Soul

Any midline RTs coming on the market this offseason? Could just pick up one of those. It would probably give you Tait-esque performance, maybe a bit better.

I can't believe Sheets will be able to pitch anywhere near his usual level in '09. And I won't believe it until I actually see it.

No, I don't think you draft a 1st round OT unless you were planning to anyway. Tait's production last year was below average, IMO. His veteran leadership might be missed, but the level of his physical play was low and therefore shouldn't need a 1st rounder to replace.

Kane's developing into a wuss. He better figure that out because nobody's going to let up on him just because he doesn't like being hit. Learn to deal with it kid. The Blues are bad. It's distressing to see the Hawks wilt against them time & again. I hope this isn't a bad omen for the playoffs, because teams are going to try to manhandle us there, too.

I don't agree. But there's no point in arguing over it. ok

But Pax does need to go, though.

Wait a minute. What? Cowboys fans can become mods now?

Is he even one of the top ranked DEs? I would think @ 18 there will be better players available at that position. Everyone isn't going to draft a DE.

But can't you build a defense around a core offense of Rose + Amare + an outside shooter? I don't know, I haven't really kept up on Amare's career, but I know at one time he was a pretty good scoring threat.

I missed it too. But I saw Jordan's comments on CSN after the game. It was really nice to see Michael back at the United Center giving Kerr props like that. Felt almost like old times. Scottie was there too. For once I was sad that I'm not getting the Bulls games this year.

That hookeroony was the most devastating thing ever. I can see why it shredded his arm, but damn that was fun stuff.

I believe he likely used, but there isn't the level of proof that there is with other players. Maybe Sammy was just much smarter than people thought he was. Certainly smarter than a guy like Bonds, who left a trail of evidence leading to his doorstep about a mile long. Certainly smarter than McGwire, who apparently allowed other people to inject him (that's pretty much idiotic). Much smarter than Palmiero, who lied before Congress and then continued using *after* his testimony. And certainly smarter than ARod, who knew about his positive test and then went on the record with lies to 60 minutes 3 days after the Mitchell report.

That bothers me a bit too, but of course there are a few main reasons, justifiably or not, for the disparate treatment between the sports, especially football and baseball. - Baseball is more a game of individual achievement as opposed to football, so scrutiny on the individual will always be greater in baseball than football. This principle manifests itself most clearly as regards the achievement of "sacred" records. - In baseball, it is not a requirement that you be bigger, stronger, or faster than the next guy in order to excel. Athleticism is a huge part of the game, but not nearly as much as in football. It's far more difficult to be great in football with athletic mediocrity as opposed to baseball. Since you don't have to be impressive physically in baseball, there is more of a stigma attached when the player separates himself from the field in that regard. Another way to say it is that there is a greater range between a juiced baseball player and a non-juiced one as opposed to a juiced football player and his non-juiced counterpart. However, the purpose of pointing that out isn't to say that the effects of steroids is greater in baseball than football because I don't think it is. As I said earlier, football is more about being bigger, stronger, & faster than in baseball, so getting the edge physical is going to be more crucial in football. My point was merely to show why there is a disparate treatment as regards to the public stigma. just my opinion of course I think in the case of football they succeeded in "getting ahead" of the issue by putting in a drug testing program before all the crap hit. Basketball has largely been ignored in all of this. I don't really know why. Maybe the big blowup is still to come.

Bonds, ARod, Clemens, and McGwire won't make the HOF. That is certainly something to be gained. mcgwire is at least borderline but you aren't gaining anything by keeping out bonds, arod and clemens. they're three of the all-time greats with or without steroids, and it's just embarrassing to the voters and the hall itself if those guys aren't elected. to me it isnt a question of "were they good enough with or without steroids". the fact they contributed to the integrity damage of the game automatically eliminates them IMO. Steroids saved baseball. Unfortunately, they did. You wouldn't have had the Home Run Chase in '98 without them, which is credited with bringing fans back after the strike in '94. One hell of a Catch-22 baseball got itself into. Let's rally against the thing that saved us in the first place! Yeah, the attendance numbers are doing fine now though, even in the so-called post steroid era. And while '98 definitely did capture the public's interest, there's no way of knowing whether it was really necessary to bring fans back. I suspect it wasn't -- just would have taken a bit longer.

It wasn't hard to see that one coming. Run 'em ragged on the road for weeks, a ton of travel/games packed into very few nights. This is what happens. Screw you, disney.

what's going on at the united center again? ..quick check... hah. disney on ice. so they've actually got the hockey rink set up and everything. i think that's funny, maybe a little ironic even. i'm glad this team is good enough to overcome.

Yeah, it was Towers' mouth that left the station way too soon at the meetings.

Can't complain too much about the schedule, because there was a couple of times in the first half of the season in which the Blackhawks had 3-5 days off between games. No use in complaining of schedule when it was favorable earlier in the season. Actually, a good argument can be made that 5 days in between games isn't always a good idea either.

The schedule-makers should be shot. I know it's been discussed here, but come on. Hawks have to play again tonight? If they come out flat tonight and lose, I wouldn't even be able to blame them.

Yeah, and all that's gotten us is two playoff appearances in the two years he has been here...that sucks! same number of playoff wins as pittsburgh, kansas city and tamp- oh, wait... Can't have it both ways. Either the playoffs are a crap shoot or they aren't. If they're a crap shoot, then Hendry & Lou should get credit for building solid regular season teams the past 2 years. If they aren't a crap shoot, then they should be blamed for not winning a World Series so far given the resources they've had available to them. There's a lot of straddling the bridge on this issue around here (not you specifically KJRM). It either is or it isn't, that's all I'm saying. My view is until someone delivers a championship to the North Side they don't impress me as much as someone who does deliver a championship. They are a crapshoot, but I don't give Hendry and Piniella a ton of credit for building one good regular season team and one decent one on the back of a ton of backloaded contracts. Relatively speaking, they deserve more credit that the cavalcade of bozos we've had roll through this town who never even produced a playoff appearance. I agree with the notion that they aren't great.

Yeah, and all that's gotten us is two playoff appearances in the two years he has been here...that sucks! same number of playoff wins as pittsburgh, kansas city and tamp- oh, wait... Can't have it both ways. Either the playoffs are a crap shoot or they aren't. If they're a crap shoot, then Hendry & Lou should get credit for building solid regular season teams the past 2 years. If they aren't a crap shoot, then they should be blamed for not winning a World Series so far given the resources they've had available to them. There's a lot of straddling the bridge on this issue around here (not you specifically KJRM). It either is or it isn't, that's all I'm saying. My view is until someone delivers a championship to the North Side they don't impress me as much as someone who does deliver a championship.

I actually agree in some ways with both arguments. I bet Kane is a cocky prick... but last night Campbell got hit completely clean and Walker went after the guy. Kane got cheap shotted 3-4 times in the 1st alone and nothing happened. I saw a Hawk player get totally taken down in the middle of the ice with the puck -- no call. A few minutes later, a Oiler got taken down with the puck......tripping penalty. I'm not going to cry foul or anything, but that seemed like a pretty obvious double standard to me, in favor of the Oilers.

Hahah. Pretty funny article by Reilly on the "fans" for the halftime show. http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3883771 He missed the game.

Is it really perplexing? I mean, he was out of options...and he sucked right now...I think those two things are pretty much fact. Either they trade him for something/anything, or they risk losing him for nothing as he clears waivers. This was clearly the better option. I certainly understand the hand wringing over this, but I think that has more to do with Hill's failures than anything the Cubs failed at. Certainly you wish that the coaching staff could have worked him through his issues, but maybe it's just not meant to be. Better pitchers than Rich Hill (Rick Ankiel) caught a case of the mental yips and couldn't get it back, even with a pitching coach with the midas touch (Duncan), which Rothschild hasn't proven to be. I think this is just one of those moves that people will understandably be unhappy about, but understand. It's not that he was traded that's perplexing...it's the timing of it coupled with the fact that it's yet another trade with the Orioles that doesn't appear to help the team at all currently. Not trying to harp on this...but what part of the timing was perplexing? It had to be done before ST (or is it opening day?) or he had to be put through waivers. And whether you let someone pick him off waivers, or trade him for a minor leaguer, you weren't gonna be helped now either way. Something had to be done, agreed. I'm more or less just lamenting what happened to the guy. It's kind of hard to fathom some of these players being good one year, then just losing it. I imagine this is how Cards fans felt about Ankiel, at least until he came back as an outfielder.

this is what I don't get though: if you buy the package, you're seeing the exact same commercials, so who cares? by blacking me out on Pittsburgh games but NOT giving me FSN Pittsburgh, you're taking away someone who would be seeing those ads....it just makes no sense at all Yeah it's so convoluted at this point nobody can even figure it out anymore. I thought someone in MLB had said they were going to work on lifting some of the senseless blackouts, but I haven't heard any follow up since. I know the original intent was to try to funnel viewers to the local advertising market. That just doesn't work anymore -- people have way too many viewing options. But now you've got markets criss-crossed all over the place, and people who consider themselves fans of a "local" team and they don't get the games for some arcane reason nobody can trace. It's just a mess. Just give people the option to purchase the package and turn on all the games. Sure, it leaves out some people who can't afford the package, but it would be a positive step in the right direction. you also have DirecTV saying "MLB's blackout rules aren't our problem, so no, you can't have FSN Pittsburgh when you live in Ohio. We don't care if that screws you, it's not our rules." Yep. I get FSN North's broadcasts of Twinkie games, which nobody cares about in Madison -- but some Brewer games are not on because they broadcast on a rinkie dink channel that only goes as far as the Milwaukee burbs. It's madness. Oh, and here's a good one for you: some years I get Cubs games on Comcast, and some years it is blacked out. It appears to be random. Bulls & Hawks too. Currently, Bulls games are all blacked out on Comcast for me. But I'm getting all the Blackhawk games just fine. Last year, I got all the Bulls games on Comcast. :blink: