soccer10k

Oh, you mean my Bachelor party? See you there? Bleachers. Congrats, dude. Are you scared? Thanks. Not scared, we've been together forever, since the end of high school. Went to college together. Already live together. I figure if I'm gonna be around her all the time, might as well brand her (Last name, ring) lol. haha, congrats. My fiance and her 6 year old boy are moving in with me in Indianapolis (Fishers) tomorrow. We are marrying in November. :) Congrats to both of you.

This is the only board I post on, for any sport.

The ump made the right call on the play. physically impossible. both by Bartman and by Alou. look at the replay sometime and try to re-enact what happens. look at where the ball is coming down and where Alou's glove is. if the ball were in the stands, Alou would have had to have reached across his right shoulder. he does not. he reaches above his head, aka in the field of play. it is nearly impossible for a righthanded player to reach over the wall with his body perpendicular to the wall like Alou was. his chest would have had to have been against the wall in order for him to reach into the stands. from Bartman's perspective, go to a game early sometime, go to the front row, and see where your hands are if you are bending over and reaching out like Bartman. again, in the field of play. I know. I've done it. I believe some physiologist wrote a paper on it which showed pretty conclusively it was physically impossible for that ball to have been in the stands unless both Bartman and Alou were trying to catch the ball at a point about a foot and a half from where it was coming down. Believe me, I have watched it and seen every shot of the play that has been shown on television. The ball would not have landed in the field of play. But there is no sense in debating this issue because you are obviously very set in your view and likely refuse to consider any other point of view other than your own to be remotely true. Also, considering I live in California, the odds of me just strolling down to Wrigley early before a game, buying a ticket, and going to Bartman's seat.

You have Greenberg twice on your list. Oops. Fixed that one. I must have thought being ranked third wasn't good enough so I figured ranking him sixth as well would mean a little more.

1. Gehrig 2. Foxx 3. Greenberg 4. Killebrew 5. Cepeda 6. Musial 7. Thomas 8. Allen 9. Ansen 10. Mize EDIT: I listed Greenberg twice.

I read a Gehrig biography "Luckiest Man" by Jonathan Eig. In the book there is something regarding where Gehrig could have ended up in the all time record books. I realize that these statistics are rough estimates but they show the heights Gehrig could have reached had he not been struck down with ALS. This goes for Ted Williams as well since he missed 3 full years in his prime due to WWII and missed almost 2 full years due to the Korean War. To add to the other stats, Gehrig has a career line of .340/.442/.632/1.074 which is good enough for 12th/4th/3rd/3rd all time. Unbelievable player. I'll give my list in a bit. "Today, I consider myself, the luckiest man on the face of the earth." Oh, and it's a very good book for anyone interested.

I agree that the teams record should not be taken into consideration... but unfortunately it sometimes is. A teams record is also indirectly taken into consideration because the number one criterion used for evaluating the Cy Young winner is wins (not that it is the correct way). Who is more likely to get wins, the pitcher on a first place team or a pitcher on a fifth place team? Look at last year. Clemens was the best pitcher in the league but got no run support. Carpenter played for the best team in the league, got run support, and won the Cy Young even though his ERA was almost a point higher than Clemens' because he went 21-5 while Clemens went 13-8. Usually, the record difference won't be that high though. What happened to Clemens last year was little short of legendary. Again though, who is likely to get more wins: a player on a fifth place team or a player on a first place team? Nine times out of ten, it's going to be the player on a first place team. Z is likely to get hurt in the eyes of the voters by playing for the Cubs because he is going to lose some victories that he would get if he played for a good team. He's probably lost a couple wins already this year and is likely to lose another couple over the course of the last two months of the season.

Seconded. I vote for "what went right since the ump failed to call the obvious fan interference" The ump made the right call on the play. Alex Gonzalez should have made that play. It was a routine ground ball. I blame Gonzalez. Not Bartman and not the ump.

Unless you are going to New York tomorrow (which is unlikely considering the game is at 12:10 Eastern Time), you won't be seeing Prior this weekend. According to Cubs.com Hill pitches Thursday, TBA (maybe Marmol) on Friday, Maddux on Saturday, and Z on Sunday. It's Monday-Wednesday games next week against Arizona. Ah, ok. Thanks for the correction. I just reread the original post and I missed the "next week" part before.

I agree that the teams record should not be taken into consideration... but unfortunately it sometimes is. A teams record is also indirectly taken into consideration because the number one criterion used for evaluating the Cy Young winner is wins (not that it is the correct way). Who is more likely to get wins, the pitcher on a first place team or a pitcher on a fifth place team? Look at last year. Clemens was the best pitcher in the league but got no run support. Carpenter played for the best team in the league, got run support, and won the Cy Young even though his ERA was almost a point higher than Clemens' because he went 21-5 while Clemens went 13-8.

The Cy Young award isn't handed out to the pitcher who you would want on the mound in a big game, it's handed out to the pitcher who pitched the best over the course of the whole season. So far, Webb and Carpenter have pitched better than Zambrano. I'm not saying I would pick either of those two over Z in a big game, but fact is they have pitched better than Z this year. Will they continue to? Who knows. But if the Cy Young was handed out today, Z would not win it.

When a team has made the postseason a number of years in a row (re: Braves, Yankees), I tend to favor that team to make the playoffs again until they prove me wrong. But what if said team sucks this year? Atlanta plays in the NL where everybody but the Cubs, Pirates, and maybe the Nationals has a chance to make the playoffs. And the Yankees are still the Yankees.

Then again, this is the Cubs.

Z has to catch Webb before he can pull away from him. Webb is doing his part to help that happen tonight. Webb's ERA is now 2.64. And his RA is 2.98 as well now and Z's is 3.46. That's still a decent gap but not as big as the ERA gap, and IMO RA is a better factor of how much a pitcher helps his team than ERA. The difference in WHIP is now down to 0.10. Webb may still have a lead, but Z is coming on fast. Why is RA a better factor? It's not the pitcher's fault if he gives up unearned runs. Obviously unearned runs are going to affect the outcome of the game but this award is for who is the best pitcher for the year and statistics that a pitcher can't control (re: wins, unearned runs) shouldn't affect who wins the award. Don't forget about Chris Carpenter as well, who I also have in front of Z at this point.

Z has to catch Webb before he can pull away from him. Webb is doing his part to help that happen tonight. Webb's ERA is now 2.64.

When a team has made the postseason a number of years in a row (re: Braves, Yankees), I tend to favor that team to make the playoffs again until they prove me wrong.

I didn't know the Giants could play two series at once. Will this be split squad?

AL East: Boston AL Central: Detroit AL West: Anaheim AL WC: New York NL East: New York NL Central: St. Louis NL West: San Diego NL WC: Atlanta ALDS: Detroit over New York Boston over Anaheim NLDS: St. Louis over Atlanta New York over San Diego ALCS: Boston over Detroit NLCS: New York over St. Louis World Series: Boston over New York in 7 The Red Sox get revenge for 1986.

Z has to catch Webb before he can pull away from him.

HR Derby, here we come. Pujols goes deep at least twice.

Just saw this in Cbssportsline.com: According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the Mariners and Rangers are eyeing a possible trade with the Cubs to acquire infielder Todd Walker Of course, who knows how old it is. If the deal is done between the M's and Cleveland, what could we get from the Rangers? Jerry Hairston Jr.

NSBB will explode and cease to exist if Hendry does nothing.

First team to 10 runs wins...if the wind is blowing in. If it's blowing out, first to 20.

At least Prior showed improvement today.

Just trade him somewhere, let him play for a contender, and get him away from Dusty.