BleedCubbieBlue81

Team Stats & Scoring 1. Number of Cubs wins, 2010 - 82 2. Number of Cubs wins, Cardinals season series (15 games) - 6 3. Number of runs scored, 2010 - 770 4. Number of runs allowed, 2010 - 744 5. Final Placement in the NL Central Division - 2nd Total Possible Team Stat Points: 1300 Player Stats & Scoring 1. Number of Aramis Ramirez Home Runs - 26 2. Number of Soriano Games Played - 140 3. Ryan Theriot's Games Batting Leadoff - 93 4. Geovany Soto's Batting Average - .271 5. Carlos Silva's Starts - 17 6. Randy Wells' ERA - 4.03 7. Carlos Zambrano's Ks - 181 8. Carlos Marmol's Saves - 27 Total Number of Possible Player Stat Points: 400 Bonus Questions I (20 points each) 1. Which will be higher: Soriano's RBIs or Soto's RBIs? - Soriano 2. Which will be higher: Ted Lilly's starts 2009 (27) or Ted Lilly starts 2010? - 2009 3. Which will be higher: Jeff Baker's at-bats or Mike Fontenot's at-bats? - Baker 4. Who will have more HRs: Zambrano or Theriot? - Zambrano 5. Who will have more wins: Wells or Dempster? - Dempster 6. Who will have a higher OBP: Byrd or Soriano? - Byrd Total Possible MC Bonus Question Points: 180 Bonus Questions II (30 points each) 1. Most HRs: Derrek Lee 2. Highest OBP (min. 400 ABs): - Kosuke Fukudome 3. Lowest ERA (min. 150 IPs): - Ryan Dempster 4. Most Quality Starts: - Carlos Zambrano Total Possible Bonus II Question Points: 120 Total Possible Points: 2000 The Annual Tiebreaker: Date of Lou Piniella's First Ejection (you may answer "never") May 7th

So I'm the new GM of the Cubs and I have a 145 million dollar budget. What are my realistic plans for the offseason? That's easy... Two chicks at the same time.

To be fair, Buerhle has spouted off in the past a few times, but he's in no way taking after Ozzie. Buerhle has more conspiracy theories than the general babbling nonsense that comes out of Ozzie. (accusing the Rangers of tipping pitches with elaborate lights in the outfield/ accusing Greg Maddux of cheating, etc.)

It's college, but Rhode Island School of Design deserves at least some recognition. The hockey team's mascot: The Nads. The basketball team: The Balls Here's a pic of "Scrotie", the mascot that appears at athletic events.

These are some pretty big names on that list: Carlos Beltran Jose Reyes David Wright Carlos Delgado Johan Santana J.J. Putz John Maine Frenchy Etc. Etc. Omar Minaya obviously did something to anger the baseball gods. The fact that they can even field a team right now without the dugout collapsing on them is astounding.

Wow, that made my ears hurt.

Yeah, I remember back in college there were signs hanging outside the training room that said, "No Red Bull. You will test positive."

jeez, is there anyway that he's actually clean? i dunno, michael johnson was just as dominant during his time, and i don't recall people seriously questioning him. That was back when Ben Johnson was really the only major track athlete to be caught taking anything. It wasn't until a few years later that all the sprinters started dropping like flies. People are a lot more suspicious after that happened.

At least it's not going to his head.

19.19? Jesus that's fast. Crawford and Spearmon actually ran pretty good races and got destroyed. That's an enormous margin of victory for a meet of this level. I'm curious what he could've run had Gay been in the race possibly pushing him.

Yeah, he hasn't had much success in the 100. He has an opportunity to be the most celebrated Athlete of the early 21st century with a win in the 100, 200 and 400 no man has ever won all three. I personally would like to see him do that and throw down the challenge to the Americans to step up their game in the 400, which we dominate, then take him to the cleaners, but it would be one great race to remember. I would be willing to pay superbowl price for that ticket If he were going to step up to the 400, I'd like to see him focus a year's worth of training on it first so we'd really get to see what he could do. I'm sure you know it's a slightly different type of training, and I'm curious how his body would respond. Then put him on the track against Merritt and Wariner and see who comes out on top. He has the pure speed to pull it off. But the 400 is a different beast that incorporates a lot more speed endurance. It doesn't look like we're going to get to see that Bolt vs. Gay final in the 200. I'm hearing Gay dropped out with a groin injury. (::Waits for witty pun about connection between his name and groin injury::)

Not all PED's are muscle building steroids. Drugs like EPO increase red blood cell production and improve the amount of oxygen that blood can carry to your muscles. For an endurance athlete, this is hugely beneficial.

This team is so inconsistent it's amazing. I could see them winning the Dodgers, Cards, and Giants series, and then losing every other one just because they're the Cubs.

I think the same could be said for track. It has it's niche audience as well. The audience obviously swells around Olympic time (same with swimming). But as far as driving people away, I don't think it would do too much. It'd be big news for a few weeks if he got caught, but the people who are willing to watch guys run around an oval are probably going to keep doing it if more big names get caught. It's a shame that we have to even ask the question of steroids in any sport, but unfortunately that's where we're at as a culture. If someone is head and shoulders better than everyone else at a sport, he or she is automatically under suspicion. I think the only one that is above suspicion is Tiger Woods.

I see your point. But do you think it'd be a big issue if Lance Armstrong was caught using something? Sure Armstrong has seven Tour de France wins. And Bolt is a huge athlete on the world stage right now with multiple Olympic gold medals, world records, and now a world championship with probably more to come, and he's only what, 21 years old?

Well when Michael Johnson broke the world record in the 200, there were people wondering the same thing. They thought he passed the threshold of what a human being should be able to do. They used to believe that your heart would fail at that speed. I don't think we'll ever see anyone go faster than 9.3 in the 100 or 19 seconds in the 200. But then again, they used to think the four minute mile was unattainable too.

Eh, I see it a different way. I see running, swimming, and wrestling to be the only real sports left. I consider the rest to be games. These are the only three sports that is just you and your body competing against other people and their bodies. No balls involved. No teammates to pass to when you're having a bad day. No learned skill like hitting a golfball. It's just natural ability and hard work. Just my opinion though. And it probably won't be a popular one on a baseball messageboard. But I've had this disagreement with many people before and found that it leads nowhere since people feel very differently about the sport. My whole point was that just because it's not as big here as the big four, doesn't mean that no one cares about it. And I also don't want to hijack the thread anymore. So back to Bolt. Anyone know when they're airing the 200 finals?

Certainly not dollars. But it's definitely high in participation and in popularity in other countries. All these smaller countries (especially in Africa) that can't afford the proper equipment or training for other sports end up running since it doesn't require money to get you started. Granted, in many of those cases it may be due to a lack of options, but it's still huge. Just look at the Olympics. You go to watch most of the basketball games and there were empty seats in the arenas that hold what, 25,000 people? But the track stadium with a capacity of 91,000 was basically filled to the brim. It may not be second (I forgot where I found that article, so I can't site it right now), but it's definitely up there. Look at the other options. Baseball isn't even an Olympic sport anymore. Basketball is big here and in Europe, but it gets most of it's attention here. Football is really only our thing. Cricket could probably beat it out. Up until a few years ago Cricket questions were on the forms to become a citizen of Australia. Hockey, mostly Canada.

People take track seriously? It's practice for real sports. Track is the second biggest sport in the world behind soccer. Just because America doesn't embrace it doesn't mean people don't follow it. It paid for my college education, so I still follow it when I can.

I honestly think 19.1 and change is not out of the question. He looked sharp out of the blocks and just opened up after his drive phase. 9.58 is just ridiculous though. Gay broke the American record and got beat pretty bad. I'm curious to see what Gay can do in the 200. He just PRed in the 100. He looks to be in incredible shape. i think gay can take him in the 200, he's taken him in the past. but that was before bolt mysteriously got way faster in a way short time frame. I hope he does. Bolt is too much of a showboat for my liking. I know he's just having fun. But there's a difference between having fun, and "excessive celebration". But yeah, I've had a weird feeling about the Jamaican sprinters since they stormed Beijing last year. They were always good, but the only one that anyone in the world really feared was Asafa Powell. But none of them have tested positive for anything, so I guess I have to give them the benefit of the doubt.

I don't think it'll last, but it's good for a lot of guys who are just on the outside of the NFL. It allows players to showcase their talents in an actual game scenario instead of a team tryout. So all those guys that just missed the cut for NFL teams out of college would have a chance to keep playing and possibly impress some of the NFL scouts enough to get a second look.

I don't think it'll happen, but I'd like to bring him back. Injury risk or not, I like Harden. I think in the end the Cubs will probably just offer arbitration, and Harden will sign elsewhere.

I honestly think 19.1 and change is not out of the question. He looked sharp out of the blocks and just opened up after his drive phase. 9.58 is just ridiculous though. Gay broke the American record and got beat pretty bad. I'm curious to see what Gay can do in the 200. He just PRed in the 100. He looks to be in incredible shape.

A lot of the fields I played on growing up weren't taken care of very well. Bad hops happened on almost every ball hit to the outfield. I always had a cup on. And it got used a few times thanks to a ball hitting a rock or a weird spot in the grass.

I saw a vid of the cab driver speaking and he claimed that he DID say that. Actually, it's the vid at the top of this page The witness who saw Kane doing it (and was the person who called the police) claims he was yelling that too. ("You don't know who you're $*&%ing with!!") But its like Banedon already said, even though they were in Buffalo which is basically Canada, 99% of the country still wouldn't recognize Kane.