JSngry

Shatner's losing nothing, he's GOT this! That director, otoh, is a damn idiot.

All the best to one of the best!

They're grubby looking and they sell their souls to Satan. That's all I need to know.

Mike Olt for Cliff Lee? Would this be for Team Photo Day, or just what, exactly?

A bit more than I care to pay at this time, unfortunately...but hey, this intro!

Elvis is a Scott Boras client with only two (or is it jsut one?) more years of club control. Trading him now would be very tempting business-wise, but damn, that guy is a true joy to watch most every day. Profar? Don't think so. That Wash would send him up as Out 3 in the last game of a season that has more and more Ranger fans resembling Cowboys fans (god, kill me if that ever fully happens, please, just do it whenever it's convenient for you, ok?), Wash is all like, ok kid, you want a taste, here it is, see how you like it. Well, he liked it. The odd man out here is maybe Kinsler, whose numbers dropped this year. Some people are talking about some ankle thing that's not been right for a good while, but I don't know, I'm not in the clubhouse and training room. But he's got four(?) years of club control left, is also a great joy to watch, and Profar can play some second. Ideally, you get a nice extension for Elvis (and have Boras kidnapped or soemthing so you can), let Profar hone his skill set at second until the time is right, and then get a good return for Kinsler in the middle of a healthy rebound year. But I don't want to think about that, not at all. I've gotten used to those slick-ass Kinsler/Andrus double plays, to the point of having them framed and mounted on the wall. But I cold get a new wall for the Andrus/Profar ones, I suppose.

Lots of answers as well. Don't know how well they'll pan out, but the team has youth aplenty, a little bit of money (now), and a smart GM who is also young and who has access to the little bit of money. I don't expect to see "glory" every year, because unless you make a pact with the devil or something, that's just the way life goes. And not just the baseball part of it. You're a Phillies fan, you should understand this, right? Besides - Beltre is a god, and gods don't age. As long as there is Beltre, there will be Fire In Arlington. But even gods experience that ebb and flow shit. That's why it's a good idea to know when to stare, and when to look away. So, what, you don't root for a team until after the season is over?

Oh well....time for the Rangers to retool. All of a sudden they look old...Wash sending 19 year old Profar up with 2 out in the bottom of the 9th and he gets a hit? More of that please! Looking forward to seeing how the transition goes - it will be a most interesting off-season. The team needed to be humbled (not everybody, but there was too much of a sense of "expecting" something to happen by too many people), and they were. Make it work for you, guys, make it work for you. Grow up, but never grow old! About Josh Hamilton - I don't mind that he failed. Hell, the team failed at the end, and no finger-pointing by anybody, ever, much to their credit. But it's how he failed that's sad. I know he's got issues. I think they need to be played out somewhere else, and that they will be. Please. Braves got screwed, period. I'm just bummed about my team, but that's life, and the future don't suck when viewed objectively (unless Michael Young ever is seen at a corner infield position under any circumstances). but that shit...disgraceful. And to combine all of it, I'm really, really, really starting to hate (yes, hate) the Cardinals. I like the young teams, so go Rangers (next year!) and Go A's, and Go Orioles.

I'm tempted to get this just to have the Ruth Brown set on CD. All I've been able to find is the LP, several times, and never in particularly good shape. I can see why some might not really go for it, but me, I can, and do. Just listen to that band... I prefer the set w/Joe Williams, but that's been on domestic CD.

I say just give everybody a Participation Award & a Completion Grade and let everybody feel good about their year for whatever reason(s) they have for doing so. That's really what happens anyway...

Pigs get clocks, slaughter gets machined.

Fields & Handy are about as far as I think I'm going to be able to go...

Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered.

Who knows what or where Josh is going or doing...it's kinda like right now, just keep your personal dramas to yourself and play baseball, enough really is enough, and if you can't manage that just once, go someplace else to figure it out. Forgiveness is one thing, tolerance something else entirely, concern yet another thing. They sometimes intersect, but never always. He's a grown-ass man making grown-ass man money and getting grown-ass Super Man attention, time for him to accept the responsibility that comes with all that. Just...decide, ok? Really. As far as the energy drink thing goes, before my blood pressure got kinda high, I used to mess with those things. The effect of one good one is somewhat speed-like, and I know plenty of people who guzzle them one after the other, which I think is pretty much batshit crazy, both in the doing and in the results. Energy drinks consumed in mass quantities may well be the PED that nobody thinks about, because they're totally legal, totally respected, and for all I know, toally endorsed/endorsing in the business of MLB. But I do know that that stuff can get you amped up like any number of substances that could get you suspended. Maybe that's how the A's are playing such crazy-mad baseball, Red Bull gave them wings!

Yeah, this is pretty much Buy With Confidence material here, all of it, assuming that you like the basic thing to begin with.

'twas but a modest proposal, 'twas.

B-Side note - the A's also lose Bartolo Colon for PED/HDH/Whatever reasons, end up with five rookies in the rotation, and don't miss a beat. Not one beat. Tell me that's not Totally Crazy Baseball. One way or the other, that's just nuts. That recent Saturday game where the A's hit something like 18 homer in the 13th only to have the Yankees come back, tie it up, and win it in the 14th, for any other team, that might be a Coyote Chasing The Roadrunner Through thin Air And Finally Looking Down Moment. What we did to the Angels on September 1st threw them off for at least a few weeks afterwards. And the Angels got BIG MONEY STARS, per Heyman, the first team to ever have too many good players (you can look it up, that's what he said)!!! The A's just shrug it off, come back and win the next day, and keep on winning. When do hte A's look down? DO they look down? Only in baseball, maybe.

Baseball's big on "tradition", so...what better way to honor it than by destroying it? I could do Selig's job twice as badly and at half the cost. What is MLB waiting for?

Pocket so deep that lint be a cloud.

Beny Moré NEEDS to be in the Rock 'n' Roll Hall O' Fame!!!!

You don't really locate them anywhere. Just create the teams and have them always on the road. They get their money up front, play the gig, and go on to the next one. Kinda like the Sonny Stitts of baseball teams.

That pocket is so that deep.

the fact that they're not already in there tells you all you need to know. About everything!

That's always tough, and I'm finding death to be like birth - don't ever expect the same experience twice. Kind of appropriate, I suppose... FWIW/IMO - It's not about "better than" nearly as much as it is processing the reality in a way that allows you to not go bat-shit crazy. Obviously, that happens to "religious" and "non-religious" people in about equal measure. The "religious" people hang it on "God", the "non-religious" hang it on rationality, Lisa Simpson can blame her writers, and the rest of us just try to keep going and not leave it worse than it was when we found it. Some days, of course, are better than others. Life still goes on, so that should tell you something, although hell if I know exactly what.