Cheech Tremendous

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As someone who's watched Raw from the very beginning, the Foley title win is the only moment from that list that belongs in the top 50. The rest of those were total throwaway moments. I was at Milk-o-mania live and it was a fun moment, but it didn't even get over that well with the crowd. It was just a cute ripoff of the beerbath. As for the rest on that list.... uggh.

This has lead to some interesting discussion today. We should attack a different division each day with everyone chipping in with their perspectives on teams.

Fred Jones was a star at U of O and is something of a local hero. He's an okayish player but this was more to appease the locals than anything else. By the way, I'm all for keeping young talent over aging superstars, but Kupchak fucked up big time on this one. Bynum is going to need at least 3 or 4 more years to become a franchise level player and by that time Kobe probably won't be the elite player he is. They wouldn't have become the favorites, but they would have had a legitimate shot to win it this year and next. I don't see the point in building towards a title at some vague point in the future when you have the chance to win today. It's completely misguided. That stuff works for the Celtics or Knicks or some other team that has no hope of winning a title in the next half decade, but not the Lakers.

I heard he collapsed at an NBDL practice and was only 52. That's a tough break. He was a great ballplayer.

It didn't seem to hurt them when Thomas missed a month before the All-Star break. Look, I don't think they needed Kidd at all and I truly question the validity of the rumor, but it would hardly hurt them to have Kidd on the team. Probably wouldn't improve them much, but it wouldn't hurt their chances like naiwf was suggesting.

I'm going to back up Matt Young on this one because it sounds like he has a very similar metabolism to mine. I couldn't even put on a pound of muscle until I practically gave up on cardio. No matter how much I ate or worked, I stayed the same weight, even while doing a minimal 15 minutes a day of cardio.

I'm not predicting killer years for the Cards or the Cubs and I'm not counting the Astros out. But if I'm making predictions, I don't just go with a gut feeling. I try to figure out what is likely to happen given the current rosters. To me, the Astros look like a fourth place team. It's nothing personal.

The unhealthy part was eating one meal a day. As an active lifter, 3,000 calories is probably fine.

Not necessarily. I played a lot of sports growing up and when I got near the end of college I started lifting as way to keep myself in shape and fill the void of athletic competition. Through improved diet and good lifting habits I was able to pack on the pounds. I was a skinny kid, so I really needed it. Ideally now I would cut back on the lifting and tone up, but I enjoy my routine.

It's not like he's totally juiced up. He put some muscle on his scrawny frame. Good for him. I've put on a solid 30-40 pounds of muscle in the last few years. Is there something weird about that?

On one hand the Cardinals only won 83 games last year, but they won over 100 the previous two years with almost exactly the same squad so maybe the record was an anomaly. They were plagued by injuries and they had a rough finish to the year. It can be argued that they were vastly better than an 83-win team, as evidenced by their World Series rings. Secondly, the starting pitching has question marks going into the year, but do you remember last year's team? The starting pitching was horribe. I'd bet that Reyes and Wainwright end up far better than drek like Marquis, Ponson, Mulder and whoever else they ran out there when Carpenter wasn't pitching. The fact is they've been the class of this division for several years, and nothing really happened in the offseason to suggest that they've been surpassed.

Not saying that's the deal that puts them over the top or anything, but I don't think it would be that shocking if the Raptors won the east this year. Chances are slim, but they are the scariest team right now in that conference.

The only reason the Astros have been in the race recently is because they were getting 600+ innings out of Clemens, Oswalt and Pettitte. They have almost no offense. Carlos Lee is not a game changer. When factoring his defense in, he's like a 4-5 win player at best. I don't see how he changes the balance of power in the Central... he couldn't do it when he was with the Brewers. There are question marks surrounding the other teams as well, but none of them are banking their season on the backs of two players (Oswalt and Berkman). Maybe they end up with the division, but for that to happen they need to have all their pieces fall into place and the other 3 good teams all have to struggle. The chances of all that happening probably aren't good.

You know what this means, don't you? The Knicks might actually make the NBA playoffs

You guys don't seem to know a thing about Vince McMahon or the way he operates. There is nobody, save Hulk (who's already in) that is more important for Vince to have in the hall than Bruno. You are forgetting the following: -Despite what the product looks like today, Vince grew up on old school WWWF. He adores it. He's an admitted mark for Superstar, Bruno, Muraco, Morales, etc. If you can't see the parallels between the way Cena and Bruno were booked, you aren't paying close enough attention . -Bruno is the guy who has criticized Vince ad nauseum and never come crawling back. Vince gets off on the idea of winning a war. There would be nothing more satisfactory to him than having his biggest oppponent cave in to his demands. -Finally, it gives his stupid hall some credibility. Everyone in the business knows that the thing is a farce. If Bruno goes in, he's vindicated to some point for recognizing the past and inducting one of the company's biggest stars.

In what world would the Suns get worse by adding Jason Kidd?

The Suns are probably the last team that needs Jason Kidd. Although that's not a bad deal if you're the Nets. That draft pick is going to be very valuable.

Ditto to all of this. False. That team won't even sniff .500.

I like reading them, viva. I enjoy your wild-eyed optimism, even if it's completely misguided. I spend most of the year worrying about how my team could screw up so it's refreshing to see a guy who loves his team for all that they aren't.

Why in the world would the Grizzlies trade their franchise player for an inferior player making the same kind of money?

The Cardinals... won... the 2006... World Series. Comparing an 83-win team beating a 95-win team to a 54-win team doing the same thing is ridiculous. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. It doesn't seem to be registering with you that anything can happen in a short series. Baseball is weird that way. It's a game of percentages and sometimes they break a strange way. It's not hard to imagine a 54-win team managing to put up a fight in a seven game series. I was trying to illustrate the point that being the best team doesn't mean you always win.

The Cardinals... won... the 2006... World Series.

You mean the same Royals that won 3 of their last 4 against the White Sox in 2005? Anything can happen in a short series. We see it every single year in the playoffs. The simulator actually takes into account how random baseball can be sometimes.

Oh please, there are plenty of others out there who can teach him. Just because Kareen was great doesn't mean anyone who helps will be to.