Tim McG

My advice? Avoid the shipping costs altogether and buy into the Amazon Prime program. Free shipping for all items plus the occasional two-day shipping option, free. Saved us a bundle.

Spring Baseball

I've never been a fan of Mark West Pinot Noir. It's typically too light for me. When I want a nice Pinot Noir these days, I pick up a bottle of Meomi, which is a Caymus Family vineyard. Beautiful Pinot with a nice heavy mouth. More Burgundian than the Mark West Pinot. Yeah, it's double the price but you only live once. Life's too short to worry about an extra $10 for a nicer bottle. When you're laying on your death bed, you don't want to be thinking about all that great wine you could've had. Weird that your Rare Red bottle didn't have the grape varietals listed. This is what the label is supposed to look like: Thanks, Kevin. All the label has on my bottle is: Richly flavored Full Bodied Blended Red Wine 100% California I will say this, it was a very nice bottle of juice. Not much of a nose, but a mouth full of juice with a Syrah or Zinfindel-like berry finish. Very smooth and with plenty of glycerin on the side of the glass; indicative of a fairly well made wine; so far as I know. And @ $4.98 a bottle, I'm going back today to buy a case. BTW...as to Mark West, the 2010 Pinot was far better than the 2011. The former was a full bodied Pinot Noir, the type I like as well. The 2011 is very drinkable and definitely tasty, but not much body to it. I would use it as an aperitif rather than serve it with the meal. Sadly, my wallet doesn't allow me to go beyond the $15-17 dollar "pain" threshold too often. Caymus priced me out years ago. I am but a humble civil servant

I moved last week and found a complete 1994 set I had bought for my son(he was 2 then). I have to look now and see if any HOF players were rookies in 1994 and maybe I have some valuable cards. Cool. I bought a complete set of !990 baseball cards for my son when he was born, too.

Since The Wine Thread is back up and running, here is the comment I made on the one I started: I have to talk about a wonderful Pinot Noir vinted by Mark West Winery in the Sonoma Wine Region. The winery promotes itself as an every man's wine which will taste great without breaking the bank. That is a sure plus for me. I just don't get paying $90 bucks for ONE bottle of wine. And I don't care how good it is. The 2010 Pinot I had was inky red and full bodied. A lot of berry in the mouth as well as a clean, soft finish. The 2011 is less so, but very drinkable. And for $10 bucks, it's a steal. Tonight, I'm trying a blended red called Rare Red 4 Grape Blend from Eagle Rock Vineyards. I have no idea what the four reds are, a mystery wine, I guess. They don't say. But for under $10 bucks I figured it was worth a try. So we see.

A concern: This new quote system is placing my remarks inside the quoted work of the poster. I tried to quote then put my remarks after the quote five times on a previous post and it still places my words inside the quoted remarks. Sometimes it works, most of the time it doesn't. Seriously, Moderator guys...this new system just plain sucks. What on Earth possessed you to change to this completely unusable monstrosity? Yours truly, A disgruntaled user Um...just sayin'.

True. I had forgotten about it. But until today, the last remark was two years ago. Maybe we can combine the two threads?

and a freak of nature. Good point.

I have been tasting/drinking top quality wines [well, inasmuch as my wallet will allow] for well over 30 years. And I thought it might be cool to start a thread where we wine lovers can discuss, share and otherwise talk about the wines we like and/or disdain. To start, I have to talk about a wonderful Pinot Noir vinted by Mark West Winery in the Sonoma Wine Region. The winery promotes itself as an every man's wine which will taste great without breaking the bank. That is a sure plus for me. I just don't get paying $90 bucks for ONE bottle of wine. And I don't care how good it is. The 2010 Pinot I had was inky red and full bodied. A lot of berry in the mouth as well as a clean, soft finish. The 2011 is less so, but very drinkable. And for $10 bucks, it's a steal. On this thread we talk wine, the quality wine we like. Check the snobbishness or pretentious commentary at the door. Any wines you have had that might be worthy of a post? Share it here.

Different era, my friend.

A hole [with] one.

Anquan Boldin goes to the Niners. Great move!

Ain't over yet, Ted . Cats are making a comeback...I can feel it.

TBH, I think the Dodgers will be a real force this year. Pitching looks pretty darn impressive, IMHO. Kershaw is always a tough guy to hit and with the addition of Grenike they have a bonafide 1-2 punch in the rotation. Naturally, I hope my guys win the West pennant, but the NL West is always a very competitive division. Should be fun to watch if everybody stays healthy. Besides, I'll see your frustration with the Dodgers and raise you five decades of Giants baseball futility. It could be worse, Jon

Slang is not remedial. It would be similar to a colloquialism. Perfectly acceptable in modern English language usage. Accusing someone of saying something they never said, however, is akin to remedial reading skill. Do we really have to go down this road again, Dan? Stick to baseball. He was referring to my BoSox comment. Try to follow along.

All a part of the game, Dan. And we're talking about Game 7 not Game 5 of the BoSox game [and, if you recall I said the Bosox busted his chops, not kicked his ass; speaking of remedial English...] I watched as one of the best in the biz just came apart like a cheap watch. Rivera couldn't control the ball, missed his spots and was obviously shaken to his core when Gonzales nailed that bloop single off him. He got tagged, Dan. Big time....aka, an ass kicking.

he didn't get his ass kicked by the D-Backs, he made a bad throw on a bunt and a bloop over a drawn-in infield won the game for the D-Backs. The outcome was the same; that's all that matters. The Yankees have managed to avoid the natural order and cycle of things in baseball for far too long. Hopefully, they'll be paying for that over the next several years. They now appear even more mismatched than the Knicks, so I'm guessing that they will be sucking at least for a few years. So if a guy trips and breaks his nose it's the same as if he were in a fight and got his nose broken because the result is the same?!!! In the game that Goodspeak referred to, Rivera made a bad throw and a bloop over a drawn-in infield was the game/series winning hit. How can anyone characterize that as an 'ass-kicking'? So, Mo NEVER got his ass kicked? Just playin' devil's advocate here. It's pretty easy to say, and as obvious as obvious gets in this day and age, that he will be called the best RP of all time. I've seen him pitch often enough; I know he's good. He's probably a first ballot hall of famer. Great. But, how would he have done if his talents weren't so specialized and focused on one inning dominance? Is he as good as Goose Gossage, for instance? Just asking. I know it's difficult to make comparisons from era to era, but there's nothing that states that all later era players surpass all earlier era players. I never said that, I said that in Game 7 of the 201 World Series, Rivera DID NOT get his 'ass kicked'. He made a bad throw on a bunt, which was the key play that doomed the Yanks. The D-backs, to their credit, took advantage of it. If he got his ass kicked that time, wouldn't there be a bunch of hard hit balls? He hurt himself severely with the bad throw, there's no way anyone who understands English would call that an ass kicking. I teach English and Speech. Mariano got his ass kicked. Blaming it on a bad throw is, IMHO, a justification for a piss poor outing wherein he couldn't get anybody out. The D-Backs pounced on him and delivered good old fashioned beat down. The guy didn't finish the game. He fell apart.He was relieved by another guy. Yankees lost the WS and after leading 3 games to none. Now if you want to call it something else, feel free. But that was an ass kicking if I ever saw one. The score and on the field play are secondary to that. Having said that, I still say he is one of the best closers the game has ever seen.

he didn't get his ass kicked by the D-Backs, he made a bad throw on a bunt and a bloop over a drawn-in infield won the game for the D-Backs. The outcome was the same; that's all that matters. The Yankees have managed to avoid the natural order and cycle of things in baseball for far too long. Hopefully, they'll be paying for that over the next several years. They now appear even more mismatched than the Knicks, so I'm guessing that they will be sucking at least for a few years. So if a guy trips and breaks his nose it's the same as if he were in a fight and got his nose broken because the result is the same?!!! In the game that Goodspeak referred to, Rivera made a bad throw and a bloop over a drawn-in infield was the game/series winning hit. How can anyone characterize that as an 'ass-kicking'? Depends on your definition, apparently. Here's one of the best closers in MLB history and he came apart in the WS in the SEVENTH game to lose in a series the Yankees clearly controlled at one point. Now, if that isn't an ass kicking, I don't know what is. The BoSox busted his chops in the post season, too.

He also got his ass kicked by the D'Backs in the World Series and the BoSox in the ALCS. It was AWESOME!

So, that's where you've been! Congrats on the new book, Pete

Harry E. JohnsonHarry F. Byrd Harry G. BroadmanHarry Conick Harry Belafonte Harry Morgan

Years ago, I had a cat who would tolerate car rides. Just so long as she got pet and scratched behind the ears every so often. She was a "nose nudger", too. I still miss her.

I would have to get a house with a bigger yard and, TBH, I would only get a dog after I retire. We're always so busy or gone a lot and the dog would suffer for it. Our cats, OTOH, do just fine.

Sounds like every Yankees fan I ever knew.

Great place...glad I'm here