Balta1701

QUOTE(fathom @ Aug 29, 2006 -> 12:01 PM) 16-16..we miss the playoffs by 3.5 games. How exactly do we miss the playoffs by a margin that includes a half a game? Did Minnesota have a game rained out that they won't be making up? Did we?

This season, lefties are batting .277 with an .852 OPS against Fossum. Righties are batting .260 with a .760 OPS against Fossum. Scott Podsednik is 4 for 6 in his career against Fossum with a triple and a walk. Pablo is 3/5. I imagine Ozzie will of course ignore the numbers and put Pablo in there because Fossum is right handed...but either way, the top of the order is the key tonight. Any news on whether Thome will play?

The Indians have won 15 of 19.

If this team wants to go to the playoffs, they need to show it every game.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 28, 2006 -> 02:49 PM) Charges that are possible and come to mind: --Obstruction of Justice --Fraud with a special instrument --Possible violations of federal visa regulations Plus he could get sued in civil court. And I am not sure how often it happens, but yes, the US could indeed send this guy back to Thailand, where he could be charged with their equivalent of flight to evade, in addition to whatever he was already charged with. His life would become hell on earth. I can't say I'm surprised about any of this. Drudge is now running that he'll be charged in CA for possession of child pornography.

QUOTE(Melissa1334 @ Aug 28, 2006 -> 03:51 PM) morneau will not win it. he just wont. jeter would be chosen be4 him. if dye keeps it up, he has a great chance. they talk about him all the time on bbt That would depend on the numbers down the stretch. If Morneau were to get hot and carry his team to the playoffs the way Vlad did 2 years ago, that might be enough of a sales-job to convince voters.

Carl Pavano broke a couple ribs in a car accident a few weeks ago, and just now told the Yankees.

Well, I know it's fairly selfish of me, but you know what? I'm damn happy the media doesn't get a year-long trial to obsess over.

QUOTE(jackie hayes @ Aug 28, 2006 -> 02:24 PM) Hey hey, surprise, surprise, surprise. Mexico's electoral court ruled that claims of fraud are bs and that the election results changed little in the districts in which a recount was ordered. Link. Lopez Obrador, naturally, accepted the court's ruling and urged... Oh, no, wait. He's threatening to plunge the country into chaos. Nice guy, real patriot. Well, the last time the U.S. had a disputed Presidential election, the opponent dropped out after the high court ruled, and then the winner decided to plunge the country into chaos, so at least the Mexicans are getting the chaos out of the way early.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 28, 2006 -> 02:59 PM) I cannot believe that I am the only one in here who has any classical, jazz or soundtrack music in their iPod. I do see one or two blues tracks, though. Just because it doesn't come up when I randomly select 20 of the 3449 songs on my playlist doesn't mean I don't have any. Hell, there was even a soundtrack song that did pop up on mine...sure it was from star trek, but it was there!

Talk to me when the White Sox are in the playoffs. If they're not there, he doesn't get it.

QUOTE(StrangeSox @ Aug 28, 2006 -> 10:26 AM) Chicks dig the long ball, man. Anyone want to figure out how many times Minn. and Det. have started their starting lineup? With guys like Hunter, White, Stewart, Polonco, Young all hitting the DL for long stretches this season, I doubt they've done so that much either.

Stephen was robbed. Repeatedly.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 28, 2006 -> 09:15 AM) CUSEC: http://www.cusec.org/S_zones/NMSZ/nmsz_home.htm and Live Science: http://www.livescience.com/forcesofnature/...new_madrid.html Seem to feel differently. Looks like about 90% chance of 6.0 or greater in next 50 years, 20-40% for 7.0 or greater, 7-10% for 9.0 or greater. A 6.0-7.0 quake in that region would be devastating. I will say that I'm not completely certain, but I did just read through the Nature papers that are talked about in the Live Science article, and I'm left unconvinced that they actually know well enough how this fault behaves to give that specific of a prediction. There's a lot of current deformation there, but we don't know very much about intra-plate tectonics compared to what we see at plate boundaries, so the deformation may be happening without significant stress on the fault, or it may be a response to the last set of events, or it could be a sign of rebuilding stress. I'll stick with my story and say a magnitude 8 on the San Andreas is more likely in the next 50 years than a magnitude 7 on that fault based on everything I've read. But then again, we're still only talking probabilities, and the White Sox were what, a 1-100 shot at winning the 2005 World Series?

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Aug 28, 2006 -> 09:12 AM) It would be interesting to see and I'm sure impossible to really know how many runs Mack has cost the Sox playing CF. It has to be at least 1 run a game. There usually is at least 1 sometimes 3. Considering David Ortiz accounts for less than 1.5 runs a game, Mack would have to be a Hall of Fame quality offensive player to make up for the defensive drop off. He's not. Its really unfortunate that Mack is taking the brunt of this because it isn't his fault. More unfortunate is the organization's apparent denial that CF defense when BA isn't in the game is not major league quality and could keep the White Sox out of the playoffs. The problem is, it's impossible to actually quantify how many runs Mack has given up. I'll give you a prime example...Javier Vazquez's last start against the Orioles. There were 2 balls that Mack short-hopped that Anderson would have had easily. One of them led directly to a run scoring - the ball falling turned it into an RBI single. But the other one didn't lead directly to a run scoring - Vazquez pitched over it. But then, what happened? Vazquez happened, he hit the 6th inning and imploded again. But here's my question...what happens if both of those balls are caught? Well, Vazquez goes into the 6th inning with 1 less run on the board, has more flexibility, and has thrown probably 15 fewer pitches. So he's fresher, he has more confidence, and he doesn't have to make as many perfect pitches. Who's to say that he doesn't have more success in the 6th inning if Brian catches those balls earlier in the game?

QUOTE(Heads22 @ Aug 28, 2006 -> 08:56 AM) Did you take I-80 at all? I'll apologize to you now for the state of Nebraska. People think Iowa is boring. Just wait til you get west out of Omaha/Council Bluffs. Yeah, we took 80 through most of Nebraska, then ducked south into Colorado, don't remember exactly which road that was though. Probably will be repeating the same voyage next summer, driving home to get married.

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Aug 28, 2006 -> 08:55 AM) Just so I'm clear, I'm for BA over Mack - I agree with you all on that. However, I'm trying to say that there's a reason why BA is being 'protected' if you will. I understand protecting B.A. when he was hitting so poorly through April and May. But there's just no reason to keep doing it now. Now he's going out against good pitchers and actually looking good. He's spraying the ball to all fields, etc. He's beating good pitchers and getting hits off of them when he faces them, good righties included. The only thing he hasnt' found yet is his power stroke, and that will probably come with time. There is no more reason right now to protect B.A. than there is to protect Uribe. And there's especially no reason to keep B.A. on the bench for 4 games out of the last 7 with the 2 teams ahead of us in the AL Central.

QUOTE(AssHatSoxFan @ Aug 28, 2006 -> 08:47 AM) here's the question: since there will no doubt be a drop after labor day due to decreased demand what kind of increase can we look forward to on labor day weekend? Usually gas stations will raise prices like $.10-$.25 on high travel weekends just to make some money off of the high travel volume. I doubt it'll be much different this year.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 28, 2006 -> 07:18 AM) At least LA has been preparing for it, to an extent. I'm more scared for what Memphis and St. Louis will look like when New Madrid goes again (which is past due now, by most accounts). St. Louis has done some things to prepare, but not much. Memphis has wholesale ignored the problem. And whats worse, Memphis is sitting on a sinking bluff of sand and mud - which, if an earthquake occurs, creates what is known as a liquification zone. The effect of the tremors is magnified (unlike in California, where big rocky mountains can quickly dissipate the energy, preventing it from spreading far from the quake, in certain areas). Anything stronger than a 7.0 and Memphis will be an unimagineable disaster area - way worse than New Orleans, and with no warning at all. Actually, California has a bunch of other threats that are worth noting, and I think most of them are more likely than the New Madrid. First and foremost, here are the recorded events on that fault: 2244 BC+/-269 to 1620 BC+/-220, AD 900, AD 1450, and AD 1812. There's somewhere between 500-1000 years between each of those events, so just statistically, I don't think the odds are very good that we'll see anything on that particular fault in my lifetime. There are, however, other faults certainly within these sorts of areas that are under stress. It's a lot more likely that if another big one happens away from a continental margin, it'll happen somewhere that we don't expect on a fault we don't necessarily know about. California, on the other hand, has a bunch of fault-related worries. There's a river delta up in the North which is basically a New Orleans waiting to happen. 100+ year old levee systems, highly populated areas, shockingly close to several big faults, very flat land, lots of agriculture. There's going to be a bond issue this fall to raise funds to fix that thing, but honestly, it may well be too late even if it does pass. There are other random seismic hazards as well. Lake Isabella is a man-made lake up in the Sierras that is held in place by a 50 year old dam. That dam just happens to run right across the Isabella fault, an active Normal fault with an unknown recurrence interval (one of my friends here just did a thesis on that fault). If that dam were to be breached, Bakersfield ceases to exist. Los Angeles and San Francisco are starting to get their acts together, but it's still going to take a lot more money and less annoyance from some of the politicians to do the job right (i.e. several hundred million dollars were spent designing a new suspension bay bridge that would be earthquake proof, then Arnold delayed the thing by years by telling it to go back to the drawing board.) QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Aug 28, 2006 -> 07:33 AM) The other scenario that isn't really talked about much is the NYC hurricane. Try moving 10 million people out of the way of a fast moving nor-eastern hurricane, when much of the city doesn't have a car, and there are a limited number of ways off of long island. And that is one that we're certainly overdue for. Boston as well. A couple of those storms hit New York in the late 1800's, and none have come through since. The skyscrapers in the area will be a major part of the new story, as having those there will create wind tunnels that will make the winds move much faster than they would have without those buildings. That is one that I think we should expect within our lifetimes.

QUOTE(Steff @ Aug 28, 2006 -> 08:50 AM) Sorry. To be clear it's the attitude I find more frightening than the topic, regardless of how silly, being discussed. It's not about being able to wear baggy pants. It's about following rules. Did you feel like your generation followed all of the rules laid out for it? This is going to happen with every generation of kids that come up. They're going to find ways to push the boundaries set by whatever authority figure there is in existence. My group did it, I'm sure yours did, I'm sure that at some level, everyone here did. The school can suspend people for this if they want. Totally within their rights. But it's not something that you should panic about, because it happens with every group of kids.

QUOTE(LosMediasBlancas @ Aug 27, 2006 -> 06:43 PM) Day 1- Chicago to West Memphis, Arkansas. Day 2- West Memphis to Abiline, Tx. Dat 3 (today)- Abiline to Lorsdburg, New Mexico Day 4- Lordsburg to Palm Desert and after we're done with this grueling and boring trip tomorrow....we get to unload and unpack. You took a much more southerly route than we did. Maybe a good thing. We got stuck in the middle of the mountains just west of Denver after some big rig overturned and blocked the whole freeway.

The New Pornographers - All for swingin' around you Erich Kunzel with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra - Main theme from Star Trek: The Motion Picture Fatboy Slim - Fishing in heaven Nirvana - Lithium Cream - Anyone for Tennis? ...And you will Know Us by the Trail of Dead - Heart in the Hand of the Matter Smashing Pumpkins - track 4 at Metro, 10/05/1988 Ben Folds Five - Twin Falls (Live at Club Quattro) Jimi Hendrix Experience - Gypsy Eyes Neil Young - Southern Man Built to Spill - Stop the Show That was far more entertaining than my first shuffle.

QUOTE(Steff @ Aug 28, 2006 -> 08:15 AM) This is the future... yikes. Doesn't every generation say exactly that about the generation coming up behind them? This country more to fear from people who aren't taught how to do math and are taught that the earth is 6000 years old than we do from people wearing pants too low.

QUOTE(Milkman delivers @ Aug 28, 2006 -> 08:34 AM) Well, if the most prolific golfer of our time says that he wants to test for steroids in his game, then I'm inclined to believe there are abusers among the ranks of golfers. I was inclined to believe that before he said anything. There is almost no physical activity invented by man that man cannot design a drug to help out with.

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Aug 27, 2006 -> 09:14 PM) Can someone find me a list of players who have put together hit streaks of thirty or better? Willy Taveras just got to #30. Is he the worst player ever to have a hit streak of hit streak of 30 or better? I mean, it's pretty pathetic -- even with thirty straight games with hits, the guy is still only putting up a line of .284/.335/.345. Freakin' Scott Podsednik is doing better then that. I still can't believe some people were willing to trade Jose Contreras for a package centered around him and Brad Lidge... There have been more hit streaks of 30 or more games this decade already than in any other decade since the 1890's.