Soul

I..........just don't have a good feeling about this.

Bah, I'm glad things got busy at work and I missed this one. Z is going from El Toro to El Pollo Loco in record time.

Yeah, something's amiss. It's closing in on mid-May now. He was always shaky in April, but it usually cleared up by now. Add to that his odd arm angle thingy which to be honest I've never seen before (but maybe I just didn't notice)? I don't think an injury is out of the question. You know Z isn't going to just cry injury at the first sign of trouble. He's going to try and tough it out. I feel better about not signing him. The Yankees do, too. :wink: Well -- better about not trading for him.

Can the mods temporarily/jokingly ban Mark, and send him an email about it? Just like a "thanks for causing the Cubs to lose 2 of 3, you're banned....just kidding" sort of thing? Haha, yeah wait until he logs in with an alternate and complains, then unban him and play dumb. "Banned? You were never banned!"

Yeah, something's amiss. It's closing in on mid-May now. He was always shaky in April, but it usually cleared up by now. Add to that his odd arm angle thingy which to be honest I've never seen before (but maybe I just didn't notice)? I don't think an injury is out of the question. You know Z isn't going to just cry injury at the first sign of trouble. He's going to try and tough it out.

Cant blame ya. He is frustrating to watch this year. Well, that's what you get. I tried to warn you all not to ban booze in the locker room. But did you listen? nnnnnNNNOOOOOOooooo.

Z needs to watch more ESPN. He's talking sports out of his ass.

Marquis' ERA+ 240 Zambrano's ERA+ 70 Lilly: 147 Hill: 236 Dem thar numbers sez Marquis be the staff ace. :P

Crap, pee, run around naked. Whatever it takes... I'll definitely be naked the night the Cubs win the world series. Won't that be kind of offensive to the other old people in the retirement home? I'm requesting to be buried with no clothes on. Just as long as the wake is closed-casket 8-)

Thanx you just jinxed him!!

Figures. No sooner did I say we should keep Jones because he's looking better at the plate, he starts hitting like a high schooler with his girlfriend in the stands.

Sammy releasing his medical records would not end any of the speculation. There could be any number of medical conditions, up to and including drug abuse, that might not be recorded there. I'm not sure how to make it any more clear. It wouldn't do what you say it would. Soul what do you think is more likely? A major league baseball player chooses not to release medical records because: A) It is a matter of principal to him as he is an acknowledged privacy advocate and sincerely concerned about potential violations of HIPPA privacy laws. or B) He knows they can help confirm his use of steroids. A. Without any reservations whatsoever. The fact that you think it's B shows how twisted your thinking is on this issue. You pretty much just hate Sosa, am I right?

Here are your words, just a little while ago: Sammy releasing his medical records would not end any of the speculation. There could be any number of medical conditions, up to and including drug abuse, that might not be recorded there. I'm not sure how to make it any more clear. It wouldn't do what you say it would.

Yes but lately it's been like 2 steps forward, one step back as opposed to last year where it was one step forward, 13 steps back. :D What is it though with the bats falling asleep as games progress? It always seems as if the hitters just stop after about the 5th inning. Yeah. It's like each bat comes with a little gas tank, and when it runs out, *poof* no more big hits :D

The players union gave Sammy the OK to release his records. Why not just to it and end all the speculation? The standard is and should be higher for high profile athletes. This is his chance to develop some good will with the HOF voters. Look what happened to McGwire after his ridiculous performance under oath before Congress. He didn't admit using steroids but in the eye of the HOF voters, by dodging the questions, he might as well have. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2864613 Well the HOF is a popularity vote, so that's another story. I could refuse to vote for Sosa because I didn't like his haircut if I was a HOF voter and so inclined. We don't even know if Sosa's medical records would contain any enlightening information anyway. And if there's something else in there that is personal and he doesn't want to disclose, then that's a perfectly good reason to withhold the information. So if he does in fact choose to withhold the records it doesn't mean squat, period. You don't have a vote and I seriously doubt if any the voters that do would use the criteria you suggest. Medical records are released all the time with portions blacked out that are irrelevant to the pertinent facts. If Sammy has nothing to hide regarding steroids, he should release his records. I said that to make a point. Sorry it went over your head. And no, personal medical records are NEVER just released without express permission of the patient. You may wish to look up more information on HIPAA: private medical records are private. None of this changes the fact that if Sosa has, say, herpes and wants to keep it private he'd be revealing that very embarrassing fact just to "prove" a negative -- which can't be proven anyway. Medical records won't prove a damn thing. Every person on the planet has something or another that doesn't show up in their medical record, including drug use in some cases.

One loss and all the good feelings generated over the past week and a half are gone, huh? LOL I don't know if was the loss itself last night, or the way we lost. The bottom of the 8th was some of the worst baseball I have ever seen in my life. Even the very best teams in the league will lose games looking awful...and the worst teams will look great in some games. It's inevitable with a 162 game schedule and the nature of the game. Last night's game doesn't tell me anything I didn't know about the team before the night began. I agree. And I disagree that the 8th inning was some of the worst baseball people have ever seen. Come on. The worst inning you could see is 3 straight weak ground balls to the pitcher on 1 pitch each. The Cubs threatened but didn't score. Big deal. I've seen much worse. At least they threatened, for one. And two, you have a guy like Murton who is not accustomed to pinch hitting come up and hit a pop up that doesn't get the job done. That's part of the problem of the "just hit it in the air" mentality of playing for sac flies, especially when you have a guy that doesn't hit a lot of deep flies. The pitcher got ahead in the count, but Murton battled, and in trying to hit it in the air he got a fraction of an inch under the ball. It wasn't an awful at bat. It was a bad result, but come on already with the melodrama. Then Barrett is walked and Jones grounds out against a lefty. Well, Jones never hits lefties. Was anybody really surprised. He got tied up. Pittsburgh left many more people on base yesterday. The 8th inning was just an inning that nobody would remember if they made the save. It was an annoying loss since it was the first game in a home series against a bad team and brought them back to .500. But there's no reason for all the angst about the so-called worst baseball people have ever seen. Watching that game last night was like pounding nails into 2 X 4's with your head. God it was awful. It's like someone flips a switch and we hit like 2 year olds for what seems like days. Then it flips again and we're world beaters for an inning or two. I feel like a piece of stretched taffy watching this ballclub sometimes.

It's the worst CF arm I've ever seen. And it's not particularly close, either.

The players union gave Sammy the OK to release his records. Why not just to it and end all the speculation? The standard is and should be higher for high profile athletes. This is his chance to develop some good will with the HOF voters. Look what happened to McGwire after his ridiculous performance under oath before Congress. He didn't admit using steroids but in the eye of the HOF voters, by dodging the questions, he might as well have. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2864613 Well the HOF is a popularity vote, so that's another story. I could refuse to vote for Sosa because I didn't like his haircut if I was a HOF voter and so inclined. We don't even know if Sosa's medical records would contain any enlightening information anyway. And if there's something else in there that is personal and he doesn't want to disclose, then that's a perfectly good reason to withhold the information. So if he does in fact choose to withhold the records it doesn't mean squat, period.

Hahahaha. Money well spent, LOL. God, I pray Clemens doen't perform up to expectations. That would give me some joy, regardless of what the Cubs do :D :D

No kidding. And every ESPN [expletive] host and anchor screaming at us "THIS IS THE STORY!! THIS IS THE STORY!!" Jesus, fine it's the damn story. Do we have to have it drilled into our skulls every 5 damn minutes?!? Now I hear Golic whining that the only reason people are complaining about Clemens not being with the team is because it's New York. Jesus, that's [expletive]. The only reason this is receiving this kind of coverage AT ALL is because of your employer's east coast bias, Golic you moron.

If last night was Gammons' idea of "the best" that "is to come," I think we're in trouble. 15 innings. How much longer do you have to keep your ballclub in the damn game before someone gets a big hit? Christ!!! :evil: :evil:

Yes, because the way things work in our society is to make the accused prove their innocence.

Christ why can't we just be like other teams and have a roster that makes sense?

WTF? Ortiz had some injury problems in Minny, but he was pretty darn good when he played. IIRC, the Twinkie fans were pretty upset when he left. Non-descript?

OMG STOP BEING BAD SUCKY CUBS!!!