Quincy

The building is nicknamed "The House That Jordan Built." (Kind of shame that old Chicago Stadium couldn't have continued on at least from a TV viewer's standpoint as that place rocked.) No one has ever called Jordan humble, but as he brought 6 titles in a decade to a city that doesn't have the draw of a warm winter club scene nor Hollywood, it is impressive. It's not like the other Chicago teams combined have provided as many titles in the average resident's lifetime either. No doubt about it. Music, the arts, journalism, and apparently classical threads on jazz boards too. Style matters to people is why, and that's why the "it was for charity" excuse doesn't work for many. If you want to give to charity give to charity, don't take 48 minutes to do what can be done in 7 or less. LeBron has become to the basketball world what Wynton is to jazz around here (I noticed Yogi Sangry popped in so I couldn't resist.)

It's not like Jordan was the first mega-star anyway. Crap, oodles was written when Bird-Magic retired. "Oh dear, where will find a star? What will the NBA do?" At the time Jordan was viewed as a selfish scorer who couldn't win. Before those 2 the NBA welcomed Dr. J, an ABA legend who never quite lived up to it in the NBA but was still fun to watch (never should have chopped down the afro.) Bird & Magic were a little different in that each was surrounded by other great players and their teams had marquee value on their own, but when the promos ran it was almost always "Bird-Magic" because of their face off in the NCAA championship. Some earlier potential stars made the marketing mistake of converting to Islam or having bad genes that made them prone to bone spurs. Comparing a retired Jordan visiting Oprah's show to The Decision...I don't get the comparison at all. If you want a comparison of massive egos how about when Michael retired from basketball to play baseball. There was a press conference, but it's not like it was teased forever nor did he book his own ESPN show to do it. Although if one isn't really following the NBA as Paps stated or as others have said "I don't care," well that pretty much says it all. You don't care, don't follow it, so maybe that's why you don't get why it bothers some people. Perhaps some should just substitute "Barry Bonds" for "LeBron," then maybe they would. Jim's right, the way game 5 was called the last time these 2 teams met is easily one of the worst officiated games in the history of championship sports. Although I watch the NBA that game along with some other terribly called playoff games (before & after) I consider the NBA to be more akin to wrestling than a "real" sport. I'll still take it over the fake rah-rah of the seedy NCAA though.

Very impressive as Bautista proved he was not a fluke. Rumor has it the young slugger picked up for Cliff Lee hit a 3 run shot in the bottom of the 8th for a mediocre NW franchise, putting them just 1/2 a game back in the AL West. Will Justin Smoak grow up to be the Yankees first baseman for 2016? In the meantime, I'm not sure if I'm watching the '69 or '73 Mets play in Seattle. The division so reminds of the NL East's top 4 teams of '73 it's freakin' stupid. (I was 10 so that one is burned into the brain more than most things.) Okay, minus the Lou Brock and no Willie Stargell...but team performancewise it fits for now. Edit - Oh by the way, I love how the pitcher Guthrie commits the error to put the 2nd man on, then gives up the HR but gives up no earned runs in the deal. A pitcher's best friend is his own crappy fielding.

I'm rooting for Dallas but the most beautiful thing I saw on the court was w/ a 1:08 left. Wade gets his 10th rebound (!), escapes backcourt pressure, gets out of trouble and fires the pass from past half court for the put it out of reach bucket. I also liked that Dallas had an emphatic dunk on the following point. Pointless perhaps but it surprised the crowd which was good. For the first time I looked over how the "Big 3" stats changed in their season together and I noticed Wade's rebounding went up to 6.4 from 4.9 the year before. That's crazy for a guard. He also must be the best shot blocking guard in history. He's better than Carlos Boozer & Zach Randolph combined and then some. That said Boozer only blocks .3 shots a game more than any poster here. Unless Noj is really Tim Duncan and has been faking his love of Lakers all this time... I'm hoping for the sake of competitive games that the Dallas bench has a better Game 2. Were they "average" tonight it might have gone down to the wire.

It's also used for when one has a need to declare that he's taking a dump. Like Noj & Aggie said, I don't begrudge the guy for getting out of Cleveland and taking control of where he wanted to play. But that little show of his was so narcissistic, I don't care if it was done for "charity" or not. (And really, Jim Gray? Ugh.) That said I'm going to try to put all that crap out of mind and enjoy his "talents," and hope to hell that the referring isn't atrocious. If I see Dick Bavetta out there I reserve the right to shut the TV off and never watch a NBA game again.

That's very cool! I've only done 7 minutes of the first booster but it's quite the ride. I think I'm going to try to avoid watching it before bedtime lest I have dreams about falling, although the neat thing is you can see the parachute deploy so maybe it won't induce nightmares.

I too will use a check as I'm not sure I'll be able to use the paper checks & the stamps needed to mail them in a few more years. I suppose envelopes could be used as emergency toilet paper. (More like. ) Thank you and our über-cool mods for keeping the place a happy hang out.

It's because Alex wore a matching purse when he ran down the line. But seriously...it's just a rulebook call. 6.1 "While contact may occur between a fielder and runner during a tag attempt, a runner is not allowed to use his hands or arms to commit an obviously malicious or unsportsmanlike act." Alex was ruled out by interference. Somewhat relatedly a good book for looking stuff up but not necessarily reading cover to cover is A Game Of Inches. (Although the above I got from the web.) I would suggest trying a library first as it reads more like an encyclopedia. But if you've ever been curious about why there aren't left-handed catchers, how the wheel play came about, donuts on bats or who first threw a screwball, personal catchers, bunt defense, rally caps, whisk brooms used by umps...in other words, pretty much everything in baseball, it's in there. Anyway, in the book it mentions that in 1878 a new rule requiring fielders to hold onto the ball after applying a tag came into being. Some were very concerned that this would increase the number of collisions between runners & fielders and thus it was thought the rule wouldn't last. Wrong-o. One of the more famous home plate collisions as reported in Sporting Life involved a 210 lb. Cap Anson who sent 150 lb. (!) catcher George Myers flying "10 feet or more away from home plate, but pluckily held on to the ball...Myers has not yet recovered from the severe shock. The storm of hisses which greeted Anson ought to admonish him that audiences do not consider brutal work of that kind of ball playing." Myers played for the St. Louis Maroons, so I don't think anyone here is old enough to get riled up this collision.

Since suggesting that I'd follow the Royals this year rather than M's things have turned for both teams. Ah the power of the jinx & reverse jinx. So I'll stick with the above fraud. Last night was the M's version of bloop Marino to death like the D-backs did in '01. This is a far cry from the excitement of the '95 divisional series but still pretty sweet. I still think that the Rangers will run away because of their depth as they played well enough without Hamilton & Cruz, but who knows, with injuries and months to go anything can happen.

Traveling back to the finals.

They accidentally sent me a 2nd one of those a month after I ordered one. They said keep it for free. Unfortunately the live concert is a case where the original edited version is better than the complete one. There's a dry flute solo that never seems to end, some guitar wankery and a drum solo that will make you think much more highly of "Toad."

The "going-nowhere" Marlins are playing .600 ball which is better than the Giants.

The highlight of the year for Mets fans at the ballpark.

Deadspin report on the Texas storm. Aside from the ominous cloud photo there's a 7 minute video about the weather.

Happy birthday to the host with the most!

Indeed! You need to draw a map and maybe you'll be able to backtrack & get into games for free in the future. One gale of a tale!

Holy fuck-a-roni Batman, the M's give up more runs in one game than in a week and still win! I so wish Smoak's first name was Johnny just because of the Butthole Surfers song. If he were John rather Justin I could say that "John was a little crippled midget lesbian boy but stood ten foot tall with a knife..." and it keeps going from there, but instead his name is Justin so I can't quote more of the song from Hairway To Steven. Still just 1.5 back despite being a losing team. God I love the MLB unfair unbalanced schedule!

Since the rainouts at Cleveland the Mariners have allowed 6 runs over 6 games and have managed to win 5 of them. Last year's model of "pitching & defense" has worked well for a week. It feels sort of like I'm a fan of the '69 Mets except that Smoak & Ichiro are better than anything that team had. In last place and 3 games under .500, but who 'effin' cares, just 1.5 out of 1st!

Someone could get Chewy a copy of Money Jungle. edit - Or was it SoulStation who needed it? I think that's how it went. I've forgotten my important organissimo forum history!

Billy Martin used Rick Rhoden as a DH in '88, the first time it had been done since the rule came into being. As a hitter he was good "for a pitcher," and better than some pre-steroid era infielders and backup catchers. You can also forfeit the right to use a DH. You could almost think of this as the George Brett's brother (Ken) rule, though he wasn't the first to have this done for him.

No idea what this specifically refers to... Refers to Matt Harrison going along swimmingly, like his head's in a good place, which means he's got his game all the way on, and then out of nowhere walking two and then throwing up a three run gopher ball, anf then immediately thereafter returning us to our regularly scheduled programming, like nothing ever happened. That was extra special because the gopher ball was hit by the 9th place hitter. There are some guys who are just famous for doing what you described, and yet I can't name a single one right now. The brain sometimes has a great way of forgetting pain.

Who? There are teams in St. Louis & Cincy? You're right there. They got into last year and it's carried over. The Cards have handled the loss of Wainwright better than expected.

New CDs to start the week! Not a bad thing to have a birthday on a Monday. All the best.

Strange, 3 different browsers and I see nothing regarding Marcello, BFrank, or Brad's album pictures. Not even if I hit reply. Oh…sheeesh, now I get it, "this album" is the one the post is about. Ah, it's hard to beat Monday for brain fogginess. Or maybe the lack of thread drift threw me off. Not the Messengers but I also like Blakey's Impulse! album with Stitt. Foolishly after about a dozen Blakey albums I thought I'd probably had enough. Now I'm up to around 2 dozen and still have more I'm interested in. There's a dangerous thread on here with all sorts of great suggestions.

And don't forget, the Bulls made the Heat cry.