SouthSideRyan

Not nearly enough talk about Puppy Bowl II.

"There were two intentional fouls called on Florida State center Alexander Johnson, and the second led to double technicals on him and Williams. That was Johnson's fifth personal, sending him to the bench for the final 9 minutes of regulation." That's all I could find in the ESPN recap. It must've been a pretty horrible call though, refs are never disciplined.

And the Reds acquire good players???

Zimmer did it with Les Lancaster at least once.

I'm PO as well, should have never been that close in the first place. I guess our only recourse is to hope they learn from this loss, use it to play stronger down the stretch. I'd like to see the Illini play PSU in the Big Ten tournament, those gimmick zones combined with Parker having the game of his life worked once, will it work again? ah, the cry of Illini nation. No way Penn State could have just won. It was all aqbout "gimmick zones" and "career games" you lost, live with it yep, we lost. congratulations. imagine if penn state had been beaten in football by the illini, you'd be pretty upset. unfortunately, the sports gods would never let that happen. the illini, in the history of their sports program, have never pulled an upset the size of what happened against PSU. and never will--just like i will never, ever, ever, pull the river card that i need to lay a bad beat down on someone. illini fans, it's all my fault. and derwood, be happy that i'm not a PSU fan. If Illinois had beat PSU I certainly would not have come on here and said that it was because they were all razzle dazzle and no substance. You can still take comfort in the fact that you're a lock for the NCAA tourney and PSU would be lucky to get an NIT bid But you'd likely be able to identify that 49 out of 50 times PSU would have won that football game.

This game pretty much typified how I view all non-Bears football. Tedious and long.

I believe it can still be used freely, but am not positive on that. I wanna say this would be the last year though, and if it's not used this year, he'd be in Patterson's situation from this year.

Answering the question from page 1, yes Williams has 1 option remaining.

Yeah those douchebags shoulda hoped for 2 million to come in as their punishment. The management wants to win just as badly as we do, they're just incompetent at figuring out how to do it. It takes a hell of a lot more than "wanting to win" to actually win. The team that wins the World Series every year isn't just the team that wanted to win the most that year.

WHAT? for a while he was the only one posting. Yeah, it was a poor joke attempt.

WHAT?

McGwire wasn't as awful as you'd expect at 1st. He wasn't great, but wasn't Kevin Millar out there. Braves Phillies Mets Nats Marlins Cardinals Cubs (WC) Astros Brewers Pirates Reds Padres Dodgers Giants D-Backs Rockies Yankees Red Sox Blue Jays Devil Rays Orioles Indians Twins White Sox Tigers Royals Angels A's (WC) Rangers Mariners The NL West is still horrendous.

That was interesting.

Any interesting denials of favorable treatment?

'99 I remember we were 32-23. Lance Johnson got picked off by Randy Johnson to end the game. We were then swept by the White Sox at home, and things just kept getting worse from there.

So what are the odds that ND doesn't lose this game by about 2 points?

Wasn't that the game where he gave up a grand slam to maybe J.D. Drew? If I remember correctly, the Cubs were down big and came back and won that game. No. JD Drew was a Brave in 2004. That was the game in which Pujols hit 3 home runs. The Cubs were up 8-2 in the 6th. Baker pulled Rusch after Rolen and Edmonds hit singles. I turned to the guy next to me and said, "If he was going to pull Rusch, why didn't he do it before the inning started? And why is he pulling him after he made it through Pujols/Rolen/Edmonds?" And the Cards came back and won the game. And Latroy melted down at the end and went after the umpire. July of 2004. I was there. We gave Matt Morris a standing ovation when he got yanked in I wanna say the 2nd inning after giving up those 8 runs. Thought we were in for a great day. Then the rest of the game happened.

I'm pulling for you if that means anything raw.

Thirded. I never have a right to whine ever again if they win because so many have unfortunately lived their whole life through without seeing it. :? In the words of my friend Sean Carey, Sox fan, talking to some freshman in the dining hall, "You can do anything you want today, you're a world champion. Look at me, I'm a senior, I don't have a meal plan, I'm supposed to be in class, but I'm sitting in the dining hall eating for free and drinking a 40 of Icehouse. And why, cause I'm a world champion"

Fourth, and it's too bad for JVB that it looks like he's not gonna break camp in the majors with Boston.

The fact that the Cubs want to extend Pierre really makes signing Jones to a 3 year deal a head-scratcher. You have Pie waiting in AAA and a promising young player in Murton in the corner. Now if you had a superstar talent available, then fine you lock him up to a multi-year deal and you don't worry about what happens to the lesser of Murton and Pie. I'm not saying they should definitely be pencilling in Pie and Murton as 2/3 of the OF in '07, but they also shouldn't definitely be guaranteeing there's only 1 spot open for the 2 of them in addition to any FA or trade options out there next offseason. I'm confident enough in Jones that he won't be god-awful, which will be enough for him to not be traded next offseason. Just a horrible decision to sign him for more than a year.

If the option is declined by either (Wood would have to have one hell of a year to decline it) then they can come to terms on a different contract.

Cause the arbitration process is based on service time. Comparing arbitration guys to free agents isn't remotely fair. I'm completely with Hendry on this one. You have to make an example at some point otherwise, players (knowing that the Cubs won't go to arbitration) will keep pusing up their requests knowing they'll just get the halfway point anyways. Arbitration money and free agent money are worth the same. I don't see how willingly throwing away millions of dollars is a different ballgame than worrying about a couple of hundred thousand for a guy who actually deserves it. One could pretty easily make the case that budging on arbitration numbers for a guy making less than a million isn't going to hurt the team nearly as much as the kinds of free agent contracts Hendry has signed in the past couple of years. The difference to the organization was chump change. Then let's just pointlessly give Murton 500,000 this year. Might as well make good with our younger guys right?

Cause the arbitration process is based on service time. Comparing arbitration guys to free agents isn't remotely fair. I'm completely with Hendry on this one. You have to make an example at some point otherwise, players (knowing that the Cubs won't go to arbitration) will keep pusing up their requests knowing they'll just get the halfway point anyways.

WE BEAT RUTGERS!!!