Dan Gould

I'm one of them I was banned as a result of our, well, let's call it a collision. No problem. Unless he missed me, I'm the other one. In honor of another person banned from the Org and AAJ (DEEP): Hans, CLASP!

Shit. I don't know how I can place an order, and I don't know how I can't. I never should have opened this damn thread.

Chris' rejected blurb for Stanley's book: You'll Laugh, You'll Cry, You'll Throw Up!

I paid about $50 for a copy a year or two ago (original vinyl) and there's nothing particularly special whatsoever about her voice or the performance of the Messengers (who are only on the latter half of the tunes, and Horace, Hank and Watkins are replaced by Kenny Drew, Ira Sullivan and Wilbur Ware on two of those tunes). Unless you enjoy utterly bland chick singers there is no reason to hunt this down.

That's not a bad choice. Have you heard how Papi keeps asking him if Ortiz' daddy had anything to do with him?

Saturday Night Nessa? Stayin' alive ... Or, as the original lyrics went, Barely alive, barely alive

And one other thing I wanted to mention. The bullpen has been up and down (other than Paps) for most of the first half, mainly because Rudy Seanez and Julian Tavarez have been nothing like what was expected. But the positive side is that it has forced Francona to bring the youngsters up and not only let them pitch, but let them pitch critical innings. Remember the names Manny DelCarmen and Craig Hansen. Their overall stats don't show it but their recent performances (since Francona gave them all a pep talk about pitching big innings, and rah rah rah) have been outstanding. MDC is very much like Flash Gordon: mid 90s fastball, 12-6 curve that buckles knees. He's been terrific recently and if Papelbon hadn't blown the save, everyone would be talking about the two perfect innings he threw to get a 3-2 game into Pap's hands. Hansen is a first round pick from last year, upper 90s fasball and nasty, nasty slider. Think righthanded big Unit (he's almost as tall). Just tremendous stuff, he has to keep the ball down and he's almost unhittable. Recent performances have only been marred by bloop hits and seeing eye grounders. Nobody seems to get a good swing on this guy. IF these guys continue to develop, I think the Sox have, in-house, all the relief pitching they will need, now and for a while to come. I gotta say, its very exciting watching these guys!

You can't include Konerko as a "banjo hitter" and Crede has some pop too - but I agree that there are some weak bats above and below those guys. And as great as the Thome trade was, their answer in centerfield after sending Rowand away has been an outright disaster. They do have some serious power arms setting up Jenks, which helps a lot. As far as the Red Sox 3-6, I think we have to be thrilled that we are in first place and near the top in scoring considering how bad Varitek has been. Worst thing is, the strain of catching usually gets to him by September and if he doesn't get his average up before then, he might very well be below the Mendoza line when its all said and done. On the positive side, I have to expect Coco to start hitting like he did for the Tribe soon. Lots of room for improvement there. Also on the plus side is Alex Gonzales, who was as the Mendoza line at the end of May and goes into the break hitting over .280. With his glove, any offensive contribution is cake, and he has stopped being an automatic out at the bottom of the lineup. Big help getting to Youks, Lorreta and Papi. Another plus is that Wily Mo Pena should be reactivated after the break. He was out for a month plus after surgery to remove his hamate bone in his wrist (the same thing people thought was Sheffield's problem originally). He probably won't have as much power - Papi had the same surgery and said it took a year to regain his power stroke - but he's a dangerous right handed bat to have off the bench, and I have to admit I was excited by his apparent improvement while he replaced Coco. Yeah, he struck out a lot but he also took more pitches, took more walks, and showed a huge improvement in BA and OBP. At this point its obvious that we'd be better off with Arroyo, but I am hopeful that by next season it will look like we got a steal as WMP blossoms and the rest of the NL catches up to Arroyo.

hey can i get some on this pick 30 HRS He is having a monster year. Between him and Ortiz, voters may have no choice but to pick a DH for MVP this year. BTW, from last year's break to this year's, Ortiz has hit 57 homers - and that's with last year's break coming a week later than this year, so its not even a full 162 games. Considering how Ortiz tends to really get hot during the summer, I have to believe he has a shot at being the first non-steroid user to break Maris' mark.

Your boys are awful and one of the biggest disappointments of the season.

Anyone with observations on the season so far? I have to say that the Yanks deserve credit for hanging in as they have, but I think its going to be a struggle with no Small or Chacon to save their cookies, and the schedule will favor the Red Sox as they have the highest number of home games left entering the second half of any team. Interesting that their deficit last year at this time wasn't as great as it is now. I guess the Red Sox got hot and the Yanks cooled off. I wonder if that will happen again, as looking ahead, the matchups seem to favor the Sox coming out of the break: Red Sox at home against Oakland and their .245 team BA for four Yanks at home for Chicago Red Sox at home against KC Yanks at home against Seattle Red Sox at Seattle Yanks at Toronto With a little luck the Sox will have built up a lead by the time they go to Seattle and the Yanks and Toronto can fight for second place. And if it happens, look out, cuz the Sox don't have the bullpen issues this year, and they've got two aces instead of none like last year. After watching the White Sox, I have to say that I am not at all convinced that they are the best team in baseball. No doubt, the offense is better with Thome, and the heart of the order is awesome. But in the Red Sox series I saw some guys at the bottom of the order that looked pretty bad, so its not as thick a lineup as you'd think, given their run production. Pitching is also a question mark, IMO. Buerhle looks awful, Garcia hasn't been great either. Contreras is the real ace, and he was lucky to avoid a loss yesterday. Its the bullpen and the offense that is critical to their chances, unless some of those pitchers regain their form.

Not only is this a great victory in favor of copyrights but anything that pisses the hell out of the Christian Fascists gets a big from me. And as far as those who only watch R-rated films that have been "sanitized", one of my closest college friends is an extremely conservative Christian, and he and his wife manage to rent the R-rated films they are interested in. His wife covers her eyes, or they use the scene menu to skip ahead. No biggie. And there's another way to watch those movies: Cable TV. All the naughty bits will be deleted if you wait for FX to broadcast them.

I'm going to jump in to this discussion for the first and only time to say that the problem, as I see it, with the sport is that the opportunities to score are so few (which is why I find it mind-dullingly boring - and yes, I will tell you that baseball is a 100% more exciting! ) that the results are too often a function of who can con a referee into awarding a penalty kick or a red card based on nothing but superlative acting. ESPN showed a compilation of the worst of these "dives" and its truly pathetic - both that the competition comes down to these calls, and that the athletes, who are supposed to be sportsmen, act in this way. There you have it, a non-fan's view. Take it as you wish.

Tennessee Ernie Ford Gerald Ford Squeeky Fromme

Tom, If you downloaded the LD show from 1-28-05 at New Morning from Dime (this was offered last year, I think), Kyle Koehler is on that show, so you probably have heard him with Lou. (thanks for offering the earlier LD show from the same venue, it looked so familiar I had to look up the old show to see if it was a re-seed, and that's when I realized not only is it new, but the old one has this Kyle dude on it.)

The BFT Compiler is supposed to start a separate discussion thread. If you prefer to just tell us what the tracks are, that's entirely up to you.

I was going to say that this is one of my favorite BNs with Spaulding. Definitely a classic in the Pearson discography.

Double "hmmm". Third time was the charm, and I was able to download Disc 2. So, I gots mine!

Actually, they split the four game set and scored 19 runs in the second game. Too bad they couldn't keep it going.

Hmm. The CD 2 link didn't work. It timed out. I've had similar problems before with yousendit, where sometimes the link worked and sometimes it didn't. Maybe I'll try again tomorrow.

I'm downloading CD1 right now. Cool beans! I may incorporate this distribution method for mine next month.

Magnifico!

I've had this for a while. A truly essential document and probably the greatest non-BN Messengers recording (along with that Columbia album).

Interesting comparison between the 2005 and 2006 Red Sox, through 81 games: So a team that was supposed to be built for defense and pitching, with a presumed loss of offense, actually has matched or beaten the 2005 squad in all the important offensive categories, while clearly improving the pitching and fielding. Maybe there is hope that they can finally stop the Yankee streak of division titles. After all, last year the Sox had terrible problems in the back end of the bullpen, and no Schilling to lead the staff. Now they've got Papelbon plus Schilling and Beckett. And the Yanks don't have Small and Chacon to save their cookies.

I think that it is almost entirely a function of the way Chicago and the Tigers have played and the realization that neither one of us will have the fall-back position of winning the wild card, and that total lack of a margin for error makes us take a much harder look at our teams. Speaking of which, here is the single most important stat I know symbolizing the Yankee problems: In games with neither Matsui nor Sheffield in the lineup, the Yanks are 24-21. Since Matsui won't be back before late August if at all, and Sheffield will have even less time to make it back, I think its obvious that the Yanks are missing terribly that chunk of offense. Without a move that does something about it, or managing to play better with what you have, I think the Yanks will have problems the rest of the way.