jersey cubs fan

True enough, but the Angels have expressed interest in Nady and if you can land anything in excess of what you'd have to pay for Spilborghs then why not? I've always liked Spilborghs and so far this year he's been pretty good even against righties. Though Colvin desperately needs a platoon partner. Why does Colvin need a platoon partner? Isn't the idea to get him consistent at-bats and start several times a week now? He can't hit lefties.

I've been in and around NYC for 16 years now, and used to take a lot of cabs.

Does this result make that previous result a little less impressive? It seemed to me that Spain dominated for 50 minutes, but then things were even at best for them late.

Not really a fight. One cabbie took us from LGA to the upper west side via one of the lower manhattan tunnels or bridges, can't remember, when you should take the triboro bridge. It was normally a $14 ride and I'd give the guy $18. Well this one was nearly $20 more, not to mention twice as much time, and I kept asking why he was taking us that way. So when we arrived I gave my girlfriend her bag and told her to walk away. Then I took my bag, handed the guy $15 and said you fucked up, deal with it. He followed me to the building kept getting in my face screaming and yelling and I pushed him away. Another time a cabbie got into a virtual bumper car fight with another cabbie and I made him stop and got out without paying and he tried to fight me. Last week in San Diego on two seperate pedi-cab rides, another pedi-cab driver tried to fight our driver because he felt he stole his fare, and our guy escalated the second one so I hopped off. Most cabbies are great, but plenty of them are scum. One down the shore tried to molest a drunk girl I know. Regardless, there's a huge gulf between partying and trying to get laid and a [expletive] rapist. Nothing that we have seen Kane do is wrong, even if it looks embarrassing.

I'm not sure that's very likely. Wisconsin was once a crap team, but since the 90's they've been a steady force. And Iowa has had down years, but are regulary contenders and/or thorns in the sides of the elite teams. And Northwestern isn't much of a dreg. Illinois and Indiana are, but Northwestern competes. They probably would have won the big 12 north once or twice.

this is an exciting 1-0 game with actual action.

I'd bet Iowa and Wisconsin take turns beating them regularly, and Northwestern will win a few as well.

Seriously. God Americans are insufferable. This thread really doesn't need irrelevant personal opinions as to why soccer isn't popular in America -- especially considering the growth in popularity is palpable (and empirical) for anyone without blinders on. You don't like soccer. Fine, we get it. We just don't care. Now let us enjoy the World Cup. Now that's an insufferable answer.

what a turn of events

im sorry, but when was this? (not being sarcastis, im reading these posts a few hours after the game and cant exactly pinpoint when it happened over even for which team It wasn't the Cubs, unfortunately. I think it was when the A's scored their final run, and it was because the runner they had on first stopped immediately because the Cubs threw to first, so they had to tag that runner to get the 3rd out, which allowed their runner on 3rd to score before the tag was applied. So, like a normal double play situation that somebody made more difficult? Was it Theriot?

A guy who celebrates a Stanley Cup win by partying and hoping to score chicks doesn't equal rape monster. Seriously, that's some [expletive] crap coming out of you. Why is any white guy who has a good time a frat boy rapist? Well, I made it pretty clear that Kane stuck out in is behavior even compared to very young professional athletes, so I obviously wasn't declaring "any white guy who has a good time to be a frat boy rapist," you you go off and enjoy that insane tangent on your own. It's not my problem if you can't/won't wrap your head around obvious hyperbole. To me, there's a difference between a young athlete enjoying his fame and getting laid left and right as opposed to being such an obvious sleaze as Kane seems to revel in being coupled with the excessively stupid [expletive] he keeps showing that he loves to do with absolutely no thought to the consequences. As much as some people want to act like he's just a random 21-year-old, he's not. What is the excessively stupid [expletive] he keeps showing that he loves to do? Where are these consequences? Cameras are following him everywhere. We saw him shirtless in a limo a few months ago. He got in an altercation with a cabbie a year ago (I've been in a few of those, cabbies are scum) and now he's been drunk in a parade and laughing and smiling and dancing and talking about hoping chicks dig him. Where is the excessively stupid stuff? With all these cameras they should have caught something excessively stupid. Is he raping chicks in toilets? Is he surfing down a highway on a pickup truck? Talk about overly conservative.

Okay. well spain looks like they are boudn to score

Cutting Grabow wouldn't be the best of ideas. With more than a year left on his contract, he could very well pitch like he has the past couple of years and have some trade value. Indeed. He's been frustrating as hell this year, but right now I'm just hoping he's able to bounce back and pitch more along the lines of what he's shown consistently before this season. Was he consistently good before this season? I didn't think he was. Hasn't he been below replacement level a time or two?

A guy who celebrates a Stanley Cup win by partying and hoping to score chicks doesn't equal rape monster. Seriously, that's some dumbass crap coming out of you. Why is any white guy who has a good time a frat boy rapist?

The US isn't very good because the US doesn't care. Every kid plays soccer when he's 9, but nobody gives a crap about it by the time they are in high school. Many of my friends from out east played a lot more soccer than I did growing up, and none of them are the least bit interested in watching other people play it. They are die hard football fans, and basketball fans. There are a couple hockey fans, but none are futbol fans. Sure, if they have success more people will pay attention, but it's not as if past successes, which have happened, ever actually amounted to anything. There are just far too many other lucrative and enjoyable sports for the best American athletes to play for soccer to be huge here. Most countries that are good at it have it as one of maybe 2 or 3 big sports, if that. Some countries are better at some of our sports, but with football, baseball and basketball dominating the landscape, and second tier sports like hockey taking a fair amount of athletes, then a whole bunch of fringe sports like track, tennis, swimming, golf, skiing/snowboarding and lacrosse, it's tough to build enough interest in soccer to compete against countries whose best athletes play that sport.

Right because England and all the others are such gracious losers?

i don't think the voters could resist a fact like "3rd among switch hitters in career homeruns". plus he has the all star appearances, playoff appearances, and an mvp that voters love. i'd be shocked if he didn't make it easily on the first ballot. the only holdouts would be the "i'm not putting in anyone from the steroid era" morons. There are I'm not going to put in anyone from the steroid era morons, and, I'm not going to let anybody in on the first ballot morons. Put those two together, with a handful of he didn't hit enough HR or RBI guys and he will quite easily miss the first ballot. Writers love to use the power of the first ballot.

I thought the deal was part of the contract said they would not offer him arbitration after 4 years, effectively making him a free agent.

I'd like to think I'd at least be a little cool about and not sloppily stampeding around like a white trash monster constantly on the verge of date rape. How about when you were 21?

I'd say he is relative to what free agents have been getting the last few offseasons. Would he get a $13M/yr deal if he was a FA right now? If anything, he's slightly overpaid. As a longtime anti-OBP team that struggled to take walks and score runs for years until changing things up in 2008, it would be a real shame to deal their best OBP guy (with no replacement). And it just makes it worse that they have benched their other top OBP guy for a catcher that probably should be out of the game.

Best player on 15 year long dominant team. MVP, several appearances on MVP ballots, all star games, switched positions. I think there's plenty there for the media to latch onto besides traditional counting stats.

Whoever the Rod Woodson look-a-like commentator is just made a good point about the kazoos, it makes it impossible to hear crowd reactions/chants. I have been thinking that the crowds have been quite dull, but maybe it is just that those grade school fair trinkets have been drowning them out.

He just got one yesterday, how much rest do you think he could use?

What to do with Colvin is a tough decision. I can't believe Fukudome will have no trade value whatsoever at any point from now until the deadline next year. At some point, we'll be able to trade Fuku for something of value and I'd hate to force a trade now and get nothing in return. I'm not at all opposed to trading Fukudome and I think his value should be at a decent level right now, my main point earlier was to say we shouldn't dump him for nothing. If there's no market right now, there likely will be at some point – even if it's in the offseason or during next year. In the meantime, Colvin can either get experience at the ML level in a bench/platoon role or get ABs in AAA. Yeah, what to do with Colvin should not be the priority of this team. They have plenty of time to make a decision on him.

I'm not familiar with that one.