biittner77

I can't believe someone else has played Johnny Tackle! That was our tackling drill of choice in freshman football. It was so much fun. We used to have recess in a big parking lot. In winter when it snowed enough we'd have almost the entire 6th, 7th and 8th grades out there. When someone yelled "Johnny" it was like a thundering herd.

Pardon the expression, but if its anything like "Smear the Queer", then yes. (Basically, a kid runs around with a ball until he gets flattened. The ball is then tossed up in the air and the process begins again. Sometimes it involved teams a la rugby; however, sometimes is was twenty against one.) Funny, that's what my friends from the suburbs called it but there was no ball involved. We did play a game called "spud" that involved a ball but no tackling.

No, but could you hum a few bars?? :P I'm pretty sure this game never made it to the suburbs- at least none of my friends in college ever had heard of it. Johnny tackle was like it except that instead of tagging someone you had to tackle them. That person then would also be "it" with you and the two of you would try to tackle everyone else. When someone yelled "Johnny" everyone had to run to the other side of the field/ parking lot. The last guy to get tackled won.

I can't believ running bases was so popular! Have any of you ever played "Johnny Tackle"?

We used to call it "running bases". Not the most original name, I know. We'd have more than one baserunner. We'd have about 5-6 kids (really anyone that wanted to) and we'd use squares of the sidewalk as large bases. The two guys throwing the ball would sometimes lob it to try to entice one of the would be base stealers to run. If the ball got away from someone we'd run as many bases as possible until the guy got the ball and threw it back.

It isn't there as often as it used to be but several MLB stadiums used to have signs that said "No Pepper" or "No Pepper games". Two weeks ago I went to see our local minor league team- The Shorebirds(Orioles Low A). The Hagerstown players were playing Pepper along the right field line. I've been watching baseball for 30 years and this is the first time I've ever seen anyone playing pepper. Which got me thinking: 1 Why/ when was pepper banned? 2 Has anyone here ever played pepper? 3 What percentage of fans even know what pepper is?

What ever happened to Termel Sledge? Outside from having an awesome name I thought he looked good against the Cubs last year.

Well that's one way to boost his OBP. If he got HBP once a game to go along with that single he hits every other day we'd be in business.

Never heard of him. :P I think his first name is Da Rake or D'Rake. He's OK.

That's my guess too. LF at Wrigley can be a challenge, but so can CF, what with being careful with the wall. I'd rather have Hairston in LF than Hollandsworth or Dubois. If LF is too hard for Hairston to learn than I guess it's safe to say that he won't get any starts at SS as some have suggested recently. Funny, I thought LF was supposed to be the 2nd easiest position to play after 1st base. Hairston's speed in LF would probably make up for his lack of experience.

Suppose the Cubs did decide to rebuild and make some big changes. Who do they have to trade and what could they get? Keepers Wood, Prior, Zambrano,Williams Wuertz, Ohman, Dempster, Novoa Ramirez, Lee, Barrett, Cedeno Players that are difficult/ not worth trading: Maddux- has no trade rights plus that vesting option. Patterson- value at an all time low Macias- does anyone besides Baker like this guy? Hollandsworth- how much would teams pay for a 4th OF/ PH? Dubois- hard to get much value for him at this point Value to contenders Walker- provides power from a defense first position Hairston- can lead off Remlinger- there has to be a team desparate enough Rusch- could be very attractive Perez- he's versatile and has shown he can fill in. He'd be a good role player on a team that didn't need him to start Value to cellar dwellers Mitre, Wellemeyer , Dubois Have to keep either Hairston or Walker. That leaves Rusch and Walker as the best firesale type trading chips.

I'd rather trade Wood than Zambrano. I meant to put this in the original post. Trading Wood is problematic due to his no trade clause and his history of injuries. It would be nearly impossible to get full value for Wood but much easier in the case of Zambrano. I should also point out that I wouldn't trade either of them.

I think Hendry and Baker are on the same page. They both like experienced, aggressive hitters and hard throwing pitchers. They both want to win but are very traditional in their thinking. Both overvalue batting average and tend to overlook OBP. Consider this evidence: Hendry trades for Randall Simon to replace Hee Sop Choi- a player that Baker agreed was not aggressive enough. Hendry signs Burnitz to play RF and defends him by saying that he was 5th best at (something) among players that struck out a lot. Hendry and Baker are very much on the same page. Unfortunately most of us- and a good portion of the league- have already read that book and didn't like how it ended. Nothing will chnage unless 1 of these 2 things happens. Hendry pulls off a deal to bring in 2 hitters that represent sizeable upgrades over the incumbents or Hendry and Baker get fired and replaced by a new management team that value speed, defense and palyers that don't make as many outs.

I'd like to see that lineup too. However, maybe we'll see this instead: Hollandsworth Walker Lee Burnitz Ramirez Barrett Patterson Perez Maddux

You'd probably have to replace Mitre with Zambrano to make that trade happen. Or make it Ramirez only for Dempster and Mitre. The Sox *might* trade one or the other but not both unless it was for someone that they really liked. I've been hearing about Youlkis for 3 years now and I'm not even a Sox fan. Imagine how Red Sox nation would react. It would be like the Cubs trading Felix Pie. In any case it's hard to imagine the Cubs being sellers anyway. I don't believe it's a given that they will sign a closer in the offseason. Unless they want to see him closing games for the Red Sox, The Orioles should lock up Ryan soon. I'm not sure how much Wagner has left. Closers have a nasty habit of losing it pretty quickly. Unless they felt really good about one of their in house candidates- Novoa, Aardsma, etc. I don't see them moving Dempster. Rusch on the other hand I could see being traded provided that someone was willing to overpay for him. Anyone else the Cubs might consider trading nets very little in return.

Walker also hit the snot out of the ball...it was just one of those days for him. Hairston-Walker-Lee is definitely the best top of the order for this team. Brenly even made some comments about the bad decisions of Neifi and CPatt in the 1 and 2 spots (although I'm not sure he called them by name.) Bob said that putting higher OBP guys like Hairston and Walker in those spots would result in more than 100 more baserunners in the season. Better yet, those baserunners would be on for D Lee, ARam, and Burnitz to drive in. I know it's common sense, but it was refreshing to hear. Maybe Bob will get run out of town for offering a valid opinion. If the 2005 Cubs was the novel Animal Farm, Brenly would be Squealer "Dusty is always right" to Steve Stone's Snowball. As much as I like the Animal Farm reference, you gotta admit that Brenly, at least in the part you quoted, wasn't blindly praising or supporting Dusty. I only get the WGN games so it's a smaller sample but I've yet to hear Brenly say anything that in any way questioned any of Baker's moves. It seems like Brenly defends Dusty even if it's just saying "Dusty's just doing what he thinks will help the team win." which is true but a far cry from the openly critical Steve Stone. To be fair, Brenly is in a difficult position. Being a former manager it would be easy to become a threat in Baker's eyes. Also, he replaced a guy that got fired for speaking his mind. Brenly is smart enough to know why he was hired: to defend the field manager at all costs- especially when his moves defy logic.

The headline stealing, make a trade for a questionable player just to make the Cubs look bad by comparison, trade is becoming an annual event. Kenny Williams will be look like a genius for a couple weeks until Hendry makes his annual deadline deal. At which point no one will remember or care who the Sox got because no one cares about the Sox. I'd be very wary of bringing in Schmidt. The Sox would probably benefit more from adding a bat rathert than another starter.

Walker also hit the snot out of the ball...it was just one of those days for him. Hairston-Walker-Lee is definitely the best top of the order for this team. Brenly even made some comments about the bad decisions of Neifi and CPatt in the 1 and 2 spots (although I'm not sure he called them by name.) Bob said that putting higher OBP guys like Hairston and Walker in those spots would result in more than 100 more baserunners in the season. Better yet, those baserunners would be on for D Lee, ARam, and Burnitz to drive in. I know it's common sense, but it was refreshing to hear. Maybe Bob will get run out of town for offering a valid opinion. If the 2005 Cubs was the novel Animal Farm, Brenly would be Squealer "Dusty is always right" to Steve Stone's Snowball.

I don't believe Baker is too stupid to realize that Patterson and Perez are struggling. What Baker is doing is letting two veteran players try to hit their way out of prolonged slumps. From Baker's standpoint he doesn't have much choice. If he bats Walker 1 or 2 the back end of the lineup is pretty bad. If he benched Patterson he'd have to play Hairston whom he doesn't seem to like very much. The idea that Baker would throw Patterson out there to illustrate how much he needs a leadoff hitter seems far fetched. Hendry could rightly point out that Baker could play Hairston in CF and Cedeno at SS if he doesn't like his current starters.

When Adam Dunn signed the Declaration of Independence he didn't sign his name extra big. He just wrote it normal size for him because he's 13 feet tall. Or is that John Hancock?

Sounds like Baron Munchausen (?)

The Cubs have taken chances on much worse pitchers. Since he was released he is not subject to waiver claims right?

Hill was added to the 40-man when they released Crouthers. How could I possibly have forgotten Crouthers? :-k I suppose they have to save a space for Nomar's return. In any case, I'd guess that some of those spots will be kept open for some of the impending rule 5 casualties. If Hendry trades for an impact player he'll be sending more bodies than he receives so I don't see where having the extra spaces is that big of a deal.

Wrong thread? Im confused. stories about anyone elses fantasy team= cute things done by kids. Telling someone about your fantasy team is just like offering to show someone pictures of your kids. They'll listen politely so they can then return the favor. I wasn't trying to make a serious post about my fantasy team. I was just trying to be silly. Sheesh. Lighten up. Lighten up! Did Ward Lighten up on the Beaver?!? No, he did not. He was hard on the Beaver but he had to be! Otherwise he'd keep letting Whitey dupe him into getting stuck in giant coffee cups on billboards and then the fire department would have to come to get him down and the whole town was there to see how dumb he was and...... Sorry, nothing personal. I just hate fantasy leagues.

Haha boy, i sure did crack up the first 8 times you did this. I'll stop when they do.