sfaJack

...where do we go from here? Damn me and my habit of not boarding hard on the weekends. I missed most of it.

Sandberg ahead of Biggio? While I personally agree with you, such sentiment would get you hanged around these parts!

Because Stanback has shown a lot of ability to play receiver? Or stay healthy? Or do anything at all?

How did Brady's injury affect the Patriots' and/or the NFL's marketing? All of the Patriots' games were sold out long before the season started. Fans didn't stop watching games just because Tom Brady got hurt. Not that that would matter anyway--TV revenues were already guaranteed. And it's not like ESPN wasn't talking about Brady's knee/staph infections every goddamn day. So who (other than Brady) was feeling any pain from his being hurt? The Patriots still went 11-5 and sold all their tickets, along with a whole lot of jerseys/tshirts/whatever. Plus, for 2009 the NFL gets to put new 'superstar' Matt Cassel on the marquee in Kansas City in addition to promoting 'THE RETURN OF TOM BRADY = OMG PATRIOTS TO THE SUPER BOWL.' Might it be a win/win in that regard? I voted for Stern, btw. I don't follow the NHL so I won't vote for Bettman. But Goodell gets my vote if the NFL can't figure out how to split the billions and billions of dollars with their players and all or part of the 2011 season is lost.

It'd make a better forum slogan.

Yeah, I can tell you that teams DEFINITELY require season ticket holders to buy the preseason tickets.

Ok, you win. I can't trump that card.

I got TWO questions for the mailbag. Suck it, kkk. Here are the answers… So why do you hate The Astros despite living in or near Houston your whole life? It’s simple: I’ve been a Cubs fan for about 25 years and the Cubs and Astros have been division rivals for 15 of those years. And since I have to hear the daily Astros’ propaganda living here, well, it makes me root against them. I should say that ‘hate’ is a probably strong word for it these days since I no longer have the energy—or time, thanks to the wife—to spend watching the majority of their games (MLB Extra Innings is useful here, too). Plus the Cubs are just better than the Astros these days so my days of jealously looking at the standings are—at least for now—over. And I do love a couple of the Astros players. Berkman is a terrific, funny guy; one of my favorite guys in sports. And I would LOVE Roy O to get fed up enough with the Astros that, when his contract is up, he decides to pitch at Wrigley for a couple of years. (Of course, the Cubs being the Cubs, he’d probably blow his arm out during pregame warm-ups before his debut and disappear in disgrace like Mark Prior.) But a hack like Brandon Backe being kept around and getting constant adoration because he’s a ‘hometown kid’ despite having never been a good pitcher (or even showing signs of it)? Get the fuck out of here. Also, what do you think of their chances in The N.L. Central this year? I break it down like this: 1. The Astros are definitely worse than the Cubs, which means they’re probably fighting for the wild card at best. I don’t see anything but a number of devastating injuries derailing the Cubs in their quest for a third straight N.L. Central title. 2. I don’t see how anyone can say the Astros are clearly better than either the Brewers or Cardinals. 3. Recent history says that they’re probably better than the Reds, but Cincy’s lineup is fairly solid and you never know what a couple of young, developing guys like Cueto and Volquez will do. If Arroyo continues his good work and Harang bounces back, watch out. The Reds could finish third, which means they’re probably ahead of the Astros, too. (Dusty manages this bunch though so a 66-win, 6th place finish is also possible,) 4. They’re definitely better than the Pirates so they will be no worse than fifth! The fans here point to the Astros second-half charge to 86 wins last year as proof that this team is on the cusp, but the reality of it is despite that, they still finished 3.5 games behind TWO teams for the wild card. So they really didn’t come that close to making the playoffs. They are some other problems: - Oldest team in the National League, and they got a little older with the signing of Pudge - Berkman/Lee is about as solid a 3/4 combination as you can get. But Tejada’s washed up, Pudge is 37 and wasn’t very good last year, third base is either Geoff Blum or rookie Chris Johnson, Kaz Matsui is hurt all the time, and Michael Bourn is a disaster in center. Pence is talented, but he must return to his rookie form if they’re going to have a chance and there is no guarantee that he will. - They subtracted Randy Wolf and added Mike Hampton and Russ Ortiz, neither of whom has been effective in several years. Oswalt is scary good of course, but when you have Hampton, Ortiz, Wandy Rodriguez, and Brian f’n Moehler behind him, well, that’s not so good. - LaTroy Hawkins is a key cog in their bullpen. LATROY HAWKINS. - There is almost no help in the minor leagues and Drayton McLane claims the payroll is now maxed out so any injuries could really kill their season early because they probably won’t have any options to replace the injured players. - The second half schedule isn’t conducive to a late run this year. One of the newspaper guys did a breakdown of it a couple of weeks back and concluded that it’s the toughest post-ASB schedule in the NL. Add all of that up and it smells of 76-78 wins and a third or fourth place finish to me.

That's not a question, asshole.

And even if it helped his argument, you're still talking about one guy out of a league of 450 or so. Not exactly statistically relevant.

As one of the most anonymous posters at TSM with what is probably one of the least-read blogs, I'm sure this idea is doomed to failure. But I'm bored today so what the hell; I'll give it a shot anyway. Ask me anything, whether it's about me personally, something you'd like to get my opinon on, or something really difficult that I'm sure to get wrong and end up looking stupid. Maybe you want to know my favorite color, how I met sfaJill, or why I've lived in or near Houston my entire life yet hate the Astros. Do I have a favorite actor? Movie? Do I like country music? Maybe you need my advice on something (though God help you if you follow it). You could even ask for my detailed thoughts on nuclear disarmament (note: I don't really have any detailed thoughts on this) or suggest topics you actually might want to read about on this blog. Whatever. Unlike an Obama press conference, this floor is open to tough questions and I will not screen any of them. Submit them in the comments here or via PM if you want to be all secretive. I'll take questions through this Sunday night and post an entry with the answer(s) next Monday. If this actually works, maybe I'll do it again every so often. If I don't get any questions, well, fuck everybody.

No. If you're going to change the OT rules, make it the same rules for all regular and postseason games. Two sets of rules would only lead to more confusion for Pro Bowl quarterbacks. I'm fine with the OT rules as they are, BTW. But if they want to change it, make it a full extra quarter, booth replay only, 2 timeouts per team.

But there IS an incentive to winning your division--you still get to go to the playoffs and have a chance to get to the Super Bowl. If you can manage to sell a few division championship t-shirts to some drooling idiots along the way, kudos! You're telling me it's fair that the Colts go 12-4--a great season that included a win over the Chargers--yet have to travel to play the 8-8 Chargers in a wild card game--who barely qualified for the playoffs--just because the Colts happened to be divisionally aligned with the incredible 14-2 Titans and the Chargers' thorough mediocrity was rewarded only by their division mates' total incompetence? That's more unfair than the OT rules.

It's Dwight from The Office. sfaJill got it for me for Christmas. It sits next to the red Swingline stapler from Office Space.

Yes, yes, yes to the 'team with the better record hosts the playoff game' thing. Please let that happen.