Illini Iceman

Hawks have two games in hand though. To win the Cup the Hawks will have to go thru two of (STL,NSH, WPG) in the first two rounds anyway. Not really worried what spot it they end up in. Really did not matter much last year. Dumb question, but if the Hawks finish 4th and get the 1st WC spot, would they automatically play the division winner with the worst record, or would they try to match them up to their divison if possible? Hypothetical scenario to explain: C1 Nashville 110 C2 St Louis 108 C3 Winnipeg 105 WC1 Chicago 104 P1 Anaheim 109 P2 San Jose 106 P3 Vancouver 99 WC2 LA Kings 98 Do the Blackhawks play Anaheim and play in the Pacific bracket with the Kings moving over to play Nashville, or would they keep the divisions the same since one from each division won the WCs? WC1 would play Anaheim then stay in the Pacific bracket if they won their first round series.

Agree wholeheartedly. What a prize that'd be. Fangio as DC and Gase as OC would be nice.

I guess Piazza will probably get in next year since Griffey is the only big name first year guy. At least Darin Erstad can say he got one vote... Votes Player Percentage 534 Randy Johnson 97.3% 500 Pedro Martinez 91.1% 455 John Smoltz 82.9% 454 Craig Biggio 82.7% 384 Mike Piazza 69.9% 306 Jeff Bagwell 55.7% 302 Tim Raines 55.0% 215 Curt Schilling 39.2% 206 Roger Clemens 37.5% 202 Barry Bonds 36.8% 166 Lee Smith 30.2% 148 Edgar Martinez 27.0% 138 Alan Trammell 25.1% 135 Mike Mussina 24.6% 77 Jeff Kent 14.0% 71 Fred McGriff 12.9% 65 Larry Walker 11.8% 64 Gary Sheffield 11.7% 55 Mark McGwire 10.0% 50 Don Mattingly 9.1% 36 Sammy Sosa 6.6% 30 Nomar Garciaparra 5.5% 21 Carlos Delgado 3.8% 4 Troy Percival 0.7% 2 Aaron Boone 0.4% 2 Tom Gordon 0.4% 1 Darin Erstad 0.2% 0 Rich Aurilia 0.0% 0 Tony Clark 0.0% 0 Jermaine Dye 0.0% 0 Cliff Floyd 0.0% 0 Brian Giles 0.0% 0 Eddie Guardado 0.0% 0 Jason Schmidt 0.0%

Curtain call after a solo homer in the 3rd inning. OK.....

Gut punch

Nice AB

Or that Yost couldn't bear to leave his ace in more than 5 innings because he gave up a broken bat hit and walk. Supposedly one of the main reasons they gave up so much to get Shields is his post season experience and the first time they get a chance to use it the manager pulls him because he has two runners on base with a one run lead just so he can bring in a rookie that hasn't pitched out of the bullpen all season.

Because we're not 5. That makes no sense Don't mind him, he's a robot. I am too, though, so I agree with him. Rooting against the Pirates is dumb. There's just no rivalry. Same when the Astros were lumped in to the NL Central; I'm a big fan of actual regional rivals, so these teams from Texas and Pennsylvania basically just felt like they were coming from a different division to begin with and were only in the Cubs' because they had no place else to go. They really belong in one of the east leagues. I don't really feel like there is a huge rivalry with them but you realize the Cubs were in the NL East with the Pirates for a long time, right? The Mets are also from the east also but clearly the Cubs historically had a pretty big divisional rivalry with them for quite a while since they were both in the same division until the third division was added.

Way to over manage Yost.

Additionally, look where the second baseman was playing, for a guy with Jeter's opposite field tendencies. Buck Showalter knows the score. I can't imagine Buck Showalter would throw away a game just for the Legend of Jeter, but I watched the game on YES and from the shot they showed the 2B was really close to 2B and the SS was not even in the picture which means he was closer to 3B than 2B. Just seems really odd to play Jeter that way and then put a fastball on the outer half... Edit: To be fair his spray chart is not so exaggerated for http://www.fangraphs.com/spraycharts.aspx?playerid=826&position=SS&type=battedball The orioles still had/have a shot for home field, they weren't throwing any games. It is generally accepted that if you play shifts on defense your pitcher / catcher do not adjust their pitch selection to account for the shifts. The fact that it was a fastball on the outer half has nothing to do with the shift. You pitch the batter as you normally would and assume he will hit to his normal tendencies. It would have been a nice moment if everything about leading up to it had not been so overblown. Stuff like this article is just madness. http://bigstory.ap.org/article/f6ea076eec3b479f881e573ffb9b1dd2/could-jeter-be-first-perfect-hall-vote I mean the guy never even won an MVP and now he deserves to be the first unanimous selection to the HOF?

Illinois football is a complete joke. But hey, Beckman went 21-16 in three years as head coach at Toledo so with a resume like that who would have thought he wouldn't succeed in the Big 10. That Military Bowl victory over Air Force was epic.

http://deadspin.com/jay-cutler-is-a-goofy-press-conference-sidekick-1634823360 A little taste of some classic Cutler.

http://deadspin.com/jonathan-papelbon-ejected-for-grabbing-crotch-at-booing-1634651203/all It is really hard to take a side between Papelbon and West since they are both pretty much wastes of good air. What did West think he was accomplishing by ejecting him other than to draw attention to himself. Not like Papelbon was coming back in the game anyway. West continuing to be allowed to umpire with his long history of asshat behavior combined with consistently terrible calls is an embarrassment to the sport. I also don't like Papelbon but he couldn't have made the gesture to more deserving fans.

Rondon has been one of the best acquisitions the front office has made in this rebuild.

Robo-Hendricks will make the necessary adjustments.

Some day Hendricks is really going to lose control of his emotions and go crazy with a fist pump or something.

C.U.B.I.I.I. ??? Must have done too many drugs with the Rolling Stones on that tour.

Starlin better tape up that ankle soon or he may be getting a visit for Theo suggesting he work on learning second base over the winter. Baez looks smooth out there.

Who even thinks to put in a rule like that?

The Cardinals would have at most 3 runs in this game if our defense wasn't playing like complete crap.

This clown of a head coach needs to be fired and probably also the AD that was dumb enough to hire him. I can't believe the level to which U of I football has dropped - complete embarrassment.

Even Joe West is jumping on the bandwagon.

That's our light hitting CF bitches.

This can't be real.

Suck it Cardinals. Prepare yourself now for a lot of second place finishes.