vivalaultra

I'm not upset that Springer got suspended (even though he's been one of our better bullpen pitchers this season...yeesh). I'm upset at the amount of attention and villianizing going on because he hit Bonds, and, yes it was probably intentional, although there could be a flimsy case made that it wasn't intentional. I'm upset at the situation because if Springer had hit say...Randy Winn or Steve Finley, there wouldn't be this amount of attention being paid, but...because it's BONDS, it has to be made a huge deal. Even a couple weeks ago when Jose Mesa obviously intentionally hit Omar Vizquel and came right out and never denied that it was intentional and alluded to the fact that he would hit Vizquel every time he had the opportunity, there wasn't any suspensions or such. Seriously, when Russ freakin' Springer becomes a topic of debate on Donny Deustch with Jesse Jackson analyzing the situation, that's just going a little bit too far.

Apparently, Russ Springer, he who hit Bonds the other nite, has been suspended for four games and fined an undisclosed sum. Phil Garner has been suspended for one game and fined. I find this whole situation ridiculous. How many games did Jose Mesa get suspended for hitting Omar Vizquel the other week? How many games did Pedro Martinez get suspended for hitting 16 Washington Nationals in one game? Yeesh, just because it's Bonds there has to be a suspension and a fine and all kinds of national media coverage. San Fran sportswriters and Rev. Jesse Jackson are making it out like the whole Houston fanbase is a bunch of racists that only cheered because Russ Springer, a white guy, hit Barry Bonds, a black guy...and not because Russ Springer, a Houston Astros pitcher, hit Barry Bonds, a smug ass that leans over the plate and wears layers of armor. If I recall, I saw people of all races in the crowd standing and cheering when Bonds got hit. I find this situation to be ridiculous.

It comes from Latin! ...like everything else, including togas and anal sex.

I'm disappointed to hear that the grammar stuff in Consider the Lobster is pedantic. I hear enough pedantic grammar squibbling at school. I did really enjoy A Supposedly Fun Thing... so I'll have to check it out anyway. However, I never made it all the way through Infinite Jest, I'm saddened to say... Soooooo long. Sooooo many pages.

Well, the 'Stros have been outscored by the Giants 32-5 in 23 innings of this series. But Bonds did not hit a homerun. We haven't been swept at home since the Flubbies in '04. Oh well, our young guys were bound to have a couple bad starts this season. Bring on the Rangers and their rookie pitcher on Friday. The Battle of the Silver Boot!

I personally liked Franny and Zooey better than Holden "Emo" Caufield. Zooey kicks ass. The best short story is A Perfect Day for Bananafish. And I must concur that I do not now have, nor will I ever, have even the slightest inkling to read the Motley Crue book. A marginal 80s hair band just doesn't thrill me. They're all old and/or fat now anyway.

Damn, the 'Stros got thumped again, but at least the Reds and Cards didn't win, so the lose doesn't matter and Russ Springer totally hit Barroid. It was great. He did the same thing a couple years ago in San Fran. Russ Springer-a real man's man. It was made even better because Barry had that stupid smug ass smile on his face as he admired his deep flyout to Jason Lane. I also learned an interesting factoid tonite. On this date in 1902, there was the first game played with opposing deaf/mute starting pitchers. Both were nicknamed "Dummy". I must say that I don't condone plunking any hitters, except Bonds... 1. Because he's a smug bastard 2. He crowds the plate and wears body armor 3. When he does get hit, he gets all pissy and stuff. Biggio's gotten hit upwards of 300 times and never charged the mound. If you crowd the plate, you shouldn't complain about getting hit every now and again.

The Violent Femmes cover is on point, son. Really good album. Cee-Lo gets better every new project.

The Violent Femmes cover is on point, son. Really good album. Cee-Lo gets better every new project.

It's a shame that this thread is falling so far down the page. I don't have any new recommendations. I'm currently working my way through Gabriel Garcia Marquez's catalog. It's all good. After I finish all his books sometime in the next month, I plan to start reading (again, since I started it and stopped for some reason) The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami. I hear it's good.

Well, they have Colter Bean...I doubt he's enough to get Soriano. Ya know Steinbrenner's gonna break the bank or the farm system for somebody.

Well, it's a good thing that George Stienbrenner was patient enough to let his farm system grow and develop instead of trading away everybody for overpriced superstars. So, really...who are the Yanks gonna trade for? I've heard Abreu and Torii Hunter and some others, but I don't see any of them actually going through. The best I think they can do is go ahead and trade some pitching prospects to the Nats and get back Soriano.

Just so no one has to stay up late watching Sportscenter tonite, Bonds did not go deep. He went 1-3 with a double and a BB. He also looked terrible striking out against Trever Miller. He's not gonna be in the lineup tomorrow nite, so you can all go to the movies or something. Brad Ausmus is at second base. That's how you know the team's gettin' their asses kicked.

Well, the 'Stros are down 8-0 in the third, but Bonds hasn't homered yet, and he probably won't off of my second favorite Astros pitcher Taylor Buchholz...mainly because he's probably gonna get pulled soon....giving up 8 earned runs in 2 1/3 isn't gonna cut it.

Yeah...anybody have any good recipies to share?

All of Texas gets pumped for the "Battle of the Silver Boot". I'm sure Minute Maid Park's gonna be rocking all week, what, with the Bonds circus coming for the next three days. There's word that all the fans in the right field section are going to bring Sharpies and if any of them catch #714, they're going to write something pertaining to steroids on it before throwing it back. I'm not a Bonds fan, but I think that's just petty, and besides, the record is not #715, lest we forget. But we've got my boy, Buchholz pitching tonite, so I'm not worried that Bonds is going to hit anything.

How do you make a dead baby float? Two scoops of vanilla ice cream and a dead baby.

So, this Irish guy walks into a bar with a steering wheel attatched to his crotch. The bartender goes, "Hey! You know you got a steering wheel on your crotch?!?" The Irish guy goes, "Yes I know! It's driving me nuts!!!!" Yeah... So, these three lengths of rope walk into a bar. The one length of rope walks up to the bartender and says, "Gimmie three whiskeys!" The bartender goes, "Get outta here! We don't serve ropes!" So, the rope and his two bodies go out back around the corner and he tells his friends to tie him in a knot. After they do, he tells them to start pulling away at his ends and unwravelling him. After they do, he walks back into the bar and goes up to the counter and says, "Gimmie three whiskeys!" The bartender goes, "Hey! Aren't you a rope?" And he goes, "No, sir, I'm a frayed knot!"

Phil Garner's not a bad manager. He just...manages on instinct sometimes. And it seems that he's got pretty good instincts, as the 'Stros have had their best days with him at the helm. You can say that the only reason they've won is because they've had a good team, but look at some of the teams the Astros had in the late 90s with Larry Dierker managing. And look at the first half of 2004, where they had Clemens, Pettitte, and Oswalt and were barely at .500 at the All-Star Break. It wasn't until after Phil came along that they went on their amazing run. I agree that Phil Garner isn't a great manager when it comes to using statistics or micromanaging, but he knows his players and he seems to make good decisions 90% of the time. This one drunk guy up at Minute Maid Park the other nite went on and on about how he hated Phil Garner and the 'Stros getting to the postseason the last few years was nothing but "blind damn luck". I disagree. I'd take Phil over Dusty Baker any day of the week. And he's got the second best moustache in baseball...behind Jeff Kent.

Yeah, my girlfriend would divorce me. We're young, but we act like a couple that's been married for 30 years (Oy vey! You took my triple word score!). About the wrist-I just think it would look cool on the wrist, and besides, if I had it on my shoulder, I'd have to lift up my shirt sleeve to let people see it. My brother, who is about 3/4 of the way to a full upper body sleeve, has one of the...best/worst tattoo ideas I've heard of...and it was probably really painful. Anyway, he got "Fuck You" tattooed on the inside part of his bottom lip. Yeah, he loves showing that one off...

They shouldn't call people during lunch. They should be forced to hide from bullies and talk about people wearing second-hand clothes and smoke cigarettes in the bathroom and all the stuff that kids go to school for.

I don't have a problem with cell phones in schools if they're used appropriately. I swear, my college classes get interrupted daily with these loud, obnoxious ringtones. In one of my English classes, every five minutes this dude's phone would start playing "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp". Good song, but still...distracting. If people would just leave them on vibrate I wouldn't have a problem, and I don't think, on the whole, High School kids are mature and responsible enough to have Cell Phones, especially when they should be focusing on learning. If they're so worried about getting in touch with their parents, aren't there like...family plans where the family can buy a phone that can just dial out to the parent's cell phone number or something of that nature? I remember when I was in High School, pagers were banned and most of the kids wouldn't wanna carry cell phones because they were so big and rectangular. The times, they are a-changin'...

I started out with Griffey Jr. (Hey...I'm an optimist.) and then he got hurt, so I picked up Moises Alou who proceeded to get hurt, so I dropped him in favor of Mench, but I've got pretty good outfield depth. I've got Pedro Feliz, who counts as 3B, 1B, and OF, Nick Swisher, Willy Taveras, Jason Bay, Mench, and Dave Roberts. I'm just pissed that I didn't jump on getting Papelbon before he started tearin' shit up, and I don't wanna make that mistake again.

About the foreign lettering thing, a few years ago when it was all the rage to get the Japanese symbols for various things tattooed on the back of your neck, this guy I know went to this tattoo place in Louisiana...probably drunk, and got some random Japanese symbols on the back of his neck, which turned out to mean something like "I'm gay and I have a little penis" or something similar. My girlfriend said she'd divorce me if I got any tattoos, but I do kinda have a desire to get the Astros star logo tattooed on my wrist. But, then again, I'm planning on going in to teaching, so they probably won't allow visible tattoos.

Alke, or someone who knows better than I, is Cole Hamels good enough to warrant me picking him up for my fantasy team? I'd probably dump Kevin Mench for him or something.