biittner77

One of the greatest moments in gambling history If such a book/website existed that listed the story of all the crazy late game covers/no covers in sports history I'd totally read it Chris Duhon's meaningless buzzer-beating 3 to cover in the Duke/UConn Final 4 game in 2004 would have to be the cover of that one. Leon Lett getting stripped on the 1 yard line kept the Cowboys from covering in that Super Bowl IIRC. Considering the absurd amount of betting involved in any super Bowl that would probably be it for me. Speaking of the Cowboys and the Super Bowl, Neil O'Donnell's late interception cost the Steelers a chance to kick a spread covering field goal in that game too. They were also 1 point short of the over/under.

One of the greatest moments in gambling history

Brenly was boring, old timey and I won't miss him at all. The nicest thing that can be said about Brenly was that he wasn't actively annoying except when he was ragging on Ramirez and Soriano for their "lack of effort". 99% of baseball former player type announcers are awful, Brenly included. The sooner you learn to tune them out completely the happier you'll be.

What this thread needs is a 3 way trade proposal where the Cubs trade Soriano and wind up with Mike Trout. In all seriousness though, the Yankees are going to have to pay the rest of ARod's contract regardless so them eating the money is a non issue. Arod won't be playing in 3 years anyway. Trading Soriano makes sense for the Cubs since Arod + whoever they get in LF is still likely better than Soriano + whoever plays 3rd. There's also the opportunity that, if Arod is already paid for, he could be moved at the deadline to a contender.

Or it means that the owners blinked and Fehr will adivse them to hold out even longer. I can't even remember what the Union's last proposal was. The union is saying that a 50/50 split would cost them something like 1.6 billion over the course of the deal. 54/46 should get a deal done though. That's both sides meeting in the middle

Michael Brenly to the booth would be better than some of the options mentioned so far, except maybe Karros. How about Adam Greenberg? He could regale us with tales of both plate appearances.

By then they'll be ready to sign one. I get it. You're not a fan of what the apparent plan is. Well, I'm not a fan of any results we've had in my lifetime. So, if the smartest group we've ever had running the team(as good of an FO as any in MLB) wants to go about it this way, I'm fine with it. Because I think they're just a wee bit smarter than anyone thats here. Not to mention, they have never even put a timetable on anything. Will we make the playoffs in 2013? I'd give it about the same chance as the Lakers winning the Super Bowl. But after that? Who knows? Not me. And not you either. I appreciate this line of thinking and don't entirely disagree. However, the current management team have never built a team from the ground up like they are trying to do now. Also, the only thing that tanking a season or 3 guarantees is being bad for a season or 3. No one can know that it will fail but such plans have failed more often than they've worked. The Cubs are in a unique situation that they will be able to spend to keep their good players once (or maybe if) they've developed them. That assumes that the Ricketts will be willing to spend what it takes. Whether they will is certainly debatable.

I don't see why you think people have trouble separating the two. He was able to hide what an Ahole he was in the 80's (although in retrospect you realize what Harry always teased him about) but now he can't. I don't really pay much attention to Steve Stone and haven't since he left. The fact that he's an [expletive] now doesn't bother me. It seems like a lot of people can only think of Steve Stone as the bitter DB he's become and that negates that he was once an entertaining color commentator.

I loved him when I was a kid. Then I realized what he was all about after I grew up. I hated Harry Caray so I always enjoyed the Steve Stone, DeWayne Staats part of the broadcast. I liked Stone until he left. Ever since then he's been pretty brutal. I guess a lot of people have trouble separating the two. I still remember the camera crew spotting a fat guy in the stands and Steve Stone saying "There's the president of the John McSherry fan club".

And stupid point number 2. That's just dumb fandom right there. You'd gladly sit through 3 more years of sucking? That's absurd. Show me a team in the playoffs who didn't have to suffer through 4 100 loss seasons before becoming good. Kansas City. Just look at all them stars they developed by being bad all of those years.

grade would be a B+ if he had left Vitters in Iowa until Sept. That move counts against him since he was the one that lobbied for it. C+ and I 'm being generous.

The pass rush was there. Romo is just Neo when it comes to getting sacked. You could argue that the pass rush forced 3 of the turnovers by collapsing the pocket around Romo and forcing him to throw under duress. They certainly caused Briggs' interception/ fumble recovery and that was pretty much the tipping point of the game.

In other hockey news, my daughter's field hockey team won again today to move into first place. In other field hockey news, at school they gave her #19 which is awesome since I already call her Captain Serious

I can understand Greenberg wanting to get this chance but why are the Marlins doing this? Is the publicity really worth it? Will this change anyone's perception of who they are as a franchise in a positive way? If you're the opposing pitcher, do you serve up a fat pitch that he can drive or do you approach him the way you would any other hitter? I can't imagine they'd let Greenberg do this in a game against a contender.

Shouldn't it matter that Hak-Ju Lee isn't any good? Mere details.

I think anything with Castro is competitive. But McNutt is worthless, Jackson's value is at an all-time low and Vogelbach probably doesn't have a lot of trade value right now. If the Cubs are giving an all star SS, the throw ins should be pretty much just that- guys that could have value but there is a degree of risk. As for Vogelbach, by the time he could be traded, he may have already increased his value substantially. Scouts are saying his bat is for real. A team where he project as a DH would value him higher than one that wants to see if he can play an acceptable 1st base.

They are wrong - it hardly gets any notice outside of the UK. Maybe they meant non soccer sporting event. Even then I'd guess Rugby would still be more popular than golf.

Let's trade Castro for Price and make them throw in Lee. If the Cubs were willing to put Barney at SS that would probably be the only way they could put together a package to get Price. How do people feel about Castro, Jackson, McNutt and Vogelbig as the PTBNL for Price? Is that package even competitive?

the latter is very much how i feel about all the post-season awards. if you're looking to trade the guy, they're great, but if you want to keep him, they probably only make him marginally more expensive. I'm not sure how much stock GMs put in gold glove awards. They're mostly won on reputation. I'd hope most GMs would know better than to think it meant anything. I suppose it probably is a nice selling point to the fans and media though. In this case, it might bolster a reputation that's pretty new and not out there as much yet. Gets his name out more. Barney was a great defender last year too, and I'm not sure that many people were aware of it. That's true. Though I'd rather they market him as a potential SS where his bat plays a lot better.

the latter is very much how i feel about all the post-season awards. if you're looking to trade the guy, they're great, but if you want to keep him, they probably only make him marginally more expensive. I'm not sure how much stock GMs put in gold glove awards. They're mostly won on reputation. I'd hope most GMs would know better than to think it meant anything. I suppose it probably is a nice selling point to the fans and media though.

Regardless of any "plans" to tank the season, I find it hard to accept the idea that CF is Jackson's job to lose. If they're not trying to win, they already have other options in CF and could easily afford to start him at AAA to see if he's made any progress on the contact front. What do they do with Jackson over the Winter? Does he play in a winter league? Would it be too humiliating to send him to AZ?

3rd base has always been a harder postion to fill though.

On that note, has Soriano played his way into having actual value? At the beginning of the season, teams were willing to take him for free. Moving forward, is an offseason trade at all likely?

Not likely, unfortunately. Public opinion is firmly on the side of the players and it will be easy for them to sit out training camp/ preseason since they don't get paid for that time period anyway. It's hard to know what the owners are thinking since they aren't allowed to talk to the media but I'd guess that the one's that are making money aren't interested in fixing the profit sharing scheme to subsidize the crappy franchises if they think that they can get the players to take a pay cut. Looking at what happened in the NFL and NBA the owners eventually got the players to agree to less money but it took weeks/ months rather than days. Yeah I really just don't get the owners' position. The players caved big time in the last lockout. The owners got their cap. Revenue has gone through the roof in the last few years, and now the owners come back and claim the players are taking too much. When it's them, the owners, giving out dumb-assed contracts to guys like Matt Carle and Evander Kane. What the owners need is a slightly lower cap on both ends. MArginal players are getting $3 million per of a regualr basis. That suggests that the current system needs a lower cap floor so that the cheap teams don't have to artificially overpay to meet it. One thing the owners I believe are underestimating, is that the players probably have more money to wait out the lockout and are better organized/ informed than last time. I think the solution is going to have to be some sort of luxury tax like they have in baseball that allows the big spenders to spend while subsidizing the smaller markets/ poorly run teams.

Not likely, unfortunately. Public opinion is firmly on the side of the players and it will be easy for them to sit out training camp/ preseason since they don't get paid for that time period anyway. It's hard to know what the owners are thinking since they aren't allowed to talk to the media but I'd guess that the one's that are making money aren't interested in fixing the profit sharing scheme to subsidize the crappy franchises if they think that they can get the players to take a pay cut. Looking at what happened in the NFL and NBA the owners eventually got the players to agree to less money but it took weeks/ months rather than days.