Cheech Tremendous

Yes, they are. Granted, this is the first place that I've ever owned a home, but my taxes are about equal to what my parents pay in California despite their home being worth about twice as much as mine.

I have a three bedroom, two bath home. I am currently living alone while Mrs. Tremendous finishes up her Master's degree. My mortgage payment is about $1,500 monthly, but that covers insurance and taxes as well.

Wrestlemania IX is certainly terrible, but I still maintain that the Hogan angle at the end looks okay on paper. The biggest problem with that angle is it cut off the legs of Yoko and Bret and had absolutely no follow-up. If Hogan spent the next six months as a face defending the title against Luger, Giant Gonzalez, Yoko and Crush before putting Bret over clean, would people hate the ending as much? As is, it's the ultimate Hogan blowjob finish, but in my mind I can't help but think that they had more in mind when they booked that finish. Really, a straight Yoko-Bret main event with no Hogan interference may have come off worse than what happened, and that's really saying something. The biggest issue, for me, is that they had some decent matches/feuds or possible pairings that they didn't capitalize on by stretching them out to Mania. Off the top of my head, they could have done Hart/Savage, Hogan/Luger, Taker/Gonzalez, Michaels/Janetty, Flair/Perfect, Steiners/Money Inc and Yoko/Duggan. That's not a bad card when you think about it. Combine it with one of the best venues they ever booked and you have a very memorable Mania.

There's certainly a degree of irony in people stating that WMVI is a one-match show and then coming right back and defending WMVII because of the great Warrior/Savage match. There is nothing redeeming about WMVII other than that angle. Sure, Hogan/Slaughter is a decent contest, but that's ignoring the fact that the angle sucked, Hogan got the belt back and Sgt. f'n Slaughter was main eventing a show in 1991! Other than that: the Demos match is a dud; Harts jobbing to the Nasty Boys kind of sucks; the LOD match is a throwaway; the IC title match ends in a DQ; and the venue is a letdown. Why are we suddenly praising this event as something special?

It has 25 replies and 487 pageviews. That clearly indicates a need for a thread. If a news item yields discussion, it gets a thread. It doesn't matter whether or not you think it's threadworthy.

Bosh is the one guy that strikes me as a possibility since he may be willing to take less money just to get out of Toronto. I can't really envision any scenario where Wade or Lebron leave, nor can I see Dirk or Yao switching teams. The only people who will move are those who aren't really worth max numbers, but might get an inflated contract because of all the teams with money. I can see this being a scenario for Steve Nash, Tracy McGrady, Joe Johnson and a few others. The true superstars aren't going anywhere. For reference, here are big name free agents available in 2010:

You aren't alone in that assessment. I've been saying for quite a while now that any team banking on the summer of 2010 is going to be severely disappointed. The current salary cap rewards players who stay with their team and in the end, we know that the almighty dollar is the most important thing to most professional athletes. I could see one of the big guys moving to a new team, but this predicted scenario of massive star movement will never come to pass.

Hey Knicks fans, you may want to reconsider stashing away that champagne for the summer of 2010. From the NY Daily News:

Rick Vaughn, er I mean Daniel Cabrera, SP

As I remember it they didn't even sell out the LA Sports Arena.

How about the Shane Mac/Kurt Angle street fight at KOTR 2000 with the gimmicked set that didn't break? Shane took some absolutely sick bumps as a result.

Don't you dare bring me into the middle of your tard fight, EHME.

That's the largest contract ever given to a pitcher with two years of service time. It more than doubles what Fausto Carmona got last year. I don't think there's anything wrong with locking up young players, but I'd rather go year-to-year with pitchers like Lester and Papelbon. A team like the Red Sox, with all their financial muscle, can afford to pay market prices for their players while minimizing the risk of a flameout. Then again, I don't run a baseball team, so maybe I don't know anything. Speaking of pitching contracts, I did like this bit I found in Gammon's newest:

FYI, here are the 20 biggest free agent signings this offseason, ordered by total contract value: • $180MM (8 years):Mark Teixeira signed the biggest deal of the offseason with the Yankees. • $161MM (7 years): C.C. Sabathia signed with the Yanks too, passing on a 5 year $100MM offer from the Brewers. He can opt out after three years, at which point he'll have $92MM remaining if he chooses to take it. • $82.5MM (5 years): A.J. Burnett signed with the Yankees after opting out of his deal with the Jays. • $60MM (4 years): Derek Lowe signed with the Braves after negotiations with the Mets. • $52MM (4 years): Ryan Dempster signed with the Cubs way back in November. • $45MM (2 years): Manny Ramirez signed with the Dodgers just this afternoon. • $37MM (3 years): Francisco Rodriguez signed with the Mets, who added J.J. Putz the next day. • $36MM (3 years): Oliver Perez chose this deal over a longer term option that averaged a lower salary. • $31.5MM (3 years): Raul Ibanez signed early on with the Phillies, a move he's surely happy with. • $30MM (3 years):Rafael Furcal signed with the Dodgers, but not before infuriating the Braves. • $30MM (3 years): Milton Bradley signed with the Cubs for up to three years, but some language in the contract protects the Cubs in case Bradley misses considerable time with injuries. • $23MM (3 years): Kenshin Kawakami signed with the Braves. • $20.5MM (2 years): Kerry Wood signed with the Indians for two years with a vesting option for a third year. • $20MM (2 years): Adam Dunn signed with the Nats after some suggested he might only make $5MM. • 18.5MM (2 years): Edgar Renteria signed a deal that's been criticized by many, but the Giants can buy him out for $500K after this season if they choose not to pick up his $9.5MM option. • 17.5MM (2 years): Brian Fuentes signed for at least two years with the Angels. • 17.5MM (3 years): Casey Blake signed a deal that could keep him in LA for four years. • $16MM (2 years): Jamie Moyer re-signed with the Phillies for a lot, especially considering he'll turn 48 just weeks after the deal's up. • $16MM (2 years): Pat Burrell signed with the Rays for the essentially the same amount as his former teammate. The difference? Moyer's 14 years his senior. • 12.75MM (3 years): Juan Rivera re-signed with the Angels.

Tom Tango had an interesting write-up on Juan Pierre's current value:

In terms of their singing ability or their respective runs in Black Sabbath? Dio has the classic metal voice, but I still think Ozzy's work on the first sixth Sabbath albums is superior.

Agreed (re: Magnum). The Warriors beat the Midnight Express in '88 to win the tag titles, no? The Warriors should have won the titles from Anderson and Blanchard at Starrcade '87. The finish in that match totally killed their momentum (and the Chicago market). They turned heel in 1988, which the fans never bought, and had a lackluster run with the belts in late 1988 and early 1989. All in all, it was a disastrous run given what they should have meant to the promotion.

Dio lives on the fine line that separates clever and stupid.

What's with all the blood pressure issues?

Piper's WCW run was puzzling to me because I never understood the whole "icon" thing or why he was considered special. I know now what he meant to the expansion, but I started watching WWF in the late 1980s after Piper had his run at the top. By the time I was actively watching and consuming the product Piper was nothing more than a commentator and part-time performer, so seeing him pushed a main eventer in 1996 was certainly shocking. For me, this would have been the equivalent of say, Jerry Lawler, coming out on Raw next week and starting a feud with John Cena over who the bigger star was. It just didn't make sense in the environment. The other thing that bothered me about Piper was that the Starrcade main event was non-title. They spent more than a month pushing this match for their biggest event of the year and didn't bother to mention that the title couldn't change hands until after the match. Can you imagine?! What if Hart-Michaels had their 60-minute match at Mania XII and then after the bout the announcers casually mentioned it was non-title. Everyone would have shit. Just another one of those "dumb WCW" moments, I guess. The majority of his stint was basically a feud with Hogan that I never really cared about. I know there was a brief run with the US title, but overall, it was a really unimaginative run.

I urinate almost every time I step in the shower, whether I have to go or not. It's been such a routine for so long that my body does it instinctively. Doesn't hurt that I shower first thing in the morning and I usually have to take a raging piss when I wake up. As for other bodily excretions, blowing the nose is always fair game, but I don't spit and I've never Bruiser Brody'd my shower. I'll rub one out every once in a while if the mood strikes me, but like Inc I find the water distracting and the standing up too tiring. The cleanliness is the only saving grace and it's not enough to outweigh the negatives, in my mind.

Rafael Soriano, RP

Thank you. I even went so far as to use the search engine to try and figure out the origin of this joke, but to no avail. So, at long last, someone please explain to me what the deal is with Willy Aybar and why his name is in the subtitle of almost every thread in the sports folder. St. Gabe used his first round pick on Willy Aybar in the TSM Fantasy Baseball league. It was very funny at the time, but I have no idea why the joke got taken all over the sports folder. Also: Willy Aybar wasn't nearly as funny as Matt Young quitting the league because fantasy sports are too hard.

Nope. Been a Raiders fan all my life and probably always will be, even if they continue into the black hole of suck. I have an interest in the Seahawks as well, but that has more to do with my proximity to the team and the ability to get all their games on tv.