vivalaultra

I know nothing about their music. I'm just talking about that style of dress that annoys me that all the bands are doing these days...with the styled hair that intentionally looks shaggy and unkempt and the REALLY tight pants and thrift shop t-shirts. Of course, I'm basing this on the one or two times I've actually seen them, for a total time of about 25 seconds.

Good Lord, no. They were TERRIBLE. I woulda picked the '80 Stros over the 04 'Stros, if only because I'm a JR Richard fan, and he woulda won the Cy Young that year, had he not gotten ill. And looking at the team stats for the 1980 team, I don't know how the Astros finished first in the division that year. They were relatively mediocre in both pitching and hitting, outside of Phil Niekro and JR Richard for the 17 games he started.

I'm freakin' estatic that Steve Trachsel is going to Baltimore. He would've been bad enough at MMP; I can just imagine how bad he's gonna be in the AL East. The only free agent pitcher left on the market that I hope the Astros consider is Mark Redman. He's not great, but he's a lefty and better than Wandy Rodriguez. He'd be worth at least an invite to Spring Training or a couple million dollars for a year to hold down the #4 spot in the rotation.

The black guy in O-Town was named Trevor. I'm semi-ashamed at my knowledge of O-Town. My sister and I used to watch it every Friday nite during the first season and make jokes about it. There was Ashley Parker Angel-the sensitive guy. His teacher sold him a guitar for a dollar, and Jacob Underwood who was the *ahem* rocker of the group. Apparently he was a rocker because he was into Michael Jackson and painted his fingernails. Then there was Erik Estrada who wasn't the guy on cHIPS and the black guy named Trevor. They did have a Hawaiin guy named Ikea or something, but he quit so they brought in Dan who had a big goofy smile and wore clothes that were 10 sizes too big for him. And they used to call Lou Perlman 'Big Daddy'. I stopped watching after the first season. I did, however, watch some of Ashley Parker Angel's show on MTV and he seemed like a nice enough guy. And that "Baby I Would" song that O-Town came out with was the jam back in the day. I have no opinion on Augustana, except that they all have ridiculous looking hair and they dress in that faux-rocker style that I find annoying.

I was friends with a guy in O-Town. You know what? They still sucked. Wow. Really? Were you friends with Jacob, Ashley, Dan, the Mexican one, or the other guy?

Yeah 'The Long Walk' is really good. The entire Bachman Books is good. Unfortunately, however, the best story from it's no longer in print, "Rage", which was just a really excellent story, but can no longer be found anywhere due to the Columbine school shooting and other similar events.

'Strange Pilgrims' has some very good short stories, especially "The Trail of Your Blood in the Snow", "Light is Like Water", and "I Sell My Dreams". On the subject of Stephen King, it's hard to say. If you wanna read like...some classic Stephen King in his horror phase, I'd say Salem's Lot, but, if you're not into the horror thing, then you might wanna go for one of his more plot-driven stories. You could pick up one of his short story/novella collections. For example, Different Seasons, which has four novellas, three of which became movies, two of which were good movies ('Stand By Me' and 'The Shawshank Redemption' being the good movies, 'Apt Pupil' being the not good movie.). Over the last 15-20 years, Stephen King's been shifting his style to be less of a pulp-horror writer and more of a character-driven writer. Uh...if you'd rather read something like that, you could go for Hearts in Atlantis, which is five short stories centering around the Vietnam War. Or just start reading 'The Dark Tower' series, since pretty much everything Stephen King has written is encompassed in it, and it's fantastic.

If you're gonna go old-school Cardinals, go 1934. Dizzy Dean won 30 games...his brother won 19. Five guys with a BA over .300. Ripper Collins. Good stuff, yeah.

Jane Austen's Ok, but all of her books are the epitome of "chick lit". Northanger Abbey is good. It's a faux-gothic satire type dealie.

So, question...how are you going to work in guys that were traded mid-season or called up mid-season or whatnot? Especially in regard to my pick of the 98 'Stros, because I'd much rather have 1998 Randy Johnson over 1998 Pete Schourek in the rotation.

1. "Via Chicago" 2. "Sunken Treasure" 3. "Hummingbird" 4. "She's a Jar" 5. "Ashes of American Flags" ...in any order.

This'll just make me look like an even BIGGER home, but...what gives, mang? You forgot my 'Stros! (and I'm fully prepared to receive a sarcastic remark in return, such as "Hey, he said MAJOR LEAGUE teams, not AAA! HA!" or "There's nobody on the Astros worth taking." or some such.)

And Jose Reyes is actually a catcher for the Chicago Cubs. Jose Reyes

I shoulda picked relief pitchers instead of a buncha starters in retrospect. Oh, and Jason Jennings is no longer a Rockie. He's an Astro, yo.

I had hoped it was only a rumor, possibly just a joke, but it appears that it's not. According to various sources a week or so ago, the Astros were 'flirting' with Steve Trachsel. It appears in the course of this flirting, the Astros' were passed, by Trachsel, a drink laced with roofies, as they are 'close' to him to a deal, not, mind you, a NRI deal, but a fully loaded one-year contract to hold down the back end of the rotation. Apparently, Steve Trachsel was reciting epic Italian love poems to get the Astros to sign him after a season where he had a K/BB rate of almost 1:1 and an ERA of nearly 5, despite pitching half his games in the cavernous Shea Stadium. I applauded the Carlos Lee and Woody Williams signings; I eventually came around on the Jennings trade; I was nearly orgasmic at the signing of Mark Loretta, but I will, in no way, endorse the signing of Steve Trachsel. I can only assume that Drayton McClane figures that all games started by Trachsel will take at least 5 hours to finish due to his dilatory pitching style and he can sell more concessions in 5 hours than he can in 3 hours, but, honestly, will Steve Trachsel be that much of an upgrade over Matt Albers or Chris Sampson or Fernando Nieve? I think not.

Starting Lineup: 1B-Pujols (STL) 2B-Utley (PHI) 3B-Atkins (COL) SS-Jeter (NYY) CF-Beltran (NYM) RF-Ichiro (SEA) LF-Dunn (CIN) C-Varitek (BOS) P-Oswalt (HOU) Bench: OF-Jermaine Dye (CHW) IF-Freddy Sanchez (PIT) OF-Carl Crawford (TBD) IF-Michael Young (TEX) C-Ivan Rodriguez (DET) IF-Miguel Tejada (BAL) OF-Reggie Sanders (KCR) IF-Ryan Zimmerman (WAS) OF-Grady Sizemore (CLE) IF/OF-Nick Swisher (OAK) C-Russ Martin (LAD) Bullpen: Randy Johnson (ARI) Carlos Zambrano (CHI) Roy Halladay (TOR) Johan Santana (MIN) Barry Zito (SFG) Dontrelle Willis (FLA) Ben Sheets (MIL) Mike Gonzalez (ATL) Frankie Rodriguez (ANA) Trevor Hoffman (SDP)

Hmmm...I'll go 1998 Astros. I considered the 80 'Stros and the '86 'Stros, but...I went 98.

Kyp? Yeah, Kyp has the 'fro and the glasses, but he also has a beard that's about as big as his afro...and he wears really tight shirts...and the first time I saw TVOTR in Austin, he told the crowd to go "totally bananas" for the opening act. Heh...totally bananas.

Continuing with the Soriano/Utley debate, I find it interesting that number one on Utley's comprable batters through age 27 is Alfonso Soriano. In Utley's age 27 season, he went .309/.379/.527 and Soriano went .290/.338/.525 in his. Soriano hit 6 more HRs but had 11 less RBI and walked 30 less times and struck out 2 less times and was 35 for 43 in steals comapred to Utley's 15 for 19. What does this tell us? Nothing! However, I'm still comfortable with my pick of Cano, especially batting between Berkman and Cabrera.

I picked Cano because, although he had half as many homeruns as Utley, he had a .342 BA compared to Utley's still impressive .309, and, although he only walked 18 times, he struck out 80 less times than Utley. I figured I had enough thump in the lineup, so I went with a contact hitter. I was just disappointed that I couldn't think of a really great left-handed or switch-hitting 3rd baseman to stick in my lineup to preserve my 'All Lefties and Switch-Hitters" motif. And I wasn't about to pick Chipper Jones.

I wonder when the murder trial against her lawyer/fake husband/etc. will start. Geraldo seems to think he was involved when her son died in the Bahamas and again today, seeing how he was alone in the room with each when they died. Hmmm...

Anna Nicole Smith died today...apparently. Surprising, but it's on Fox News. I finally get on the board! But still...quite a tragedy.

I had that same thought. Put an afro and some thick ass plastic glasses on him and it's 1979 Atlanta all over again. And they're both sick fucks who deserve their respective fates.

Just for the people that demand closure for this story, the Baytown (incorrectly referred to as Houston) serial killer/rapist was caught today. And...here's a picture of him! That's him in the pookah shells. Now, this guy is 6'1" and weighs 170 and is 19 years old. Here's the story, linked from the Baytown Sun (www.baytownsun.com; go look for articles written by Jessica Robertson. She's my sister, yo.) And that's the end of that chapter.