caulfield12

QUOTE (Iwritecode @ Apr 10, 2012 -> 10:03 AM) You pretty much nailed it. It was really, really good. I've always liked Seth Rogan for the most part and JGL is awesome. I might pick up Hesher sometime soon just because he's in it. Hesher is VERY intense. It's one of the most outlandish movie characters that you will ever come across, yet it's somehow impossible not to watch. JGL lets it all hang out in this one, you watch a movie like 500 Days of Summer back to back and it's like WHAT? Obviously a very versatile actor, capable of great things if utilized properly. He might not have the stereotypical good looks of a Facebook-generation leading man, but he's always interesting to watch.

Yet the biggest Sparks cliché is found in his interpretation of a leading man. They must be manly yet sensitive, harbour a dark secret, scarred by a tour of duty, able to rebuild a rundown home and hold a special talent, like say…play the piano. It is romance fiction nonsense that women love, and Zac Efron plays it well. But he also does a great job infusing some humanity into the fantasy. Efron is quickly becoming the romantic leading man of his generation, and his performance in The Lucky One is an example of why. That Efron also shares an easy chemistry with Schilling helps sell this love story. Plenty of deep, passionate smooches feature throughout, but they would mean nothing if Hicks didn’t let the love story blossom and characters evolve, silly attributes and all. It’s hard to say what The Lucky One would have been like under a different director, yet under Hick’s it’s the best possible film a Nicholas Sparks novel could be. I thought this review about an upcoming April 20th movie (THE LUCKY ONE) was quite hilarious. Besides the HSM series, pretty sure all of his movies have been busts. Well, I guess Hairspray did well, but that was more of an ensemble cast. And I suppose 17 AGAIN was okay, but that was mostly due to Thomas Lennon and Matthew Perry. I'm sure all the wives/girlfriends will be dragging you to it, so be prepared. It's either that or the FIVE-YEAR ENGAGEMENT the following week with Jason Segel and Emily Blunt.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Apr 11, 2012 -> 04:15 PM) I agree that selling high on a closer is wise. But we didn't really get a high price in return for selling high. But if we got Reddick, Head and Alcantara (the payout for Bailey), would we be any better off? I'm not saying that's the exact trade the Red Sox would have made with us for Santos, just using it as a comparison. Guess it just depends...Reddick would have been in Fukudome's role with us, but is he really more of an everyday player or just another version of Ryan Sweeney with a bit more pop in his bat? If the White Sox go through the 2012 season without any problems at closer and/or Santos struggles, there won't be QUITE so much heat on KW. But between Stewart and Molina, one of those guys should be expected to be something more than a spare part.

Willingham seems to be about the only good move the Terry Ryan made this past off-season. At first, that looked like one of those so-so at best contracts, but he's been the only power source for the Twinkies.

Well, pretty much nobody but McPherson and Kuhn are hitting at Charlotte. I wish I could believe that Drew Garcia could be a possible replacement at 2B or 3B, but that's unlikely. Black with his 2nd homer, hitting the ball well early. Trayce Thompson, whenever he does make contact, gets more than his share of XB hits. Marcus "Bill Melton, Please Don't Call Me Semen" Semien with his 3rd error already. Saladino and Mitchell, despite opening eyes in Glendale, are both struggling. All Ozzie's this week (Martinez in this case), "You, you not so good."

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 11, 2012 -> 08:13 PM) Zimmerman is already in custody in the state of Florida. Despite how bizarre his actions the last couple days were, he did everything appropriately today. The next thing will be keeping him "safe and secure" and away from anyone who might want to wish him harm. While not exactly Jeffrey Dahmer, he's definitely got a target on his head.

http://news.yahoo.com/why-george-zimmerman...ZXN0Aw--;_ylv=3 Five reasons Zimmerman's attorneys dumped him, point 5 is the most interesting 5. This is an elaborate ploy on Zimmerman's part to stay out of jail This whole situation might just "be part of an elaborate and not entirely crazy act of self-preservation" on Zimmerman's part, says Steve M. at No More Mister Nice Blog. Consider this: He fled Florida and contacted Hannity. Let's say he's seeking refuge in "a very red state." Having Fox News rally conservatives to his side could lead a GOP governor in such a state to "refuse to extradite Zimmerman" to Florida if Zimmerman's indicted. Maybe that's an "utterly ridiculous" theory, but this country is so crazy, I think the plan could actually work. Oops, just woke up in China to find he's actually in custody. Well, in hindsight, hiding out in rural Alabama, Mississippi or South Carolina might have turned out to be the better move.

Wow, can't believe Verlander blew that game, 2-2 now, Rays threatening to go ahead. Longoria ties it up.

Thornton's velocity is really up this game, at least against Hafner. 97.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 11, 2012 -> 01:53 PM) So is Thornton not available today? The Indians' announcers said Thornton was ready to come in to face Hafner, FWIW. Don't see Paulie looking that bad often with the emergency swing on strike 3.

Got out of that, but we have to clean our defense up a bit. The gift double in the first to Cabrera, the double play that wasn't turned, leading to Duncan's 2 run homer and then Gordon's error almost leading to Hafner at the plate with a chance to tie the game. Now who pitches the 9th? Thornton or Santiago against Hafner?

2nd/3rd, one out, 3-1 lead, not the easiest save situation at all for Sergio. Youkilis and Ortiz, doesn't get harder than that.

We're very lucky we didn't have to face Gomez as a starter today. Romero puts the first two on base for TOR, no outs and pitch count around 100. Now what do the Jays do?

Looks like we're going to have another Sergio Santos save opportunity again vs. Boston. What a line for Morel. 2 AB's, 3 runs. Now 1 for his first 16. Verlander, meanwhile with a one-hitter through 6. What else is new? 9,072 fans in attendance in cold CLE.

The only question is whether the league would have acted had the Marlins failed to do so, but there was absolutely no way that Loria wasn't going to take his pound of flesh from Guillen in some way, shape or form. It was clear enough, making him face the media without anyone else at the table with him. He was on his own. And we'll see the net, if the Marlins lose $70,000 in ticket sales or end up saying money on the deal. Hard to say at this point, but at least the politicians and media can return to their normal lives again now (well, except Cowley).

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 11, 2012 -> 01:04 PM) I believe they suspend for making contact with an umpire, not for anything that is said. An umpire can remove from the game for statements, but the league does not act unless the manager or player makes physical contact. Or spitting, see Alomar, Roberto.

Ventura really doesn't believe in pitch counts, within reason. Goes more by the "eye test," it seems. That's refreshing, more old school with that approach. Still, when Danks got into trouble and was laboring, he was quick to make a move and prevent CLE from believing it was back in the game again by rallying for 2-3 runs there.

QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ Apr 11, 2012 -> 12:05 PM) It's kind of fun watching De Aza in CF. What happened in the first inning w/ Alejandro? The Indians' announcers said Cabrera hit a ball that should have been caught.

Not completely sure why Danks is pitching this inning, but it's obviously going to be his last one. With the offday, you could have pulled him to give Stewart or N. Jones some work.

AJ Pierzynski with another jack, this time off a left-hander. DeAza and AJ both with a multi homer series. What is it about CLE and us scoring 10+ runs there?

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Apr 11, 2012 -> 03:03 AM) Im drunk, does this mean Im on Ozzie's level? Honestly, I feel smarter than that. You need to do it for 20-25 more years. Perhaps that will eviscerate enough brain cells to put yourself in that category. http://www.dailyherald.com/article/2012041...orts/704109641/ Barry Rozner of the Arlington Daily Herald doubly-eviscerating Guillen Forbes Magazine http://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhause...-they-paid-for/ http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writ...html?xid=si_mlb SI Michael Rosenberg, linking Guillen and Petrino http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405...S=Ozzie+Guillen Wall Street Journal

http://espn.go.com/espn/commentary/story/_...learn-collision Bryant http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/story/1844881...ies-are-sincere Heyman http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/Ozzie-G...ommunity-041012 Greg Couch, former SunTimes writer, rips Guillen to shreds Guillen’s mouth was always going to bury him. And this is the moment. The Miami Marlins suspended him for five games Tuesday for his comments about Fidel Castro, but five games is not going to be enough. Ozzie Guillen is not going to survive this as Marlins manager. What does five games mean, anyway? That’s what a pitcher gets for throwing at a batter. No, this suspension was just Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria’s way of buying time to see if the Cuban community in Miami will cool off, whether the protests and boycotts will go away. It’s about seeing whether Guillen can fix things. He cannot. But he tried Tuesday with an hour-long apology. Guillen was hired to be the face of Miami’s Latin community for the team. Instead, he defaced it. He told Time magazine that he loved Castro for his ability to survive for so long. That is never going to go away, no matter what happens from here, not even if the Marlins were to win a World Series. This is a permanent mark. Guillen left the team in Philadelphia and flew back to Miami for his apology. It was clear he felt bad for hurting people, and he said he has suffered for it personally. He said his remarks were stupid, embarrassing, hurtful. But he was full of double-talk. He apologized to people, but what was he apologizing for? What action of his caused the hurt? He said he has gotten an education in the past few days, learning how notorious Castro really is. So it was ignorance? No, Guillen said the problem was a faulty translation on his part. He said that when he was talking with Time reporter Sean Gregory, he was thinking in Spanish but talking in English, so he accidentally said things he didn’t mean. “What I was trying to say is that a person who has been in power for so long and has hurt so many people can still be in power,’’ Guillen said. “I’m not blaming the journalist. I’m blaming myself.’’ He was talking in circles, saying he didn’t know enough about Castro, but he was accepting blame only for broken English. It is so easy to hide behind that. But Guillen has lived in this country for more than a quarter of a century, and he knows what “I love Fidel Castro’’ means in English. He also knew four years ago, when he told Men’s Journal magazine that Castro was the toughest person heknew: “I don’t admire his philosophy. I admire him.’’ Look, it’s not up to me to say whether Guillen should be fired. It’s up to the Cuban-American community in Miami, and whether it is still willing to support a Marlins team with Guillen as the manager. But it’s hard to believe that anyone will accept that he didn’t know what he was saying.

QUOTE (kitekrazy @ Apr 10, 2012 -> 11:28 PM) I call bulls*** on that one. When it comes to the risk of losing an income people will apologize, apologize, apologize. Readers' comment are always fun to read, often better than the article. The article goes around in circles but doesn’t really state anything in itself. It feels more like a random facebook dribble, rather than an article by a professional journalist." And this surprises you? Those are the qualifications for a typical Miami Herald Reporter. Journalistic qualities be damned, you don't need them here. That's like expecting honor and integrity from a politician in Miami-Dade County. Reading other comments, people still don't understand free speech. If Ozzie was from Cuba I could understand his statements that got him in trouble. Foreigners in the American spotlight aren't so quick to denounce their dictators if they have family members living there. Yeah, it's the kind of rah-rah thing you usually hear from politicians about the military, until you investigate and find out that nobody in their family has ever served in active-duty combat. Guillen, as one of the most famous personalities in Venezuela, has to maintain at least a diplomatic relationship with the Chavez Regime or life will be much more complicated for his family members still living there. What is he supposed to say? That he wants the CIA to put together a drone/Predator attack and take out President Chavez like in one of those Tom Clancy novels?

Some political context, if you could call it that: Guillen is Venezuelan, and has said nice things in the past about Hugo Chávez, even calling him a “friend.” And yet he also called Sean Penn a “loser” and a “clown” for Penn’s own support of Chávez. During spring training, when I spoke to Guillen for The New Yorker, he insisted that his only rule was that players be on time for the singing of the national anthem—“especially if you come from another goddamn country,” he said. “Lot of people been killed trying to make this country free for us.” Asked about a letter tacked up on the bulletin board behind him, he said, “Some guys want me to work with Obama to be a President again.” The next day, the letter was gone. While managing the White Sox, Guillen used to display a photo of him and his family with President Bush. If you spend enough time with Guillen, you will hear him contradict himself, guaranteed. Guillen rightly finds the formality of the interview process contrived. (He is the manager of a baseball team, after all, not a politician.) He likes to get a rise out of people. “If it passes through his mind, he’ll probably say it,” Ozzie’s son Oney told me several weeks ago, in the course of marvelling over the fact that his father had become much more celebrated—a national hero, even, in Venezuela—as a chatterbox in retirement than as a Gold Glove-winning shortstop. “He says things other people wish they could say.” So does Oney, who was forced to resign from his job with the White Sox after tweeting too many personal opinions about the way the club did business. The Guillens are fun to be around, unless you’re their boss. Tuesday morning, while the Marlins were in Philadelphia, Guillen returned to Little Havana and held an emergency press conference to try to save his job. “They hired me to manage the ballclub, not to talk about politics,” Guillen said, in Spanish, and yet talk about politics he did, for much of the next forty-five minutes, in an attempt to convince Miami’s Cuban population not to boycott the Marlins. “I prefer to die before voting for Hugo Chávez,” he now said. “I will never vote for Hugo Chávez.” And: “Everybody in the world hates Fidel Castro, including myself.” Miami, you are now free to go back to being baffled by the Marlins. Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/spor...l#ixzz1rhj5Skbc

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/11817911-41...is-problem.html Richard Roeper wading into the controversy (should correct that fact that it was the Cards and not the Phillies opening that new ballpark). Some controversy has also emerged over Guillen’s stance on Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. A YouTube video of Guillen — who was born in Venezuela — blurting “Viva Chávez” or “Long live Chávez” following his World Series win in 2005 against the Houston Astros became another source of discontent. Ana Sanchez, a Cuban-American born in 1950, who attended both Marlins World Series appearances, said she thought Guillen had misspoken. But after reviewing Guillen’s remarks on Castro and seeing the YouTube video, she has decided to boycott the Marlins’ games. “I do hope this community grows a pair, [and] stays away from Marlins stadium in droves,” Sanchez said. Other season ticket holders also said they plan to boycott the games until Guillen is fired. “I hold season tickets. But not for long after this outburst from Mr. Guillen,” said Tony Exposito, a retiree from Miami. Said Mario Cicilia, 63, who lives in Miami and was born in Cuba: “If he stays as a manager I will ... sell my tickets this season even if I lose money.” Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/04/10/2740...r#storylink=cpy http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/04/11/2741...re-hurtful.html Greg Cote, feature columnist for sports section By Fabiola Santiago [email protected] I wanted to call in sick today. I had nothing to add to the loud and obnoxious conversation swirling everywhere you turned about the top news of the day, the kind of incredulous, ridiculous, predictable story that brings out the worst in all us, including the media. An uninformed fool, with a history of offending everyone from African Americans to gays and who readily jumps from one political stance to another, says in a Time magazine story that he admires the longevity of Fidel Castro, and all hell breaks loose in town. The players readily line up, as if this were a hurricane-preparedness drill and everyone knew their part: The most hysterical elements of the community rip something and holler at cameras; the bosses of the offender, whose money-making plans the fool just spoiled, release statements of outrage; the politicians, who see the opportunity to easily win votes without actually having to work for them, send press releases; and the journalists who can’t pass up a good fray chime in because we all know that crap like Miami Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen dishes out drives readership, viewership and viral Internet activity. Ca-ching-g-g! At the end of it all, the cause of Cuba — a worthy cause that deserves much better —and a people long-suffering are reduced to caricature. Only one word for the circus came to mind: Barf. I could’ve called in sick, I was that nauseous. Please, even the usually civil New Yorker magazine got off its high-brow train to further spin the overexposed Guillen story. Aiya (that would be a Cantonese expression of exasperation), I walked back and forth from my computer to the phone. I gulped half a cup of straight-up dark café cubano sweetened with Splenda, and after reading all the hoopla surrounding the Guillen press conference at Marlins Park, in which the most hated manager in America swore he hated Castro and apologized, I brewed Starbucks French Roast Extra-Bold. Who gives a hoot about what Guillen thinks? The man has a history: He insults people, then apologizes. A man or woman of real convictions stands by them even in the face of criticism, even if it costs them their job. Who gives a hoot what Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez thinks about what Guillen thinks? The man needs to stick to running the county. And the rest of us, well, we never learn the lesson: We have the right to protest and express our views, however unpopular they might be with the rest of the nation, but we must never forget that even fools have First Amendment rights. That’s what makes this a democracy, but honestly, do I really need to say that? I grabbed the phone and started to call my editor. Then, a real breaking news headline flashed across my screen: Rick Santorum suspends his campaign for the GOP presidential nomination. Country saved, sanity restored, at least temporarily. But stay tuned, the circus is not over yet. There’s still the weekend news cycle, and not all the pundits have had their say. Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/04/10/2741...l#storylink=cpy