Dan Gould

Where do you live, St. Pauli? actually it's a reasonable nice housing area in bonn... bonn does however stink more than most other cities around it (cologne) (we also have slightly higher temperatures here most of the time...) funnily enough recently on tv there was a report about some troubled 14 year old and they tried their best to report about our area as some sort of ghetto ("where gang membership is all that counts"... and the like) ... pretty funny (i mean, groups of three or four 14 year olds smoking cigarettes don't make a place a ghetto) Doesn't make the group a gang either.

PM sent on the above. How much for the Art Farmer, Dan? PM sent, Jon.

Just wanted to let everyone know that as of now, if you've ordered fewer than 7 discs and paid me, your package will ship on Monday. Larger orders will ship by mid-week. And after that, its on to the G's and beyond! Thanks to everyone who has participated in the Stupendous Sale!

I don't think Manny Being Manny has anything to do with national broadcast schedules, so I presume that's just a gratuitous parting shot. But the fact is that the Red Sox are a nationally popular team, the number one road attendance team in the league last year, and almost certainly again this year. That makes them a popular ratings attraction. The White Sox have their own contract with WGN and they are on when they are supposed to be. Again, the Cubs are a stronger draw nationally, so how can you blame WGN if they run more Cub games than Chisox games? And finally, the Rays are the year's surprise team. Schedules are chosen a significant time in advance, except for September, when national networks choose based on pennant race implications. You can expect to see a lot of Rays then.

Hey, c'mon, Dan. BoSox gotta lose once in a while. More than once in awhile when they're on the road. A .400 team when away from the Green Monster. With a staggering 12 one run losses, which are universally regarded as a measure of luck rather than talent. If half of those games turned out the other way, they'd be above .500 on the road. Hell, if they only won 40% of those games, they're at .500 on the road. There's no guarantee that statistic will change over the final 65 games, but it in no way signifies the talent on the roster or the worthiness of making the playoffs.

Yeah, well it just may be that the last week was the fluke, not the period before. The Sox look fucking pathetic, and Ortiz can't come back soon enough.

Nice fuckin' offense, Oakland. thanks a lot.

Good luck, Bruce - Alex has it right, a positive attitude is critical. My brother beat his lymphoma, and I truly believe his attitude had a lot to do with it. One way he did it was to embrace any loss of hair from the chemo - when it goes, forget the ball cap, shave your head. It might have helped that he had a head that looked good without hair but I'll always remember when we walked down the street in Baltimore while he was going to Johns Hopkins for treatment, and a guy coming the other way looked at him and said "I gotta shave my head too". He couldn't tell my brother was extremely ill, he just saw a good looking fashion choice.

I'm sure the Bosox can make a deal for the experienced, highly prized, Paul Byrd. Something promising in AA perhaps? Yeah, you'll ask for Michael Bowden, who ranks just behind Buchholz and Masterson as prospects.

Its not a question of showcasing anyone. That doesn't remotely enter into their thinking. They re-shuffled the rotation to maximize the rest given to certain people, like Beckett. Remember how they learned that Beckett and Schilling's stints on the DL helped them in October? Well that's the new organizational principle - have enough pitching that even without injuries, you can give your best ones little mini-vacations during the season and hopefully profit from it during stretch time.

Up for two more late additions - a Teddy Edwards and a rare Kenny Dorham.

If they ask Youk to move, they should reward him with a multi-year deal instead of continuing to go year by year. Otherwise he'll be ready to move on. And I'm not sure that he'd really be a great option in left anyway. Yeah, he'll be better than Manny on your average fly ball, probably not as good as Manny on playing the Monster or on the quick, accurate throws. But missing out on Teix particularly to the Yankees would suck. As for Manny and the traveling secretary - the media is reporting that no one believes that his K was a big "f-you" to the front office, and that it wasn't a six figure fine but in the range of $10-15K. That makes sense, because a player has the right to contest a fine under the CBA, and it makes sense if Manny signed off on 10-15 thousand, not so much six figures. That's a lot of grills to sell!

Back in first, period. What a shitty day on the Left Coast - Manny and Cora fuck around with the baseball and Buchholz looks atrocious regardless. He needs some lessons from Masterson in how to deal with adversity and what it means to have confidence in yourself. Because he's got squat. Here's a frightening thought: What is Buchholz doesn't turn it around quickly? What if he's a black hole at the end of the rotation? Colon is weeks away from pitching again, and I do not want to get into the starting pitcher market at the deadline. That leaves David Pauley, Charlie Zink, and maybe Bowden as stop-gaps. But Bowden shouldn't be entrusted with a spot in the rotation, he'll come up for a spot start or be brought into the bullpen. Pauley has pitched up here before; at least with Zink you get Tek's bat out of the lineup one more day out of five. I'm actually curious about Zink - he doesn't have Wakefield's knuckler but its still a pretty good one, but what makes him different is that he throws his fastball in the upper 80s. I always wince when Wakefield throws a get-me-over FB. I've never understood why batters don't work him into fastball counts - if the knuckler is dancing out of the strike zone - and then pound the BP fastball that is coming. With Zink, he's got a better ability to mix his pitches, not throw knuckler after knuckler. That's what made Phil Kniekro a great pitcher - his knuckler was great but he threw other quality pitches too.

New Jersey is a wholly-owned subsidiary of New York City and Philadelphia.

Yeah but it doesn't exactly flow like STIX NIX HICKS FLICK

Interesting report about Manny, the front office, that incident with the traveling secretary and the three pitch strikeout against Rivera at the Stadium: From the Globe That being the explanation for Manny taking three pitches rings a lot truer to me than "Manny will lay off pitches he doesn't think he can handle". On the other hand, I recall that at least one of the last two strikes were off the plate according to the strike zone thingamajig. I still say what I've said all along - if Manny picks it up in the second half, hits 35 homers and 125 RBI and hits .290+, they should exercise the option for next season. If he doesn't produce at a similar or better rate than he did the first half, he can pout and moan his way to another team. It just means the Sox will go harder for Teixeira. With Manny off the payroll, along with Schilling, they can easily afford $18-20 mill a year for Tex. They'd have to ask Youk to move to left field, and he'd be unhappy - you can't blame the guy for playing flawless first base, excellent third base, but he's asked to move to LF to make room for another Gold Glove winner. But Teix gives you a young guy for the middle of the lineup who could replace Manny now and possibly move to replace Ortiz as he ages. and let's face it, we need to get younger as Drew and Lowell will still be on the roster and Tek almost certainly comes back, too.

That's a good one - I used a track on my first BFT, and Sangrey pulled it out of thin air.

Can I trade you some Barry Bonds rookie cards for those CDs, Dan? Rookie cards? No. Prison Softball Team card, absolutely. I'll give you two for one if you throw in a Clemens "Solitary Confinement" card.

Remember this advice comes from the man who has alienated countless gig-giving people. I'm sure you realize the last thing you need to do is to get a reputation for being difficult, let alone litigious.

For those who have already perused, there are four late additions added - a Hank Crawford, Sweets-Lock on Pablo, Curtis Fuller on Delmark and best of all a rare French issue of Teddy Edwards with the Claude Tissendier quintet.

its a little early to be hitting the sauce but somehow I'm not surprised. To borrow from another famous Hollywood production: a warped, frustrated old man.

The first to arrive - and he's in Europe? Well, the first to post that he got his box. Glad it got there safe and quick, Tommy. And if you'd like to help further, may I suggest going here and here?

It's 11:30, I'm current as of Morganized's requests, and I'm beat. See y'all in the AM.

Dan: I'd be interested in these if still available. I don't need jewel boxes. Thanks. (I'll try to clean out my in-box for PMs now.) Eric Eric, PM sent. Only a couple are available, I'm afraid. thanks

All current PMs responded to, and the list has been updated. Thanks, everybody!