caulfield12

Need more of those four guys being the guys on the back of their baseball cards through 2009 and not them being "themselves," whatever that was, in 2011 (Rios/Peavy/Dunn/Beckham).

I could buy the argument the first Sherlock Holmes, with McAdams more of a presence and a less convoluted/labyrinthine plot...that was perhaps better than Moneyball. Maybe being too familiar with the material and knowing all the factual inaccuracies beforehand made the Pitt movie a bit annoying, or maybe it was my anti-Beane bias that colored my viewing experience negatively.

QUOTE (Swingandalongonetoleft @ Feb 27, 2012 -> 12:39 AM) I enjoyed Moneyball, but it was a good, not great movie. I wonder how much of that is being familiar with the book and Beane/The A's. My sister saw it, and texted me today that she thought it would walk away with some hardware. Honestly thought Sherlock was way better. *ducks* The second Shelock Holmes movie? REALLY? Two more shoutouts...UNDEFEATED (not the one about Sarah Palin) and MIDNIGHT IN PARIS, a very whimsical but entertaining picture I would have enjoyed more when studying Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Salvador Dali and Gertrude Stein in university lit classes.

It goes back to Roberto Benini/Spielberg, the Avatar/Hurt Locker showdown...I was actually surprised that Clooney didn't win because he's such a media/charity/Hollywood darling these days, but I can't say that I can truthfully compare the two performances because I have't been able to watch THE ARTIST yet. "Popular or mainstream" opinion (MTV/People's Choice/Golden Globes, etc.) will always give the big stars and the movies that at least 25% of the people have seen a big advantage. Actually, as an avid movie watcher, I enjoy discovering movies that have great performances that I might not have otherwise watched, like Michael Shannon in Take Shelter, A Better Life, A Separation, etc. I'm sure I'll also watch THE IRON LADY now just to see Streep's performance. HURT LOCKER Domestic: $17,017,811 34.6% + Foreign: $32,212,961 65.4% -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- = Worldwide: $49,230,772 THE ARTIST Total Lifetime Grosses Domestic: $31,874,000 41.6% + Foreign: $44,672,305 58.4% (mostly from France) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- = Worldwide: $76,546,305 We Need To Talk About Kevin is a movie that was TOO dark for the Academy to recognize, too disturbing, but Tilda Swinton totally deserved a nomination for that performance, and I'm not even a fan of hers.

No Moneyball wins, unsurprisingly. HUGO once again surfacing as the most highly-underrated/underviewed and poorly marketed movie in the entire mix of movies this year. Definitely worth your time. A SEPARATION and A BETTER LIFE, two great films that virtually nobody has seen...

Wed, two short squad games, Dodgers on THUR and the Royals on FRI. Funny question from my SAT review book I'm using with students here in CHINA. Although the Chicago White Sox win more often than the Chicago Cubs, Chicago residents, who are historically avid baseball fans, prefer the Cubs. A. Although the Chicago White Sox win more often than the Chicago Cubs, Chicago residents, who are historically avid baseball fans, prefer the Cubs. (NO CHANGE)

First semi-surprise, Clooney loses to the French dude from THE ARTIST. Wonder if we'll still remember: the Actor in a Leading Role, Jean Dujardin Director, Michel Hazanavicius five years from now?

Oooops, forgot to include Mark Buehrle as part of the Curse. Consider him on the official monitoring list.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Feb 26, 2012 -> 10:58 AM) $2.00!? The horror! GMAB. That's still almost a 10% increase. Imagine if they raised the price of the Iphone4s (roughly the same amount) from $650 to $700 in order to pay Chinese factory workers $300 per month instead of the $250-275 average (per month) for a job that typically consists of 70-90 hour work weeks with no paid overtime. Would you still say the same thing? As a percentage, $50 would be less of an increase and nobody in the world should have to work in a factory for a bit less than $10 per day, right? Apples to oranges? Still, unless you're in that top 1%, $2 still means something to a lot of people, because it ends up adding another $100-120 dollars loyal Sox fans have to pony up for what has been an inferior product now for 3 years running.

J. Edgar, not close to Eastwood's best work, but Leo and Arnie Hammer are very good in it.

Cue Dick Allen/Greg responses (albeit Greg doesn't park much in Chicago these days)....ridiculous. Sometimes I really believe the operating White Sox business model was developed by someone who cares very little at all about middle class and poor White Sox fans, lol. Perhaps they've done studies that show 80% of the fans who go to weekday games are relatively well-to-do Chicagoans, whereas at least 50% of the fans on weekends/fireworks nights are families and more casual/price-sensitive fans coming from out of town?

Is that like "Peak Oil"? Hopefully it goes back up instead of continuing to crater.

QUOTE (Swingandalongonetoleft @ Feb 24, 2012 -> 09:06 PM) A girl I grew up with just got a job at ESPN. I was going to post something on her wall about not forgetting about the midwest/west but decided against it since I could see her actually getting fired for it. What kind of world do we live in when you open up your browser and there's a daily stupid Twitter comment being made about Jeremy Lin to give 15 minutes of fame to yet another hack writer/ESPN copywriter/boxer/high-profile high school recruit?

http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/red-sox/pos...-on-cuban-soler Cubs/Esptein supposedly prepared to offer SOLER $26 million over 4 years...options/escape/buy-out clauses unknown.

http://www.inquisitr.com/197664/ezra-mille...out-oscar-snub/ We Need To Talk About Kevin is one of the best movies of the year. Tilda Swinton, love her or hate her, was exceptional. That said, it's profoundly depressing and stays with you, in a way that a documentary like BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE never has...and yeah, one is a true story, one is fiction, and yet the story-telling style of WNTTAK much more than Bowling tries to get at the elephant in the room, "how could anyone ever commit such an act?" What was the relationship with the parents that caused the kid/s to go off the rails?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 24, 2012 -> 07:42 PM) Except for that whole finishing at te bottom of the league problem. At least they can blame it on the injuries to Mauer, Morneau, Span, etc. (Losing Kubel, Nathan, D. Young and Cuddyer doesn't much help, either.) The scary thing is that our team was very healthy last year, and, with the notable exceptions of Peavy and Quentin, has had an extraordinary run of good health (vis a vis the rest of MLB) for the last 3 seasons. The good part is seemingly they can't play much worse, looking at their respective talent floors and ceilings.

Maybe there's a "Greg Curse" like the infamous SI curse. Jenks almost died this past offseason (pulmonary embolism), Juan Pierre wasn't exactly a highly-sought after commodity, DeWayne Wise is close to being out of baseball...that doesn't bode well for Ozzie in Miami. Well, one thing will interesting right out of the gate. Since nobody really cares about Jenks anymore (nor gives KW credit for cutting him loose...as they're probably looking back in retrospect and arguing we should have dealt him after the 2008 season), we'll have the ubiquitous Santos/Reed/Thornton comparisons to fuel threads for the first couple of months of the season.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 24, 2012 -> 06:55 PM) Then the White Sox should make the playoffs, at elast barely miss the playoffs, sign the best player in baseball, or have both a clean MVP and a Cy Young award winner on their roster. The Twins have Mauer and Morneau (two former MVP's), they definitely have a right to feel more snubbed than the White Sox, because they're also only 1 1/2 years removed from the playoff series against the Yankees.

The way Morel was driving the ball the final 6 weeks, do we want him to go back to the "contact" hitter he was the first 2/3rd's of the season? A lot of people have argued he was worried about his job and wasn't able to relax until near the end of the season. Putting him back in that spot might end up with a return of the "bad" Morel offensively. The problem is that Beckham and Ramirez aren't great alternatives, either, but Rios definitely isn't suited for that spot.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Feb 24, 2012 -> 01:39 AM) I'm getting sick of the negativity. When the username is "GioHudson," it's pretty clear what the agenda is from the very beginning.

Anyone looking forward to WANDERLUST or THIS IS NOT A FILM? Also, has anyone seen THE KID WITH A BIKE?

The reporters who broke the story in December, thus placing Braun and MLB in uncomfortable and embarrassing situations, were the same people who did extraordinarily solid work on the Barry Bonds saga. Their story also gave Braun the opportunity to proclaim his innocence to the world before his appeal, not that it was always heard by those made cynical from baseball's drug problems. Despite the odds, I always believed Braun would win his appeal. He never seemed like a shortcuts kind of guy. He really does work at the innate skills that might cause other players to reach for the cruise-control button or the needle. He really does arrive early and leave late, despite his guaranteed millions. He's never displayed the moody or hostile behavior common to juicers. He really does value loyalty, having signed a below-market contract to be a Brewer for life. He is a face of a franchise and a respected man in the community. So you kept asking yourself during these last 10 weeks: Why would Braun risk what a $100 million contract could not buy? And that would be a spotless reputation. No matter what anyone believes, the ruling means Braun gets to keep his most valued commodity. And yes, he is still rich and powerful and famous, not that any of that helped relieve the anxiety and uncertainty as that Sword of Damocles dangled for two-and-a-half months. So now, Braun can finally do that well-known exhale for something much more than his batter's-box routine. As for the rest, there is nothing for Braun to do except keep swinging away.Send email to [email protected]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseb...0,7752565.story Interesting that KW is going so far out of his way to avoid criticizing Ozzie's spring training approach. Wonder if there's a directive from JR not to pick any more Twitter/internet fights with the Guillens?

Well....the internet advertisers and banner linkers do care, lol. If it was a paid subscription site, the owners would sure care MORE.

Or if the hitters do well, is it because of Ventura's presence, getting rid of Walker or the more "stress-free" clubhouse/F.O. environment? Because of the lack of expectations, guys like Beckham, Rios, Dunn and Peavy might shine again and we'll all be saying....yeah, but what about when they're expected to do well (like in 2011)? Can they perform when there's more pressure placed upon them, instead of putting up Albert Belle 2nd half "me-stats" when nobody's watching? Guess any positives will be worth fighting over and PR-spinning compared to 2011's debacle.