KatJ

Triple his $600k/year? That is flat out [expletive]. Agreed. And I wondered why colleges were so darned expensive. If that salary's the norm, whining about skyrocketing health insurance is a crock. Few's done a good job, but IMO I think it may be time for him to move on. He came up through GU's coaching ranks, and has gone as far as he can with that program. I wonder if Adam Morrison's decision to stay for his senior year depends on whether Few stays with Gonzaga? On a different note, I never have liked that blowhard Rick Majerus (sp?). I always wonder whether he's going to have a heart attack during a game. Another guy I don't like is Billy Donavan.

Then your handle at NSBB is fitting. :) It also reminds me of a joke my contracts professor told us: New attorney is in his first case. The opposing attorney is cross-examining his star witness, and she is really taking the witness to task. The new attorney decides she's gone too far, and he stands up and says, "Objection! Counsel is beavering the witness." After a pregnant pause, the judge motions counsel to come to the bench. "I think what you meant to say was BADGERING, son," says the judge. "Oh, THAT'S the word," says the attorney. "I knew it was some small furry animal." :D

I have a serious albeit elementary question: is the WBC going to be an annual deal, or every four years like the Olympics?

Speaking of avatars, I can't even see yours. I get the aggravating red x.

No, you're a diehard Cub fan - like the rest of us chumps on the board. :D

Thanks - in the meantime, I'm going back to my old avatar.

Off topic: how can shrink my new avatar??? I got the pic off the Web - Google images: Mike Royko I thought of putting the pic w/my sig, but I didn't want people to think Royco said that bit about WWE. He was far witter than I am. :-)

I know what you mean, but with a century-old drought, you don't have the luxury of picking your heroes. OTOH, I wouldn't mind seeing Clemens come over for a year to school our china horses on getting and staying in shape, including a few choice words about them not acting like pantywastes at the slightest twinge. When you're in the "show", you need to know your body so that you feel the difference between injured and hurt... and maybe settle for hurt when you're healing, rather than no pain at all. We can get the WS AFTER he leaves... and takes Dusty with him. :-) Oh, yeah, and I like Barrett too. Chalk that one up as one of Jim Hendry's best moves, one that he rarely gets credit for here.

Ooooh, here's a tip for you: If you ever consider dressing in drag for Halloween, don't. :P Nice boobs, though!

Somehow, I don't think you meant ladies literally... Yeah, I think you're right. :-) And mods, I also think this is a Rivalries thread. But hi, Jimy. :-) I don't want Bags, but let's just say that if I had had a crystal ball, the Cubs would have guaranteed Jon Lieber for the second year back in 2003. At this point, I'd even take Terry Mulholland!

In a just world, I'd agree with you. But it really depends on what the market will bear when and if he files for FA - which is after the end of this season, if I'm reading Cot's properly: Mark Prior p 1 year/$3.65M (2006), plus incentives re-signed 1/06, avoided arbitration ($4M-$3.3M) incentives for MVP, Cy Young, Gold Glove, Silver Slugger & All Star team exercised right to void final season (2006) of original contract 11/05 after qualifying for arbitration 5 years/$10.5M (2002-06), plus incentives $4M signing bonus 02:$0.25M, 03:$0.65M, 04:$1.6M, 05:$2M base (incentives to $2.75M), 06:$2M 2003 All Star selection increased 2004-06 salaries by $0.5M/season additional $0.1M All Star incentive Prior may void either of final 2 years (05-06) if he qualifies for arbitration after 2004 or 2005 seasons drafted 2001 (1-2), signed major-league contract 8/01 agent: John Boggs ML service: 2.131 I think he can skate through this season, get decent numbers, and get a good price. I just have doubts whether it will be with the Cubs. Wanna bet he takes the best SoCal offer his agent can garner him? If Prior isn't in a Cub uniform next season, I think he will have royally taken it to the organization, as well as the fans. And for that, I'd donate $100 to Wood's favorite charity to hear that Kid K picked up a bat and chased Mark around any clubhouse.

I thought Hill played some 3B also? I'd rather see him backing up Ramirez than Mabry. Gary Gaetti he is not.

Oh, he's on my list too. But unlike Agony, I figured he had built up a good enough reputation as a player to justify his outrage. Bartman, Mo, Prior, Agony, then that triple. Typical Cubs clusterduck. It's like you recognize the moment and let fate take its course. Anyone on that field could have called in the players for a JOKE, for Pete's sakes, to release the tension (Grace would have been helpful there). Rothschild and Baker stayed affixed to the bench like there was a 2-ton magnet attached to them. Joe Buck and company ran off at the mouth as usual. And all the fans could do was watch the implosion. I totally understand cubbieinexile's POV here. I think the organization owes the fans BIG TIME. These piecemeal injury reports feel like excuses, and it's really gotten old. (I'm tired of these guys resembling Swarovsky crystal more than disciplined, durable professional athletes.) If the best you can do with a $100 mil payroll is fourth place (I'm talking 2005, although I'm not very optimistic about 2006 at the moment), you should get out of the business.

Ah, the olden days. Thanks for the memory. :-) But if this brings hoggie to NSBB, you're dead to me. ;-)

I dressed up as Bartman for Halloween, primarily because it was an easy costume. But some of the torture I have imagined heaping on Gonzalez should keep me in Purgatory for a long, long time.

I know this column is in another thread in this forum already. Merge & lock, pls, mods? I liked the story, tooo. That would be one way to get Neifury the heck out of here!

And that is precisely why Dusty is a poor manager. He is more interested in being these guys' friends rather than their coach. I am so sick of hearing Cub players and our manager shoot their mouths off in front of the media and NOT DELIVERING THE GOODS ON THE FIELD. That's why you get booed, you bums! Ryno kept his thoughts to himself, and even though Gracie was far from a saint, he was consistent on the field.

Who calls Carl Everett "The Truth"? Never heard of it. "The Stupid" or "The Whiner" is more like it.

That's completely unfair. Basically what I get from this is....black people don't play baseball because it's not as glamorous. That's completely untrue. First, baseball is the easiest sport to break into professionally because of the minor leagues. Secondly, baseball pays the highest salary, so there is more opportunity to get that "bling" as you call it. Baseball is less physically demanding than football. It's much less based on God given genetics (height, jumping ability, athletic ability) than basketball. Sorry for the misunderstanding - my intent was to focus on the "instant gratification" of NBA/NFL vs. paying your dues through the minor leagues in MLB.

That's one of my theories too. There is a lot of failure in baseball. Even the best batters will get put out 60% of the time. You need a lot of humility to learn baseball. All this egomaniacal hip-hop gangsta attitude that has been shoved down kids throats has made it a lot more difficult to whiff on a curveball and take it like a good sport. Humility has never been a strong point of hip-hop culture. But I think there's a lot of failure in basketball also. 50% from the field as a team can be pretty good. About the only thing you can control success on as a basketball player is your free throws (unless you're Shaquille O'Neal).

Has anyone mentioned the risk of investment factor in baseball vs. football and basketball? I remember reading something about that issue in a different article on the same topic: dearth of black baseball players. Baseball is a great game, but even if you go to college first, a player often gets to spend two years or more in the minors before sniffing an MLB callup. I think you can earn a decent living in AA and AAA (I really don't know - someone else can corroborate or deny that), but the travel and the lifestyle is far from jet set glamorous. It's buses and McDonalds and blasé to fleabag motels and hotels. Compare that to the world of the NBA and NFL. A mega-talent kid gets drafted out of high school; a great player has his choice whether to enter the draft in college or finish school; and so on. Bottom line is that in four years or less (well, five - or even six - if you redshirt) you are in The Big Show, pulling down a cool million (give or take) - tons more if you get endorsement offers. That's got to be an offer you can't refuse if you're a young man, particulary an African-American male, particularly from a hardscrabble background. Baseball can't compete with that at present. And I'm not sure that I want it to. I'm not a big fan of the bling in the NFL and NBA (for lack of a better term) social scene, and I especially don't care for how basketball has devolved into a sport for bruisers. I'd hate to see that happen to the MLB at large. I think the only ways you could get an appreciable amount of blacks back to baseball, though, is to change the MLB image (and perhaps the game itself) to resemble the glossy NFL/NBA image, or somehow to figure out a way to curb materialism. Or, the third option (harder but with a bigger or better upside) effect change such that a Af-Am hardscrabble background is not a stereotype.

I'm glad you had a good time, but I'm reserving any positive judgments on the WBC for September. I'm interested to see whether these athletes run out of gas as the MLB season winds up, or if a real tournament gets them up to speed quicker for the regular season - and keeps them there.

To get off the character pro and con tack, I was reading the articles and statements on the MLB pages, and most of them mention that Puckett left behind his kids, but also the fiancée and her son. I REALLY hope Puck made out a good will recently, with a clause to give the fiancée some cash if she didn't contest it. Otherwise his estate could be a mess.

Doubtful. Kirby put on a ton of weight after he had to retire.

And Kirby. Maybe his passing will light a fire in Jones. But I'd settle for having Kirby channelling his baseball abilities in his prime to JJ.