The Man in Blak

Hey, Cat Power. How does it compare to You Are Free?

Twelve hours pass without administrative response. And we're serious about relaunching the site?

Well, let's take a look at the SQL for a second: The part in bold where the code is bombing out - the SQL interpreter expects a value for template_set_id to be set equal to. When the AND comes up, the interpreter recognizes that as a new SQL statement, tries to resolve the half-empty conditional for the WHERE, and blows up. The question is what is that template_set_id supposed to be equal to. That's why I thought it was a skin issue earlier. Is there a way to switch entire templates on the site and not just skins?

Does anyone know of a decent resource for finding sales information on video games? I know there's probably not anything like boxofficemojo.com for games, but I'm thinking that there's got to be a halfway decent online source for that information somewhere, right?

Looks like a skin reference got broke in a template. I would guess that, if you're using a skin that's different than the default (and if you are, given the choices, why?) then you get locked out of the site.

Sutter is in and, if I read the numbers correctly, Jim Rice pulled more ballots than Gossage. Oy vey.

Yeah, I'd say that probably did them in. For what it's worth, Chicago was still the No. 1 ranked team in the NFL in yards per play (4.4) - Tampa Bay just defended less plays than the Bears did.

It's because, talent-wise, the Panthers may be one of the top teams in the league, let alone the NFC. They've got a tremendous defense, with a vicious front four, a great LB corps led by Dan Morgan, and a ballhawking secondary that seems to be everywhere, all the time. The offense has amazing potential as well: Steve Smith got the WR "Triple Crown" this year and for good reason, as he's a ridiculous open-field threat with good hands. Jake Delhomme can definitely heave it down field and isn't afraid to leave the pocket either (though he's certainly not a "running quarterback" in the Vick/Culpepper mold). DeShaun Foster and Stephen Davis made for a nice Thunder & Lightning combination in the backfield and, even with Davis on IR, Foster still makes the Panthers running attack one of the more explosive in the league. The problem is that they just haven't been firing on all cylinders all year. Delhomme can be Favre-esque at times and just chuck it down field into stupid interceptions. Julius Peppers can have streaks where he's the most dominant defensive player in the leauges and others where he's shut out entirely. Foster, while explosive, is an injury magnet - he's already playing through a toe injury, I believe. Even with their schizophrenic nature this year, I think they were still the No. 3 defense in the league (just behind the Bears at No. 2), so they're always a threat, even if the offense isn't all there. And, since "defense wins championships" and the Panthers have playoff experience from their Super Bowl run a few years ago, most people give them the benefit of the doubt.

Conversely, the Patriots were held to two field goals until garbage time and shenanigans were declared in the fourth quarter. I think this one will be a lot closer than most people will think, even though I would still pick New England. I'd pick New England, Carolina, Seattle (by double digits), and Indy in a tight game. The Colts should be thanking their lucky stars that the Steelers will give them a good warmup round of hard hitting play before they meet the Patriots. Maybe too good, since the Steelers return with a healthy Roethlisberger and a bunch of bulletin board material (from the Bengals game, as well as the Colts supremacy in the regular season).

Exhaustion?

If I remember right, there's a big turning point about 40% of the way through the game; it's not necessarily a turn in quality or fun, but in how you play the game. (Can't really say more without spoiling it.) I'd say it's probably worth gutting through just to get to that point.

Marlins have reportedly signed Joe Borowski and Pokey Reese to one-year deals. I like the Reese signing; there's no guarantee that Hanley Ramirez will be ready, and Pokey's spectacular glove will be a boon to the young pitchers who will basically be learning on the job.

Big fish in a little pond.

I'm not trying to flame bait you, But he is trying to break your heart. I'm trying to give her a case of New Millenium Blues. If you had followed up with another Wilco reference - or even bothered to spell "millennium" correctly - I would have loved you forever, Hoffman.

Suggestion. Instead of having the articles listed as follows on the front page... How about doing something closer to this: Having the category and the author together in the original format makes for a lot of redundant bold text, kind of obscures the information. Along with that, the space between the byline and the article information lets the byline breathe a little bit. One other thing - I'd say move the categories up to the top, ditch the subcategories (Hockey, WWE, etc), but have the subcategory listings linked with the article postings. For example, the TNA text in the quote above would be a link to the TNA articles, rather than using the current subcategory links on the left. Makes for better use of whitespace on the articles, and puts all of the site navigation (search included) to the top.

TMB plays much faster than TM2, so you'll have a little bit of an adjustment period...but, once you catch on, you'll find that it's just as good, if not better.

I'm not trying to flame bait you, But he is trying to break your heart.

Another cheap option, if you like car combat, would be Twisted Metal Black. Great multiplayer, as well as dark and twisted storylines that make it worthwhile to play through with multiple characters.

I'm a little surprised that you didn't mention the Amazing Mets of 1986 for the 80's.

Here are a couple of cheap exclusives that you might want to check out: Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal - Great action/platformer with upgradable weapons, good humor, and online play. It's the peak of the series and it might just be one of the top three games on the system. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater - You've probably heard of this one. Kingdom Hearts - Phenomenal action/RPG, even if you're not a fan of the Disney characters. Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution - You mentioned picking it up, so let me just encourage you further. Dragon Quest VIII - This recommendation only holds if you get it this week from Best Buy, where they have it priced at $34.95. Great old-school RPG. Katamari Damacy - One of the most cracked out games that you'll see in North America, but also one of the most unique.

It's a proto-concept album, the first album where the Beatles could sit down in the studio and really map out songs and instrumentation. The whole idea of the album, the idea of the Beatles "playing as" Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, is an allegory of the band wanting to separate themselves from the oppression of their worldwide fame. The production on the album (which is somewhat squandered on the sparse CD mixes) was a mind-blowing success at the time, with orchestral swells that one-upped the instrumentation that Brian Wilson had used on Pet Sounds. Though some of the songs are pretty bad ("Good Morning, Good Morning" is probably the worst one, in my opinion), there are some tremendous pop songs on there and the songs that aren't all-world classics are just good enough to make for great transitions throughout the album. It's just a damn good album and, with Revolver, arguably makes for the greatest and most historically important one-two punch in any catalogue in music history. I will admit, though, the current CD mix of the album is pretty bad. Banky, you're a big proponent of vinyl records - why don't you pick up the LP for Sgt. Pepper's and give it a spin?

The Metal Gear Solid series pretty much trumps everybody else in this regard. Playing through MGS2 as Raiden instead of Snake is easily one of the great "Whafuck!?" moments in gaming history, especially when you consider all of the Snake-centric previews and pre-release hype. And yeah, MGS3 is full of swerves and turns: your real identity, Ocelot's employer (and parents), The Boss, reloading your save during the battle against The End, etc.

Couple things about the Glaus trade to consider. For one, though Orlando Hudson is probably the best defensive second baseman in the league, his departure is not as likely to affect the Jays pitching staff; Towers, Chacin, and Lilly are all very strong flyball pitchers, Halladay's going to be outstanding regarding of who's manning the keystone, and Burnett's high groundball rate in 2005 seems aberrant from the rest of his career. Aaron Hill is rumored to be the 2B replacement and, offensively, he'll probably offer whatever O-Dawg would bring to the table in 2006. Secondly, the Blue Jays needed a big bat to complement Vernon Wells and Glaus is certainly their huckleberry, as he slugged .522 and hit 37 home runs in a year where he was rumored to not be at 100% physically. The problem is that Glaus is never healthy and, as mentioned before, the Jays are running out of places to play him; Overbay and Koskie are presumably at the corners, leaving Glaus at DH. Hillenbrand and Hinske are awfully expensive insurance for Glaus, so one of them would be traded, but at a lower value, since everybody knows that the Jays have a corner infield crisis on their hands. Unless, of course, they leave the wrapping on Glaus and ship him and some spare parts to Boston for Manny Ramirez.

Yeah, but did he teach the band to play?

Lots of St. Louis moves to catch up on. I'm a little torn on the Encarnacion signing. I mentioned him as a good candidate for the RF spot, but that was under the assumption that he would be an "inexpensive" acquisition for the outfield. 3/15 doesn't really strike me as a palatable expenditure, especially when you consider that Reggie Sanders signed for the same money per year at Kansas City. Sanders is older, but he has a much stronger track record and seems poised to outperform Encarnacion for the next two years. That being said, Encarnacion does improve the outfield situation and, if motivated, could potentially put up .280/.340/.440 with double digit home runs. He probably won't steal as much, since the Cardinals are very finicky about giving players their own green light, but that's probably to his benefit, given his CS rate over the years. Cardinals also picked up Junior Spivey today off of the non-tender scrap heap. Spivey seems to be another data point in the Age-27 Theory, so I wouldn't expect 2002 to come roaring back again, but he already looks like an upgrade over Deivi Cruz and Aaron Miles. The key to his success for 2006 will not involve his plate judgment but, rather, actually making contact with the ball; Spivey saw a little over four pitches per plate appearance (a very respectable number), but he struck out 83 times in 259 at bats, which was the worst strikeout rate of his career. If Hal McRae can straighten him out, Spivey could be the real Comeback Player of the Year candidate in this bunch. Spivey's acquisition means that one of the potential Cardinal second basemen will be voted off the island in spring training as well. Luna is a lock, given that he's played virtually everywhere in the field, which leaves Spivey, Cruz, or Miles under the guillotine. My money would be on Miles, personally, but stranger things have happened. And then there's Sidney Ponson. Duncan and LaRussa have worked miracles with washed up arms in the past (Cal Eldred is a great recent example), but the best benefit they offer to Ponson is a stable clubhouse and organization infrastructure. Baltimore fans can make all the jokes they want, but it seemed like Angelos and the rest of the Oriole organization was working harder on getting their money back, rather than trying to actually get Ponson to clean up his act. Despite a strikeout rate that seems to be crashing like the Hindenburg, there are elements in Ponson's recent performance to be optimistic about. For one, Ponson has consistently been a strong ground ball pitcher, which means that Pujols and Rolen especially will have a positive effect on his 2005 performance. Also, Ponson had an eye-popping BABIP (Batting Average on Balls in Play) of .358 last year, in coordination with only a 20.0 LD%. For those wondering what these strange acronyms mean, the LD% is a rudimentary measure of how many "ropes" or line drives hitters get whenever they make contact against this pitcher; in Ponson's case, 20% of the time that somebody made contact on him, it was a firm line drive, a legitimate hit. This isn't a bad rate by any means - Freddy Garcia had a LD% of 20.3 last year, for example - and when you compare it against Ponson's BABIP, one could hope that Ponson probably won't be giving up twelve hits per nine innings in 2006. Obviously, I doubt that Ponson would be a Cy Young contender, but he may not be a bad gamble as a sixth starter / swingman. Though Anthony Reyes is probably a better pitcher than Ponson right now, he's also had injury problems in the past and if Ponson can provide 15 starts of league average performance next year and ease the transition to Reyes, the Cardinals will be the better for it in 2006 and beyond.