ISportsFan

Even if DeLay did speak to the Christian Coalition (which Mike is denying), from what I've read, DeLay is on the outs too. I'm sure this has been posted on the board before, but here goes again. http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/04/10/delay.ap/index.html Jason

But Dana White said that it's not the same audience, so it must not have any relation. Right? This shows how much the show was helped by WWE's lead in. Not saying 1.9 is a horrible number for a Saturday night, but it is a very bad number for a finale of a reality show that had bigger ratings during the course of its run (almost all reality shows have their peak ratings during their finales). The statistics backed up how much of a correlation there was between the two audiences, but this shows it again. The fight with Bonnar and Griffin, though, was off the charts. Probably through word of mouth the replays will have pretty good ratings, at least for that 30 minute segment. Jason

I wouldn't say they run Cook County, per se. They run Chicago like nothing else, though. Mayor Daley is practically royalty--he's even a White Sox fan and people on the North Side vote for him because he's (D). That's crazy, for those who don't follow Chicago baseball. Many of the suburbs of Chicago in Cook are mostly Republican. By default, however, since there are so many people in the actual city, Cook is run by Democrats. I can't remember the last Republican who was in a major political position in the county. Also, I wouldn't say the machine is stealing votes anymore like they were in the 1960s. It's to the point where the Democrats don't have to work anymore to win almost any post in the city, so there's no need for corruption. Jason

The problem with this is that Shelton is the only one of these three that hasn't really focused on the IC title. The Rock defended the IC title sparingly, at most, but it was the focus of all his feuds. Plus, every blowoff match in his feuds at the time was an Intercontinental title match. Orton defended the IC title constantly, so he really brought up the prestige of the belt while gaining access to a record. People actually remembered his championship. When Shelton is introduced, I have to see that he's carrying the belt to remember he's the IC champion. If I am asked, I would be able to say he's the champion, but it'd take me a couple of seconds to throw that information to the front of my brain. That's a testament to the way the IC title has been treated since Shelton won at Taboo Tuesday. Obviously, the WWE marketing machine could make this possible. Shelton would be "the longest reigning IC champ in nearly 2 decades," and all this will have been forgotten after they've said that hundreds of times. I just don't think that the ride there will have been nearly as impressive as either Rock's or Orton's. Jason

Actually, Illinois is probably medium blue. The whole state is very red except for Cook County (where Chicago is), which is dark dark blue. But, Chicago has enough people to make it probably safely blue for quite a while for presidential candidates. Jason

White Sox: Winning the 1 run games. Jason

Yeah, in baseball things are such that if a pitcher has a phenominal game, anybody can win. If wind conditions are crazy, bloop singles can be the difference. One day, even bad teams can be on offensively and win games over much better teams. The best hitters get a hit less than 4 out of every ten times they go to the plate, and it's a big deal when a player only bats 3, 4, or 5 times in a day. In basketball, there are a whole lot fewer variables. If you have Shaq, he's going to get a ton of touches and score. Steve Nash will create. Tim Duncan will dominate. Even if a shooter hits an average of 45% of his shots (a pretty dang good percentage for a guard), he gets a ton of points because he shoots a ton more. The sheer amount of possessions makes things tend toward more talent than who is having the better day. Of course, that's why they play so many baseball games. Over 162 games, things will tend toward talent more than in one game. Jason

Another fun pitcher's duel to watch between the White Sox and Indians. Final score was a 2-1 Sox win after Scott Podsednik had a good game -- scored a run and got the game winning RBI. Both pitchers, Millwood for Cleveland and Garcia for Chicago, had outstanding outings. Jason

Hopefully this is the full matches; I think that'd be a good addition to the DVD, whether the matches were good or not.

I think it's more Cliff Politte is an idiot. The Sox played pretty horrible today, no doubt about it. If I remember correctly, they were winless on nationally televised games last year (or close to it, including FOX, ESPN, ESPN2), and they're off to a good start on matching that again. Jason

Tuesdays. It used to be Thursdays, but they switched a couple of months ago (maybe when they went to the monthly PPV format). Jason

These shirts go completely against his gimmick; there's no way Batista would wear a shirt with intentionally misspelled words with an odd font (that's more Jeff Hardy style). Jason

There were 2 choices, and I put them side by side. There is no "none" choice, so it seems as if they will definitely be making one of these shirts available for purchase. This is one of the worst shirt ideas since one of those Rock shirts with a terrible catchphrase on it. Just awful, and it will only make Batista look like an idiot when he inevitably wears it on TV. Jason

I've had some minor dreams about being a wrestler (not athletic enough and I don't want to use steroids, so I have practically no chance of that), and I've also wanted to be booker, too. But, I know I would a) never get hired as booker and b) would immediately get fired if ever hired because I wouldn't feel like my voice counted enough and I'd let them know their ideas were no good. Jason

According to PWInsider.com, Rhyno has been released. I thought this was to be expected, considering he's been dead weight for them (they were never going to push him anyway) and it gives them a reason to cut his contract. Jason

Warrior responds to the attacks by those spineless Republicans and World Class Crybaby Liberals from last night's speech from wrestlingobserver.com (probably taken from Warrior's site, whatever that is) This guy is truly hilarious. Jason

White Sox are going to be in trouble this year when it comes to scoring runs. We have 2 wins (1-0 and 4-3), but today was a very unlikely comeback at home in the bottom of the ninth against Wickman. But, the comeback was the only real threat we posed the entire game offensively. I'll definitely enjoy it while it lasts though. Very fun comeback today, making this two fun Sox games in a row. Jason

Correct, it's a random "lottery" style draft. Jason

Having an entire card inside a cage is quite possibly the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Cages should be used to settle big grudges, or at the very least grudges. Some of these guys haven't even been angry at each other and they'll be inside a cage. This is a horrible idea. Jason

I think Neilson made the websites stop using them since they're "the intellectual property of Neilson" or something. Meltzer still prints the breakdowns in the Observer, though. Jason

That's what I meant, but I probably didn't make it as clear as I should have. Anyway, this is a story that could be Kobe-lite if ESPN takes it and runs with it. Especially with the alias and trying to get around some legal issues. Jason

- Simon Dean - William Regal - Yoshihiro Tajiri - La Resistance - Gene Snitsky - Hurricane - Rosey - Chris Masters - Viscera - Rhyno - Val Venis - Tyson Tomko - Maven The men from Raw on the actual WrestleMania card (in matches) were: - Triple H - Batista - Shawn Michaels - Randy Orton - Chris Benoit - Edge - Chris Jericho - Christian - Shelton Benjamin - Kane So, from the Raw superstars page on WWE.com, the other men that are left out are: - Chris Nowinski (injured nearly permanently) - Eric Bischoff (probably not) - Eugene (injured, showed up on the card) - Garrison Cade - Jerry Lawler and Jim Ross (probably not) - Jonathon Coachman - Khosrow Daivari (showed up on card) - Mark Henry (OVW still and hurt himself running the ropes) - Matt Hardy (hurt and Lita thing) - Muhammad Hussan (showed up on the card) - Ric Flair (managed HHH on PPV) - Steven Richards (already debunked) - Todd Grisham (yeah right) Not many candidates. Jason

I wish the NFL didn't have a policy that bars people from getting custom jerseys with nicknames of players on the back, or I would get a Vick jersey with the name "Mexico" on the back. Jason

Anything leading to a bunch of Benjamin v. Benoit matches is what we need. Jason

I don't know if I like the fact that the image on that table has Cena wearing the title belt and he isn't wearing the belt in the main shot, or if I think it's tacky. Either way, better than the Undertaker on the poster again for Judgment Day. Jason