Dan Gould

Come on, folks. Every CD is marked down by $2 and only one person comes back to make another purchase? Baby needs new shoes - and Daddy needs money to bid on an LP that's ending on Sunday. Won't you help?

I'm almost afraid to ask about "Rosebud."

I watched the whole game Dice-K was VERY IMPRESSIVE !!! They might not be the toughest lineup he'll face (Sweeney and Grudzlienak got the day off) but Dice was indeed very impressive. So many weapons - and much better command, despite the temperatures, compared to his last two spring starts. Talk about drinking the Kool-Aid - I think I've downed a whole keg of the Dice-K flavor!

according to weather.com 29F with winds gusting to 30 MPH. Wilbon on PTI said that the schedule-makers are idiots for scheduling games this early in the coldest cities. Personally, I think we need a few more domes to be able to schedule the beginning of April to avoid the coldest/worst conditions.

No, Pineiro was a starting pitcher who was terrible -- and he looked worse in the pen. His ERA was 6.36 No, he was better in the pen, with an ERA a hair over 4. He also showed better velocity in short stints (93-94) and better results in first innings than later innings. Its a risk, and I'd rather have Timlin and Donnelly as the primary 8th inning guys, but Piniero may surprise some people. Re: Baseball Fans. We all drink our favorite teams Kool-Aid. That's indeed true, Matthew, but it is a fact that his ERA was better in the bullpen, not worse, and that he's showing better velocity and better results in one inning stints. That's not kool-aid, thems are facts.

No, Pineiro was a starting pitcher who was terrible -- and he looked worse in the pen. His ERA was 6.36 No, he was better in the pen, with an ERA a hair over 4. He also showed better velocity in short stints (93-94) and better results in first innings than later innings. Its a risk, and I'd rather have Timlin and Donnelly as the primary 8th inning guys, but Piniero may surprise some people.

Considering that the Bolton/Anderza has no real connection to this music, your comment almost makes me wonder if Michael was just looking for a Select project that he could stick these two in, and came up with this one, but I think its great that Michael chose such a set for a Select, given that they usually pick a set of LPs that actually saw release. With only two issued albums, this wouldn't even be a possibility as a Select without knowing that there are 29 worthy but unissued tunes to include.

If Romero throws strikes and Timlin goes back to what he was before last season, the set up crew has a chance to be dominating, because of the addition of Donnelly. Okajima can be very good if he stays away from the middle of the plate with his curve. And I'd really like to see Tavarez back in the long-relief role when Lester is ready and Snyder in the mix as 7th-8th inning guy. He's got so many weapons and misses bats, which is what you need for set up men. He could be another Donnelly, coming in to get the punch out with men on base. (the only thing to fear is his home run rate, though)

Try losing the first two at home. I'm trying not to panic. How about the defending world champs? 0-3 at home, and with their starting pitching even more iffy with the ace on the shelf for at least one start. That's bad, no doubt. However, the phrase "defending world champs" lessens the sting. The Phillies have one championship in 124 seasons. One. And that happened in 1980. This city hasn't had a championship celebration since the Sixers in 1983. So would I trade"0-3 at home, and with their starting pitching even more iffy with the ace on the shelf for at least one start" for "losing the first two at home"??? In a heartbeat. Well, count me as someone who thinks the Phils will be back in the playoffs this year, particularly if Flash doesn't show his age for one more year.

The Onzy Matthews is definitely cool news. I've been trying to find the time to clean up my copy of his second Capital album, Sounds for the '60s, but now I'll just wait for this set. Like Jim says, he didn't stretch boundaries but he wrote and arranged very well and had some fine people in his band.

Try losing the first two at home. I'm trying not to panic. How about the defending world champs? 0-3 at home, and with their starting pitching even more iffy with the ace on the shelf for at least one start.

Yeah, and I was all ready to sign up for Game Day Audio to listen in when I saw an ad that DirecTV is running an Extra Innings free preview now until April 8. Caught the last 8 innings of last night's game (Beckett was just OK, I'm going to cut him slack that he had trouble with his grip in the cold and that's the reason he walked so many and ran his pitch count up so high) and now I'm counting down the hours to the Big Debut. In this kind of cold, I'd expect Dice to really dominate as long as he commands. Hopefully he's over the bit of dead arm that hurt his control his last two starts.

It happened when I was a kid, so I never really heard informed commentary about whether it was a clean hit or not, or whether Jack Tatum was that dirty of a player ... but Stingley died in Chicago today. http://www.boston.com/sports/football/arti...stern_hospital/

Did anyone hear what Robin Williams said about Elton during his 60th B-day bash at the Garden? "His outfits made Liberace look Amish."

First test of the "new" Beckett tonite, and then Dice-K makes his debut tomorrow. Should be interesting. To those who think Beckett was terrible last year, did you know his ERA in his 16 wins was 2.20? That's pitching extraordinarily well in 1/2 of his starts. The problem was that the no-decisions had an ERA of 5.01 and the losses had an ERA of 10+. We'll see if he got the memo that he has to command his curveball and off-speed pitches in order to win consistently. I will say this: it really sucks when you lose badly on Opening Day because then you get an extra day's wait to get that bad taste out of your mouth.

UP with price reductions. Please note new terms on shipping. Thanks.

Can't say that I'm not a little disappointed that Dex's group doesn't feature Kenny Drew, but its great news that the first series was a big enough seller for the second series to become a reality. Can't wait to see what other gems they'll have along with these.

Yeah, especially seeing all the settings.

I refuse to make value judgements about the salaries that college coaches make - the revenue supports them, that is the bottom line. It is a sweet deal for basketball and football that "pro-ready" players are being developed for them, for free. But would anyone go spend any money to watch "minor league" football or basketball without that hook of being connected to a university? The problem with the system isn't the salaries top coaches get or the fact that the pros have a training system in place that they don't have to finance. Its the fact that the rules on what players can do and how they can be played are foolish. Players are expected to put in unbelievable hours every week in practice, time that other students, if they needed the money, would work part-time jobs to support themselves. Its the inability to make some money on the side that corrupts the system, because it leaves the opening for dishonest boosters and agents to step in and flash the wad of cash. There's basically no reason whatsoever not to provide college athletes with a cash stipend. They're already getting free room and board anyway.

It seems to me Bobbi Humphrey's BNs, weak as they are IMO, would be right up the new Mosaic Contemporary's alley.

That's great, but if they teach math where you do live, 1960 + 50 years to PD in Europe = Lonehill has ripped off another artist and label. Exactly what part of do you not comprehend?

I think one of the writers on Foxsports.com has been talking about him as ready to break out and start winning Cy Youngs, or giving Santana strong competition. We'll see.

.305 (or something like that) lifetime BA in the minors, a rather quick tour of the minors before showing that he could handle AAA, a high OBP and low strikeout rate. I think he's going to be fine, and I'm glad that he got a couple of hits today - he was starting to hit the last week of ST - so maybe he can settle in and just do what is expected of him - field, work the count, get on base. BTW, the PECOTA projection system loves this guy and expects him to have something like 35 or 40 doubles this year. Maybe he thought that was supposed to be one of them.

If that were the case, why did you ask about sonics in the first place? If sonics aren't your concern, as you now claim, then you should be asking if the session that is only on the Lonehill is worth it. That would be the issue. Obviously you don't have any concern about the question of supporting/not supporting pirates, and that is entirely your perogative.

Then why not buy from a source that isn't known to be a rip off of artists and labels? This stuff was recorded in the early 60s, I believe and is nowhere in the PD. If you care at all about these issues, it should be a no-brainer when a legit reissue exists as an alternative to the pirates. Beyond that, the likelihood that the Lonehill sounds "great" is very small given their history ...