vivalaultra

Well, it's obviously because all the teams in the NL Central play the Cubs extremely hard and lay down for the Cards and the Astros. Yeah... I'm surprised the Reds are sticking around this long. Granted, they usually are a really streaky team, but it seems like this season their hot streaks are outlasting their cold streaks. I'm not convinced that they'll be in the race at the end of the season, but they're doing their thing, and, like the Tigers, will probably start contending next year, if get a little more pitching help. Is Dunn locked up through next year or just till the end of this year?

Fifteen favorite songs from 69 Love Songs (Five from each disk) Disk 1 1. "Come Back from San Francisco" 2. "The Book of Love" 3. "Nothing Matters When We're Dancing" 4. "I Don't Believe in the Sun" 5. "The Cactus Where Your Heart Should Be" Disk 2 1. "Kiss Me Like You Mean It" 2. "Papa Was a Rodeo" 3. "(Crazy for You) But Not That Crazy" 4. "Asleep and Dreaming" 5. "Time Enough for Rocking When We're Old" Disk 3 1. "Meaningless" 2. "How to Say Goodbye" 3. "It's a Crime" 4. "Busby Berkley Dreams" 5. "The Night You Can't Remember" Five Least Favorite Songs (but still good) from 69 Love Songs 1. "Love is Like Jazz" 2. "Experimental Music Love" 3. "Washington D.C." 4. "For We Are the Kings of the Boudoir" 5. "Long Forgotten Fairytale"

I think the Bowie/Jagger thing is one of the most terrifyingly bad things ever, especially if you've seen the video. That said, I have no opinion on the original. I guess if I said I enjoyed it because of the overt homosexual overtones, that wouldn't make me look manlier than I do right now...

You said that it was shameful that my favorite The Band song was a Bob Dylan song, but you could've been speaking of the collaboration and not in the sense of a covering. Ah well, the whole Band/Dylan mutual admiration society produced some good work. On a completely different note, the Iron and Wine version of The Postal Service's "Such Great Heights" is much better than the cheesy original, methinks. But, as evident in my preference of M. Ward's version of "Let's Dance" over the Bowie version, I will always prefer a hushed acoustic version over the electro/synth-pop original.

uhm, no. not even close. and vivaltura: its richard manual not charlie. and i was the decryer about the cover song thing. Yeesh, I mixed up the name of the guy from The Band with the manager of the Phillidelphia Phillies. Ridiculous. And I remember you as the decrier, which is why I referenced the decrying, which makes the decrying in this thread seem odd.

A ridiculous addendum: http://articles.news.aol.com/news/article....S00010000000001

Yeah...the Dylan "I Shall Be Released" only came out on the Basement Tapes and I think on a live record...maybe a bootleg. It was co-written by Charlie Manuel and it was pretty much known as, and is known as, a Band song. I just mentioned it cuz somebody gave me shit for saying that my favorite The Band song was "I Shall Be Released" and decried it as shameful that my favorite The Band song is a cover song.

OMG~!!!! You referenced Glenn Davis! He was one of my favs back in the 80s. He was great in '86, and he also briefly brought Curt Schilling to the 'Stros who was then traded to the Phillies for...believe it or not, Jason "Stoolpigeon" Grimsley.

Not only did the 'Stros rout the Braves 14-4 today, but Roger Clemens made his second minor league start for the Corpus Christi Hooks, Houston's AA club. He went 6 innings, struck out 11, gave up no walks, and only 2 hits-the first hit came in the 5th inning. By getting over 10 strikeouts, he won free tacos for everyone in attendence. His start in A ball, he won the whole crowd wiper fluid by striking out five. Minor league baseball rules! Also, it's good to get a look at Houston's AA club, who are really, really good, sending a Texas League high 9 All-Stars to the All-Star Game.

I guess just count me in as someone who hates Nico's voice. And about the Bowie dance-pop thing...uh...I like "Dancin' in the Streets" by Bowie and Jaggar better than the original. Yeah...good stuff.

I like Chilton's voice. It's..."emotionally fragile". I don't see how M. Ward's subdued acoustic take is more jokey than David Bowie's synth-pop version.

I know I feel better about myself every time that I see him pitch. I think I could do better than him.

Man...Reitsma blows. At least every homerun is worth $17,000 for prostate cancer research. If Booby Cox doesn't get Reitsma outta there soon, the 'Stros might raise a million dollars just in this inning.

The Band's "I Shall Be Released" over Bobby Dylan This Mortal Coil "Song to the Siren" over Tim Buckley Big Star "Femme Fatale" over The Velvet Underground M. Ward "Let's Dance" over Davey "David Bowie" Jones Red House Painters "All Mixed Up" over The Cars

Horacio Ramirez just took a Lance Berkman line drive off the face. It looked nasty as Hell. But, he was able to stand up and walk off of the field with a little help. Yeesh, it looked painful as all get out, but the 'Stros are up 7-1, so hopefully we win and Horacio's ok.

Half of my previous prediction was wrong. Fernando Nieve has settled down while Jorge Sosa is the drizzling shits. 6-2 'Stros in the bottom of the fifth. Only one team has allowed more multiple run innings than the Braves...The KC Royals. Yeesh. Well, at least the Astros are playing inspired ball again. They're, to coin a phrase "playing the game the right way". Getting runners on, working counts, getting hits with runners in scoring position. Good stuff.

The matchup in Houston tonite is like one of those old "mirror matches" on Mortal Kombat. Fernando Nieve gave up a 2 run homer to Andruw Jones in the bottom of the first, so Jorge Sosa gave up back to back jacks to Biggio and Mike Lamb to lead off the bottom of the first. I predict the final score will be...let's see...9 innings...18-16. All runs scored on homeruns.

Heeeeeeeey...I just read somewhere that the Mets and the Rockies have agreed to swap Kaz Matsui with Eli Marrero, with the Mets picking up the rest of Matsui's contract. I have no idea as to the accuracy of the forementioned scenario, but meh.

Pet Sounds came first, dullard. Everybody knows that Brian Wilson was a master at time travel...jerk! I don't think I've successfully listened to the first Radiohead CD the whole way through, but I've heard all the songs.

Did I hear Buster Olney right on BBTN when he said that with Pujols out, MVP consideration has to be given to Lance "Big Puma" Berkman? That rules.

Yeah, that home plate umpire was atrocious. It seemed like he was favoring whichever team had the lead. Pettitte looked boss in the first inning. He had his slider looking nasty, but I think the umpire made him work harder than he should've had to in the 3rd, and he started struggling after that. No offense to our resident Braves fans, but...man...they don't look so good. I would be surprised if we don't take 3 outta 4 this series.

Hey, so Berkman had a pretty good game. 3 for 4. 2 400+ foot homeruns. 4 RBIs. Threw Francoeur out at the plate. I was disappointed that he didn't try to swipe a bag in the 7th. John Thomson might be the sweatiest person I've ever seen...unless he just soaks his cap in water. Chris Reitsma is horrible. I still hate Chipper Jones. Marcus Giles is as short in person as John Rauch is tall in person. Pettitte still didn't pitch extremely well. If we were playing the Reds, they would've got about 5 or 6 runs off of him. The home plate umpire was terrible.

Oliver Perez is weird. He throws no two consecutive pitches with the same motion. I think that's his problem. Hey, the Bucs drafted my boy Brad Lincoln, who, by most accounts, is ML ready (he's at least as good, if not better, than the Pirates rotation); perhaps they could send Perez down and call up Lincoln. Perez does have an option, and I think it would be neat to see somebody that I know indirectly pitching in the big leagues...besides Ryan Wagner.

Phil Garner, I think we found a keeper. And Lidge actually had a 123 inning...and didn't strike anybody out. Good win today, and a Hell of a game.

Hopefully with better health. Now we hope the BP doesn't blow it. I give it 50/50 odds right now. One down, one to go. I hate to state the obvious, but Wheeler and Lidge have fallen off a bit. It can't be a good thing when your most reliable bullpen pitchers are Russ Springer and Dave Borkowski.