Careless

coughsteroidscough It probably also has something to do with the level of conditioning and medical attention that the players get now. The diagnosis and treatment of injuries has really improved over the last 50 or so years. That -- plus, it's a small sample size. Most of the guys in that earlier era played in incredible favorable conditions for offense. In addition, many of them weren't exactly lousy past 30 -- they just didn't get over 100 XBH at that age. Ruth was great past 30, Foxx won a Triple Crown at 30, Hornsby was amazing past 30, Musial was great in the '50s, Gehrig was great in his 30s until ALS cut him down. Greenberg also lost prime years to WWII. And the other guy in that group, Chuck Klein, played in the best hitters park in the league during the best offensive years the MLB has ever seen. (In 1930 the ENTIRE NL hit .303.) He was sort of the Helton of his time, except without the walks. I'm not saying steroids have nothing to do with the numbers of the past decade, just that most of those guys from the past weren't exactly washed up past their 20s. right plus that was back when baseball was so expanded that everyone was rushed up. no wait that is how it is now. Back then there were what 10 teams a league? A lot less jobs open then, so more guys would be in the minors longer trying to get jobs. exactly! there aren't many more people in this country plus millions of people in other countries trying to get into the majors now like there were then! People don't want to play baseball now like they did then because the money is crap!

Wife/girlfriend/female significant other of any type

Thank you. You think a guy making a couple million bucks a year might be able to take a little responsiblity. I'm all for a lifetime ban right off the bat. The reprocutions of steriods haven't been fully realized yet in my opinion. All the stories of kids taking steriods....... Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, and all the other stars that played with talent alone, yet being passed by cheaters in the record books........ My stack of Sammy, Barry, Raffy, and McGuire rookies which are now worthless......... Yeah, lets blame congress for being to hard on our heroes :roll: I don't see what you people have against a list making players aware of what they can take and what they can't. Trust me, this isn't just "Don't take anabolic steroids." There are plenty of things in suppliments and stuff that they could get busted for if they're not careful. I think baseball would be wise to at least inform all thier players in thier native tounge on paper of what banned substances are found in what. That way there is no excuse whatsoever. It reduces the amount of "Oh, well I didn't know that a banned substance was in this over-the-counter suppliment I took!" stories that we hear. And as to your second point..... If you have a hornets nest outside of your home, do you spray it with hornet killer or call an exterminator, or do you blow up your house? Both get rid of your hornet problem, but only one makes sense. I don't have a problem with making a list, but that isn't the solution. Zero Tolerance, period. Let's say a buddy of yours feeds you some "magic" brownies because he thought it'd be funny. If your employer drug tests you and you fail, will they say "Oh!! You didn't know you were taking it?, so don't worry about it". Professional athletes should be held to the same standard as the fans that pay their salaries. I understand your point and agree that players need to know what they can or can't take. If they feel the need to take a performance enhancing drug, it is the PLAYERS responsibility to make sure it is legal. And you wouldn't get a lifetime ban. Not even close. You'll likely take a salary knock if you're white collar, maybe hurt your promotion chances, etc, but you won't be unemployed forever. Your argument gets an F

Heck, you could probably find 50 minor league IFs who are better at fielding 2b than walker, and most of them you could get in a trade for almost nothing. That doesn't mean getting rid of walker for one of them would help the team, even though it might make the pitchers happy I trust the pitching staff's evaluation of what is important for winning baseball games even less than I trust Dusty's (wow, did I say that?) Dusty is at least supposed to know what wins in baseball. That should be his primary qualification, or at least one of 2.

Oh, so that's what "satire" means Santo sure is stupid for having medical problems. If only he'd known diabetes was a bad idea

As has been said enough times on this board that I'm sure you've seen it: he got the cubs offense so hot that they scored fewer runs with him around than without.

Ok, borowski was never one of the top 2 relievers in the game. that's true.

And as they show the final shots of wrigley, they play green day's "wake me up when september ends"... I feel that bitter laughter is appropriate here.

I love the "we're number 4!" chant

the guy with the "time to dust" sign should have been blunter. have the cubs had a pitchout with a pitcher other than maddux work this year?

hit and run?

How is that different from saying it's a fluke? Unless you're saying that the cubs either score a lot or very few runs at home while they're more consistent on the road and that other teams are more consistent here and at their home parks? Someone want to poke whoever it was (fred? bob?) who broke down runs/game last year so we can get stdev on cubs at home vs away and the numbers of our opponents?

neifi's record for hits in a season is 193 in 99. .280/.307/.403 on the season.

the espn article in question not getting his outfield practice in so he can talk with his friends, nice.

I'd say this thread is proof that the blamewgn has run it's course.

So the theory of evolution has not been forced on students in school? Say what you want about the evidence supporting it and what have you, but the fact remains that there are plenty of people that do not believe in evolution that have it thrown at them every day in school/college. There will always be things forced on others... that'll never change. They force the theory of gravity on kids at school, too. What a shame. How horrible when science classes teach science

The Tribune company has always had lots of money to spend. They care about making a profit, and would rather not pay $20M/year to one player. Yeah, if the trib owned the bulls they would have refused to go over $10 million a year on jordan The amount one player makes is completely irrelevant to the trib. they care about income and expenses. If paying $65 million a year for one player would definitely make the cubs a better team, it would happen. Well, they didn't refuse to spend $17 mil/year on Sosa. I'd hardly want to use real facts when the point of that sentence was falsehood

And this is why Dusty will return. Again, despite everyone's misgivings, Dusty has provided somewhat of a winner here. [/hijack] If by "provided" you mean "abused and damaged the winner he was given when he arrived", I agree with you.

The Tribune company has always had lots of money to spend. They care about making a profit, and would rather not pay $20M/year to one player. Yeah, if the trib owned the bulls they would have refused to go over $10 million a year on jordan The amount one player makes is completely irrelevant to the trib. they care about income and expenses. If paying $65 million a year for one player would definitely make the cubs a better team, it would happen.

:D Freaking yeah. I note that your sig has changed, though

at least we don't have to worry about the cubs going after a good pitcher who doesn't have a history of being an excellent closer that drives his salary through the roof

I can't be the only person who thinks that zambrano could have been an all-star playing several other positions. He's shown every indication that if he trained his hitting abilities as much as a position player, he would hit at an above average level.

would you be a nice compromise if it was rebuilt with the assurance from the locals that if it floods again the Fed. government is not remotely responsible for the cost of the repair? the feds just can't say that. People wouldn't stand for that suffering no matter how air-tight a "if you mve back heere and get hurricaned to death, we're not helping you" a contract got signed. It's a less likely scenario than how to manage dental care if magical fairies who distributed infinite amounts of hard candy popped up all over the ccountry.

We never do "force, we offer, but it is your choice, but we are still a country where the majority has the final say....or at least it use to be. If the majority had the final say, we'd still be a slave-holding nation. the feds have done a surprisingly good job at protecting minorities. The death of the christian religion in coinage and schools will be another step in that.

huh? maddux iss throwing at most 5% more slowly than he did at his peak. The base stealing thing isn't a result of a loss of pitching velocity.