Dan Gould

It's my recollection that he admitted to sleeping with young boys. He just denied molesting them when he was in bed with them. That's enough to make me disregard whatever talent he had, and whatever music he created. I disregarded the "talent" and the music first.

I happen to live in Westchester County, but wouldn't be caught dead reading that rag! The sports reporting has won more AP awards in the last three years than any other paper in NY.

Even Mark in Indiana knows PeteAbe. He happens to write the most popular baseball blog in New York: Lower Hudson Valley AKA Journal-News "LoHud" baseball blog

I think Peter Abraham, Yankee beat writer, got it right: Carlos Diaz, on the other hand, hasn't a clue in his celebrity-obsessed head.

I think it was a bigger catalog than just the Beatles, actually. And while I think he effectively "re-financed" the property, there was still a lot of equity in his ownership stake. Assuming you find someone to pay what its worth, there ought to be a lot of money still for the kids and his siblings, etc. Can the income stream from the licensing fees be distributed to the estate in perpetuity? I'd think its got to be an asset that has to be liquidated at some point.

No, I wouldn't. Do you have a worse adjective than "tragic" for what he did to children? Or do you just see degrees of tragedy - he didn't record with Prince, he sexually abused children. Its all oh so unfortunate, huh? As Mark suggests, you might want to take a look at the big picture before you throw around words like "tragic", Alex.

My pleasure.

Absolutely. No single artist, not even Elvis himself, spanned such extremes as did Michael Jackson. Jackson's highs were brilliant. His lows were abysmal. Listening to "Off the Wall" right now, myself. To me, this album represents one of the great missed opportunities in music history (great as it is): One of the tracks, "I Can't Help It," was written by Stevie Wonder. Can you imagine what a Stevie written and produced Michael Jackson album would have sounded like? Another one of the great missed opportunities also involves Michael: The song "Bad" was originally conceived as a duet for Michael and Prince. They wound up not doing it (Prince claims because they couldn't agree who would sing the line, "Your butt is mine...") and I think it's tragic that they didn't. A Michael Jackson and Prince collaboration...the mind reels. Tragic? WTF? Oh well, they never collaborated. Big fucking deal. Tragic is what that POS did to little boys. Thanks for bringing that up again and again We know he was a major mess I've mentioned it twice and the second time was only due to a truly appalling misuse of the word "tragic". "Tragic" is what his father did to him. "Tragic" is what he did to little boys (and what his father did to him in no way excuses it). "Tragic" isn't a missed chance to record with someone.

Absolutely. No single artist, not even Elvis himself, spanned such extremes as did Michael Jackson. Jackson's highs were brilliant. His lows were abysmal. Listening to "Off the Wall" right now, myself. To me, this album represents one of the great missed opportunities in music history (great as it is): One of the tracks, "I Can't Help It," was written by Stevie Wonder. Can you imagine what a Stevie written and produced Michael Jackson album would have sounded like? Another one of the great missed opportunities also involves Michael: The song "Bad" was originally conceived as a duet for Michael and Prince. They wound up not doing it (Prince claims because they couldn't agree who would sing the line, "Your butt is mine...") and I think it's tragic that they didn't. A Michael Jackson and Prince collaboration...the mind reels. Tragic? WTF? Oh well, they never collaborated. Big fucking deal. Tragic is what that POS did to little boys.

That's the last post I saw on the thread. I've noticed that there is a new setting where, if you post again in the same thread shortly after another post, the software will add it to the prior post instead of allowing it to stand as a new one. This happened earlier tonight on the MLB thread.

Well Bard has helped insure that there won't be a comeback (he's looked terrible since at least the Phils series and may need a return to Pawtucket) but if the Braves can start pitching a bit they might catch the Yankees - they scored five in the fourth to knock Pettitte out of what should have been an easy 8-1 victory. C'mon Braves! And Phils!!!!

Searching for silver linings: Smoltz allowed one run over the last four innings Retired (or recorded outs) on the last eight batters faced Threw strikes consistently - 62 out of 92 pitches Hopefully he was too amped up and he'll improve going forward. Not sure if it was fair to expect a lot more in his first start in a full year. I'm not at all sure the point though of allowing him to hit in a 5-0 game when he was at 80 pitches after 4 innings. He has to come out for the fifth? If he hadn't struck out the side, he would have been yanked at some point anyway. Why not get someone off the bench and see if they can get something started? Sure looks like the win streak will come to an end, though if they can get the starter out I guess anything is possible with the Nats bullpen. Here's their best chance - 1st and third, one out with Ortiz at the plate. We need something bad with the Yankees blowing out the Braves. We needed more than a sac fly, Ortiz.

Exactly. If you liked his music, I'm sorry for your loss. And I'm sure his family members are suffering, and its unfortunate to lose a family member so young. Personally I'll think about the children who won't be abused in the future.

Just as it was fucking written up. Jesus Christ.

I certainly had my suspicions but until now I never truly knew how stupid Steve Lyons is: More here. We can only hope Joe Posnanski takes aim at this clown.

If its a total freaking mismatch, then the Red Sox must be substantially better than the Yankees and Toronto, since the Nats took four out of six, on the road, from those two teams. Anything can happen in baseball.

John Lee Hooker M'Boom MMMBop

Sad if not surprising news.

So does anyone have a prediction for Smoltz' debut? I'll go with five innings/80 pitches/3 runs. Anything better would be gravy, and anything that isn't Matzuzaka like will suit me fine.

:party:

Well thankfully the Sox held on to beat the Nats 6-4, an important win for two reasons: The luck of the MFY was bound to change sooner or later, and it did tonight, so at least they stay 5 games back. Smoltz goes for the sweep in his 2009 debut tomorrow (why the hell is MLB Network going with a different game for Thursday night baseball?). Easier to go for the sweep than if they had lost tonight and were asking Smoltz to keep the Nats from taking the series. Hopefully we keep it going tomorrow but no one knows what Smoltz will have in his first game back - I'm anxious to find out but won't be devastated if we don't get the sweep. A .750 winning percentage in June will do that.

Arthur Carlson Mother Carlson Carlton Your Doorman

Do you intend/attempt for your defecation to be art? If you do, then you got every right to call it like you see it. Just as I have every right to not be at all interested in checking it out. But if you can find an audience, capre, or should I say crape diem! Soon as I get that translucent toilet bowl, I'll have Performance Art as well as the regular kind.

The folks here are quick to criticize, but heaven forbid someone points it out . . . No, no one appreciates someone showing up just to shoot off his mouth.

I didn't say that "beauty" is a necessary part of music but if we agree not to call noise like that "music" then I have no problem with performances of this type. Call it "sound" hell call it "art" or "performance" but don't call it music. And I'd still like to know what it is that is pleasing about that. And as for Dixon's comment, well isn't the logical conclusion of that my declaration that my next bowel movement is my greatest work of art yet?