.

You say that as if strength has nothing to do with hitting

agreed. They blew that off way too quick.

Just admit it bitch! Tiptoeing around whether or not he used the shit is more incriminating than just being a man and admitting it. God I hate McGwire

I just tuned in a couple minutes ago, McGwire and Sosa both came off like tools, McGwire kept repeating "I'm here to talk about positives, not about the past" over and over, and Sosa was like, "yeah, what Mark said"

To kick off RD 8, the Highlanders select 1B Jim Thome!

To close out whatever the fuck round this is, the Highlanders select SP and author of the famous essay, "The Ball Player, Is He Chattel?"....John Ward!

C'mon jew!

Hhahahaha, they got jobbed out! I remember back when they showed up and it was a huge holy shit moment for me. Everyone wanted Steiners v. Eliminators. ECW was getting pretty big at that point, but the Steiners showing up seemed really major and even a little out of place, it was right before they went back to WCW, they'd been on the dl for a bit, and I was pretty shocked that they were working ECW. I never expected them to stay long, and IIRC their first appearance was a total surprise, might have even been a "fill in" for someone. They might have been the biggest names to work for Heyman at that point other than Funk, who's name wasn't really as big as it is now when he started with them.

and as far as Zappa goes, I like him and his work more than I like any specific albums, but I really dig.... , and