Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Tuesday 10/23 A.M. Quickie:
Sox vs. Rox, Colts Cruise, MLB Managers, More!

Today's Names to Know: Colorado Rockies, Peyton Manning, Tony LaRussa, Joe Girardi, George Mitchell, Greg Ryan, Ronnie Brown, Jeff Jagodzinski and More!

World Series: Rox vs. Sox. What's at stake? The Rockies are attempting to close the deal on the hottest, most unprecedented finish to a season in baseball history. The Red Sox, if they win, stake their claim as the Team of the Decade.

(Longtime Quickie readers know I think that 2 titles in 4 years qualifies a team as a demi-dynasty, and 2 titles in a decade when everyone else has one qualifies a team as the Team of the Decade.)

Make no mistake: It is better for baseball and for fans everywhere if the Rockies win; the success of the Rockies gives other teams' fans hope -- all another Red Sox title does is re-affirm that he who spends the most usually wins.

Rockies ticket snafu: I was one of the 8.5 million unique users to slam the Rockies' Web site in one hour at noon ET yesterday, trying to get World Series tickets. You'd think in today's day and age, a team -- MLB Advanced Media, for gosh sakes -- would figure out that a first-time World Series appearance for the hottest team of the year in sports (yes, including the 2007 Patriots and Kansas football) might draw some interest from the locals. (Later, they said they were attacked. Yet why wouldn't they have been ready?) Actually, now that I think about it, I'm quite sure the cause of the overload came from those skeevy ticket-brokers who were trying to snap up all of the supply.

Monday Night Football: Colts thump Jags 29-7. Somehow, I don't think that the loser of a Colts-Jags blowout will go on to win the Super Bowl, as the Colts did last year. The question now is: How far apart are the Pats and Colts, by far the two best teams in the NFL. (The answer is still: Very.)

Tony LaRussa returning to the Cardinals for another two years: Now this was a bit of a surprise, given that his buddy, GM Walt Jocketty, left the team. Guess LaRussa not only liked his situation with the Cardinals (he did, after all, win a World Series with them last year), but he probably didn't like the other options out there as much. Can't blame him. Managing in St. Louis is one of the best jobs in baseball.

Yankees Manager Watch: Girardi has his interview. Given that Don Mattingly isn't ready and Tony Pena has no history with the team, I think Girardi is the right fit for this moment of Yankee history. He has the respect of the vets, but the experience managing youngsters that complements the Yankees' youth movement.

MLB PED Scandal: George Mitchell says he didn't leak the info about Paul Byrd. Do you believe him? I do, but his conflict of interest as a director of the Red Sox puts him in precisely the awkward position that we could have predicted when his investigatory role began.

Greg Ryan booted as US Women's Soccer Coach: Considering he made the managerial gaffe of the year in sports -- pulling hot goalie Hope Solo for rusty Briana Scurry -- this was an easy one to spot.

Ronnie Brown's season is over: The bad news is that, yes, the Dolphins can actually get worse. The good news for Dolphins fans is that if they keep losing, they should be in a phenomenal position to draft Arkansas' Darren McFadden, who is the second-best RB in the world RIGHT NOW, behind LaDainian Tomlinson. (Yes, D-Mac is even better than Adrian Peterson.)

NFL in London: Good thing fans in London this weekend won't know the difference between Ronnie Brown and anyone else who might replace him. More about this game later in the week.

Pro Bowl moving timing, location? Is the Pro Bowl moving to the Sunday before the Super Bowl – and away from Hawaii? Great move. The Pro Bowl has annually become the league's biggest flop, virtually its only misstep. Putting it in the open weekend before the Super Bowl – in a location NEAR the Super Bowl – will give it way more relevance.

Oh, and I was bummed to find out the league probably won't move the first round of the Draft to Friday night, but they will reduce the first round to 10 minutes per pick. (Last two items via PFT re: Mort)

California Wildfires: Are the Chargers going to have to practice and play elsewhere besides Southern California? Thoughts are with everyone in that community during this natural disaster.

CFB: From the "NOW They Tell Me" Files: The Big East acknowledged that that refs screwed up the "fair catch TD" that cost Louisville a win over UConn. Here's how they can make it up to the Cardinals and everyone else: Make "fair-catch" calls reviewable. Cripes, is that so hard?

Fantasy Football: Remember the Yahoo "celebrity" bloggers' fantasy league I was invited to play in? My team ("Worst. Name. Ever.") is getting absolutely destroyed.

Along with MJD of AOL Fanhouse, I am tied for 10th place out of 12 teams, and I am tied for 9th place in points scored. I have lost three straight games.

This past week, I had the lowest point total in the league and I was more than doubled up by the division leader, Unsilent Majority of Kissing Suzy Kolber.

Sunday, I was the subject of an email sent around to the rest of the league from With Leather's Matt Ufford: "Worst. Name. Ever. = Worst. Team. Ever." He's right:

My starting QB is a choice between Matt Schaub and Vince Young. My starting WRs are Torry Holt (a 2nd-round pick!), during the worst year in Rams history, and Ted Ginn. (Yes, Ted Ginn is my STARTER.) I had Dante Stallworth on the bench this week. And started Ted Ginn.

Worst of all, I have LaDainian Freaking Tomlinson. In previous years, LT alone would be good for playoff contention. This year, between the careful-what-you-wish-for of the No. 1 overall pick (which screws you the rest of the draft) and my pathetic personnel management, I am the dregs. It'll make my comeback that much sweeter.

(Meanwhile, I'm in the top half of the DS.com Readers League. So there's that.)

Coach of the Year Blog: It has been fun to blog about the surprising sideline successes this year in college football (I'm obviously paid by the alliterative attempts.)

But now it's time to take the gloves off: In the latest post of my CoachoftheYear.com guest-blog (in partnership with Liberty Mutual), I challenge the fans of worthy coaches who have so far done a horrendous job of supporting their coach.

Missing from the Top 25 voting standings: Jeff Jagodzinski of Boston College, which is only in the freaking Top 2 of the BCS. And Mark Mangino of Kansas, only the most unlikely success story of the season. Meanwhile, East Carolina fans have overrun the voting to vault Skip Holtz to the No. 2 spot (and he's been there since the first week of the season!)

Show some pride folks. Show some spirit. Show some support. Get to CoachOfTheYear.com now and vote for the coach you think is most worthy of the Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year Award this year.

(Full disclosure: As should be plainly evident, I am in a business relationship with Liberty Mutual and their production company to produce the CoachOfTheYear.com blog.)

Special stand-alone post coming later this morning about Rick Reilly and the future of Sports Illustrated.

-- D.S.

82 comments:

pv845 said...

Go Rockies!

As for the Colts - Pats and the alleged Pats superiority: I say to be the man, you have to beat the man and last time I checked, the Colts are the man!

How can you miss Mangino in the coach of the year poll? He is like 500 lbs.?

Mike said...

many west coast red sox fans are also trying to get tickets in denver. red sox nation is all over the country! we travel to see the ones we love. booyah

DP said...

i have to agree with PV845, the Pats were aided by activist officiating in Dallas. They seem more concerned with running up the score than actually playing D. (look at how many points they have allowed) while Indy is scoring when they want to and then just letting their D take care of the rest. The pats might beat Indy, but they seem incapable of stopping the lowly dolphins from scoring 28 and had to rely and three drive in a row ending in bad calls by the refs in Dallas in order to win the game. So they ahve played scrubs, and beat a team that has only beaten scrubs with the help of the zebras. So, yeah, they still need to beat the Colts to be credible. if they do that, I will give them the status that everyone else does.

billsimmonscandie.blogspot.com

Clinton (Indianapolis) said...

The most glaring drawback to having the Pro Bowl on the weekend before the Super Bowl is that you won't have any players from the two conference champions. The risk of injury is simply too great.

Big D said...

Yeah, thanks for bringing up the DS Readers league, since my only loss, somehow, came at the hands of the GatorCats.

Big D said...

@ clinton:

Honestly, how often do players from Super Bowl teams actually participate in the Pro Bowl anyway? usually they use the excuse of being too tired to play and just enjoy the Hawaii weather.

CMFost said...

changing the Pro Bowl is a bad idea, maybe moving it out of Hawaii to a place that would be easier for players to get to say Las Vegas is a better Idea. Especially as Clinton said you will not have any of the players from the super bowl teams playing and those teams normally have a lot of pro bowlers.

CMFost said...

2 things on George Mitchell

1. If he was the one who leaked the information would it not of been better for him to do it the morning of game #4 when Byrd pitched

2. From what I heard this game out from the big arrests in Florida and New York and had nothing to do with the Mitchell investigation.

CMFost said...

Hey Dan since when is 6th place out of 10 teams considered the top half of the league?

Clinton (Indianapolis) said...

Regarding Colts-Pats:

The record of IND's opponents: 20-18

The record of NE's opponents: 17-28

5 of NE's 7 victims are ranked 27, 28, 29, 31 and 32 in terms of defense.

The worst ranked defense the Colts have faced so far is 22nd.

I'm just saying...

Luke Bell said...

Wait, you drafted Ted Ginn Jr. and actually expected to compete? Good one, Dan.

Clinton (Indianapolis) said...

@ big d:

I know that the Colts players played in the Pro Bowl last year, but that may be the exception to the rule.

Moving the Pro Bowl to the week before the Super Bowl, however, eliminates the "I'm too tired" excuse. So, the risk of injury becomes the driving factor for people not playing.

bkelly126 said...

@cmfost
game 4 wasn't a must win for the Sox, but by leaking the info before game 7 it put even more pressure on and gave the Indians another distraction when they had to win

wolverine425 said...

DS: Rockies ticket snafu: I was one of the 8.5 million unique users to slam the Rockies' Web site in one hour at noon ET yesterday, trying to get World Series tickets. You'd think in today's day and age, a team -- MLB Advanced Media, for gosh sakes -- would figure out that a first-time World Series appearance for the hottest team of the year in sports (yes, including the 2007 Patriots and Kansas football) might draw some interest from the locals. (Later, they said they were attacked. Yet why wouldn't they have been ready?) Actually, now that I think about it, I'm quite sure the cause of the overload came from those skeevy ticket-brokers who were trying to snap up all of the supply.

I agree that brokers SUCK...but why did the Rockies wait until 2 days before game 1 of the WS to put them on sale? Most teams that are in a LCS put the ticket up for sale DURING the LCS to avoid this rush. I understand it is their first time to the series but they had to be aware that they were playing one of the most popular teams in the league, and those fans were trying to buy tickets too. Honest mistake I guess, hope they learned from it, and I hope that the majority of people who got tickets are the real fans who deserve to go to the game, not some schmuck CEO or corporate bigwig who just want to say they went to the World Series. Go ROX, beat the SOX!! ROX in 6.

CMFost said...

Ok but the best offense the Colts have played against is ranked 8th in Houston who was playing without there best receiver.

They also played teams with 27th(NO),13th(Ten),26th(Den),24th(TB) and 23rd(Jax) ranked offenses

The Patriots have played the #2 Offense in Dallas, #4(Cin), #5 (Cle), #11 (SD), #12(Mia) and #29(Buf)
and they have won every game by 17+ points. The only problem with there defense is that they are giving up points to good offenses after they have had big leads.

The Colts have given up 1.3 less points per game then the Patriots and have faced worse offenses.

CMFost said...

actually according to the Rockies web site only a few hundred fans got tickets and they are putting the tickets back on sale today at noon.

Clinton (Indianapolis) said...

@ cmfost:

That's a good point, too. I think we can both find stats to support our teams either way, and I would argue these teams are a lot closer than DS suggests.

kenjab said...

Dan,

That must've been some horrible drafting on your part. In both leagues I'm in the team with the #1 overall pick (me in one league) is dominating. Along with LT, I was able to draft Randy Moss AND Chad Johnson. In the other league (8-team), the guy was able to draft Brady after LT. Yes, his team is sick and undefeated.

CMFost said...

I do not think we will know which team is better between the Patriots and the Colts until about 7:30 PM on Sunday, November 4th when the game is over.

CMFost said...

It is killing me that the only Fantasy League that my team totally sucks in is the DS.com readers league.

jhawkjjm said...

From what ESPN news was saying, the reporter for the SF paper said they had the story on Friday and had contacted the Indians then that the story would be running. Now whether that makes it even sketchier or not...?

CMFost said...

I guess the only thing that will make people not think Mitchell was the league is if the reporter from the SF Paper came out and named his source.

Toby said...

"they should be in a phenomenal position to draft Arkansas' Darren McFadden, who is the second-best RB in the world RIGHT NOW, behind LaDainian Tomlinson."

If McFadden played for Wisconsin rather than Arkansas, you would have him being drafted in the 2nd round.

I understand the point of making wildly idiotic statements like this...if one is right you get to claim you are a genius (kind of like your college football upset special picks), while when the other 8000 are wrong you can say, "hey, I was wrong, i went out on a limb and was incorrect.". With that said, this quickly moves to the top of the list as the single dumbest statement ever made by you.

marcomarco said...

MLB PED Scandal: George Mitchell says he didn't leak the info about Paul Byrd. Do you believe him? I do, but his conflict of interest as a director of the Red Sox puts him in precisely the awkward position that we could have predicted when his investigatory role began.

If Mitchell was acting in the Sox interests, he would've 'leaked' the Byrd info before he blanked them in game 4.

Gonzo said...

How does a Red Sox win "re-affirm that he who spends the most usually wins"? The team with the highest payroll in baseball is sitting at home and hasn't won a title in seven years.

In the first round of the playoffs, the team with the higher payroll lost 3 out of four series. The Red sox have had the second higest payroll in baseball almost every year since 2001 and at best they will have 2 titles to show for it.

Payroll disparity is not a major problem. Crappy management is.

marcomarco said...

and CM beat me to the punch on that comment.

Jingoist said...

Let's face it the Pro Bowl is a mockery anyway. Why even play the game? Just name end of season superlatives (1st team/2nd team) and call it a day. Of course, the NFL would lose all that Pro Bowl replica jersey revenue from the 4 fans that buy one, but hey.

Sox vs. Rox? I read an interesting point yesterday (h/t either Crasnick or Caple- I don't remember) that MLB scouts called the Sox/Indians series the "varsity tournament". While that may be true, I think that is waaay underestimating the Rockies' chances (and I say that being a lifelong Red Sox fan!). I do feel the Rockies pitching top to bottom is weaker, but I think their "O" can go.

And the next time I hear Merrill Hodge speak, I hope it's the last (his ignorance- and poor tie choices- has reached mythical heights). MH suggested on SportsCener last night (and replayed this AM) that the Colts were definitely the best team in the NFL this year.

Look, I am all for the idea that "you gotta beat 'da man to BE 'da man". But Merrill, seriously man, how did you keep a straight face?

bkelly126 said...

if you were the dolphins, would you pass up a qb (brohm or woodson) for mcfadden when your current rb was off to his best start ever before his injury? you're not building a fantasy team, and in the nfl it starts at qb

Oberon said...

Just as I said after you drafted, your fantasy team sucks. You should've taken my advice at the end of 2 beginning of 3. Ug. How do guys who watch so much football (you, PK, etc) know so little about the players?

Pats/Colts will be a matchup for the ages. What a weekend it's shaping out to be!

Unknown said...

Announcers in MNF were partially correct last night about Colts-NE not being THE game. Maybe the game of the regular season. However both the Colts and Pats will most likely have the first round bye. I think the matchup in 2 weeks is for homefield advantage which could be crucial for the AFC championship. It still should be a great game and highest rated one of the regular season.

Unknown said...

World Series

I have to root for the Rockies simply because I can't root for the Red Sox. However, my unbiased analysis is that the Red Sox are simply a better team all around. The Rockies beat them 2 out of 3 in the regular season but overall, the Red Sox have played much tougher competition in a much tougher league. Their starting pitching is solid and so is their bullpen. Ortiz and Manny are a great 1-2 punch and surround them with other good hitters such as Youkalis and Lowell and that is tough to stop.

21/22 is impressive but like they say, momentum in baseball is only as good as the next day's starting pitcher.

Unknown said...

I like McFadden on the Dolphins. Who knows if Ronnie Brown will ever be the same? Who says he won't be like Deuce McAllister and tear it again in a year or so. They've got Beck on the bench, if the season is over (no Ronnie B, trade Chambers) let him play already.

CMFost said...

One of the big problems for the Red Sox will be who do they sit when they play in Colorado. Do you sit Ortiz? Do you sit one of your hottest hitters in Youkillis or Do you sit Lowell?

Jingoist said...

This is me offering to Manage Dan's "Worst. Name. Ever." team for him.

Dan, I was taking this Fantasy season off, but for you, I'll come out of retirement and save your season. Just email me the league link, your name and password for the league and I'll be happy to pull you out of the basement. (You have my email.)

Just think of yourself like Cam Cameron or Scott Linehan. You know you're done anyway, so it's best if you part ways now.

I'm not joking here.

Darklawdog said...

I pray that the Red Sox lose in 4 just like I prayed the Cubs would lose in 3.

I doubt it will happen because Beckett is just amazing when the pressure is on, but a man can still hope.

I have no vested rooting interest in the World Series (the playoffs for that matter) so I have to hope that teams I hate lose.

Unknown said...

If anyone was wondering who was in first place of the Daily Quickie Readers Fantasy Football League...

It's me. But I just lost Ronnie Brown. ACL are the worst three letters ever.

marcomarco said...

@ cmfost

Does Lowell play shortstop?

Youk at Third
Ortiz at First

MDT said...

I'm with Jingoist. The only way to fix the Pro Bowl is to put it out of its misery. More people might watch it the week before the Super Bowl, but they're still going to be well aware of how big a joke it is when there's still one meaningful game to be played in the season. And is it really a Pro Bowl if there's a (near) guarantee that either Brady or Manning will be sitting out BEFORE you get to the people who sit out simply to dodge the game?

CMFost said...

@marco
Does Lowell play shortstop?
Youk at Third
Ortiz at First


No but I do remember a game that Youk played Second base and Pedroia was a SS in college.

Ortiz - 1B
Youk - 2B
Pedroia - SS
Lowell - 3B

You are probably hurting your defense a lot but it should be made up for in the increased offense.

Steve said...

Why does Dan keep disrespecting the Rams like this. Miami's not going to have the #1 pick. The Rams are by far the worst team in the league and it isn't even close. They have the worst offense in the league at 11 points a game and their defense is also terrible giving up almost 30 a game.

Doug said...

Dan, it could be worse. I'm 2nd in my league in points scored (71.2/week), yet I'm 2-5. My opponents are scoring 80.85/week against me.

JJ said...

That McFadden comment is completely insane. You at least have to use some justification if you're going to say something with that gigantic a level of hyperbole.

The kid is having a relatively average season against inferior (to the NFL) athletic competition.

AP on the other hand is having a rather impressive year, when you consider his limited number of touches, against superior athletic competition.

So why is McFadden so much better than him or most other NFL running backs?

Trey (formerly TF) said...

MDT said...
I'm with Jingoist. The only way to fix the Pro Bowl is to put it out of its misery. More people might watch it the week before the Super Bowl, but they're still going to be well aware of how big a joke it is when there's still one meaningful game to be played in the season. And is it really a Pro Bowl if there's a (near) guarantee that either Brady or Manning will be sitting out BEFORE you get to the people who sit out simply to dodge the game?


Agreed. It's pointless.The game started as a way forthe NFL to promote itself because they were struggling for fans.

Now it's lost total relevance and is nothing more than a opportunity for injuries. The NFL needs NO promotion.

I have never watched a game, and probably never will, but I'm defiitly not the only one, ratings show that

bkelly126 said...

in defense of mcfadden, arkansas has dick at qb (Zing!) and defenses are putting 8 to 9 in the box to stop him. he's still put up near 1000 yards this season. he's good, but it is too early to declare him better than half the backs in the league.

also, felix jones has as many tds as mcfadden and almost as many yards in half the carries...interesting

Unknown said...

There is no possible way to argue that McFadden is better than Ronnie Brown, Willie Parker, Adrian Peterson, Steven Jackson, Larry Johnson, Brain Westbrook, Joseph Addai, and probably 5 other NFL running backs. Assuming we are saying "better" including the skill level of guys that are injured or not 100% you can throw in more guys like Shaun Alexander as well.

Erik Huntoon said...

I don't think moving the Pro Bowl to the Sunday before the Superbowl is going to fix it. When you consider that the 2 teams getting set to play the Superbowl are most likely going to have a number of Pro Bowl players, none of those players is going to risk getting injured in a meaningless exhibition game the week before the championship is decided. So let's pretend this change had occured last year.. Do you think Peyton Manning, Reggie Wayne, Marvin Harrison, Jeff Saturday, Brian Urlacher, etc (can't remember who all went from the Bears) would have played the weekend before the Superbowl? Do you really think the Pro Bowl is better off when a massive chunk of the all-stars still skip out because they are waiting to play in the BIG game?

Did anyone catch Steve Young after MNF last night regarding the Colts - Pats? Damn that was awesome and I give him props for saying what most intelligent sports fans already know. The Colts-Pats game is going to be good, but it is NOT the end all be all game. I wonder if a producer of ESPN pulled him aside afterwards.. I swear I thought Emmitt Smith or Stuart Scott might get up and throw a punch there at one point. That was almost more entertaining then the game itself.

Oh yeah.. and new drinking game.. Watch MNF and everytime Tom Brady or the Patriots are mentioned, take a drink. Surefire way to get f*cked up good with all the schlurping going on. There were moments I was wondering if the Pats were on the field wearing another teams jersey last night.. /sigh

starkweather said...

McFadden is generally considered the top offensive prospect in the draft, so it's actually not a dumb comment on Dan's part. Wouldn't be the first time a rookie came in and was immediately the best RB in the NFL. See the careers of Jim Brown, O.J. Simpson, Earl Campbell, Eric Dickerson and Barry Sanders for reference.

Still, he's probably not going #1. If the Dolphins don't take Dorsey or Long (or even Calais Campbell), they'll probably take one of the QB's. I don't see them spending that kind of money on a running back. And the draft never ends up the way it looks in October. Otherwise Randy Moss would have gone top 5.

As to the other major topics: Colts over Patriots, and again I say Rockies beat the Red Sox.

Unknown said...

@ jd

who's is AP?

Darklawdog said...

Adrian Peterson (AP)

chipp said...

Sit Ortiz in COL. If he doesn't hit it out he will get to winded running to first and get thrown out at first after a gapper. He'll need to take a breather just coming up out of the dugout.

Don't discount COL's HFA; Sox won't win in COL, so they need to take all four at home which probably won't happen.

Rox in 6.

chipp said...

Is the WS 2-2-1-1-1 or 2-3-2?

CMFost said...

Chipp - 2-3-2

CMFost said...

Looks like there will be a little shake up in the Red Sox Rotation for the World Series

Game #1 - Beckett
Game #2 - Wakefield
Game #3 - Schilling
Game #4 - Dice-K

Unknown said...

Beckett is pitching on short rest?
Seems risky to me.

Unknown said...

Have to agree with all the commenters, pro bowl in the NFL is irrelevant. I know a lot of big football fans and the most anyone will do is tune in for a few minutes - at most.

Baseball is still the best all star game and the only one I watch. I know quite a few who get excited about the NBA or NHL games.

Problem is football is such a brutal game and takes its toll. The players don't play all out, nobody wants to get hurt and they are all tired and most are out of shape since the season ended 5 weeks earlier. Players used to use it as a free week long vacation in Hawaii. Now they won't even have that.

JFreak said...

Shamhoff, you're a fraud.

I can't believe you deleted comments because they disagree with you.

You are a sham.

You don't deserve all of these readers.

Dan Shanoff said...

Didn't delete the comments because I disagreed with them. I hid the comments and cut them off because if you're not going to have something intelligent to contribute to the conversation, I don't have to be a forum for douchebaggery. You've got your own blog for that.

CMFost said...

cycledan - Beckett pitching in Game #1 would be pitching on normal 4 days rest.

Dan Shanoff said...

BTW, I never claimed to deserve any readers. I think you're projecting your own insecurities at this point.

JFreak said...

I didn't even write any of that.

You censored your own readers.

So people think Leitch can't handle the SI job, why should you care? They don't have the ability to hire him.

And you believe that the discussion on the merits of Will as a writer wasn't intelligent? You brought the topic forth, and your readers responded in a civil manner.

Trey (formerly TF) said...

"douchebaggery" - awesome!

JFreak said...

I don't deserve any readers, I'm a horrible writer. I haven't suggested otherwise.

Unknown said...

His nickname is AD not AP. It stands for All Day

Anonymous said...

Shanoff these were your lemmings that turned against you. This wasn't an unprovoked attack.

Your incessant slurping of this Leitch guy was awful.

Is this your final attempt to get Leitch to hire you full time?

Your final, desperate attempt to get a full time gig on Deadspin?

When will you reach rock bottom?

Have you roamed the streets of NYC with a scraggly beard, clutching a carton of milk yet?

Face it Shammy, you have no talent and you suck. Instead of relying on schtick and gratitous brown nosing, try to come up with some original content.

pv845 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jen said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
pv845 said...

I don't know what was posted on your newer post after my comment, Dan, but if mine was one that was out of line, I apologize.

I think that Beckett on short rest is risky. Then again, I think Beckett on short rest beats, Shilling, Dice-k, or Wakefield based on each's last 5 performances.

On a side-note, knowing how the thin air in Denver can affect a ball, does that help or hinder Wakefield's knuckle?

tem said...

"I don't have to be a forum for douchebaggery. You've got your own blog for that."


this was actually pretty funny. which makes me think that shamford is having someone else write for him right now.

tem said...

jen you and i need to hang out more.

Dan Shanoff said...

"You censored your own readers." This is a common refrain from you, I think. I think you need to lighten up, Francis. I'm not the government. "Censoring" seems like a bit of a stretch in this context, I'm sorry.

All the commenters on the blog enter into a social compact where they put up with my inane shallow ramblings and I love to provide a forum for their far more interesting and enlightened comments on those ramblings, even when I don't agree with them.

But all the commenters also know that, when I can, I don't put up with tactics intended only to vandalize the experience for them. That's why commenters stop commenting when the comments section devolves into vandalism. In effect, they censor themselves.

I could go back through the Reilly post and delete all the off-topic comments -- for the moment, I wanted to cut things off and put things behind a wall. Maybe I will, maybe I won't. Regular commenters understand.

But "censor?" Please. I'm the one who has the monopoly on hysterical analysis -- try to leave it to the pros.

CMFost said...

PV845- Beckett pitched game #5 on Thursday Night, he will have had 4 days of rest (Sat,SUn, MOn and Tues) before starting on wednesday which would be normal rest.

As for Wakefield and Coors Field I think that is the reasoning behind starting him at fenway and it also allows the Sox to get Schilling and Dice-K a couple of extra days rest.

BLUE said...

Dan-

While I know we've created our own hijinx here at times, i'm actually appalled at the fact you shut down the comments on your "rick reilly" post, which in turn was actually a I ♥ Will Leitch post.

The whole idea behind a blog is that you can write something and get immediate feedback and feel the pulse of your "readers". The fact that you chose to censor those opinions makes you no better than ESPN. The fact that you think that it holds some journalistic integrity, makes you a laughingstock. If you go back and read the comments. All of them ALL of them were from your regular readers, not from the kids that like to play in the sandbox here from time to time.

If you think that the comments were disrespectful to Will, then by all means say that. If you think they were disrespectful to you, again say that. But to just shut off the flow of communication because you think people are just saying shit to be funny. That's stupid. You don't care about opinions, you're a blogtator. And while I agree that this is not a blogocracy, blogtatorships are not what this "new media" that you are so found of, is about.

Grow a pair and admit when you are off base about a subject, even if you believe in it. That will make you a true writer, not hiding behind your wife's skirt everytime people disagree with you.

I say good day to you.

♥ Blue

Dan Shanoff said...

Unbelievably, that was the most cogent, least terrorizing comment that my No. 1 fan "Blue" has ever made.

pv845 said...

@ CMFost: I forgot it was game 5. For some reason, I thought it was game 6 which would have been short rest. 4 days is plenty.

tem said...

blue > shamford.

tem said...

shamford, having any luck getting those rockies tickets?

BLUE said...

i'm making a t-shirt

Anonymous said...

But all the commenters also know that, when I can, I don't put up with tactics intended only to vandalize the experience for them. That's why commenters stop commenting when the comments section devolves into vandalism. In effect, they censor themselves.


wow. I hope your pocket protector didn't fall out when you were typing this.

JFreak said...

Please, put the comments up for all to review. We can help you determine what's off topic.

I must be missing something, because as I was reading, all I saw was discussion on whether or not WL was a good candidate and his merits as a writer.

My question is, why would you even bring it up if you didn't want to hear what people had to say?

to censor: (v) to delete (a word or passage of text) in one's capacity as a censor.

I'm not one to go too in depth in the English language, but it seems, by definition, you are censoring people's thoughts.

Dan Shanoff said...

For the record, there was one comment -- from one of your boys, Blue, so congrats on that -- that triggered me hiding the comments. I had and have no problems with any arguments made about the post on the merits of the argument or the subject. (I'm still kind of shocked that Blue actually strung together a reasonable string of points, although I disagree with a bunch of them -- on their merits.)

pv845 said...

Go Dan!

@ The Lordz of Douchebaggery: we all have ppsted comments that various readers think are out of line, but how do all of your post of the ENTIRE TMQ article or passages from teh bible or Shakespear help contribute to the debate. You are annoying, a bunch of pests that think your comments are hilarious while everyone else here thinks you are tools. If you have something humorous to say or post do it on your site.

Anonymous said...

put on your Florida Gators cheerleader's outfit, break out the blue and orange pom poms and do some cheers. It'll lift your spirits after today's disaster.

It pays to be a lifelong Gaytor fan right?