mstar1

So are you keeping us in suspense? Its late Saturday night, how did the Storm do ? I also checked the canaries site--That looks like a good team to follow, the birdcage looks like a very nice field to watch a game ...

Good game today-as the sox got 3 in the 8th to tie the Angels (that middle relief thing again-this time the Angels unraveled)-and won in the 11th on (what else) another Ortiz walkoff hit. Rumor has it that the Sox got turned down on Coco Crisp for Mark Buerhle today, the ChiSox apparently are still fishing for a centerfielder, but other than a nice catch here and there Crisp has been shaky at the plate and in the field. Maybe Epstein was hoping nobody was noticing

I live in a vacation area not far from you-The Berkshire Hills in Western Mass, which I have to admit is absolutely beautiful this time of year. Its probably 4 or 5 hours from you I would guess-- Its mostly geared toward the art and/or nature crowd that escape from the cities to come here. Theater, Music, Dance, tons of galleries, museums in great settings, antiquing --that type of stuff is everywhere-- or all sorts of fishing , hiking, kayaking etc in very nice natural settings or just quaint New England scenery if that be something that interests you. Its a great place to relax and unwind.(thats why I live here!) Im not exactly sure what young'uns are into, but plenty of people bring them here, Its a very family oriented place If you have any questions -ask away, I'll do the best I can

Yea thats baseball----thats life---even against KC.....Sox were up 2-1 in the 7th and looking good, then unraveled in middle relief*, although I should give the Angels some credit, who played well. I was hoping while they were in town, they could cross the river to MIT, get some scientists together and finally research the answer to how many Angels could dance on the head of a pin, but it looks like they came to play and deeper theological issues will just have to wait *if its not a 'relief' to see these guys come in shouldnt they be called something else?

ditto scary stuff paw--- Im pretty sure that it may be considered cruel and unusal punishment or a form of torture in some places to view that pic without issuing a warning first

What is he about 140 years old?

Yea well -we will see---I know he is a money type of pitcher--- or at least was --he is 43 now and battling some seriously bad knees. He tried to comeback in May, and the very first time out took a cannon shot square off his bad kneecap, which downed him for another 2 1/2 months. You could be right(lets hope so)-- the brains are putting him out there Monday without any rehab starts, so they may know something that I dont( or maybe they are just tired of bringing some one new up every week to make one start) I'd love to see him return to his old form , but in the last year and a half he has been sporadic.

Well hope that works out for you--didnt you just say you wanted a bat? ask and ye shall..... I was wanting some pitching, but Im toning it down a bit , theres about $20Million worth on the DL (David Wells, Matt Clement, and Keith Foulke) who should be coming off soon and hopefully they'll able to contribute something. With all the good young talent the Sox have coming up I dont want to see anything too risky done like '03's Freddy Sanchez, (who now leads the NL with .351) for Jeff Suppan who only made a handful of mediocre starts. The Sox a bright future and are positioned pretty well right now to toss too much away in a sellers market If we got a speed guy who could be counted on to come off the bench and steal a base when needed in the late innings, and maybe a consistant lefty bat off the bench I'd be content--but at this point one never knows

Sounds like a ball! Lets go Sioux Falls!

:blink:

If they are IVORY and not plastic imitation keys of sort, and you are leaning toward replacement, I definitely would check first to make sure that they will be replaced with genuine ivory of the same quality before they are removed, from the little that I know about pianos genuine ivory is apparently in short supply (endangered or protected species and all that) and imitation stuff is mostly used now. I'd follow Rons lead and check out all the Piano Technicians near you, I would guess that something like this has happened before (kids being kids) and if you are lucky you may find someone who has dealt with it before and found the right substance to clean and save the original keys without damaging them in the cleaning process

Gees Tom your a game and a half out, have Kansas City coming up, could conceivably be in first by this time next week and your packin' it in? I love the practical pessimism of fans who've been around the block a bunch of times, but dont forget to mix in just a tad of faith and hope every once in awhile.---eh you may be right but hang in-this is when its all fun..... The AL West plays each other so much down the stretch that its bound to stay close and be another exciting finish--anything can happen.Simon's foretelling looks very viable from my seats. Cool links btw ( as if I needed yet another excuse to stay glued to the keyboard) ..since you are passing one around.......

Yea where are your bats ? are they wilting away in the Texas sun? That must be brutal playing there this time of year . Ive been on a mini road trip, but its good to see that the Sox have come back from their week of looking like a mediocre high school team and seem to be playing reasonably well again, although these West Coast games are tough to watch that dont start until 10 or 11 my time When I was younger and more unemployed it was sort of cool to stay up and watch them, now that I am a marginally productive and an older toad Im lucky to make it until the 5th inning. The Sox station has finally figured that out and reruns the games at 6am, which is good but incredibly odd feeling to watch a game that early......... There are some absolutely ridiculous trade rumors flying around here, which seems to be a pastime with just about anyone about this time of year, the closer the deadline comes the more I think just maybe some tweaking may be in order---but you never know---we will see soon enough

Who was that Pedro? (not up on my birthdays)----I was within about 45 minutes of Shea yesterday I suppose I should have stppoed in and given him a cupcake. On a live TV interview a few years ago he was asked if he had any goals that were unrealized and he said " Yea I'd like to F*** Sandra Bullock" Oops -I spit my drink all over the TV

I got rid of mine when I burned my chaff

I have way too much time to be an adult. Its good to feel 20 every once in awhile , or else redefine what i thought 50 was going to be, learn to enjoy it, and keep a little 'young' in me. My musical tastes have changed, I cant do loud for hours on end any more bu there are other styles that are conducive to who I am that I thoroughly enjoy. I think the mud and the rain actually bonded people into the common experience, if you are enjoying yourself, its not an annoyance just something thats part of it. The gospel hour this morning had 4 really good bands, by half way through just about everyone was singing and dancin -you couldnt help it it was infectious, ---about 5000 people enjoying sunday mornin' on the side of a hill.....beats TV or wishin for the 'old days' anyway sorry to hijack the thread....

I like that guy, I cant say the same for the family that gave him a tip of 00.5% of the find for returning money that they didnt even know they had. Cheapskates. Reminds me to say always check your pockets before you throw out old clothes, I was tossing shirts one time and found a large sum of cash in one that was destined for the dump pile

Its festival season, I went to one the last few days that I enjoyed as much if not more than any ROA I ever went to, In some ways it was similar (thousands of people camped on a farm in all sorts of different arrangements, seeing old friends , making new friends, heck we even had rain and mud but no one cared) The bonus was that it is only 10 miles from home and there were no teachings to listen to just very good world class folk music of all kinds--I go every year and it is a ball.-There was singing, dancing and laughing...and good clean opening up of the clogged ways...It wasnt the ROA that was special--there is something about a gathering together of people away from the pressures of the world around any common interestthat rejuvenates and reinvigorates and reinspires people There are still plenty to go to if anyone has a yearning for that sort of thing. I personally like one or two a year. All that stuff is still out there if you want it, Ive been dancin barefoot in the mud a good part of the day and got home at 2:45am , (caked in mud dancin, playing and singing til the wee hours- a good 1/2 of the people in the crowd were my age (51)doing the same so Im not the only one either. You dont have to be a serious adult all the time you know, once in awhile its good to drop the game for a few days and have some fun. I know for me its very healthy..... Heck yes, but why does it have to be in the past ---why cant it be today? Today is all we have to bask in, There was no golden moment "back there" that cant be bettered today

You talking about Manny? I think we have two different situations, Manny can get moody ( last year the trade request was all because he couldnt go out of his house without people being all over him and his family -it got to him for a few weeks when his children got hassled----it wasnt baseball or team related really) but even then his teammates still all seem to love him and stand by him---nobody has ever said otherwise in the open anyway.... Hillenbrand took potshots at everybody and the whole organization after he left here, it seems something was going on in Toronto also and he is shooting at them as well His manager in Toronto called him a cancer, nobody has ever said that about Manny---or much of anything bad except a few media people who like to stir the pot I dont know Im not there------ and I like him as a player -but he sounds like a risk to me---but if some team really needs to plug in some RBIS and the chemistry isnt at issue he may be the guy...

well yea, I wonder about these things, especially the intense hype that goes into it, these guys being up on the mainstage with 10's of millions of viewers and the pressure to perform like a superman and what it does, and whether it is actually a good thing or not. Someone asked me a few pages back if I voted for Varitek and the answer was NO, even though it is a fun event for the players I would rather see him get 3 days off after a tough first half. I suppose that there is no way of measuring it, and in away it is good for baseball, but it seems to take too much of a toll. Especially now where "This one counts", I got news for them --all the other games count too, and I have hard time potentially sacrificing effectiveness in the 2nd half for an exhibition...... Its hard to tell, being outside the clubhouse, I liked his bat and his glove when he was here, but when he was traded in '03 stories started to come out and there were a lot of words spoken that werent pretty,(mostly coming from him) I dont know if it was coincidence or not but it was just after he left in '03 that the team started to gell , play better as a team and eventually----well you know what happened. I have no idea about his time in AZ. I dont know, its one of those hard to read intangibles that Hiway was just talking about that maybe is overblown but maybe it is real too, He's got a reasonably good batand could be about an 85RBI/ a year guy, but hes developing a track record for contraversy too that could undo whatever talent he has-- Tough call.

Well thats the whole darn trick isnt it? But then It comes down to a definition of worth and character, and how you can get to those. Everyone seems to have different opinions and different observations. I'd probably take a baseball guy over someone like DePodesta who had none in his background, but I dont see anything wrong with a combination of the two styles working together. Good GM's intrigue me, good ones seem to combine an incredibly sharp and perceptive mental focus with good baseball and human instincts--without one overriding the other---they are a rare breed . FWIW Hee Sop is hitting about .200 in AAA right now I think--he's been quiet for awhile down there

Gees good luck with the kidney stone--thats about the worse pain I have ever experienced--I hope that you pass it soon --if you havent already---good luck FWIW-you got me rereading Moneyball after The Science of Baseball talk last week--Its a good read. Did y'all hear about the Shea Hillenbrand thing?-it looks like the pressure is getting to some teams Toronto Implodes

You watching Tommy Strange? 6-4 in the 8th, I just got in--- apparently a gutty performance by Schilling Ortiz sat today, saying he has been tired since the HR derby. If I get time Im gonna look up what Derby guys have historically done in the 2nd half-we had a few examples a few pages back- I know DO has been cold since the AllStar break, maybe they should abolish the darn thing

Who's Phil Cooper? I like him already and thats the first thing of his Ive ever read. Did you ever make it to Cancun?

I have a different perspective than most of you being male, but offering a ride to someone who appears to be stranded on a brutally hot day, is something that I would do, and seems like a very decent thing to do. What do people out in the Midwest do? Drive by and leave them there? I have no idea what the culture is like out there , Around here I talk to just about everybody--wherever I am-if Im in the mood as do alot of people. Sometimes I offer a compliment out of the blue (..you look nice today...)which can start a conversation------I stop sometimes fr people that are broken down and see if they need anything, and have made some lasting friendships and some good aquaintances that way-I enjoy meeting people---99% are good, fine, sometimes a little quirky but OK, people -maybe i dont stay home and watch enough scary TV shows. He sounds like he was interested, offered you help, and didnt know where to go from there so told you that you looked nice, stammered then told you again-then didnt know exactly what to do next -so that was that. I've been the 'guy in the truck' many times, and he may be tonight thinking the same thoughts as you--(maybe not how do I know). Im not saying to not be careful and wise in what you do, not at all-- but I also do know that most of my closest friends and loves over my life I have met have been at very unexpected, unplanned and spontaneous moments when I was also willing to come outside my box and go with the moment. ..and .....you do look nice....