Fökai

What is the justification for this statement? From Wallace, not the crowd. My argument is that when you're itching to heave a full cup of liquid at a player on the court, you're asking for shit to go down. In addition, the two fans getting onto the court during a game is automatically subdued and arrested in any other situation. I don't see how anyone can side with the fans here.

...and to think, the fan who instigated the entire altercation (from the video and the reactions, it IS the woman in the Pistons jersey) will probably get off scot-free due to how the incident played out.

Gut feelings on these... 1. Carlos Beltran - Astros 2. Adrian Beltre - Dodgers 3. Brad Radke - Twins 4. Edgar Renteria- Cardinals, I guess. 5. Pedro Martinez - Red Sox 6. Carlos Delgado - Mariners 7. Magglio Ordonez - Orioles 8. Jason Varitek - Wants an insane contract with a no-trade clause...hmm...Mets. 9. Carl Pavano - Red Sox 10. Richie Sexson - Angels 11. J.D. Drew - Braves 12. Nomar Garciaparra - Cubs 13. Troy Glaus - Tigers 14. Armando Benitez - Marlins 15. Odalis Perez - Orioles 17. Matt Clement - Blue Jays 18. Orlando Cabrera - Angels 19. Jeff Kent - Tigers 20. Moises Alou - White Sox And for bonus points, here are five players frequently mentioned in trade talks. Are they traded, and if so, where? 1. Sammy Sosa - Mets 2. Randy Johnson - White Sox. 3. Kevin Brown - Braves. 4. Charles Johnson - Athletics.

THURSDAY Maryland (since I missed the pick anyway) SATURDAY Clemson Iowa State Virginia Michigan UAB Central Michigan Navy Troy Missouri Arkansas Tulsa Colorado State Auburn Wisconsin Oregon State Florida State

WRITER'S NOTE: Judging by the title of the thread, this may be a weekly occurance, but I wouldn't count on it, based on my reliability to get articles in on time *cough* *cough*. Shred away. "Bottom of the Barrel" 32. Washington Redskins (Human Fly, 1-8) 31. Carolina Panthers (Fazzle, 2-7) 30. Indianapolis Colts (NoCal Mike, 3-6) 29. Tennessee Titans (Chuck Woolery, 3-6) 28. JaguarsJacksonville Jaguars (Always Pissed Off, 2-7) 27. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (starvenger, 3-6) 26. New York Jets (Gert T, 3-6) 25. Miami Dolphins (Spaceman Spiff, 2-7) "The Wanna-bes" 24. Dallas Cowboys (BX, 3-6) 23. Kansas City Chiefs (nogoodnick, 4-5) 22. Oakland Raiders (Banky, 4-5) 21. New England Patriots (nl5xsk1, 4-5) 20. Cleveland Browns (sfaJack, 4-5) 19. Baltimore Ravens (Dr. Tom, 4-5) 18. Philadelphia Eagles (MD2020, 5-4) 17. Seattle Seahawks (Mr. Rant, 4-5) "The Could-bes" 16. San Francisco 49ers (Agent Bond34, 5-4) Their record may not be a direct representation of how the team has played so far. Nearly done with their division schedule (Rams, Week 13, Cardinals, Week 14 ), they need to "nut up" and make the most of a schedule that may not be much in the way past Arizona and St. Louis. 15. Buffalo Bills (bob_barron, 5-4) It may be the Bills' division to lose, but they certainly did not have to do a lot of scoring to get it either. 14. Denver Broncos (Canadian Chris 5-4) Coming off a bye week which was preceded by a tough win over the Texans, the Broncos are inching for a spot they think they deserve - see the Week Three victory over the division-leading Chargers for proof. What does the future hold for the Bronx? How about N'Awlins...Oakland... and their rematch with the Chargers! 13. Minnesota Vikings (LaParkaMarka, 5-4) Not exactly road-tested,, due to a soft schedule (60 points allowed), but they have plenty of time to make it up. Should everyone in the NFC North look to make a bid for the postseason, the Vikings will be able to put their money where their mouth is (68 points forced.) Due to the loss to the Pack last week, the Vikings have been knocked down a notch.) 12. St.Louis Rams (cerebus316, 6-3) A tough divisional rival in a tooth-and-nail fight for the NFC West crown. To make a run for the postseason, they need to come out swinging against Green Bay (Week 12), San Francisco (Week 13) and Arizona (Week 15) to round out their strong 3-1 divisional record. 11. Detroit Lions (bravesfan, 5-4) The Lions are holding their own in what is unarguably the best division in the NFL. They do have a tough stretch to end the season, where their opponents have a combined record of 36-27, including four division games. For this ranking, their PA-PF breaks them away from most of the 5-4 teams. 10. New Orleans Saints (A/The Mike SC, 5-4) The Saints haven't ventured far into their division yet. Still, they maintain a 67-70 ratio to prove their record may be distorting the truth to the rest of the NFL. In the meantime, they must forge their own path into the postseason, with a key slate of games including this week against the Broncos and TWO games against the division-leading Falcons. Good luck, New Orleans. 9. San Diego Chargers (Slasher Flick, 6-3) See Bills, Buffalo. 8. New York Giants (Cartman, 5-4) See Bills, Buffalo. ... ... ... Drumroll, please.. ... .... "The Elite" 7. Houston Texans (Bored, 6-3) Handily in control of the divison, but that's not saying much yet. Three of their six wins came from a division with a combined record of 8-20, and they haven't been tested in a victory with the exception of Detroit. Judging by their schedule, they've gone past their toughest divisional competition, but could face stumbling blocks with the interleague matchups against the NFC North. KEY GAMES: Packers, Week 11, Bears, Week 15 (to essentially lock up home-field advantage) 6. Cincinnati Bengals (Swift Terror, 6-3) The Bengals are determined to hold position in the division, taking three of their last four contests. The Bengals' objectives to the division title? First, they need to make a stand this week against the Steelers. Secondly, they've got to survive the Browns and Ravens in the following weeks. KEY GAMES: Steelers, Week 11, Browns, Week 12, Ravens, Week 13. 5. Pittsburgh Steelers (Tyler McClelland, 6-3) Matching the Bengals, winning three of their last four has propelled the Steelers to a tie in the AFC North, where they could distance themselves from the Bengals with a soft schedule to cap the season (combined record 26-37). Unfortunately, they'll have no pushover this week, as they face the rival Bengals in what undoubtably will be the "Game of the Week". KEY GAMES: Bengals, Week 11, Ravens, Week 16 4. Arizona Cardinals (Vern Gagne, 7-2) The Cardinals haven't been especially tested yet. If the rest of their division play to their potential for the upcoming weeks, we'll see a tough race going down the stretch as the Cards still have to get past a tough slate in December. KEY GAMES: San Francisco, Week 14, St. Louis Week 15, Seattle Week 16 3. Atlanta Falcons (Lightning Flik, 7-2) Their record may not be a direct representation of their play, but they're going to be tough to knock off in the NFC. Four of the Falcons' wins were decided by one point or less, so they'll need to step up their play against a tough Saints team to guarantee home-field advantage. KEY GAMES: Giants, Week 11, Saints, Week 12 and Week 16 2. Chicago Bears (Agent of Oblivion, 6-3) Outside of the remaining divisional games on their schedule, they could snatch the NFC North lead after playing a few powderpuffs this month. Yet, the three games at the end of the season are no cakewalk. The Bears crumbled in a Week 1 drubbing courtesy of the Lions, but a convincing Week 2 victory over the divison-leading Packers proved that we could be seeing this year's version of the New England Patriots. KEY GAMES: Texans, Week 15, Lions, Week 16, Packers, Week 17 1. Green Bay Packers (Vitamin X, 7-2) The best in the NFL at this point - already with a 2-1 schedule in the NFC North, they'll just need to hold off their charging rivals. For this, look no further than the tail-end of the season, where the division WILL be decided. KEY GAMES: Lions, Week 14, Vikings, Week 16 and Bears, Week 17 Fin.

...and the preemptive strike by Spiff is successful. Kudos. HB, BB.

Meltzer didn't want to incriminate the worker, but he, along with Keller and Scherer, knew who it was. They kept trying to make subtle hints at who it was, though (WTW's feud with Scherer a while back). Also, before any of the clues sprouted, Scotsman's right-hand man Hamrick, traced the e-mail back to Van Dam. Before you question the validity of that, Hamrick is known in those circles as "Detective Hamrick" who seems to have an infinite number of resources and connections.

Apparently Shane is the only one on the roster who wants to burn the bridge... ...or in his case, trying to throw matches at the bridge, which is now at the bottom of a three-hundred foot canyon.

An update on the power rankings... The top seven teams (or so) got a deeper summary than those who are "middle of the pack" and/or are rising. Regardless, all of the teams that are currently in postseason contention got a "Key Games" factoid, or at least a briefing of who they'll need to beat to get there. I subscribe to the idea of withholding comments on the bottom echelon, although I will be giving credit to a few teams there. Should be up soon, I hope.

Bullshit. Meltzer said that Viscera will STILL be working on a pay-by-appearance deal, where they'll bring him in when he's needed for an angle or match.

EDIT: Double post. ::waits for person who cast 3rd-place vote for Bonds to be revealed::

Pujols, Edmonds and Rolen protected each other in the line-up. Bonds had the benefit of NOBODY to protect him, and still put up a 1400 OPS.

::points thumbs:: It'll be up by tomorrow night at the latest - it's going to be a little fatter than the usual ESPN rankings, with key wins/losses, and key games coming up.

To get the easy ones of the way... Bret Hart did a guest spot on MadTV in early 1999. During one of the skits, Sasso (doing a Jesse Ventura impersonation) starting pushing around Bret (as per the skit), but when Sasso turned around, Bret waffled him with a chair, then clamped on the sharpshooter. WCW promoted it as a worked-shoot angle, which they later brought back when Sasso was at ringside for a Nitro. He distracted Bret during a U.S. title match, costing him the match against Roddy Piper (02.08.1999). The next week, Bret faced Sasso in a singles match, where the ending saw Debra Wilson (Sasso's colleague on MadTV) turning on Sasso. After that, we didn't hear a mention of the comedian again. Don't remember the exact dates of his stints, but he was simply there to pump the crowds up during the commercial breaks (a great idea in retrospect). His appearances there helped the "Rap Is Crap" angle get off the ground.

I've wondered why there are theatres that don't take advantage of these types of ideas. Eliminating the movie reel from the equation, which eats away at most of the admission/concession profits, would allow them to make a killing at least once a month.

Al, do you think Edgar could've served a purpose past a reliable bench player?

And you can't blame HHH for the problems. As I've said repeatedly, it's basic logic that in a match with RVD, you'd work on the leg, since he is a high-flyer who does a lot of kicks. HHH worked the match that made the most sense to work when facing RVD. If RVD can't figure out how to make a match work while having to sell leg pain, that is his problem. -=Mike The only solution to this is to turn him heel, where he is looked upon to control the match (which is pretty frightening to imagine). Thing is, I don't think a considerable amount of fans would pay to see him lose. Especially when your heel champions can do things RVD can't.

WHO: Bob Ryder. WHY: To create the impression that TNA could lure WWE wrestlers away with the caviar dreams of headlining a pay-per-view against the cast of I, Max.

Exactly what I trying to convey. Angle's trying to politick his way into losing a title match to Taker, so isn't his main focus (as a towelboy for UT) moving the belt in a convincing fashion? Maybe the April date for Wrestlemania convinced Vince to bite on a JBL/???/Angle match for the Rumble or a show close to that.

Sure, if you can explain how the belt gets to Angle in time for the Mania title change to mean something. It just seems that they backed themselves into a corner with JBL adding the stipulation to his title match. He hasn't gotten the upper hand on Booker at all in this feud, so it just seems that the WWE wouldn't de-value JBL's character in this degree. Additionally, JBL's heel schtick would be lost in the RAW shuffle almost immediately. Dropping the belt to Booker on Sunday was the best possible option they had at getting the belt to Angle. Carlito looks too obvious of a culprit for the stabbing, which was why I went back to Angle based on the way Cena treated GM Angle over the summer. EDIT: And anyway, Eddie/Chavo wasn't a Wrestlemania program, so I don't understand how that feud directly affected the title push.

The point was, most of the these programs weren't even *teased* until the November pay-per-view. We're nearly SIX MONTHS away from Wrestlemania. Potential Mania programs with the ball rolling... --Trips/Orton --HBK/Edge --Cena/Angle --Kane/Snitsky ...and with what happens at Survivor Series, we'll see if any other long-range programs develop (i.e. JBL's depature, Eddie/???) or if any other players move past short-term booking (Batista, Benjamin, Jericho, etc.). They teased two interpromotional matchups at last year's show. The new allure they've affixed to Wrestlemania is the fact that they'll do a few interpromotional feuds as a "one-time only" deal. Barring a drastic change in the brand extension, when will the writers have any time to fit a RAW superstar into a SD! angle and vice-versa?

He's referring to the "A-Team" reforming after the Fingerpoke of Doom. In kayfabe, when the nWo A-Team formed, acting president Ric Flair asked the LWO to re-join the WCW to fend off the new theat.

My line for your convenience.... NYJ/CHI/JAX/HOU/KC/PIT/STL/ATL/WAS/SF/MIN/NYG/NE/PHI/17

Started at Survivor Series. Ditto the angle starting in November, then being executed in the next few months. Not even teased until Survivor Series. Again, the first tease was at Survivor Series. Isn't there a pay-per-view on Sunday?