Hey otter, did you watch the baseball game last night?

Larry Gude

Strung Out
I'd like to thank the Orioles...

...and MLB for making opening day less appealing than I ever thought possible.

First, we start off with the Yanks in Japan.

Then, we have the Orioles on Sunday night.

Opening day is the middle of the week, during the day. It is catching parts of the game on the radio wishing you'd gotten out of work to so you could be there.

It is a begining. Spring.

Sunday night implies the dire import of the NFL where every game is critical. That's not baseball until fall.

I'm sorry. Baseball is tradition and the stats and the novel like quality of a long season where your interest can wax and wane a bit as the season 'breathes'.

What next, the XFL and baseball merge?

Suspend Bonds and the others now and allow baseball the opportunity to heal or quit calling it baseball.
 

Penn

Dancing Up A Storm
Re: I'd like to thank the Orioles...

Originally posted by Larry Gude
...and MLB for making opening day less appealing than I ever thought possible.

First, we start off with the Yanks in Japan.

Then, we have the Orioles on Sunday night.

Opening day is the middle of the week, during the day. It is catching parts of the game on the radio wishing you'd gotten out of work to so you could be there.

It is a begining. Spring.

Sunday night implies the dire import of the NFL where every game is critical. That's not baseball until fall.

I'm sorry. Baseball is tradition and the stats and the novel like quality of a long season where your interest can wax and wane a bit as the season 'breathes'.

What next, the XFL and baseball merge?

Suspend Bonds and the others now and allow baseball the opportunity to heal or quit calling it baseball.

:confused: D@mn Larry, somebody pizz in your wheaties this morning?

Or was it that you couldn't get tickets to the game?
 

Larry Gude

Strung Out
Nope...

...I'm serious. I flipped the game on and had this 'what the hell is this?" reaction. It just seemed so out of place and wrong. Turned it off before the inning was over. The whole new lineup thing, which I was excited about as they built the team over the winter, went out the window.

You're a bigger fan than me. Did you like it?

The 'Wheaties ####ed on' is the whole Union/drug testing/who cares about competition owners thing.

They are telling me, as a fan, 'hey, look at he new paint job!' hoping I will ignore that the maintenace on the engine has been ignored. They're just letting the whole steriod thing fester.

I guess I see the best thing for baseball is letting it BE baseball.
People do get in trouble and the game goes on. The resilience of the game has always been an attraction. It used to be THE pastime. Now, it's filthy and they don't seem to give a damn because people will pay to see home run derby instead of baseball.
 

Penn

Dancing Up A Storm
Ok, I see where you're coming from on this. It all seemed out of place, and you're unhappy about the pace of this steriod testing/verification process is going.

I thought I read or saw on ESPN where one or two of the higher profile players wanted to come forward and have an independent test for steroids done on them to clear their names, but the MLPA Assn representative Donald Fehr vetoed that plan?

I think that would be a great step in the process of putting the steroids hubub behind Major League baseball.

I don't think I'm anymore of a bigger fan than the next person, but it is springtime , it's April and baseball is the game.

I was happy to see Pedro slip a little, especially after last fall's debacle at Yankee Stadium where he threw down Don Zimmer, and eventually lost the series to the Yanks.

Can you tell I'm not a Red Sox fan?
 

Otter

Nothing to see here
Originally posted by penncam
where he threw down Don Zimmer

Would you get off that, Penn..geez, Pedro stepped to the side like a matador and Zimmer stumbled and went down..Lucky for Pedro cuz Zimmer would have kicked his azz.

And I state again, for the record. The Yankees will not make the playoffs, they have no pitching.



I thought I read or saw on ESPN where one or two of the higher profile players wanted to come forward and have an independent test for steroids done on them to clear their names, but the MLPA Assn representative Donald Fehr vetoed that plan?

Why wouldn't Fehr veto that?? Solidarity is the name of the game with unions. The unions aren't the least bit concerned about the "good" of the game, their concerns lie with their union members.
 

Penn

Dancing Up A Storm
Originally posted by otter
And I state again, for the record. The Yankees will not make the playoffs, they have no pitching.
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We'll see, there's still about a hundred and sixty more games to play.
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Why wouldn't Fehr veto that?? Solidarity is the name of the game with unions. The unions aren't the least bit concerned about the "good" of the game, their concerns lie with their union members.
Screw the unions. If it's gotten so big and powerful that it prevents some of these rumored players from coming forward and putting the controversy, at least as far as they are concerned to rest, then circumvent it.

A player ought to have that right to say "Here, I'll take a drug test, I'm clean, so all you supposed experts can kiss the part of me where the sun don't shine".

But maybe I'm wrong and it ain't that easy, but if I were the focus of the finger-pointing, and I was clean, I'd want to clear my name.
 

Larry Gude

Strung Out
The union...

...told A Rod what he could and couldn't take in a contract!!!

That tells us all we need to know about baseball.

He should be a Red Sox right now and I hate them.
 

Penn

Dancing Up A Storm
Re: The union...

Originally posted by Larry Gude
...told A Rod what he could and couldn't take in a contract!!!

That tells us all we need to know about baseball.

He should be a Red Sox right now and I hate them.
:confused: The Red Sox or Baseball?

There were a few stories circulating about the A-rod non-trade to Boston and the one to the Yankees: Peter Gammons was saying that Boston wouldn't fork over a few more million dollars over the lifespan of the contract/trade years, and it cost them.

There was also talk about either Garciaparra or Ramirez going to the Rangers as part of the deal, and apparently A-rod wanted some special "perks" included in the trade contract, too much for Boston to accept, but bottom line, it didn't get done.

Any one, or a combination of these, plus maybe some more that weren't leaked to the public could have doomed the trade.

One thing is for sure; G. Steinbrenner wants to field a winning team. He craves it like it's an obsession. Of course, having the $$$ to go out and get a player of A-rod's caliber, when he'd lost his starting third-baseman, helps too.

And don't think he didn't take special delight in rubbing the nose of Boston's GM in horsemanure, when he went to the news media crying "foul" on the trade for A-rod to the Yankees.

Part of me feels Steinbrenner is a nasty bastage, with whom I wouldn't want to know, and the other says he's crafty as hell, and is further reveling in perpetuating the myth of the Beantown Curse, loving the heated rivalry between the two clubs, and milking it for all it's worth.
 
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