BERIGAN

Or....you could join the 20th century, call DISH network and get to watch baseball games from around the country!!! But hey, you get to watch the Mariners, don't ya??? That's good enough! Sorry, someone has to be a smartass about this, it just fell to me this time....I can't wait to see the next thread from you guys....how to put LP's on blank 8-track tapes that they still sell at Radio shack!

Nah, that's more like "look at the alternate universe we SHOULD have had". Yeah, if Gore had won, we would have $6 a gallon gas!

We ran a nice story in the paper today about how he turned his life around by going to what is basically a Christian baseball boot camp in Clearwater. Cleaned toilets, slept on an inflatable mattress, couldn't practice until all his obligations were taken care of, and was free to leave at any time. He stayed. There was a great photo of him sort of tipping his cap to the Rays dugout prior to their first game here Monday. I think he's being paid about $300,000 this season. I hope he tears it up for years to come. I just have to say I'm disgusted with the attendance that the Rays are getting right now. My God, if I lived up there I'd be at the stadium at least once a week. As it is, living more than an hour away, I make it to half a dozen games a year or so. May go up for the White Sox this week. ... If they can't draw regularly now, I wouldn't blame them for trying to leave for greener pastures. In fact, I'd be all for it. They deserve better than 13,000. Shitty. Really shitty. It appeared on ESPN over the last week or so more people were in the stands, but they never mentioned numbers....still around 13,000???

Ah yes, the Democrats, is there no problem they cannot solve??? Superman wishes he had the track record of Democrats! I cannot wait til the Dems sock it to an American cartel like OPEC, and American companies such as British Petroleum, and Dutch Shell!!!

An interesting response to a later Krugman piece in the times.... Raymond J. Learsy Paul Krugman and the New York Times' Pious Pontifications at the Pump Posted May 16, 2008 | 05:46 AM (EST) On May 12, upon reading Paul Krugman's bizarre Op-Ed "The So-Called Oil Bubble," they must have been popping champagne corks at the American Petroleum Institute. The New York Times, consistently off-base when reporting on oil markets and their construct (please see "The New York Times' Hidden Hand on Oil's Agenda", 04.25 08) permitted their resident economic guru to hit one out of the "Alice in Wonderland" ballpark. In an extraordinary piece of jejune analysis Mr. Krugman instructs us that the rise in oil prices isn't the result of runaway speculation but rather "of fundamental factors," and then repeats the standard oil patch saws citing growing needs of emerging economies, difficulty in finding oil, etc. Therefore "there's no good evidence that prices have gotten out of line." There, words coming from the hallowed pages of the New York Times. An oil flack's dream come true! The nonsense continues. Speculation in oil markets is dismissed. According to Krugman, higher prices due to excessive speculation would result in a situation "in which supply exceeded demand. This excess supply would, in turn, drive prices back down." So according to Krugman, in that this hasn't happened, the vertiginously high oil prices as we now know them are a legitimate reflection of market forces. Simple as that. Economics 101. Oh, for the good old days. That trading markets can be successfully manipulated is dismissed. Think Enron and California utilities. Think CFTC investigation of BP's alleged manipulation in crude oil trading. Look at India suspending futures trading in foodstuffs markets because of the distortions that have resulted. Think of the fire power inherent in Middle East sovereign wealth funds, giving the capability to move oil and energy markets if they chose to do so (are they, aren't they? an open question). Then Mr. Kugman continues as though he had landed on this planet from some outer celestial body made of blue cheese. Not a single mention, not one, of the oil cartel, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries who control 40 percent of the world's oil supply and willfully and collusively keep millions of barrels of supply off the market each day- and no comment on what that has done to distort oil markets. In repeating the oil industry mantra about the "difficulty in finding oil" comes no coherent examination whatsoever of the veracity nor accuracy of that statement considering the development and exploration work being done around the world from offshore Brazil, to the South China Sea and on. He goes on to piously inform us that "France consumes only half as much oil per capita as America" and voila, the last time he turned his gaze toward, "Paris wasn't a howling wasteland." What our good instructor overlooked in his lesson is that in France, over 80 percent of its power grid is sourced by nuclear energy. Ah details, and the good editors of the Times dare not contest the anointed wisdom of their economics professor. Then finally, and most dangerously, a baleful whitewash of high oil prices. High oil prices are OK because "energy conservation becomes increasingly important, in which many people may even -- gasp -- take public transportation." That is the extent of discomfiture to the nation's citizenry cited by Mr. Krugman. Certainly no heads-up from Krugman that the issue here is not energy conservation, which is essential and must be acted upon with or without high prices. The issue here is the price of oil and his whitewash of a corrupted market (our OPEC friends, were they American or chargeable under American law, would all be sitting in jail as massive violators of anti-trust laws). What Krugman has done is given legitimacy to a massive heist of billions out of our pocketbooks into the voracious treasuries of the oil industry and the transfer of our nation's wealth to malign regimes who are a danger to our values and future. Mr. Krugman, you should be ashamed of yourself. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/raymond-j-le...s_b_102046.html

eBay Australia Files Response to PayPal-Only Policy Complaints By Ina Steiner AuctionBytes.com May 26, 2008 AddThis Social Bookmark Button eBay Australia has filed its response to submissions to the Australia Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) regarding its PayPal-only policy slated to go into effect next month. The company rejected claims from sellers, banks, competitors and other organizations that the policy would lessen competition in the online payments market and that the public benefits were illusory. eBay stated that buyers and sellers who did not wish to pay PayPal fees were able to avoid doing so by listing and purchasing items through competing services, and cited a report that its competitor, Oztion, has seen its membership increase by approximately 22% to over 250,000 members since eBay's announcement of the policy. (It did not state whether the policy announcement had had any effect on activity on its own site.) While having stated in its original notification to the ACCC that it contributed $2.6 billion to the Australian economy annually, eBay downplayed its market power in its response. "Data does suggest that eBay transactions comprise only (redacted by the ACC) of all online retail transactions in Australia. Given that online retail transactions themselves represent only a part of the online payments market, eBay's contribution must necessarily be considerably smaller than that." eBay said PayPal was one of the smallest participants in the online payments market and would continue to face considerable competitive constraints. In addressing the issue of public benefit to the policy, eBay stated, It is only by requiring the use of PayPal on eBay that sufficiently comprehensive data can be obtained and used to minimise the incidence of "bad buyer experiences" across the eBay platform. It is not possible for eBay to achieve the stated objective of signivicantly reducing "bad buyer experiences" for all eBay users without mandating the use of PayPal. eBay Australia said in its filing, "No party has adequately demonstrated that the benefits submitted by eBay as resulting from the Project will not outweigh any likely detrimental effect on competition." The full text of the response is available on the ACCC website. http://www.accc.gov.au/content/index.phtml...omItemId/336311 http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y08/m05/i26/s00

Will eBay force customers to use PayPal? Idea already has Australians irked By Steve Johnson Mercury News Article Launched: 05/09/2008 02:05:26 PM PDT EBay users riled: That's because of rumors the San Jose online auction company is exploring the idea of requiring many if not most customers to use its online payment service, PayPal. EBay's PayPal-only rule in Australia, which takes effect next month, already has drawn antitrust scrutiny in that country. It's unclear whether eBay will institute a similar policy in the United States and other countries. However, eBay often tries big changes in smaller markets before expanding them worldwide and says it is open to that in this case. Critics claim PayPal is costlier than other payment options and suspect eBay is just interested in increasing PayPal's revenue. As the Australian Bankers Association put it: "Competition will be restricted, innovation and development will be constrained, new entry will be discouraged and PayPal will be able to increase fees and charges to eBay users." http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_9209125?source=most_viewed

Heard an interesting trivia question in the Braves game last night. What 2 teams have never had a rookie of the year????? Answer below..... Give up???? Braves were playing the Arizona Diamondbacks.....so, that's one team, the other??? Tampa Bay Devil Rays! I never would have guessed those teams, though it makes some sense that it would have to be fairly new teams...but, man the talent they have now, and have let go recently(Dan Uggla came up in the Diamondback's organization, as did Carlos Quentin, and of course Josh Hamilton was a Ray) you'd think one of them would have had a ROY by now, wouldn't you???

All you should care about is his ERA of late. 3.23 in his last 4 starts...if he can keep that up, he won't be the biggest bust of all time...

Hey Dan, what's up??? One hit last night???? We got 7 hits, and 3 runs off of Justin Duchscherer when Oakland came to town!!!

55% dixie...guess that happens from living 16 years in the Midwest, 25 in the south...

Yes, yes it is! They beat up the Yankees, so I thought they would be on a roll, but the only roll they are on is downhill....I would be surprised to see Willie Randolph in the dugout much longer. A team couldn't look much worse than they did against us. Tons of mental errors, combined with pure laziness, is not a good combo.... All of the sudden, the Braves are finally hitting like we thought they would from the get go. Teixeira as recently as a week ago looked like he was going to have the season Andruw Jones had last year(Hitting .240 on the 16th, now up to .279) Mark Kotsay I figured had to be done after hitting in the low .200's last year, plus Oakland is paying most of his salary. Turns out a healthy back makes a big difference! He's hitting .296, and while he might not have the range of Andruw Jones, his arm is more accurate. On May 12th, 2nd baseman Kelly Johnson was hitting .254, and playing brutal defense...a lot of talk that he wasn't really a middle infielder, more a 4th outfielder at best...since being moved from the leadoff spot to 7th, he has really started to hit, batting .299 now. Brian McCann may be the best offensive catcher in the game right now, hitting .329 with 31 RBI's....old brain dead Booby better rest him now and then though, he's on pace to play 159 games!!! Jeff Francoeur, who has looked weak at the plate of late, and has a few nagging injuries, finally sat out a game, breaking the longest consecutive game streak in the game. But of course, Cox did it during a double header, so I am sure he thinks his sore ankle got a lot of rest! Oh yeah, Chipper Jones is still hitting .412, and got a huge hit against Santana last night. Batting right handed, he hit a pitch 3-4 inches off the outside of the plate for a single to right, must have made Santana ill. We can't compete starting pitcher wise with the big boys right now,(Hopefully we can trade for someone down the road, but who?) but the bullpen has been terrific. All the more amazing since the two best relievers from last year, Peter Moylan,(Tommy John surgery) and Soriano have missed almost all the season. Manny Acosta has done very well in the closing role, but again, the insane manager is doing everything in his power to blow a kids arm out. Had him come in during the first game of a double header, where we were up 6-1 for the 9th inning, then had him pitch an inning and a third in the nightcap, which we won 6-2!!! Idiot!!! Even a dopey manager can get lucky though, and IF Smoltz can stay healthy and close, with Soriano back soon, and lefty Mike Gonzalez likely back within a month or less, I'd say we had arguably, the best bullpen in baseball.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtm...22/ccoil122.xml

Irving Kaufman could really swing.....

Well, they didn't have the budget Nancy got for These Boots are Made for Walkin' clip... I don't think I have ever seen him sing that young....could be worse....

I saw a banner ad on Drudge, saying how you could change this child's life....I clicked on it, and up came this charity....gee, never heard of it before....which makes me instantly suspicious. They say every dollar goes to help children...which of course makes me more suspicous. How about web costs?? the ad seen by millions on Drudge??? So I dug around a little on the web, and it seems they really do know what they are doing, and are doing great work! Check out this story on them from 2006.... http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2006...08/smile-train/

Yeah, but he's pitched much better since coming back...not great, but 5 innings and 2 runs is keeping your team in the game....you just need to get another GM...dope doesn't want to trade away the old players, seems to think since the Giants are in 3rd place and all....why not act like you can somehow beat the Diamondbacks????

http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-a1_1ph...57.story?page=1

A couple of nights ago, I dreamt I was swimming in the ocean, while talking to my best friend on a cell phone(Naturally!) I then see the right hand quadrant of the sky storm clouds are brewing. The other half of the sky is perfectly clear. I tell my friend I need to get off the phone(even in dreams, I am full of common sense, easier to swim with two arms in the water) then I notice I am much further out than I first thought, couple hundred feet from shore....Then I wake up. I wonder if I made it?

Jesus, what a jerk! Lily Tomlin should have walked off the film!

OK. So....why is this a problem? You guys never cussed? So, do you say fuck in the classroom??? Or to your co-workers???

You know, Chipper has made it look so easy, for so long, and since he never drove in more than 111 in a year, I....never really saw him as a superstar! I knew he was good, but he didn't seem to join the elite players. But, when you aren't on Roids, or HGH, and look like a normal player, and put up what used to be very good numbers, you do tend to get overlooked! He is hitting so much better right handed this year(Last year, it looked like he should just give it up-that was a weak .274 RH) He hit .337 last year, a career high. Hitting .418 now. If he hits .300, lets say over the next 400 ABs, he would hit .332 for the season. If he hits .325 over the rest of the season, he would finish at .350. Not bad for a 36 year old! He still might not with the batting title this year....Lance Bergman is hitting .391. I think he's 28 for his last 47 ABs!!! He might hit .500 for the month of May! Now that's hot!(Paris, get off the Computer!)

If your like this in May after your team has WON TWO out of the last four WORLD SERIES TITLES, I can't imagine what you were like after game 7 of the ALCS in 03. Dan is downright calm, compared to the folks on this Red Sox forum...check it out, especially during a game the sox are losing....language that would make a sailor blush! http://sonsofsamhorn.net/index.php?showforum=108 PS, couldn't find this site for a long time, cuz I was thinking it was Sonsofsamhorn.com

Toot! Have a great one!