Dan Gould

No flames here. I just hope you're right. He's the enemy now and I invite him to eat sh*t and die, and take Matsui and Sheffield with him.

Why shouldn't it be about our teams, if those are the teams we care about? As far as Damon goes, he's 32, he plays extremely hard yet he's never been on the DL. Its my devout wish that streak ends soon with a catastrophic knee injury, but there is no reason why Damon doesn't do what he's been doing for at least the next three years.

Check 1010wins. Thanks for the suggestion. From what I can tell, the BQE has no traffic restrictions like four to a car from the Bridge past the airport, so that's good.

I think there's got to be a way to ban you from crossing state lines. You know, you claim that couw has "stalked" you on this board ... is there any difference between what you do and whatever he might have done?

Not to derail the thread, but since the advice has poured forth, here's my situation: We're flying into LGA Thursday morning. Dad is driving in from CT to pick us up. What is traffic like on the roadways that don't actually go into New York, but lead there? That is, he takes the Merritt to the Hutch to the Whitestone Bridge, and on past Shea to LaGuardia (is that the BQE we get on from the bridge?). I spoke to him last night and he was unconcerned about how the strike might impact his drive. Me, I'm not so sure. What do you guys think?

One more comment before I withdraw from all further discussion: The Boston media has both Lucchino and Werner being contacted regarding Damon's signing and both expressing surprise and a complete lack of knowledge. Lucchino even speaks of "ongoing negotiations" when they are trying to get a comment about Damon signing with the Yankees. My question: were they just being disingenuous, or is it possible that Damon and Boras took the offer without giving the Red Sox a final chance to match or top it? Supposedly the Yanks gave them a midnight deadline, claiming that they couldn't wait longer because other options might no longer be available. It really sounds to me like they took the offer without telling the Sox what they had in hand ... but that is a very un-Boras thing to do because he essentially left money on the table. As much as I hate Lucchino, I have a hard time believing that they would not have made another offer, had they known that the Yankees were about to snatch him. Or had they simply made it clear that 4 years/40 million was their top offer, so when the Yanks made their offer, Boras and Damon took it without even giving the Sox a chance. Last thing I'll say is that at this point my hope is that they trade Wells for Dave Roberts, straight up, and then I got two words for you after the inevitable Yankee championship in 2006: Andruw Jones. There may not be anyone on base in front of them, but Ortiz-Manny-Jones would be the scariest middle lineup in history, particularly at Fenway.

I am too staggered and stupefied to speak. At this point the only thing left is to go ahead and trade Ramirez for prospects, and hope that Damon turns into Bernie by the last year of this deal, after we suffer through at least two more parades down the canyon of heroes. My instincts may be to hate and resent Damon and bemoan the changes that Marty mentions but the fact is that the hatred and the resentment ought to be entired heaped on the front office for failing to match what was a reasonable offer given the current structure of salaries, and for a team with the resources to let him walk away ... I hope Lucchino chokes on his Christmas turkey, and that the Sainted Mr. Henry chokes on what I predict will be a 30% fall off in advance ticket sales, and the inevitable end of the current streak of sellouts, which might have threatened Cleveland's record but now we'll never know.

huh? Its a reference to Chuck's ironclad belief that I only like one style of jazz (even if it were true, what exactly the harm would be, I don't know) and the fact that on the BNBB I was known as the Gene Harris Fanatic. Gene Harris=Three Sounds =>Chuck says I am "One Sound". Whatever.

Wasn't there a news item in '92 about how Hilary Clinton donated used underwear to charity and claimed a value of $4 each?* *The aforementioned is not meant to introduce politics to this thread but rather is offered as yet another example of how "Fair Market Value" can be established. Aren't you the guy who went bananas because someone posted Frank Rich's column about a movie outside the politics thread? If so you're a hypocrite . How? The Rich column was all politics, a very clear provocation by Chris; where is the politics in Dan's comment? Thank you, Greg, for pointing out what ought to be obvious to anyone with a brain. Not surprising that someone who's worked in the film industry for so long has waved bye-bye to so many brain cells that he posts foolishness like this.

Wasn't there a news item in '92 about how Hilary Clinton donated used underwear to charity and claimed a value of $4 each?* *The aforementioned is not meant to introduce politics to this thread but rather is offered as yet another example of how "Fair Market Value" can be established. Time for this thread to be move to the pollytix forum. I'm insulted. What is that you don't get Danny? If I wanted to read about that kind of shit I would read the pollytix forum. And please stop dragging your knuckes on the floor. The sound makes my skin crawl. You're about as amusing as Hillary's idea of charitable giving.

Great news on the Damon Watch: Dodgers Sign Lofton And then there were two. Of course, the problem remains that once Boras comes off the seven year fantasy, I am sure the Yanks will make an offer and then things will get interesting. My guess now is that the team that goes five years guaranteed will get him, and that team will be the Sox. BTW, now that Damon has declined arbitration, the Sox have until January 8th to negotiate with him or else they can't negotiate til May 1. Speaking of which, that's the same deadline the Yanks now face with Bernie Williams. Is that deal going to get done or what?

Wasn't there a news item in '92 about how Hilary Clinton donated used underwear to charity and claimed a value of $4 each?* *The aforementioned is not meant to introduce politics to this thread but rather is offered as yet another example of how "Fair Market Value" can be established.

That is a new one. Thanks for the heads up.

so what is "fair market value" for used CDs? What would the local store pay you. AND DATS DA TRUFE! I disagree. Seems to me FMV in this case should be what the local store would charge for the used CD, as that is the value that you are donating to the library - the cost that it would otherwise have to pay to get the item.

And obviously you didn't turn him on to the big O.

No, but I completely agree with you about Chris McBride and "Gettin To It".

Bonus tracks are from a different session, the one that was paired with the LP issue of The Procrastinator/I] in the seventies.

I have to admit, I never thought of it as a missed opportunity to hear Lee "Fatheaded", I was excitited at the thought of Fathead in a hard bop vein. Definitely gets from me.

Still waiting. Guess I picked the wrong Amazon seller. But I've still got til Thursday morning before I get on the plane, so there's still hope I'll have it in hand when I get to the folks' house. Can't wait for Mom to say, "What are you reading?"

And perhaps I was wrong about Nomar. Looks like he's headed to La-La land. I forgot how much Nomar hated the Boston media, not like there'd be a big improvement dealing with the New York media. Heck, after the seventh inning, he won't even have to deal with fans in L.A. - they're all gone to beat the traffic. Jeez though - if Nomar signs, and maybe the Dodgers get serious about Damon, all the Dodgers need to do is sign Millar as a right handed bat off the bench and it would be Cowboy Up all over again: Mueller, Nomar, Damon and Millar, led by the idiot savant, Grady Little.

I just saw that. And it appears that the Sox are serious about dealing Arroyo for Reed. If those two deals go down Seattle might have a good little ballclub on their hands next year. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/baseball/252470_mari17.html Looks like Seattle has a bit of wishful thinking about trading for Arroyo or Clement. Boston media is in agreement that Coco Crisp is the immediate target, not Reed.

In the interests of keeping this thread on topic, I'll ignore this blather.

I never watched The West Wing but I stuck with LA Law through the end and he certainly made that show a lot more watchable when he was on it, easily the best actor they had. RIP.

Johnny, are you ready for WS in Seattle now that Carl Everett has signed on? Seriously, he should help, and as .Mariners general manager Bill Bavasi said Everett "would break up any monotony or boredom." I don't care what he says or does as long as he knocks in 100+ RBI, hit 25+ HRs, and has an AVG over .280. he hasn't done all three of those things in the same year since 2000. He's accomplished only one of those goals since 2000, when he hit .301 for Texas but only played 73 games. Tell you what: If Everett reaches all three of those goals and plays at least 125 games, I'll vote for Hillary in 2008. You have my word as a gentleman and a jazz fan.

Clement is more expensive, Arroyo is better, IMO. Hopefully it doesn't come to that anyway.