sfaJack

No offense taken, man. We love our high school football down here, and take it entirely too seriously sometimes. It's nothing to be ashamed of, though. Lord knows I'm not. It is kinda ridiculous that we had that many coaches. But believe it or not, they all actually had a defined role on Friday nights. What's even more ridiculous is that I hear they've added another two or three coaches to the staff since I graduated seven years ago. Since I rarely go back there, I can't be sure of that myself, but my dad told me that they now send at least two or three scouts out each week (something we NEVER did when I was there) to check out their future opponents. I guess getting to the playoffs the last three years after having a drought since 1974 allows them a bigger budget to hire more coaches or something.

Texas.

One mark in the racist column here. I can't stand chocolate milk.

My little tiny high school of 330 students had 9 coaches on the sidelines/on the press box roof on Friday nights. It would be unusual to have only 5 coaches...

Are you joking? It doesn't matter what we do for them, there's always going to be that 20% or so that will hate us. They always have, and they always will. Sitting around, playing nice, and showing them that we're making their lives better isn't going to work. Waiting for them to "see the light," is only ignoring the problem. You have to solve that problem in some way, and weeding out and destroying the roots is the only way effective and efficient means of doing so.

No shit. We should ban him for being a pussy!

Oh, there's no doubt that Biggio made quite a few plays. I'm not denying that. He had a few absolutely spectacular running grabs on plays he had no business making. But if you watched him play as much as I did this past season, you'd know that there were just as many balls that he either took a bad angle on and/or just flat-out misplayed. A couple of the "spectacular" catches I mentioned above were made on plays where he hustled his ass off (to his credit) to get to after initially taking a wrong step or two. So while he did an adequate job out there, he is certainly nowhere near Gold Glove caliber. And I'm pretty sure that most everyone you ask who saw him play would tell you the same thing. That's certainly the feeling around town, anyway. And no, the Astros' surrendering so few runs isn't all due to pitching. Their starting rotation's ERA was terrible this year, and even the vaunted bullpen swooned down the stretch. Defensively, the Astros turned a lot of double plays, and didn't make an abundance of errors. Plus, Hidalgo had 22 assists in the outfield, and I saw several opposing runners get held up at third out of fear of his arm. Was Biggio a huge, gaping hole in the defense? No. But he wasn't a Gold Glover who bailed them out of several jams, either.

This right here is enough for me to declare this Win Shares thing to be pretty bogus. Biggio???? I know this is a statistical model/calculation, but for Craig Biggio to be declared Gold Glove worthy in center field by any means is complete bullshit. The guy is definitely no more than "adequate" out there. He misplayed A LOT of balls this past season that didn't show up in the stat sheets, nor did he strike a lot of fear into baserunners with his throwing arm.

Frankly, I'll be surprised if the Yankees lose Pettitte. With Clemens now gone and Wells seemingly out the door, Big Stein will probably offer Pettitte a TON of cash to stay.

I think he's talking about the gray bars that appear on the sides of the picture when you watch a regular tv program on a 16X9 screen. From what I understand (through discussion with a friend of mine, not my own experience), it's pretty much the opposite effect of the black bars on top and bottom of the screen when you watch a widescreen movie. Since TV shows are generally shot in 4:3 format, gray bars appear on the sides of the picture when you watch these shows on a 16X9 TV. If that's not right, someone please correct me.

Advertising dollars. WWE bills Raw as two separate one-hour shows. This way, they can charge two different advertising rates, since the second hour of Raw is generally the higher-rated hour. The almighty dollar is behind this, I'm pretty sure.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=1652893 PHILLIES FILL CLOSER NEED, GIVE UP DUCKWORTH ESPN.com The Phillies have acquired left-handed closer Billy Wagner from the Houston Astros for right-handed starter Brandon Duckworth and players to be determined, ESPN's Peter Gammons reports. The Phillies have scheduled a 1 p.m. ET news conference to make what they call a "major trade announcement." Wagner was 1-4 with 44 saves and a 1.78 ERA this season. Duckworth was 4-7 with a 4.94 ERA. The Phillies last month elected not to exercise their options on closer Jose Mesa and right-handed reliever Mike Williams, the former closer for the Pirates. Mesa is the Phillies' career saves leader with 111 from 2001-03, but struggled most of last season, going 5-7 with a 6.52 ERA and 24 saves. Often booed by fans, he lost his closer's role twice during the season, the last time with Philadelphia in the heat of the NL wild-card race with Florida. The Phillies did not reach the postseason and the Marlins went on to win the World Series. Mesa rarely pitched in September, costing him a guaranteed $5.5 million contract if he finished 55 games. Acquired from the Pirates in July, Williams had a combined 1-7 record with a 6.14 ERA and 28 saves. He was selected to represent Pittsburgh at the 2003 All-Star Game but slumped with the Phillies. ----------------- Good move for Philly, and it frees money for the Astros. Looks like both sides might win this one.

Umm.. These two gentlemen are better. Mientkwicz flat out is the best defensive 1st basemen in baseball. The best range, he dig balls out of the dirt better than anyone, and saves so many bad throws from the rest of the infield. Hunter is awesome in CF. It's not just the spectacular plays. He covers so much ground, and his willing to make the diving catch. That's not easy on the concrete playing surface of the Dome. His throwing arm is excellent has well. Homer.

TGI Friday's is awful. I've only been there once, but was extremely dissatisfied and will probably never go back. Olive Garden isn't too offensive. The breadsticks are fabulous, and it's a great place to take a date. Every chick I've ever known just loves Olive Garden. My personal favorite restaurant is Pappasito's; it's a Mexican place, but I think it may only be a Houston thing. I don't recall seeing one elsewhere. Best fast food place is Wendy's, no doubt. I love that spicy chicken sandwich. Worst "normal" restaurant is Red Lobster. I'm biased when I say this because I HATE seafood, but this place is overpriced and every fucker I've ever had wait on me there has been a rude, impatient asshole. Worst fast food: Sonic. I've never had a decent meal there, although the cherry limeades almost make up for it the shitty food.

A chicken and an egg are lying in bed. The chicken is leaning against the headboard smoking a cigarette with a satisfied smile on its face. The egg, looking a bit pissed off, grabs the sheet and rolls over and says,"Well, I guess we finally answered THAT question."

Ok, fine...IF Wagner had back spasms last year, they didn't cause him to miss any time, nor they did they obviously affect his performance. I don't think I'd be too concerned about it, regardless. Secondly, I never said I was an Astros fan. Quite the opposite actually, since they are division rivals with my Cubbies. They're just the local team so I watch a lot of their games. Please do not label me as an Astros' fan....I wouldn't be able to stand that. Jayson Stark is just NOW saying that the Astros are trying to move Hidalgo?? Wow, he's slow. They've been trying to move him since after the 2001 season, when he flopped in the first year of his huge contract, but have yet to find a retarded GM dumb enough to take him. It's nothing new. You don't have to "let me know" something that's been brewing for nearly two years now, but thanks anyway. And I have no doubt the Astros are going after Pettitte. They'd be fools not to. All I'm trying to say (for the third time now) is that without Houston getting rid of another huge contract, there is very little chance that Pettitte signs with the Astros, unless he is willing to pitch for $5-6 mil a year; they just don't have the money in their rigid budget otherwise. If they manage to dump Hidalgo, then I would say their chances of landing Pettitte are pretty good...but not until they dump a contract.

Evidently Cito has been sort of blackballed from the majors. I don't know the details of it, but I seem to recall hearing that he doesn't have too many friends in high places. Hooray for the Sox for giving some "new blood" a chance. Too many teams try to recycle old managers that were fired for a reason...

And when would this be? Living in Houston, I watch a lot of Astros' games and I can't remember Wagner missing any time over the last few seasons with back spasms. It's certainly not a pressing concern though, even if he has had them before. I've heard that Pettitte is willing to give a hometown discount to pitch here, but he better be ready to accept only $5 mil per year or so to pitch in Houston because without any further salary purgings, that is probably all he's going to get from the Astros. Two reasons: 1) McLane is tight with the pursestrings, and 2) he got burned by the Drabek/Swindell signings back in 1993, his first year as owner and has been very reluctant to spend big money on a free agent pitcher since. He didn't want to pay Darryl Kile and he traded Mike Hampton before his contract came up...hell, he didn't even try to re-sign Randy Johnson.

Pettitte isn't signing with the Astros unless they clear another huge contract from their books first (i.e. Hidalgo) because they won't have the money to pay him the $10-15 mil per year he's going to cost. Drayton McLane is very tight with his budget, and the money they'll save from Wagner is basically already spent between the huge rise in Bagwell's contract, Lance Berkman's raise, a small bump in Hidalgo's contract, and what will probably be costly arbitration with Roy Oswalt and Wade Miller. I'll be VERY surprised if Pettitte signs without some further purging first....

Uh, no. Wagner's major injury problems, which were all the way back in 2000, were elbow-related; he's never had a back problem in his career. The only other time he's even had problems pitching outside of the elbow injuries was due to fatigue from being overworked, and that is something that is easilly avoided. And Wagner rarely pitches more than 2 innings at a time, even with Jimy Williams' over-reliance on the bullpen. He HATES doing it, and usually pitches a fit when he has to do so.

I believe so. The only way you'll have a problem is if it can't get to the address you sent it to, because without a return address, the post office won't know what to do with it.

Neither Brown or Rice would start for the Cowboys. No way.

I badly stubbed my right big toe stepping onto my back porch the other day. It bled like hell, and now most of the toenail is pure black. Yay.

4 pairs. 1 pair of sneakers for "everyday" wear 1 pair for work 1 pair of running shoes 1 pair of sandals

Weird question...do you live in Nac (putting two and two together with your user name)? If you do...Jeremiah Trotter graduated from SFA. Don't live in Nac anymore. You are right though; that is where I went to college. List of SFA grads that are/were in the NFL, off the top of my head: Jeremiah Trotter (Washington) Chad Stanley (Houston) Mikhael Ricks (Detroit) Derrick Blaylock (Kansas City) Terrance Shaw (Oakland) KaRon Coleman (used to be with Denver...don't know if he's in the league now) Larry Centers (Arizona Cardinal fame) Mike Quinn (QB...don't know if he's currently on a team's roster) Leo Araguz (former Oakland punter)