the max

No, you're misunderstanding. As bad as the Yankees have been, and as good as the Red Sox have been, New York is still in first. The Yankees don't have to be better than Boston from this point on. They can be as muct as a game and a half worse. The burden is on Boston to continue playing .800 baseball for the rest of the year. The Yankees just have to ride out the storm. The burden is always on the team or person that has to overtake someone else. What I'm saying is that with a lackluster rotation, the Yankees have more to be concerned about than "hanging on" as you put it, since it doesn't look like they can hang on. I guess that remains to be seen.

See, you're ducking the question. How are they going to hold off a team that has lost just two games of their last 21? How are they going to do this without a formidable rotation and a tired bullpen? That's what I want to know. I'm happy with the Red Sox as a wild card team. They know that barring a SEVERE meltdown, they have that locked up. Now, they have their focus on the Yankees, with two series coming up. Their offense is clicking, their starting pitching is cruising, their bullpen has been solid, and defensively they've been excellent. I'm asking how the Yankees are going to hold off the Red Sox.

Which is going to be hard for their starting rotation to do, and they'll likely have to be taken out early. Gordon/Quantrill/Rivera have been excellent this year, but how far can you continue to push them? They need rest before the postseason.

Because he'll be taking on an offense that's going on all cylinders right now and he only went 5⅓ innings against them when they were struggling. I know that they have to catch the Yankees, but the Yankees have to hold off a charging machine right now. If the Yankees win, they likely get Boston again in the LCS. If the Yankees lose, they're remembered as the team that blew a 10½ game lead.

They've been under a ton of pressure lately, and yet they've won 19 of their last 21 games. I think the pressure is on the Yankees because of their pitching. The Red Sox are likely salivating at the thought of seeing Halsey again.

I think the answer lies in something that you hate, al. Team chemistry. Nomar was a black cloud on the team. All accounts have said that he wasn't stomping around the clubhouse or anything, but it was clear that he was unhappy. I think the rest of the team saw that as a distraction and what was supposed to be a good situation (Red Sox were within five outs of the Series last year, and the inept manager that fucked that up was gone, they'd improved their pitching staff, etc.) was ruined because of Nomar's injury and the fact that he took his sweet ass time coming off the DL. I was one of the people who was kind of pissed about the trading of one of the best offensive players in club history for two defensive roleplayers, but their torrid pace since then has shown me that the rest of the team is benefiting from the loss of Nomar and his cunt of a wife from the ballclub. You can tell that the team is looser now, more comfortable with each other and is actually enjoying the game again. That's just my theory, though. I don't crunch numbers as well as you do

And it's looking like they're going to have to, with two series left. One in Boston and one in New York. I don't think we're going to be talking that week, AS. We should start wagering on the AL East.

Once the Reds slipped up, he was gone. Tonight, Pedro v. Hudson in Oakland. It's televised nationally, which I hope doesn't fuck up my chances of getting the NESN feed. I can't stand Rick Sutcliffe for more than ten minutes before I want to end my life. Red Sox have taken the first two games of the series against the back of the Oakland rotation. Hopefully, they can stay on a roll and go into Seattle on FIRE~!. At least they avoided Mulder and Harden in this series.

How about we put Bettman on the ice against Darcy Tucker and Bryan Marchment? If he survives that, put him in Quebec with a shirt that reads "Nor-DICKS" If he survives that, blast him into space, but both of those options should be followed through on.

I don't think anyone can beat Canada.

Well, Cabrera/Mientkiewicz were traded for to give good defense and keep the offense in the game. Nomar was traded for to give the Cubs offense from the shortstop, so I don't think they can be compared.

The only fun part was not being there. I had gotten my license three weeks before school started, so I skipped A LOT. I had to buckle down in the winter time to maintain a GPA for hockey, but other than that, I did fuck-all. The only classes that I had to pass were English and "Life Skills". The rest of my time was spent in the computer lab, video productions lab, and robotics lab. I was already over the required credits to graduate (we needed 100 credits in our four years of high school to graduate, and I was at 109 going into the year).

I love Bill Mueller...in a strictly hetero way. He's been a house of fire since his return from the DL, and he's been awesome on defense lately. 3-0 Red Sox after 3 Damon and Gabe Kapler have homered.

Well, the fact that you're paying 20 dollars for a game that may not be as good graphically, but is just as good or better gameplay-wise is a valid point. Since I haven't played NHL 2005, I'm not going to choose, but I'm LOVING ESPN's game right now. The fact that I only paid 20 dollars for it is just icing on the cake.

Damon looks good to me...homers on the second pitch of the game.

I feel good about the Yanks having a rookie starter with that ERA in their rotation come stretch time. Then again, I'm a fan of the opposing team...

Unlockables: Teams that are remembered for one reason or another (So far, I got the 1993 Bruins, 1994 Canucks, 1984 Oilers, and 1982 Islanders, but there are SO MANY MORE) I also got the all-time Bruins team, a classic Bruins jersey (from 1943 I think), as well as Commonwealth Stadium. Game play is SO easier than EA's series. The differences are like night and day. ESPN has a 'pick up and play' aspect that makes it much more enjoyable to play. EA has so much going on with the controls that it took me at least 10 games before I was comfortable with actually playing a game. My first game in ESPN, I beat the Devils 4-2 with great contributions from Patrice Bergeron and Andrew Raycroft (who is very good in this game). My first game in NHL 2004, I lost by 9 goals to the same Devils because I didn't know how to throw a decent bodycheck. Trades are fair and easy to make. I was able to deal Hal Gill to Anaheim for Vitaly Vishnevski, Martin LaPointe for Alexandre Daigle, Tim Thomas for a second round pick, and Sean O'Donnell for Nick Schultz. Since I freed up about 8 million dollars, I signed Oleg Tverdovsky (who hurt himself in the first game of the season) and Jiri Dopita both for a combined 4 million dollars. This is a game that I think I'm going to have a lot of fun with. I haven't even gotten into the party menu yet, where you can get crowned "King of the Rink" with an assortment of mini-games. Pond hockey was a fucking blast. It's a regular game, without penalties, icing, two-line passes or any other game stoppages. You don't need to make line changes, you get your #1 line without the center for as long as you want. I highly suggest this game to anyone and everyone. For only $20, YOU CANNOT GO WRONG WITH THIS GAME. I give it an 11/10

I was about to comment on that...damn you Mik. To get this thread in the right direction, it's Lowe v. Redman tonight in Oakland. Lowe's been pitching well as of late and the Red Sox escaped with a win last night with their #5 starter on the mound. Tonight's game will be good, but nothing compared to tomorrow night's game with a pitching matchup of Pedro v. Hudson. Hopefully, A's fans will conduct themselves like civilized people tonight.

I'm not getting rid of everything. This is all of the stuff that I can stand to get rid of. I don't watch wrestling anymore, so pretty much all of that can go. The DVD's that I have, I've watched so many times that I can pretty much recite them. I don't think that I'll regret getting rid of the wrestling stuff. If anything, it'll make me feel better that someone who's actually interested in what I'm selling gets to have it. Plus, the money makes me feel happy.

I'm excited about it, definitely. I hope it's better than Vice City.

You have a point, sadly. I'm moving to Canada.

This game is fucking awesome. I suggest that anyone who gets it play the Pond Hockey game to get used to controls and such. I had never played the game before, but behind Glen Murray's 10 point game (6-4) I won 11-2 over the Lightning. The franchise mode seems good right now, as it allowed me to shed two terrible players away for decent replacements and get rid of their contracts. It left Knuble, Murray and Nylander on the roster for the Bruins as well.

If Yurzinov leaves Tretiak in the game, we don't get a sniff of anything resembling a lead for the rest of the game. Craig would have still played out of his mind, but the Soviets would have taken the lead at some point and likely escaped with the win.

All is right with the world. Well, not really, but at least they did the right thing with having that as #1. Reportedly, Brooks came into the locker room before the third period of the gold medal game and said, "If you lose this game, you'll take it to your fucking graves." He turned to walk out of the room, turned around again and repeated, "Your fucking graves."

Bumping today. Anyone who orders 10 tapes or more will get a special surprise!! Come on!