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GhostRunner

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Everything posted by GhostRunner

  1. GhostRunner
    I don't know if I'd go as far as saying most, but a lot did.LOL...funny how that changed so quickly. :lol: Not to mention the folks that were absolutely, 100% convinced that Zambrano had an injured shoulder and that he was just gutting it out to start after start to keep his FA chances from diminishing. It just couldn't have been that he just needed to tweak his mechanics, as was suggested by others. Nope, no way. Fickle.
  2. GhostRunner
    Last I'd heard, Kobayashi wasn't competing because of a jaw injury. Being as Chestnut already broke Kobayashi's World Record earlier this year, the smart money seems to be on him. ESPN Does. :roll: Seriously, can't you guys lighten up and appreciate the spectacle for the sheer entertainment value of it? It's not as if ESPN portrays the hot dog eating contest on the same level as the World Series or Super Bowl. It's a tongue-in-cheek (pun intended) competition that only rolls around once a year, and it's all in good fun.
  3. GhostRunner
    Ezekiel 25:17: "The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who in the name of charity and goodwill shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy My brothers. And you will know My name is the Lord . . . when I lay my Neifury upon thee."
  4. GhostRunner
    You'd think Tony Gwynn could afford a proper-fitting suit.
  5. GhostRunner
    Prophetic! He could have used it with that bat-head helicopter that nearly took him out in the first.
  6. GhostRunner
    Enough! Get this joker out of there! :x
  7. GhostRunner
    Woot! Way to answer in the bottom half . . .
  8. GhostRunner
    In much the same way as the Zen aspect, baseball is knitted together with dichotomy - yin/yang balances, conflicts, and comparisons. It's a team game that relies on a team mentality, yet is punctuated by continual strings of solitary man-on-man confrontations. Its dramatic swings stretch beyond the length of the field itself, or concentrate just inches in front of the plate. Every player relies on his teammates to win but always contains within himself the ability to alter the game alone. It distills the action and excitement into short bursts, leaving the spaces in between silent and elevating the tension by allowing a fan to contemplate the possibilities. It's also mathematical harmony . . . twos, threes, fours, and nines. Squares, spheres, straight lines, curving arcs. It must be something like phi or Fibonacci, where the numbers and data of baseball resonate something primal in the mind. I hear a lot of people complain about how boring baseball is. I try to convince them that a lot of the attraction is in what lies beneath the surface, and in the anticipation. "Boring" is subjective, but it's true that you need patience to be a baseball fan. Those who love and follow the game are well aware that having it rewards us more richly than immediate gratification ever could.
  9. GhostRunner
    WGN does a nice job with the musical montages. They get me emotional every time. The Finger Eleven "One Thing" montage just crushed me. I can't hear the song anymore without reliving the pain of '04.
  10. GhostRunner
    Ah, so there's the fan that broke Farnsworth's toe.
  11. GhostRunner
    Mmm . . . pickled mitts.
  12. GhostRunner
    This reminds me of Cubs fans mocking the Braves at Wrigley during the '03 NLDS.
  13. GhostRunner
    133 users online . . . wonder how many just logged on?
  14. GhostRunner
    Apparently, Gallagher's dad helped NSBB scoop everyone in the media.
  15. GhostRunner
    NSBB shout-out!!!
  16. GhostRunner
    Wonder if he could have scored if his hammy wasn't acting up . . .
  17. GhostRunner
    So much hope . . . healthy Prior/Wood, Clement-beards, "In Dusty We Trusty." . . . What could have been, indeed. :cry:
  18. GhostRunner
    ](*,) Why are you asking me? The posters here talking about things like potential TJS would be better suited to answer that. Could the Cubs trade Z if he was hurt? No, probably not - and if he's on the DL, then it's moot, 'cause he can't be traded at all. Not to say that there hasn't been a pitcher dealt just to turn around and get injured shortly thereafter . . . Most people here who are claiming injury and calling for a trade and/or a pass on re-signing Z are caught up in PAP and x-ray vision, and are hoping the Cubs ship Zambrano out for something before he's potentially worth nothing - which is what the Cubs would get in return for him if he does go down for an extended period. There's certainly an element of logic in that thinking, but only if the situation as it currently stands involves things such as missed starts, markedly reduced pitch velocity, decreased pitch counts, etc - none of which are the case. Mechanics issues don't always mean a pitcher's injured, although they could lead to that if the problems don't get fixed. I'm just taking a stance against knee-jerk reactions, way too much the norm around here. Backtobanks' post summed it up quite nicely.
  19. GhostRunner
    Sensitive much? You seem to not be in touch with the "sky is falling" mentality that this place exudes . . . I never claimed that all NSBB posters are advocating trading Z because of (potential?) injury, but a great number posting in this thread, and on this board, clearly are. You're the exception? That's wonderful! My recently-posted comments don't and never did apply to you. I'll just put together a different list of reasons as to why trading a 110%-healthy Zambrano would be a bad idea as well . . .
  20. GhostRunner
    "Problem corrected"? "Back to form"? "Stuff looks good"? Doesn't Rothschild and Piniella realize that NSBB posters have already declared Zambrano to be clearly-injured, trade-bait material? Quit tweaking his delivery and ship him off to the Yankees already! :P
  21. GhostRunner
    I just don't follow the injury reasoning. Maybe, possibly, there's the remote chance that something's wrong with his arm. But if that is the case, then at the moment it's clearly not apparent to either Z, Rothschild, Piniella, Hendry or anyone else. Evidence? They keep throwing him out there for each start. Pitch counts so far this year? 92, 109, 87, 113, 103, 113, 105, 117. Even the biggest brahma of the bulls isn't going to throw those totals if he's pitching with pain. Wouldn't Rothschild or Piniella have the inside track on determining the problem? They haven't opted to sit Z once this season. If he winds up going down with an arm problem, then they both deserve to get skewered for missing something obvious and compounding the problem by leaving him in there. Unfortunately, Prior/Wood history shows us that the Cubs aren't always forthright regarding injuries. I think it's breeding some paranoia in this case.
  22. GhostRunner
    Hasn't missed any starts, hasn't complained of any pain, had a strong training regimen and lost weight during the offseason, hasn't had a remarkable decrease in velocity, mentioned his mechanics issues himself during a post-game interview, which were subsequently backed up by Rothschild . . . besides a history of higher-than-ideal pitch counts, what exactly leads one to believe that he might be injured? I'm no doctor, and I can't see into Z's arm, elbow or shoulder, but there's no sign of an injury being the cause of his current pitching problems. I never said it was impossible that he was injured, just that nothing right now leads to that conclusion.
  23. GhostRunner
    Amazing. I can't even begin to count how many "If the Cubs trade Z, I'll never be a fan of this team again" posts I've read over the past few years. I guess a potential down year after several above-average years is enough for people to start flipping 180. He's got some mechanics issues that need to get worked on. If it was a possible injury or lack of preparation that led to his poor start, then I'd see the point, but there's nothing about the situation right now that leads me to believe that Zambrano can't return to form. And if he does, the Cubs could potentially have the best rotation in the NL. Regardless, we've got a couple of months to evaluate things before starting talks with other teams about trades. Let's see if he improves. Another perspective: if he does have a poor season, our price for locking up a pitcher who is Cy Young material 3 out of 4 seasons suddenly falls to a more reasonable level. That all said, it's funny how some people thought his 3rd-person self-references, high emotions and on-field antics were endearing when he was pitching well. :)
  24. GhostRunner
    Dunno if anything has changed re: hosting or indexing the site, but I've been getting some really slow loading times (15-20 seconds) for individual thread links. Main and section forum indexes load quickly; it really only occurs when viewing at individual posts depth. I'm not premium, but it's never been an issue before. If it's just me, sorry for the bother.
  25. GhostRunner
    Did Soriano have a baserunning lobotomy during the off season?! His running has been horrendous this year . . .
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