PhillyHoya
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Post by PhillyHoya on Mar 31, 2009 15:50:47 GMT -5
I've been posting this with my fantasy league and elsewhere and wondering what others thought. Although Simmons is a Sox fan, he illustrates the anger and apathy a lot of us have with MLB right now. My family is collectively not going to any games this year because of it.
The rant: We always talk about the tangible effects of the Steroids Era (it screwed up the numbers historically, compromised the competitiveness of the games and tainted some of the nicer memories we had as fans from 1990 to 2007), but the underrated effect was the realization that some of our greatest players were scumbags. Should we have realized this after the Pete Rose scandal? Yeah, probably. But look at some of the greats from the past 50 years. Rose lives in Vegas and spends his days betting on horse racing. Barry Bonds seemed like a truly awful person even before he let his buddy rot in jail for him. Clemens was willing to sell everyone out, even his wife and friends, to try to keep his name clean. Mark McGwire doesn't have the decency to admit that he cheated. Neither does Sammy Sosa or Raffy Palmeiro. A-Rod lied in 2008 on national TV, then lied about the lie. There are 103 names from that 2003 random drug-test list still out there, only none have the balls to come out and say, "You know what? I'm probably on there and I'm ashamed of what I did." And when you think about how many All-Stars cheated over the past two decades -- is the number 70 percent? 75 percent? 80 percent? -- the unwillingness of the commissioner's office and the player's union to apologize publicly or admit any culpability whatsoever is really staggering. Why is Bud Selig still the commissioner? THIS HAPPENED ON HIS WATCH! Why is Gene Orza still running the players' union? THIS HAPPENED ON HIS WATCH! Everyone's collective "apology" this winter seemed to be, "Let's move on, it's spring training, the World Baseball Classic will be fun, fantasy baseball is starting up ... no use crying over spilled milk." Ask yourself this: Do you feel like the players, union leaders, owners and executives even feel bad about what happened? Because I don't feel like they do. And it makes me kind of hate baseball.
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TBird41
Platinum Hoya (over 5000 posts)
"Roy! I Love All 7'2" of you Roy!"
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Post by TBird41 on Mar 31, 2009 16:00:07 GMT -5
The Twins are winning the World Series this year, so I plan on enjoying that.
(And yes, Hoyarooter, I am willing to go double or nothing on that nickel I lost to you last year and say that the Twins are finishing ahead of the White Sox in the AL Central this time and they would have last year if they'd, you know, used a method that wasn't a coin flip to decide where the play in game was).
Mauer's back will be fine, Liriano will be 95% of his pre-injury self (making him the best pitcher in the AL), Baker will be Brad Radke 2 and pitch well, Nick Blackburn and Kevin Slowey will continue improving and Joe Crede will be healthy all year. Also, Justin Morneau will once again win the MVP award, despite not really deserving it (but still hitting really well) and Joe Nathan will remain dominant, while Nick Punto will be hypnotized into believing it's an even year and will hit well (for Nick Punto).
Denard Span will continue to have really good at bats and get on base and Carlos Gomez will take the next step toward becoming the pure awesome that is his ceiling.
;D
[AKA, I have the Hoyas and Vikings to fill my negativity quotient--I need to enjoy baseball]
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hoyarooter
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Post by hoyarooter on Mar 31, 2009 16:32:04 GMT -5
What the hell. Why not? I won't rain on your parade. Twins have as good a chance as anyone of winning the AL Central this year, but I'll stick with my Sox. Double or nothing it is.
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SFHoya99
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Post by SFHoya99 on Mar 31, 2009 18:08:48 GMT -5
I'm a Padres fan.
Words cannot explain how much my sports year this year has sucked and will continue to suck.
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TBird41
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Post by TBird41 on Mar 31, 2009 18:32:58 GMT -5
I'm a Padres fan. Words cannot explain how much my sports year this year has sucked and will continue to suck. And just wait until they trade Peavy and you don't even get the joy of watching him pitch (not saying that isn't probably necessary, but still)
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TBird41
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Post by TBird41 on Apr 11, 2009 10:46:01 GMT -5
Apparently all the big market teams are too good for the MLB thread. They have to have their own threads.... And I just have to say that the White Sox playing "I'm All Out of Love" when Joe Crede came up for the first time at the Cell last night was hilarious. As was the fact that he promptly hit a home run and the Twins scoring 7 runs in an inning (apparently they saved their runs from the one game playoff for tonight ).
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hoyarooter
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Post by hoyarooter on Apr 11, 2009 11:12:25 GMT -5
Personally, when I saw that Crede hit a home run in his first at bat against the Sox, I wanted to break the window of my 42nd floor office and jump out.
Super duper start for the Sox "hitters" this year.
Also seeing the Cardinals and Dodgers blow games to the Pirates and Padres, James McDonald walk or hit four consecutive batters, and Kuroda go on the dl after one start has helped make the start of this season truly stinky. That was one hell of a debut for Motte against the Pirates.
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HealyHoya
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Victory!!!
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Post by HealyHoya on Apr 11, 2009 11:37:21 GMT -5
I'm a Padres fan. Words cannot explain how much my sports year this year has sucked and will continue to suck. Just focus on that SDSU kid who throws 101+mph gas and think of the future.
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TBird41
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Post by TBird41 on Apr 11, 2009 11:46:57 GMT -5
I'm a Padres fan. Words cannot explain how much my sports year this year has sucked and will continue to suck. Just focus on that SDSU kid who throws 101+mph gas and think of the future. Isn't Strasburg likely going to go to the Nats with the #1 pick unless they don't want to pay him? (Gotta love a league that has figured out a way to make the draft, which is meant to level the competitive playing field, into another area dominated by the haves)
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SFHoya99
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Post by SFHoya99 on Apr 11, 2009 11:57:04 GMT -5
Like TBird said, Strasburg is not making it to the Pads at #3.
He's going to be awesome.
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TBird41
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Post by TBird41 on Apr 11, 2009 12:15:05 GMT -5
Like TBird said, Strasburg is not making it to the Pads at #3. He's going to be awesome. So long as the Nats keep Dusty Baker away from him...
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hoyainspirit
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When life puts that voodoo on me, music is my gris-gris.
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Post by hoyainspirit on Apr 11, 2009 13:34:44 GMT -5
With regard to The Rant, for me, the steroids issue has not turned me off as much as has the economic imbalance amongst the teams. That said, I plan to try to be into the season more this year than I have in the past few.
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ichirohoya
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Post by ichirohoya on Apr 11, 2009 13:36:59 GMT -5
Like TBird said, Strasburg is not making it to the Pads at #3. He's going to be awesome. So long as the Nats keep Dusty Baker away from him... What? just because his hobbies include 'hitting young pitchers in the arm with a sledgehammer' doesn't necessarily mean that Dusty is bad for promising young pitchers.
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HealyHoya
Golden Hoya (over 1000 posts)
Victory!!!
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Post by HealyHoya on Apr 11, 2009 13:49:11 GMT -5
We'll see. It should be interesting to see how/whether the Nats are willing to deal with Boras, the reported $50M+ contract he's looking for and so forth.
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kchoya
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Post by kchoya on Apr 11, 2009 14:58:27 GMT -5
What the hell. Why not? I won't rain on your parade. Twins have as good a chance as anyone of winning the AL Central this year, but I'll stick with my Sox. Double or nothing it is. Y'all mean winning second place in the Central - behind the Royals of course. ;D
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TBird41
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Post by TBird41 on Apr 11, 2009 21:36:21 GMT -5
The Twins have now been shut out twice, by Jarrod Washburn and Bartolo Colon. Sadly, I am not surprised or shocked by this fact (and that's even before I take into consideration the fact that Joe Mauer hasn't played yet).
I wonder what it's like to watch a team that actually knows how to hit against a junk baller?
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PhillyHoya
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Post by PhillyHoya on Apr 13, 2009 15:38:01 GMT -5
R.I.P. Harry Kalas - The Voice of Philadelphia
All the sports relics of my childhood are going/gone. First the Vet, then Harry and the Spectrum.
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RDF
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Post by RDF on Apr 13, 2009 15:55:26 GMT -5
R.I.P. Harry Kalas - The Voice of Philadelphia All the sports relics of my childhood are going/gone. First the Vet, then Harry and the Spectrum. Harry was a great voice and not just for Phillies fans--he'll be remembered by me/many others as THE voice of NFL Films--and my years were filled with hearing him describe action on Inside the NFL and when I was really little, he would do Notre Dame replays too. Happy that he got to see Phillies win another championship--and of all things--against Tampa--where his son Todd works on the broadcast team down there. RIP Harry!!
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theexorcist
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Post by theexorcist on Apr 13, 2009 15:56:36 GMT -5
With regard to The Rant, for me, the steroids issue has not turned me off as much as has the economic imbalance amongst the teams. That said, I plan to try to be into the season more this year than I have in the past few. Economic imbalance doesn't matter. Really. Ever since 2000, there have been eight different World Series champions (Boston was the only winner of two). There have been six different Super Bowl champs. In the past nine seasons, there have been seven different Stanley Cup champs (New Jersey and Detroit won two each). The NBA Finals? Five. Baseball is so remarkably dependent on so many players and a legitimate farm system that teams that spend money must do so very wisely or else they will fail. While the Kansas City Royals and Pittsburgh Pirates toil in consistent failure, so do the Wizards and Clippers.
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SFHoya99
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Post by SFHoya99 on Apr 13, 2009 17:29:30 GMT -5
Economic imbalance absolutely does matter.
However, there is so much "noise" in the system due to front office effectiveness, injuries, etc., that people use stats like "World Series Champions" and grouping teams (ignoring there's a lot more low revenue than high, etc) to try to make a point that it doesn't make a difference. It does.
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