JSngry

In retrospect, the "panic moves" were an attempt to get something/anything stirring in "hearts" that proved to not be there, "there" having several meanings. I'm sure he felt that if he did something to wake his guys up they'd respond. He was wrong. Randy Galloway's ongoing labeling of that team as "the most gutless" in the history of professional sports, may or may not be hyperbolic, but it still rings true to me. The older I get, the more I feel that volunteering for torture, delicious or otherwise, is a sucker's game. People either get right or they don't, and hoping for it to be otherwise is folly. Dallas Cowboys? Done with 'em. They ain't gettin' right as long as Jerry Jones is there. Dallas Mavericks? Maintain interest, but the love is gone. Call it an intense but ultimately civil divorce. Texas Rangers? Invested for now, now that the organization seems to be right, will tolerate honest failure as long as it is honest. But the Tom Hicks years gave me the strength to walk away from baseball, so I'll not put up with a bunch of hopeless chicanery in the name of "love". Life is too short, at least what's left of mine is. Dallas Stars? Hey, it's hockey. Who cares? FCD? That's my son's game, so I observe his pleasure with that off my own. Where do you go for a love that is true? Into your own heart, I suppose. But be prepared to defend what's left of it after the "business people" (which includes all professionals and too damn many civilians) get done with it once you find it. "They won't let me..." Words of the devil! Oh man, I remember those days - Mark Aguirre, Rolando Blackman. Adrian Dantley. Some good ball back then. Remember when we though <Mark aguirre was a "troubled soul"? Then we met Roy Tarpley!

Yeah, it's been making the round here for almost a month now. My favorite reaction was the one broadcaster who expressed (ahem) deep disappointment that it would eliminate forever more the possibility of the Rangers & Astros meeting in the World Series. Don't know that it would be good for the game, honestly. I remember when there were no divisions and no playoffs. Almost impossible to maintain regional interest (and attendance) when the big "battle" was for 7th place in the league.. Sure, you'd get five teams in each league competing for a spot in the playoffs rather than the four you now have, but all under the same umbrella, rather than the three you have now. Also don't really dig the idea of year-round inter league play, but that's more form a purist standpoint than for any real objections, but really, is there any reason why, say, the White Sox should play the Pirates on a regular basis? Really? The NBA & NFL already have a "one league" approach. What's cool about baseball is that the two leagues are actual, separate, business entities, always have been. I like it that way.

I'm not sure what this is in reference to. '06 vs. Miami? '07 vs. Golden State? Avery's ouster? Not questioning why you feel the way you do, of course. Just trying to understand the specific context. Just the way the whole 06-07 team/program unravelled. Avery had that team playing GREAT, but they didn't like being pushed like he pushed them, Dirk in particular. They wanted to play their "sexy" basketball, not dirve the lane and play hard defense the way Avery was preaching, in spite of the overwhelming and unquestionable success they had when they did. They flat out quit, rather openly, on Avery in 07, and then Dirk goes to Cuban and says whatever he says, mostly, as I understand it, "I can't play for this guy". At which point Cuban, instead of saying, "you'll learn to play for him, he's got a winning plan", goes all Dirkophile and fires Avery rather unceremoniously. And then began the stretch of "fixing" what was never really broke in the first place, other than players' lousy attitudes & unearned sense of entitlement. A player who backstabs a successful coach is bad enough. A team who quits on a coach with a winning formula is bad enough. An owner who coddles players in the face of failure is bad enough. But to have the whole package was just...more than I could stomach at the time, and I guess I've not yet made my peace with it. They finally got it "fixed" this year, but how much time was wasted? And for how long will it remain fixed? All I hear from the organization is how "painful" 06 was. Nothing about 07. And all I hear Dirk ever talk about is how he keeps working to improve his game (and all 'I hear Jason Terry talk about is bubblehead blahblahblahYEAH!!!). Implicit in that is that if he can't play the game the way he wants to, he ain't gonna give it his all. His actions have proven this. Obviously a sore point with me, but the whole thing still reeks to me of betrayal, of sacrificing the gritty truth for comfort, convenience, and ego. Excuse-making at its most odious never being copped to, no forgiveness asked, expected, or really even desired. And now, hey - it's ok. A ring has been gotten, righteousness of cause therefore proven. Show bizness at its best, sports at its worse. Just not something I can feel good about. My issues and my problem, though.

I believe that this was produced by Creed Taylor, though.

Ah well, this obviously isn't a series that had any such intention behind it... rather just some more or less lackluster things pasted together. Let's just hope it sells well enough for more and hopefully more interesting reissues to follow! FWIW, Full Nelson was a Verve release, which might preclude its inclusion in an impulse!-specific series.

The team of my childhood was the Houston Astros..got over that one a looong time ago! I hear what you're saying, though, I really do, and thought that I would be able to still find it somewhere. But it's just not there anymore. I guess that as long as Cuban, Dirk, & Terry are there, it won't/can't be. I'd be interested in hearing what Avery Johnson, the man who was thrown under the bus for insisting on the obvious and refusing to lie about what wasn't there, has to say about all this. but there's no need, really...we all know the truth. "They're not letting me". The man who told that lie today has a ring, the man who let that man stab the man who told the truth in the back gloats with his trophy, and the round-headed man with the goofy headbands and silly socks still jets when he succeeds, still "don't worry"-ies when he doesn't. Right now, that team and this franchise...I still can't separate them. Do I hold a grudge? Yeah, I do, for as long as a wrong is never admitted to, a lie still told & not confessed to. It's not so much holding a grudge as it is not letting the lie become the truth, if only in my mind. Abusive relationship indeed.

"Staying the course" only works if things are working, or if you see signs that your initial frustrations will eventually be overcome. Miami was never able to open up a lead and keep it open, and once Barrea began starting for Dallas, they were hardly able to get a lead to try to keep open. People here were stressing out about games 4, 5, & 6, but I was kinda like, hey - if these Heat guys were going to figure it out and bust it wide open, they'd have done so by now, or at least come really close. But the way the games were going told me that they hadn't figured it out, and weren't going to. My son thinks I'm dissing Dallas by saying that the Heat folded, that I'm not giving the Mavs proper credit for shutting the Heat down like they did, but I give the Mavs full credit for figuring out how to do it and for indeed staying the course on something that was working. What I don't give the Mavs credit for, because none is needed, is for the Heat not feeling the heat (no pun intended) of the situation they found themselves in and proceeding accordingly. It was a throwback to '06 & '07 when Dirk was getting a bunch of noise for not driving the lane more when that was what the games were demanding. "They're not letting me do that", was his response. Well DUH, you stupid m-f, OF COURSE they're not "letting you", you got to find a way. I saw the Mavs play - consistently play - the kind of defense against Miami that I had thought was impossible for them to play, at least on a consistent and sustained basis. But they did, and Miami was acting like they were using they "they're not letting me" mindset take them over. That was a recipe for disaster for the Mavs then, and it was one for the Heat now. But hey - stay the course!

Can't really find the love, still, for this team and.or organization, so much of the failure has been self-inflicted, so much of it a stubborn refusal to deal with the obvious, and when the proselytes for the deification of Dirk and Terry knock on my door, said door will be roundly and unambiguously slammed in their face, but... BUT... I'd be lying if I said that it was not gratifying, not satisfying, but at least gratifying (which at this point is all I really have a taste for), to see a Mavericks team maintain focus, stay disciplined, follow a game plan to completion, in short, to find a plan that works and stick with it all the way through. Could have happened long before now, should have happened long before now. Also gratifying to watch a Miami team just kinda sit there and wait for their greatness to explode, not realizing that the opposition had them totally figured out and that if they wanted an explosion, they were going to have to dig deep and find a way. Instead they got a coach who was telling them to "stay the course" when they were down by nine in the third quarter of an elimination game. Yeah, stay the course, keep losing, don't make any adjustments or bump your your intenisty with your season on the line, just stay the freakin' course, the course that's got you on the verge of failure. The players actually seemed to believe that bullshit! Any Mavericks fan from 2006 on can tell you where "staying the course" of a clearly failing plan takes you. What will be interesting to see is if the Mavericks organization, finally realizing the follies of their way and finally getting some legitimate help in the middle (and elsewhere) instead of putting it all on Dirk's back, continues to see the wisdom of the changes they have made and continue to use the new model going forth. You'd think they would, but...Dirk has never been, never wanted to be, and never will be "The Man", that's not his game, that's not his mindset, but Cuban has insisted that (i.e. - built the team like) it was - until this season. Mark Cuban's irrational assessment of Dirk's very real talents may well have cost this team more than one championship. It's definitely cost them the respectability that comes from consistently being able to go deep in the playoffs. Anyway, the long-overdue Mavs championship feels to me like a formerly close friend paying back a loan 5 years after it was due. Don't really need the money now, have pretty much moved on from those times, but appreciate the thought anyway, glad you've finally got your act together, and good luck going forth. And Cuban insisting that the trophy first be presented to Don Carter was a truly class act by a man who doesn't always seem to have a class act in his repertoire. Big kudos for that one!

Credit fully & previously given. Liriano was damn near unhittable today, exquisite location all game long. In fact, my son and I were going back and forth between the house and the La-Z-Boy shop for the first six innings of the game, picking up some recliners we had dropped off for repair. My biggest concern, other than the Rangers getting beat, was that a perfect game was going to be pitched & we would only hear, not see, the first 2/3s of it.

Just put it out there (no pun - at any level - intended). I think this is one of those things that "changing minds" about is going to be much less effective than will be just accepting a "new reality" and moving on from there. Step over instead of trying to walk through.

I cheated & reverse engineered the photo link, so I won't tell the answer, but one of the most spectacular tales of music industry fickledom I've ever been told involves this singer in its denouement. She was in her dressing room getting changed, clad in her undies, and the phrase "built like a brick shithouse" was used rather emphatically.

Go eat, young man!

Go West, young man!

MSE is a solid program, then? Equal to anything for-pay?

Frustrating series in Minnesota...two games the Twins get an extra out in an inning (Thursday by an incontestably bad umpiring fuckup on the bases, today a self-inflicted wild pitch by Mark Lowe on a two out swinging strike three), two games they open the game up as a result. Matt Harrison, who was pitching superbly gets stung just above the throwing arm elbow (which was immediately numbed, by the looks of things) by a scorching line drive, has to come out immediately thereafter (let the record show that he attempted a throw to first anyway, and was totally Ron Hunt-y in his absorption and display of the pain, god bless him. A bruised tricep is the preliminary report.), which is what brought Lowe in in the first place. Of course, Francisco Liriano was pitching even more superbly than was Matt Harrison, but I like the Rangers' changes of winning in those circumstances a lot better when the score is 1-0 than when it's 6-0. Most frustrating of all, though, was Elvis Andrus displaying (again) defensive immaturity. The guy makes magical plays - and plenty of them - but goes through phases where he slacks off on routine plays. The kid's only 22, and no doubt will get over it, but right now it's frustrating to watch. He's such a special talent, but not yet a fully mature one. Wash pinch hit for him in the 9th, no doubt the first of several messages to be delivered about that nonsense. We caught the Rays and Indians when they were cooling off, the Twins & Tigers when they were heating up. This week is the Yankees & Braves, neither of which show any signs of cooling off. Colby Lewis should only pitch once this week, but the other Rangers starters (save, to a lesser extent, Ogando) still have this disturbing habit of most of their mistakes being ones that result in up home runs. Against the Braves & Yankees, this could result in a long, painful week.

Oh, I had been hoping to never see that album cover again as long as I lived. Guess who showed it to me the first time? Take a WILD fucking guess. Some perv in the produce section at Kroger?