Cheech Tremendous

The Kings bought out Drew Gooden and word has it he's on his way to San Antonio. Boston really jumped the gun on the Mikki Moore signing. They managed to miss out on Joe Smith and Drew Gooden.

And Czech finally nails the Kinetic humor. Well done, sir.

Lock up your spouses and underaged ball girls, Orlando Cabrera has signed with the Oakland A's. Link

Power rankings for the NFL are a fruitless exercise almost any time of the year, but they are entirely meaningless in March. The overarching problem is the tendency to overrate good teams and underrate the bad. In reality there are only a handful of bad and good teams; the majority resides somewhere in the middle. There's a pack of roughly 20-25 teams that, as constituted, could win 7-9 games. The unbalanced schedule and short season causes certain teams to look different than their actual talent level should suggest. How you could differentiate Tampa Bay from Green Bay from Houston from Denver is beyond me. Why are we even critiquing this mess?

Thanks for also killing my "Man, this thread is a hit" joke.

Got Survivor by Chuck Pahlianiuk as a birthday gift this weekend. I was a big fan of Choke and I understand that this is generally considered his best work. Hopefully I'll get to it sometime this week.

Yes, I'm a big Klosterman fan. I get why guys like Czech don't like him though.

I'll check into it. I know that a mod can enter one in. Yes. I believe all you have to do is separate their names with commas like a standard email.

George Sherrill, RP ... and his gut

That actually was a good angle. They built up Duggan as a real sympathetic character by referencing the kidney surgery before having Goldberg beat the living hell out of him. He was coughing up blood and everything. That was one of the few times during that run that Goldy actually seemed like a badass heel.

It seems that sports blogs are increasing is both scope and popularity, effectively choking out the more traditional newspapers. It seems like everyone has their respective favorites. Let's use this thread to suggest the good ones, flame the crap ones and discuss what's going on in blog-world. Some of my favorites: Deadspin - The de-facto sports blog king. It's not necessarily my favorite out there, but still a must read. The Big Lead - Sort of like Deadspin, but without the continuous attempts at humor and inside jokes. Usually features decent analysis. I especially like the time given to critiquing the media. Fire Joe Morgan - The definitive baseball blog. The concept has gotten a little tired, and they don't post as much any more, but the humor still works and the analysis is still on point. MLB Trade Rumors - This used to be somewhat of a joke, but I now find this to be must-read stuff. They're still just rumors, but the stuff is always sourced. A great way to keep up on other teams. Any other essential reading out there?

ARCO Arena isn't that old, but it's a veritable shithole in a bad location. They've tried to improve that area, but it's located at least 15 minutes north of town in no-man's land. There's been some new construction in the area, but for most of its life it has sat in a wasteland. It's a large monstrosity plopped dead in the center of a piece of land abutting Interstate-5. Location is terrible in terms of access, including no public transportation. As for the viability of the franchise, it was a tough ticket for quite a few years. If we're carving up California, the northern half certainly identifies more closely with the Kings than the Warriors. I guess they don't need to have basketball there, but I don't think it's a bad location. The metro area is roughly the size of Portland, which is certainly capable of supporting a franchise.

Bill's choices were those that have brand new, NBA-caliber arenas with no tenant. He seems to place a lot of weight on the precedent set by Oklahoma City. In other words, a franchise in trouble today will look for an easy move rather than a protracted, complicated one. Seattle, while a big time city, still needs massive improvements to Key or a new facility before they could get team to commit to a move there. That's not an immediate problem for say, Kansas City or St. Louis.

Rush made 2112. Please don't lump them in with these other awful groups.

I was blessed with exceptional length, but below average girth and unimpressive balls.

Bill Simmons has a very long, but fascinating article up at espn.com about the state of finances in the NBA. It's well worth the read if you are interested in that sort of thing, even if Simmons isn't your cup of tea. Among topics covered are a pending lockout for 2011; the reasoning behind the lack of trades; bad officiating; and the possibility of multiple franchises moving in the next 15 months.

According to what I read, the Dodgers wanted to pay Manny $10 million this year, with $10 million deferred to 2010 and the remaining $5 mil coming in 2011. There would be no interest added to the deferred payments. The option year would be paid out over a three-year period, also without interest. Doing a quick PV of the contract using a 10% discount yields $21M for year one and $15M for the option. That's a bunk contract. While Manny may be out of options right now, Boras rejected an offer that was grossly in favor of the Dodgers and out of line with market standards. You don't defer money without interest.

Let's not listen.

Starting Weight: 195 Ending Weight: 188 Total Pounds Lost: 7 Avg. Loss Per Week: 1lb. Weight Lost as a %: 3.59% Did you reach your goal? Not entirely, but I'm happy with what I accomplished. I set out to shed 10 lbs., and fell just short. However, one pound a week is a good amount. Reflections: Last spring I hit two bills for the first time in my life, forcing me to realize that the metabolism wasn't what it used to be. I set out to shed 15 pounds before my best friend's wedding and did it. However, most of that weight crept back on during the holidays. Even though I didn't win the contest, I'm glad that it forced me to watch my weight again. I think I should be able to lose 5-10 more when the weather gets better and I start running again.

Congratulations, David Bush, you're a Stat Monger!

2/26 Update: Here is the chart updated through today. I've deleted those contestants who've gone more than one month without an update. It was obvious that a few people had given up on this entirely. You still have until Monday to get your final weight in, but barring some miraculous change Still Fly is going to win this thing. He was the overall leader in total pounds lost and weight loss as a percentage of body weight. Congratulations on your hard work. Fazzle, KOAB and Haws all had double digit losses. That's impressive for a two-month push. Best of luck keeping it off going forward. Mik and King Curacha both struggled and ended up gaining some weight. That's okay. Keep on trying. As put in your final update, try filling out this little questionnaire:

What did Bowden do to get himself fired a month before the season starts? Why didn't they just fire him back in October of 2008 so they could have the new gm develop the team into what they wanted for what is possible for the 2009 season? Bowden is in really deep with the DR bonus skimming scandal. He's reportedly being investigated by the FBI. They're dropping like flies in the Nats organization as a result of the scandal, with Special Assistant Jose Rijo recently agreeing to take a leave of absence.

I don't remember anything about a WCW/SMW agreement outside of this match. Care to enlighten us? I love inept WCW stories.

I had to consult Google.

The best thing about homosexuality is that it has gained a certain amount of social acceptance in the past ten years due to its portrayal in the media. Only in this decade has the topic become "safe", with many television shows and movies not only openly discussing it, but intentionally glorifying it. Because of this, it has seemingly made it easier for young females to "experiment" and be bi-curious. The by-product, of course, is a greater availability of three-ways, as well as lesbian porn, for a generation of males like myself. I am more than okay with this.