sfaJack

Agreed on preferring CBS's more straightforward approach. The problem is that Fox and ESPN seem to be hellbent on attracting non-football fans to their broadcasts without realizing that the only people who are going to tune into a football game are FOOTBALL FANS. Trust me, there aren't enough graphics, goofy sounds, and robots in the world to hold my fiancee's interest in a football game on TV and all you're doing by using that crap is pissing me, the guy who actually wants to watch the game, off.

Astros' E number for the wild card is 3. It is 5 for the division. Astros better go 7-0 to end the season. Anything less and I don't see it happening for them. The Cards are likely to go at least 4-3, especially with Carpenter going twice; in that scenario, even 6-1 ain't good enough.

The reaction of several Astro fans here is that they are all but in the playoffs now. As if making up 3.5 games in the standings with only 7 to play (all on the road) and no head-to-head games with the team you're chasing is easily done...

In completely unsurprising news, all the stupid bullshit hype about Roger Clemens' "farewell" to Houston the other day was for nothing--he's starting the Astros' home finale on Sunday.

The non-stop standing ovations for Clemens today are pretty sad. Way overdone and a little too melodramatic. The saddest part is that it will all be for nothing when he comes back in July next year for $25 million and we have to go through all this crap again.

Local NFL writer has said several times that Kubiak and his staff haven't been too excited about Morency's future prospects, so I'm sure they had no problem with swapping him for anyone that they think might be able to help them. Of course, the local conspiracy theorists are already speculating that they're trying to cover their ass for passing on Bush in the draft--that this is just a sign that they know they have shit at running back but are afraid to admit they might have made a mistake.

I'd be your Myspace friend viva, but I don't have a Myspace.

Where are your seats for the Dallas game? Stop by and say hey if you're near section 8. I can't help but wonder if Bledsoe's struggles didn't have something to do with him aggravating his back and consequently having trouble keeping it loose for the rest of the game Sunday. I don't know if they mentioned it on the TV broadcast, but the radio feed (which I was listening to) brought up his back situation. Something was clearly wrong with him after the first quarter; he'd been just about dead perfect with his accuracy and then suddenly started missing most of his passes. A little unusual, even for Bledsoe. You're right on the running game, though. The Cowboys will probably struggle with that all season. The Cowboys' defense WAS very good Sunday...until they got the 10 point lead and Mike Zimmer stopped being aggressive. If he could, for once, not do that when they have the lead, the Cowboys will be a top 5 defense. I hope they don't offer ZImmer a contract after this year. He sucks. Prediction: Cowboys 20, Redskins 14.

Wow. I got lucky.

I remember that Carlos Delgado thread. I wonder if good ol' Abdul has blown himself up yet...

As a Cowboys' fan who was and still is AGAINST bringing T.O. in, I have to say that I'm completely unsurprised. I've been giving him the benefit of the doubt so far in regards to all the missed practices and games because if there is one positive thing I can say about T.O., it's that he is always ready to go and plays hard when it's game time. And for some reason (maybe it's because I have high expectations for the Cowboys this season), I still think he's going to be a relatively happy and productive player this season. I believe he actually IS hurt and if he is he shouldn't be practicing...but missing team meetings and rehab sessions is T.O. being T.O. and is exactly the reason I can't believe Parcells allowed Jerry fucking Jones to bring him in. Another job well done, Jerry.

Should we put viva on suicide watch? Astros now at 21 innings without scoring a run, including today's 1-0 loss to the Cubs.

Look at the bright side, viva: the Astros won't see Zambrano again the rest of this season!

I wanted to go to Zambrano/Oswalt tonight but with work being a tremendous pain in the ass this month, I'm a little short of time. Boo for that.

Um...yeah. *leaves thread*

3 games @ Minute Maid this year: Reds/Astros in June Cubs/Astros in June Padres/Astros yesterday (Sunday) 1 game in Seattle: Rangers/Mariners back in April

Where are your seats?

Two things make sports talk radio intolerable to me: 1) Callers with dumbass trade proposals. 2) Callers who have questions about who to draft for their fantasy teams. That is boring radio because NOBODY gives a shit about your fantasy team but you, dude.

Yeah I really don't get this guy's beef with the searches. My dad and I are going into our third season as Cowboys' season ticket holders so we've been subjected to 15-20 of them thus far. If the searches in Tampa are anything like Dallas, Mr. Douchebag has been subjected to about 3 excrutiating seconds of a guy (only men are allowed to pat down men, and only women to pat down women) touching his shoulders and then sliding the back of his hand down Douchebag's back. They NEVER go anywhere near/below the beltline and never place a single hand on your chest or anything. The whole thing is over as quickly as it begins and is in no way a violation of one's rights. WHAT'S THE FUCKING PROBLEM?

What's kind of funny is that the Astros are so scared to trade any of their young prospects because they don't want to mortgage their future, yet they turn around and move them through their farm system at glacial speed, waiting until they're 26-27 years old before getting them to big leagues. There is absolutely no reason why Hunter Pence, who is 23 years old and absolutely tearing it up at AA, should still be at AA. Move him up already! If not to the big club, get him some AAA ab's. Find out how good he actually is. It isn't as if they're set in their outfield for the next four years or anything.

We were discussing this at work the other day: Over the four seasons that they've been together on the Red Sox, are Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz the single greatest 1-2 punch in a lineup since Ruth/Gehrig? Look at their totals; the sheer number of HR and RBI, and the OPS they've posted are really something to behold. We were hard pressed to come up with any other tandem that's been that good except for possibly Mantle/Maris, but they were only together for 2 years.

Nobody in their right mind would sexually harass Linda Cohn, so I'm gonna rule that one out.

Yes, it is. I don't know what kind of stuff you'd be interested in doing, but as viva and TSA stated, Houston isn't exactly full of fun for tourists. In addition to the stuff they mentioned, you have the Woods Mitchell Pavillion up north (long way from Sugar Land though) that might have a concert you'd be interested in. It's a good venue. There's also Sam Houston Race Park (horse track) and Gulf Greyhound Park (dog track) if you're into that sort of thing. And then, of course, there are TONS of topless clubs here. If you're looking for that, you won't have a problem finding one. Another good thing is that you can be in Austin and/or San Antonio within about 3 hours. Those are nice places to go for a weekend; you should check them out.

Browns represent!

Hirsch was probably not called up because he's apparently got some stiffness in his shoulder. They limited him to 5 innings in his last start because of it.