mstar1

I know Hiway will love THIS article on Fukudome and......Just in time for Christmas: Mitchell Report to Name About 50 This could get uglystay tuned tomorrow at 2--get yer popcorn ready

HERE'S his stat page. I dont know how this would project into American baseball or how they evaluate that. He seems similar but less dominant than Hideki Matsui was, who is solid but seemingly a different player than he was in Japan. He has had some impressive years, but does seem to be injured often enough to warrant some concern...The big plus is that unlike DiceK there will be no posting fees since he is a free agent

How do you pronounce that name anyway? (wont go there) THIS is from about 3 weeks ago Id be a little cautious here myself, he hasnt had any of the monster years that Hideki Matsui had in Japan, and he is not going to ba another Ichiro, he would probably be solid fior someone but was hurt most of last year playing only in 63 games.. He appears to have some of the same basic mechanics as Ichiro at the plate

Alittle less 'frontpage' but I like THIS acquisition by the Sox. Buying an A team makes a lot more sense for the long run to me than spending the money on a shortlived, iffy and expensive Free Agent. I Love watching this team operate

that doesnt sound right to me either, It sounds way overblown but thats just me. It could work for them.They lost their closer, its only one year and if Gagne puts together a good season (which he is capable of doing), the Brews could either trade him at mid season (if they're out of contention), attempt to lock him up longterm, or get some draft picks for him after the year is over... Of course they could get what the Red Sox got in the 2nd half for 10mil too

Great Vid! I had forgotten how pathetic that little dance thing really was.... they actually made a big deal out of THAT? Yikes

Christmas is always the time for timeless music in new forms for me...I was very lucky to see the Preservation Hall Jazz Band last night (2ndRow!) doing a New Orleans Jazz style christmas show. I cant find any of it online, heck I cant find any of it anywhere yet, but it was masterful and a lot of fun... It was the first time I remember seeing people dancing and having a rollicking good time to christmas music. I havent smiled that much in a while..

That thing with Ellsbury happened exactly ONE DAY after he signed on with Boras. I hope it doesnt screw him up... I suppose from a financial standpoint, he could do it, but it seems stupid and shortsighted to me. There is enough Jacobylove now in Red Sox land to do him very well , if somehow he turns the fans against him even slightly by being Borassed into it, a valuable but intangible tool, his fan support, could decline and it could get rough on him... ...not yet...not even close --but people have noticed--- a few months a go to alot of people thought he was made out of magic and warm puppydogs and sunshine. That got tainted last week Boras knows how to make money but screws up peoples images badly There is a ways to go yet but if he starts being a pr**K, fans will be pr**ks right back to him.. Hopefully it wont happen, at least not for a long time yet. Thank Scott Boras for that...

Thats an interesting question I suspect Geo and Jim are pretty close, although I would bring at least a few special tools of my trade if I could. My relatives from Scotland arrived much earlier in the early 1700's I know the first mstar, known as "James the Weaver", brought his 8 1/2 months pregnant wife with him who gave birth on the ocean to "Thomas the Seaborn". They landed in Delaware, then somehow (whether they walked or what is unknown-there were no railroads at the time...)they made it to the Pa/Ohio line within a few months, where they built a cabin during the first winter. That was about as far as you could go at the time( at least with a family in tow). Somewhere they acquired at least some rudimentary tools to build their home, and acquire food to feed themselves and were also able to take care of a newborn during the journey amid encounters with bears and indians and traveling through what was pretty much wilderness. These really arent "Ellis Islanders" so the situation is different, sorry I got sidetracked-- Im sure there were some fiddles and folk instruments that came through Ellis island--, the Irish (and everybody..) brought their music with them...

I hope that he has a good year over with the Brewers, and any pick we get turns out to be another Buchholz (draft pick for losing Pedro Martinez..) I have no way of knowing if his arm is shot,,I thought that he may have been tipping his pitches or something.. He may not have been able to make the adjustment to the set up man, then after getting shelled a few times his confidence went out the window...no matter --he has his ring and a winter to figure it all out

Well I spent about 5 hours yesterday staring at "The Virtual Waitng Room" for tickets -- then said screw it and left -*&%^$#-- I wish that they could figure out some better way of ticket distribution. The 2008 season is now sold out as of yesterday, Im back to relying on either Santa or scalpers, and since I havent got a chimney--and missed those season tix on ebay --it looks like it will be back to 4 or 5 times face value if Im heading to the Fens this year

In something a little easier to take, I took this photo today: It reads: On This Site On this site in 1791 a new meetinghouse of the First Congregational Parish in Pittsfieldwas being completed when several windows were broken as a result of ball games being played in the vicinity. To protect the building, the town of Pittsfield that year voted a bylaw prohibiting the playing of "wicket, cricket, base ball, bat ball, foot ball, cat, fives or any other game or games with ball" closer than eighty yards from the building This bylaw is the first written reference to base ball in America The present building of the renamed First Church of Christ Pittsfield, Congregational replaced the 1791 meetinghouse in 1853 HERE'S the document

I'll move to another subject sone enough but I could let this ARTICLE in todays NYTIMES pass by--- Ever wonder what Arod does with his quarter of a billion dollars? Charitable foundations?? educational opportunities for the underprivileged?? alittle but not exactly,--- but if you guessed "slumlord" you were pretty darn close. Why does this guy always wonder why people dont like him?

it might be up to yuw (sorry couldnt resist) Ive heard Kemp talk already way over here for Eric Bedard or Danny Haren, but I havent seen him enough to really know... Ive also heard Juan Pierre for a bucket of baseballs and a used vacuum cleaner (from a dodger fan) but I wont comment on that.. After you talking about the Dodgers 20 year rebuilding plan I became unbelivably grateful that McCourt wasnt successful in his bid to buy the Red Sox a few years back. he actually was the lead dog and it was very close....god (shivers) thank god that didnt happen........

That didnt take long--you were ready to change your name just yesterday! An artist like you could capitalize selling a few TRUW BLUW CRUW Tshirts or some such thing while the iron is hot... The way places like cafepress make it simple it seems like anyone with an idea is in the tshirt biz now

gees its flippin cold this morning-I dont know about Laird but I'll trade a Coco for a hot coffee and a donut right now... with Andruw moving west I gotta wonder if Dodger Bluw Tshirts, paraphernalia, and variations on the theme ( The Bluw Cruw)are on the market yet... someone would be on that in about 30 seconds over here

I hjavent heard anything out of Miami...of course i was sort of locked up on ebay all morning so i havent been paying that close of attention today......who are you hearing? ... it looks like the whole Santana thing was much ado about nothing. just as well I suppose, i really like watching Jacoby and although you can never really tell with a young player i do know that he is exciting to watch and an integral part of the team right now... ... I thought we had Coco for Teagarden and ? .. a week or so ago....Theo must have not gotten my memo

If you start liking him I'll start callng you HuWah as it is Andruw looks like he is a little bit in the High Weigh zone, like Miguel Cabrera. It could work out-- he could be a 40HR guy I guess my career move as a profesiional scalper will have to wait for another day-- damn ---I almost had a real job

well-----Its not to be this time-durn it... I was the high bidder with 23 seconds left to go, and 3 people snuck in underneath me before i could refresh thats nerve wracking!!! Someone named OrangeCat won them at $7,013.13--I wonder if its the same OrangeCat who used to be here at Greasepot

Would you recognize genius? I thought that THIS EXPERIMENT by the Washington Post was one of the more evocative things reagrding human nature that I have read in a long time. The Post did an experiment. they convinced Joshus Bell, who is considered to be one of the greatest violinists of this era, to put on a TShirt and a baseball cap, and open the case to his $3.5 million Stradivarius and play for an hour in a subway station in Washington to see what would happen. A hidden camera documented that during that during a 43 minute period, while Bell played some of the greatest music ever written for the violin (opening with Bachs 14 minuteChaconne) on one of the finest instruments the world has ever seen (the so called Gibson Stradivarius)and in aplace where the acoustics were not bad. 1097 people walked by, only 7 people stopped for more than one minute. Lots of people stood in line to by lottery tickets and didnt glance his way, there is heartbreaking footage of children who wanted to stay but being dragged away by theri parents, Of The 7 who stopped, only one person recognized him and of course most ironically the music fans with Ipod earbuds missed everything. ARTICLE I dont feel quite so bad when people talk or are disintersted while I play now, it seems listeners flunked the test Here is an excerpt:

nothing says 'I love you' quite like it.....

thats my thinking Tom. I checked ebay alot last year and tickets in this area were regularly going plus or minus $200 each per game.. The Yankee games --who knows could be 500-2000---sorta crazy but thats the way it is. Im thinking the same as you that if I could dump half of them I may to get to Fenway for free and maybe a little profit---of course that is optimistic... but it all looks good on paper. All my big mouth GMing is coming into play now...I gotta see if I have the kahones to put up a few weeks in the caribbean AND a down payment on a new pickup. Putting Ellsbury and Lester for Santana looks so easy when you are only reading about it and not actually having to do it.. There is about two hours left, if the chips go much higher, I'll want to do it, but I cant go much higher and feel comfortable. Heres the list of games (all at Fenway) Thurs 4/10 Detroit FRI 4/12 NYY FRI 4/19 Texas Tue 4/22 LAA Wed 4/23 LAA Wed 4/30 Toronto Fri 5/2 TB Sat 5/3 TB Sat 5/17 Milw Sun 5/18 Milw Tues 5/20 KC Thur 6/5 TB Sat 6/7 Seattle Sun 6/8 Seattle Wed 6/11 Baltimore Sat 6/21 St. Louis Mon 6/23 Arizona Mon 7/7 Minnesota Wed 7/9 Minnesota Fri 7/11 Baltimore Sun 7/13 Baltimore Fri 7/25 NYY Mon 7/28 LAA Tue 7/29 LAA Fri 8/1 Oak Sun 8/3 Oak Tue 8/12 Texas Fri 8/15 Toronto Sat 8/16 Toronto Fri 8/29 CWS Sun 8/31 CWS Mon 9/1 Baltimore (Labor Day) Wed 9/3 Baltimore Mon 9/8 TB Wed 9/10 TB Sat 9/13 Toronto Sun 9/14 Toronto Wed 9/24 Cleveland SAT 9/27 NYY SUN 9/28 NYY PS to Hiway seats at Yankee Stadium are a little ( OK ..much ) more reasonable than this....

Im workin on it, im workin on it: Currently on Ebay 2 RED SOX 1/2 SEASON TICKETS! 40 GAMES - NICE BOX SEATS 2008! 4 YANKEE GAMES! MID-SUMMER GAMES! 1-DAY AUCTION!! Feedback: (356) 99.4% current bid: $6,100.00 Not specified 3h 48m You've been outbid. Bid again before it's too late! Important: Another bidder placed a higher maximum bid than yours, possibly days or hours before. To increase your chances of winning, enter the highest amount you would be willing to pay below. Time left: 3 hours 48 mins History: 24 bids Current bid: US $6,100.00 Your new maximum bid: US $ (Enter US $6,200.00 or more) .... My GMing is a little different

...little things like that that can go a long way.....Unless they are lining up Salty for something..(?)..he could bring a lot. I dunno, I dont understand how the Rangers work, theyve sure have been quiet for a team that has to make some moves... Watching the Santana trade is like watching paint dry..as an aside, yesterday Jacoby Ellsbury signed on with Toms favorite Scott Boras, I wonder if that had anything to do with slowing the trade down...probably not --but I wonder.. Hiway gets to watch Andruw next year. He broke all the rules and hit .222 in his walk year

Im home again--Hope you all are well.. The Tigres sure are gonna be tough next year...... Did you hear the ridiculousness of today? It must be awfully slow goings in Nashville, or someone has ahuge bone to pick.... I dont know if you remember all the flack that happened this year when a mean & menacing rent-a-cop armed with notepad and walkie talkie interrupted the game mid-inning (and mid-at-bat) to inspect Terry Franconas clothing to ensure he was wearing a uniform as required by MLB's dress code. At the time it sure seemed like an embarrassment that MLB would just as soon forget about... Apparently I was wrong... Heres todays new rule from visionary Bob WatsonThe Francona Rule Baseball America's Major League Baseball Manager of The Year will no longer be allowed to wear fleece pullovers over his jersey. Only a jersey, or an official team jacket, can be worn exposed. I'm so glad we have Bob Watson to help preserve the dignity of the game. For only the proper garments will save the sanctity of this sport. It took a real man to recognize that. A man willing to buff out the surface scratches of steroids, performance enhancements, escalating ticket prices, and embarrassing practices by the league's broadcasting networks, and look beneath the veneer to seek out and confront the true evils of the game. Please join me in saluting Bob Watson. A man for the ages. Without him, we are lost. maybe Bob can arrange a retroactive expulsion of Connie Mack next