the max

Start spreadin' the news... CLEVELAND AB R H RBI BB SO LOB AVG C Crisp CF 6 4 2 3 1 0 2 .285 O Vizquel SS 7 3 6 4 0 0 1 .310 M Lawton LF 5 1 1 1 0 0 3 .280 R Ludwick RF 2 1 1 0 0 1 1 .500 V Martinez C 4 3 2 4 2 0 2 .289 T Hafner DH 6 1 2 3 1 2 3 .311 C Blake 3B 2 1 0 1 2 1 1 .275 J McDonald 3B 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 .241 B Broussard 1B 3 2 2 2 1 0 1 .281 J Phelps 1B 2 1 2 0 0 0 0 .252 R Belliard 2B 6 3 3 1 0 1 6 .301 J Gerut RF-LF 4 2 1 3 2 1 5 .254 Totals 49 22 22 22 9 6 26

I liked the Czech's whites the other day, even if they were Rangersesque. I can understand honoring the team, as long as this was a one-night thing. With an abundance of the players unable to wear their regular numbers, I was very confused. Plus, I had the sound off since I was watching Angels v. Red Sox at the same time on my other TV.

A terrible waste of time show IMO tonight. Nothing even remotely entertaining.

Good night for the Sox, as Manny homers on consecutive at-bats and all of the starters have at least one hit.

I saw on Sportscenter that he's still experiencing tightness in his hammy, which directly translates to trouble if I'm thinking of the right guy. Mike Vick is #7 on the Falcons, the guy that is capable of running all over the place, but he's still a quarterback, right? If that's who it is, I'll take the under at 5 games that he plays. I know little about football, but the more you move around, the more likely that you're going to get hit and hit hard.

Red Sox have a very key stretch coming up now. v. Anaheim until thursday v. Texas for friday and the weekend @ Oakland monday-wednesday @ Seattle thursday-sunday v. Tampa tuesday-thursday v. Yanks friday-sunday Anaheim, Texas, and Oakland are all play-off caliber teams. Seattle is a series that they have to sweep to keep up and possibly gain some ground. Tampa isn't a pushover anymore, so that won't be an easy series, and then the Yanks come to town. This stretch will establish the Red Sox as a contender or a pretender.

nl5's just asking us to keep it non-spoilers until he gets to see it. He's not from Europe either...I don't know of many Europeans on this board that are actually watching this.

One thing I've always wondered about Sweden is what are the crowns on the front of their jersey for? As in, what do they mean?

If the Miracle on Ice isn't on this list, I won't even know how to react towards such rampant stupidity and ignorance.

It sounds like an interesting job, but only $9 an hour for everything that you'd be dealing with doesn't sound like something I'd take.

I think spoiler tags are a good idea for everyone, actually. And that's a definite lack of sleep if you think Jagr pulled a Happy Gilmore.

If you can't find a nudie pic on the internet, you have problems.

That's what I would do. Especially if it isn't a recurring, every night kind of thing like mine is. Although, I've had what you have, with not sleeping for a few days, then going to a normal sleep cycle, and I don't think it's very healthy at all.

How many hours of sleep do you get on a night that you actually sleep? Typically, I get two if I'm lucky. I think mine is triggered by stress though.

Drink some caffeine-free Ginger Ale. I don't know why, but that stuff knocks me out. I have the same problem, Banky.

I keep getting these pop-ups for viruses that I have on my computer for one reason or another. I've already checked the pinned thread, and none of those resources seem to be helping. The downloader keenval pop-up came up twice, so I captured it twice. Any help from anyone? I've used AVG, Trojanhunter, and A²

Vos and Mordal were both awesome. In order: Heffron Vos Mordal Alonzo the rest are tied for fifth.

This two minute nonsense is just stupid. Of course, Heffron proved that if you're talented, you can be funny in two minutes. Kershon was horrible, Kahaney wasn't much better, Heffron was good for what little time he had, I don't understand Tess, and Pescatelli is just...bad. As much as I hate Ralphie May, if that was a joke that his father died, I'll kill him myself.

We were all supposed to die for one reason or another because of Y2K.

Phoenix adds MORE to their lineup. http://tsn.ca/nhl/news_story.asp?id=96913 Jason Chimera and Michael Rupp resign. Chimera is an excellent PK and a very good player to have on the fourth line to play either wing or center. Rupp is a young power forward in the making and has already been deep in the playoffs at only 24. Once again, two good signings by the Dogs. They have completely retooled their team, and have now shown their fanbase that they are willing to do what it takes to be competitive. Now, all the Dogs need: 1) Goaltending. Again, they could probably offer up Matt Spiller and a pick to the Rangers for Mike Dunham. Spiller is something that the Rangers need, a defenseman with excellent size to grow into their blueline. Dunham is something that the Dogs need, a solid #1 goaltender. 2) An NHL season.

OMG, did everyone see Jagr flip out and stab the ref with his skate blade? Oops...forgot spoiler tags... Fins looked good, only allowing 12 shots

Got some the other day and really liked it. Haven't tried that Baja nonsense yet, but I will in due time.

Good riddance to him. You deleted the thread, but not his final post. High-larious.

I don't work until 5, so I'll be relaxing in front of the TV now that my cable has finally been restored after the goddamn storm. I have no preference on who wins, btw, especially since USA isn't exactly a favorite. I'll be rooting for them, I guess. As long as there's good hockey to potentially hold us over for a while, I'm happy.

In pretty much every sports game out now, there's a franchise mode, and I'm sure that everyone has a different strategy. Mine is rebuilding, believe it or not. For instance, in all of my PC NHL games, I take a bad team with 1-2 good players (Atlanta for example) and see what I have. Atlanta started with Dany Heatley and Ilya Kovalchuk as their good players, with decent-average players surrounding them. My strategy is to lock up Heatley and Kovalchuk into long-term contracts and try to secure as much young talent as possible. So, for my first season, I tanked the season. I basically acquired guys with good potential and semi-decent overall ratings and let them go nuts. By doing this, Heatley and Kovalchuk had good years, and with their potential stat playing into it, became better players. I thought I'd get a good pick, but that ended up fucking me over, as I got an overall 85 defenseman who broke his collarbone in the first period of the first game of the season. But, since the season before, I had traded good role-players for draft picks, I was able to take some of my drafted players and build them into what I wanted them to become. For instance, I wanted a #1 center to play beside Kovalchuk and feed him pucks. So, I took a draftee and had him chalk up assists consistantly, and bingo. Of course, my second year was only marginally better, so I ended up with a lottery pick again. This time, I ended up with a #2 pick, which thrilled me, as there were only two real sure picks in the draft. A franchise left-winger and an above average defenseman. I took the winger, paired him with Kovalchuk and my top center and they took off. I was able to free up some salary with veterans retiring and picked up a journeyman rightwinger to play with Heatley on the second line with a former draft pick centering that line. Now, I'm in business, as I'm in my third year, have a stockpile of draft picks at my disposal to use as trade bait when I see fit (and I have used a few second rounders to get defensive depth) and a deep core of young talent to lead me on. I'm on my way to my first division title with six games to play until the playoffs, and will likely get the #2 seed in the postseason. So, now that I've rambled, anyone else have any franchise stories or strategies from other sports games? This could be a fun thread.