Steve J. Rogers

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The WWE also tried to may "Has-Been" the next "You Suck" for Jericho. Jericho to his credit helped the cause one night when he started to tell the crowd to stop chanting because he was "NOT A HAS BEEEN" Only problem was, the crowd was not chanting "Has Been" they were chanting "Ass-Hole" Steve

The numbers listed are the Vegas Over/Unders as of this weekend. And away we go. AL EAST Yankees 101 A bit on the high side, but its still the Yanks. I’d go slight under because there is still the age question about the staff and the bullpen, and that includes Gordon and Rivera, 100 is where I’ll top off and yet another divisional title. Red Sox 95 The two superpowers of the AL East will continue to dominate. Sox have some of the same questions about the staff that the Yanks do with age and health. I’ll go with that number on the nose and say they’ll fall short of the division yet again, but still capture the Wild Card. Orioles 81 Maz’s second season at the helm, the lineup should be solid and young arms definitely will keep the Birds at or around .500 all year. Even Blue Jays 70 Young team, losing Delgado hurts. I’ll take the over and give the Jays 73 wins Devil Rays 70 Go under here. Is 70 the win total or how many breakdowns Lou Piniella will have this year? 65 max. AL CENTRAL Twins 87 Eh, take the over I’ll say they get 90 wins and a fourth straight AL Central crown Indians 83 Young team still growing. I’ll go over here as well with 85 White Sox 81 Also a young team. I’ll pull even here. Tigers 78 A bit high. I think they will improve this year, look for Jeremy Bonderman to break out, I’ll pick under with 75 Royals 64 Just plain pitiful, I’ll take the over out of principle but not by much. 67 AL WEST A’s 83 I’m taking the over here and the A’s to recapture the division with 93 wins. Don’t discount the A’s young arms. Not saying they have Braves material here in terms of keep churning them out, but just because Hudson and Mulder are elsewhere doesn’t mean the A’s can’t reload. Angels 91 The race is going to go down the way it did last year, just a different result. Give the Angels the over with 92 Rangers 81 Just about right. I’ll nudge that number up just a bit though with 84 Mariners 76 I’ll give the M’s a little more credit, take the over and the Mariners will finish with 81 wins. In the playoffs: Yankees, Twins, A’s, Redsox ALCS: Yankees get revenge over the Redsox in another wild series. Yankees in Seven MVP: Alex Rodriguez ARod will “earn his pinstripes” this year, while not enough to nudge over for the division, he will have a monster “MVP” season CY: Barry Zito Look for Zito to take to the lone guy role well and bounce back ROY: Jeremy Reed Just throwing darts at this one, Seattle Mariner CF looks like a decent prospect NL EAST Braves 89 Never count the champion out until they are finally defeated. Its hard not to like the Braves again for the division. Hudson joins a respectable staff, and John Smoltz returns to a starting role. Take the over, Braves win 92 and their 14th straight divisional title Marlins 85 Things are still looking good in Miami, but not enough to topple the Braves. Go over with a soild 90 Phillies 83 I’m not sold on the Phillies as members of the media seem to be. New manager helps, but not enough. Eh, I’m going under with 82 Mets 85 A bit on the high side. I think the Mets will struggle to stay at .500 all year, but when all is said and done they should have about 81-82 wins, take the under. Nationals 69 Under. 100+ losses this year for the Nats. Same city but the old refrain remains, just with a slight change: First in war, first in peace, and now, last in the National League. NL CENTRAL Cardinals 92 I like that number, I can see them going over. Give them a solid 95 and the division. A healthy Mark Mulder should do the trick Astros 84 Losing Beltran and having Berkman out for a month or so hurt. Having Pettitte healthy for the season should stem the tide a bit. Take the over, they’ll get 90 but fall short Cubs 90 This is before the Borowoski injury, and maybe before the news about Prior, so of course take the under. With a lot of questions in the pitching staff, and the departure of two key offensive components, the Friendly Confines will continue onward towards that Golden Jubilee celebration in two years. 84 wins, barely Reds 77 Seems about right. Take a slight over and an 81-81 finish Brewers 68 I’m going out on a limb here and going with an over. Young nucleus, good signs in both their offensive and pitching staff. I’ll give them 80 wins Pirates 73 Its going to be horrendous this year in the Steel City. Its going to be a long wait until the Steelers opener this September. I’ll stick with the number 73 Giants 88 Despite his drama queen diva-like performance, Bonds will only be out for a short while. In the meantime, the Giants do have enough to sustain themselves and be in the hunt all year. Give this team an over and 94 wins Dodgers 84 This is going to be another down-to-the wire run with these two century-old rivals. Take the over, Dodgers will lose the race down the stretch with 93 wins Padres 85 Look for the Pads to continue to improve, I’m going to take a slight under with 81 wins Diamondbacks 70 Offensively they have improved but pitching is still suspect. Take the over though, should be good enough to get 80 wins Rockies 67 Ah the Rocky Mountain High. Or should it be depths, well the Rockies should have enough to win ballgames. Take the over, but not by much, 72 In the playoffs: Braves, Cardinals, Giants, Dodgers NLCS: How is this for a vintage set of LCS, Redsox-Yankees and Giants-Dodgers with the Dodgers getting the job done in 6 MVP: Albet Pujols Either Bonds will start to break down, or the BBWAA will throw some protest votes in someone else’s favor CY: Tim Hudson Look for the Braves to regain the Cy Young award for the first time since Tom Glavine in 1998 ROY: Jason Lane Another dart toss with this one, RF with Houston should earn himself a spot on the roster full time when Berkman returns World Series Prediction Alex Rodriguez will pull a Reggie Jackson-esque performance, leading the Yankees to put the Dodgers away in 5 games.

I guess taking amature style and mixing in shoot action and completely unscripted Not sure how its going to fly popularity wise, I mean the fun of watch pro-wrestling is that its scripted and a soap opera Other wise I don't see it generating anything more than what boxing would do raitings wise on a normal card with no titles/no names on the card Steve

Chris Jericho tried to revive it in their feud last year. What is with Austin and Christian? Apparantly Austin's "WHAT?!" comes from a rambling message Austin left on Christian's voice mail Steve

DDP actually put up a poll for a way to incorporate "Scum" with Bret Hart on his website. I'm sure there were plenty of "Hitscum" nominations but in the end it was the usual Bret "Scum" Hart Also, they tried to force "Hip Hop Hippo" down everyone's throats with Albert.

Huh, thanks. Shows you how many crazy things were going on that year. I can't even get the story straight! Steve

I've heard rumors about Gunn pulling a Luger and bragging that he was to win the IC belt, I doubt the switch was part of that punishment, though the IC title lineage took a severe dip that year after Road Dogg won the belt. Wasn't untill Jericho entered the fray that Fall that it was "respected" again Don't forget this was also the summer that saw Edge win the title in Canada (I think he was subbing for Jarrett's original SummerSlam opponent who went on the shelf) the last house show before SummerSlam and then lost it back to Jarrett on the PPV

Just to add, "Anything Can Happen" is great in real, non scripted, sports, but pro wrestling, since the start of the TV age, is more of a drama show (or "reality" TV if you will) and as is the case with dramas, people watching want what is expected 99% of the time. Nothing wrong with shaking things up, but when it gets too much for no other reason than shaking things up, then it gets confusing and harder to enjoy because you have to keep up with all these changes. Steve

When I was like 7 or 8 I thought the Muta Scale/Crissom Mask stuff was "half movie blood" or something because a wrestler would blade like a stuck pig early and later in the match you could only see a small, paper cut size gash on the forehead and I'd be "No way THAT much blood came from something that small Also for some reason I thought that, while the action was choreographed, the outcome of "lesser" matches on the card weren't pre-determined outcome wise (Not the MEs and not the matches on major cards, but like house shows, ect) For some reason I thought there was some "shooting" involved with wrestlers putting themselves over. Don't ask I was young... Speaking of not so much with the predetermined outcome, I actually believed the bulk of a Royal Rumble or Battle Royal was basically freestyled with certain limitations (i.e DONT EVEN THINK ABOUT TOUCHING THE FOLLOWING WRESTLERS...) untill a manageable amout was left in the match (don't recall what number I thought was the amount, probably 8-5 or something that is easy on the bookers to script out) Steve

Do you think he would have been so quick to try and save Darth Vader? Sure at some point the good man that Luke is would have kicked in and said "Yeah he's worth saving" but the whole point of Luke reaching out was because Ben (and probably Owen) told him that his father was a good man But in fact, Anikan is NOT a "good man" by any stretch (and not just because of the bad acting from Jake and Hayden) and a man who was easily suduced into turning over to the darkside. The man was Darth Vader long before whatever happens in III that ultimatley turns him into the Sith machine So, if Luke had known what a "whiney, petulant, selfish" bastard that Anikan was, would he be so quick to try and find the good man that he thought was still in Vader? Steve

Yeah, German athletes were using them in the Olympics. Not sure which one but I heard steriods were supposedly developed for useage by soilders back in the 50's-60's(I guess akin to Marvel Comics' "Super Soilder Serum" that begot Captain America) Steve

Besides the point, I just heard something that suggested Picciolo used it based on the fact that he developed a form of cancer that was rare for someone so young. Steve

BWG, here is another funny thing, check out my column at SportsJabber.com its in the link. I pretty much insinuate that Reggie White, Brian Picciolo and Walter Payton may have been on something because of their premature deaths I have showed it to several people, and not one of them (including the editor of the site) and said "WTF did you JUST say?" Basically I was trying to say that all the attention has been to baseball, well look at the NFL. When I was writing it I didn't think of Steve Corsin, player with the Steelers during that time, who came out and said he was a juicier, and HOF center Mike Webster of the Steel Curtain who did die way too young and steriod abuse has been linked to him Almost like the baseball mess has desentizied everyone to it Steve

Well Mark Calloway has changed his apperance quite drastically through the years Lets see: First Taker: Short permish red hair, full red stubble beard Modified (I guess around the Royal Rumble "death"): Long straight dark hair that pretty much stayed shoulder length and during these years he'd alternate from goatee, clean shaven, and even the goat sans mustache. This is probably Mark's longest run with the only changes were Taker's costumes. Biker Taker/Return to the Dark Side: Current Taker is simply sans dye in the hair, same lenght though and with a red goatee Warrior, not sure. Helwig never really changed his apperance at all, bigger of course but nothing that would almost make him a different person the way Calloway has Steve

Great, blame the media Redsox fans HATE the Yankees Yankee fans HATE the Redsox The media has nothing to do with it Did the media create the hatred in the 1970's with Thurman Munson v. Carlton Fisk and Graig Nettles v. Bill Lee and such Steve

Last year Jeff Bagwell and Jason Giambi were featured prominatly in an "The Incredible Shrinking BallPlayers" photo/article in Sports Illustrated We all know what happened to Giambi, however on the Mike & The Mad Dog show on the radio here in NYC (660 AM WFAN) and simulcasted on the YES TV network Mike Francessa and Chris "Mad Dog" Russo came down on Bagwell for looking smaller. Well off the air they got a phone call from Jeff's mother who apparantly watches the show regularly (not sure if she is in Houston or still in New England where Bagwell is from) and apparantly Bagwell just lost weight due to rehabing injuries (I think it was his arm last winter) and actually had long conversations with family members about possibly taking performance enhancing drugs, ultimatly deciding not to do it because of what it could cause long term. Well apparantly no one else has gotten that message because Jeff Bagwell still ranks high on the "Players Most Suspected" lists by many in the media! Steve

Been hearing several voters say they would NOT vote for McGwire and even used the "Without steriods he is no better than Dave Kingman" type of arguments Which is ironic considering commentators have said the reason McGwire said what he said at the hearing was so he could "protect" his legacy, so instead he made it worse Steve

Again, they were commenting on what they saw in SI last year that Bagwell shrunk. Nothing more, they aren't the type that throw around gossip and such, and did mention Bagwell's mother correcting them. Like I said, there are far worse here in this market (Wally Mathews and Tom Keegan) In fact it was a rareity for them to make a comment like that Steve

Don't forget these guys are in New York, they aren't following the day-to-day injury reports of the Houston Astros. They saw his picture in SI and just said basically it did not look good. They haven't said a peep since, and actually it was one of the very few times they ever make inneuendo about anyone Now down the dial, Wally Mathews and Tom Keegan, of ESPN Radio (1050 AM) openly accuse who they think are on roids almost every day. Case in point, recently when Greenwell came out demanding the 88 MVP be given to him, they went through every MVP vote since 1995 and gave it to the guy highest in the voting who they didn't suspect. Lance Berkman (only because Keegan has said he is very vocal anti-steroid guy) Vlad Guerrero, and Craig Biggio ended up with multiple awards Mathews last year kept wanting to list guys he thought were on it and got off and was going to track their performance, for some reason they never got around to it but certainlty guys like Bagwell, Kent, Piazza, Klesko, ect would have been on that list So you are picking on the wrong guys in that vein. Russo and Francessa are very good at not playing the inneuendo game and sinking to the level of throwing names out based soley on their suspicions. Although, Russo being a major Yankee-Hater would tweak Yankee fans after the Giambi signing when fans called about "How can you root for that juicer Bonds?" (Russo loves the Giants) would say "Don't think there aren't steroid users in that Yankee clubhouse, and I'm talking MVP caliber players" insinuating rumors about Giambi. But I think that is playing more towards "Don't assume that my guy is the only juicer in the game" rather than "outing" Jason Giambi Steve

I truly believe everyone on the 1969 Mets were taking steroids and to right this injustice, I would proudly like to announce the Baltimore Orioles have officially won the 1969 World Series. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Obviously it didn't help Bud Harrelson much! Wait a minute, I'm calling Frank Robinson out! Dude was traded because he was an old 30! So how did he get better? STEROIDS! I'm declaring the Mets are STILL the 1969 World Champions of baseball! Steve

Unfortunatly most of the voters I've heard do not care about OPS or even OBS and will just look at McGwire as a slow, plodding, terrible fielder who basically was a glorified Cecil Fielder when it comes down to it. Granted thats here in New York, but they basically are "Go with what my eyes tell me" types and will subtract an awfull lot of homers off McGwire's record to make it seem that he is no better than the aforementioned Kingman and Fielder By the way, what everyone forgets when they bring up the fact that McGwire's homerun totals "bump up obscenley late in his career" as a means for not voting him in the HOF is that he was pretty much on the DL for most of the early 1990's and even prior to his spurt did have one of the top three HR/AB ratios in the game's history. So technically we are not talking about Barry Bonds like bumps in production Steve

Again it's the word of another less than credible source, a rat drug dealer, who alledges he gave McGwire steriods. It's disgusting the way ESPN and the media pretty much portrayed this as 100% factual evidence that McGwire took steroids. Then where did the schedule of what McGwire took come from? And why are you now discounting everything Canseco said in his book? I am still waiting for a law suit to be filed and the only thing I've heard is Palmerio "maybe" filing McGwire took steriods, end of discussion

Not so fast my friend. You got a guy on that roster who pretty much bulked up after hitting a couple of homers in the 1986 postseason and started thinking "Hey this is something I can do!" Not saying anything, but the Man They Call Nails was definatly on something (though the NY media laughed it off for some reason in 1987, either that or Doc Gooden's problems took Lenny's bulking up off the spotlight) By the way, Lenny is quoted in a book by Mike Lupica, granted the story is second hand from Wally Backman, but basically Dysktra told Backman that he had been taking "vitamins" Okay, maybe Kruk didn't but don't tell me Daulton wasn't doing something = And don't get me started on the greenie popping 1980 champs! = Steve

That was intentional as he had already decided he was going to focus on classical music from then on Not sure if the placement of the song was intentional. Yeah he had been leaning towards getting out while making the album and from what I've heard it was pure coincidence that "Famous Last Words" ended up being the last pop song he'd ever do. I guess he was originally thinking about going in that direction as "a side project" or something and decided to go full throttle and "Famous Last Words" was his way of breaking Prospero's staff (from Shakespear's "The Tempest") Steve