SouthSideRyan

I just had to highlite that because after Santo, Quisenberry is my pet "veterans committee really should put that guy in the HoF" candidate. He had a 5-year run in KC that was just unbelievable. Mine's gonna wind up being Tim Raines and Alan Trammel.

Yep, I've never done the shuttle, but still, take the el.

Honestly, top of my head, Lee probably doesn't deserve to be an all star.

Murton is absolutely Fukudome light. But that's where you pay the premium to upgrade from above average to good, or good to great.

Doubt it, he works in the mail room. I know you are being a smartass but I also know that Roast will know exactly who I am talking about. Cause he works at Wrigley.

Shoulda heard what Michael Richards was saying about you.

If Geovany Soto wore eyeliner, I'd wear eyeliner. I'm putting it on right now just in case.

MLB teams have unlimited growth because they aren't tied to league-wide media contracts.

He started 4 for 10 though, he's got a spot the rest of the year! I liked how there were 2 better options sitting on the bench than Johnson and Hoffpauir. That was fun.

In a vaccuum, the Reds chose the worst of the 3 options to have on the big league roster(Patterson, Hatteberg, Phillips) Even with Dusty, keeping Hatteberg was the better option.

Sammy could still be a good lefty masher for most teams, but neither side would have it.

I'm way too excited about that. They pretty much nailed the infield(while horribly butchering the OF) Nice work fans. Keep up the Soto love everyone.

Sutcliffe will be singing the stretch. I get the feeling he won't quite fill Lasorda's shoes. You kidding me? He's like the son he never had!

Please explain how Sosa's last contract was a bad idea. You will never get an answer. Sure he will. The answer is that Soriano isn't a good leadoff man.

WHICH IS A TERRIBLE, INEXCUSABLE SHAME!!!!!! /tommy lasorda ALTHOUGH IT COULD BE WORSE HE COULD BE GAY!!! /tommy lasorda

The amoutn of marginal out fly balls out to LF in the 9th inning are not worth the potential of losing his bat when Reed Johnson/Edmonds is the replacement.

I've liked Gracey the few times I've heard him broadcasting. Me too. Mark Grace did too. I really hope the stench of the end of Brenly's Diamondback career is still hanging over him, cause I really fear what would be in line to replace him.

I didn't post that because you were "bashing" Rich Hill. I posted it because what you wrote was inaccurate. Rich wasn't much more likely to melt down and give up HR after HR than Z was. Rich wasn't just comparable to Z heading into this season, he had put up better #s than him the prior season and a half. Then they dicked with his mechanics. Then he lost his control. Then he was demoted. Then he was called a head case. Then Jason Marquis kept starting. As far as Rich's walks hurting his ability to go deep in ballgames, he averaged a touch over 6 innings per start last year, 2nd on the team to only Zambrano who finished 5th in the NL in innings pitched, and Z only threw a touch less than 1/3 of an inning more per start. As far as sitting back and enjoying the ride, I've certainly enjoyed this season so far, but no team is perfect, and every team should always be striving for perfection, so as long as there are obvious imperfections with the team, they're going to be pointed out. Trust me we're all watching and enjoying, we just want to enjoy it more and longer.

Personally, I'd like to know what was behind the ****.

And here I thought there was at least one ND guy people didn't hate. He's the ND guy I hate. Although I do think Brey is overrated. And man, I hated Chris Thomas post-freshman year. Oh, and Grant Johnson. But those aren't really the same types of hate.

Well that was more concise.

Knight and Digger were buddies. Knight and Henson did not get along, and clashed for quite some time. Henson and Digger were both going hard after Ellis around the time of the Bruce Pearl fiasco. Digger capitalized on the opportunity.

After the allegation, Deon Thomas took a lie detector test in which he was asked a variety of questions about Illinois’ recruiting. He passed the test without a problem. For more information, see the 2/24/1990 edition of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Sports section page 1C. The examiner concluded that “[a]fter a thorough analysis of the polygraph record, it is the opinion of this examiner that (Thomas) told the truth through his examination and is not now intentionally withholding pertinent information.”

More on Bruce Pearl-Deon Thomas: It is beyond the scope of this column to provide total detail of the whole sorry episode, but a few facts need to be mentioned. At first, Illinois behaved like the dutiful son by hiring NCAA lawyer Mike Slive to defend them. It had become the NCAA’s pattern to use Slive to go into an accused school, find evidence to incriminate that school, and then negotiate with their representatives on how they could penalize themselves (usually including the firing of the coaches involved). The idea was that the NCAA would become much more punative and accuse the offending school of “lack of institutional control” if it showed an unwillingness to submit to self-imposed sanctions. It was Slive’s job to save them from this terrible fate. And when Slive, now commissioner of the SEC, read the transcript of the Thomas tape, he was convinced of Illinois’ guilt and recommended severe penalties. He became even more certain of the veracity of Iowa’s claims when coach Digger Phelps and star center LaPhonso Ellis of Notre Dame accused Illinois of illegalities in Ellis’ recruitment. But as Illinois Chancellor Morton Weir and Athletic Director John Mackovic continued to study the case, doubt crept into their minds. Here is some of what they discovered: 1. While the transcript appeared to incriminate Thomas, there was evidence of gaps in the tape, indicating the possibility of deletions or creative splicing. 2. The tape recording itself was vague. It showed an obvious attempt by Pearl to lead Thomas to agree with a predetermined conclusion, and Thomas’ assertion that he was just agreeing with Pearl as if it were a joke could not be disproved. Certainly, Thomas never volunteered nor directly stated that he was offered or given anything on the tape. 3. An investigation of LaPhonso Ellis’ claims proved to be totally incorrect. Even a member of his own family said the claims were untrue. Eventually, Ellis publicly admitted to lying about the episode. One must wonder why he made the claims in the first place and whether his coach or anyone else made Ellis lie. Was there a conspiracy to incriminate Illinois for some self-serving reason? Did Bobby Knight’s earlier “whisper campaign” against Illinois influence Digger Phelps’ attitude toward Illinois, or did Phelps wish to damage Illinois for some personal reason? 4. Iowa paid for a friend of Deon Thomas to visit the Iowa campus for the purpose of getting him to help recruit Thomas to Iowa. Was this student, Reynoldo Kyles, thus a representative of Iowa’s athletic interest and therefore ineligible to be involved in recruiting? 5. Deon Thomas’ grandmother said it was Iowa who offered her a new residence if Deon would attend Iowa, and that Illinois made no illegal offers. By the way, at no time did the NCAA follow up on recommendations to investigate either Iowa or Notre Dame for possible violations. These and other contradictory findings caused Weir and Mackovic to fire Mike Slive and hire their own lawyers instead. They knew they were on shaky ground with the NCAA, so they ran the risk of penalties approaching a “Death Penalty” if they could not prove Illinois’ innocence to the NCAA’s satisfation. Given the lessons learned by Illinois from earlier run-ins with the NCAA and their diligent efforts to comply with NCAA guidelines, including the hiring of people of integrity like Weir and Mackovic, Illinois would never have gone to the extreme of firing Slive unless they were 100% sure of their findings.

If Negedu is 1(or 2) and done, I have no clue why he'd go to IU, unless he doesn't think he'd get playing time as a freshman at the other options.(which would surprise me) As far as Pearl goes, Sigh. The Pearl / Thomas incident During the 1988-1989 basketball season, Pearl, then an assistant coach at the University of Iowa, was at the center of a recruiting scandal involving the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Both Illinois and Iowa were recruiting Deon Thomas, a top high school player from Chicago. Pearl lost this recruiting battle when Thomas committed to Illinois. Thereafter, Pearl relentlessly called the high school student over and over, and surreptitiously recorded a phone conversation with Thomas. Pearl attempted to get Thomas to admit that he had been offered an SUV and cash by Illinois assistant coach Jimmy Collins. Pearl then turned over the tapes to the NCAA, accompanied by a memo describing the events.[1] When the NCAA investigated the alleged violations, they found Illinois guilty of no violations related to the Pearl/Thomas incident, according to the Chicago Sun Times. However, Illinois was punished for vague violations of a policy known as "institutional control." Chuck Smart, the NCAA director of enforcement, could not explain the strange ruling. Smart said "We believe the Committee (of Infractions) did not say the allegations were false, but they did not find that they were true." Thomas's attorney responded: "When you bring an allegation and don't have the burden of proof, they have two words for that. It means, 'not guilty.' And when people on the enforcement staff shoot their mouths off and talk about the allegations still being true, it incenses me." The Bruce Pearl-Deon Thomas incident cost millions of dollars to play out. Illinois spent a small fortune defending itself and the basketball program suffered greatly because of the sanctions imposed. Iowa certainly did not benefit from the negative publicity and Pearl skirted the brink of professional suicide. An investigation conducted by now-SEC-commissioner Mike Slive and the university Chancellor demonstrated that Bruce Pearl might be the only one guilty of wrongdoing in this situation. Slive discovered gaps in the tape recording, which indicated deletions and/or creative splicing of the audio. Even with Pearl's editing, the tape "showed an obvious attempt by Pearl to lead Thomas to agree with a predetermined conclusion... Thomas never volunteered nor stated that he was offered or given anything on tape." (Chicago Herald & Register) Furthermore, the grandmother of young Mr. Thomas alleged that Bruce Pearl offered her a new residence if Deon would attend Iowa, and that Illinois made no illegal offers.