simonzelotes

Heard on the radio this morning that the Red Sox did sign Renteria... I think my overall point is,and I have to agree with you about 30 outs vs. 27 outs and the importance of defence,is that there is no shortage of pitchers in the majors who throw over 90 mph,who have a good reportrois(how do you spell that?)of breaking and off-speed stuff,that for whatever reason don't seem to be able to 'get it' between their ears...How many hitters would be described as 'crafty' or 'the professor'?...In other words,I think you could coach along pitching moreso than hitting...Perhaps,maybe...

Keep it down,Tommy...I'm trying to get revelation on what I'm supposed to do today....

I'm not down-playing pitching....It's just the most fragile and unpredictable of the main elements of a winning team....And if your team is solely built on it,it can turn on you....The Cubs were supposed to have the best NL pitching staff in 20 years,and right out of the chute Prior was hurt,Wood and Maddux struggled,and their closer was lost for the season...The D-backs can't build a team around Randy Johnson...They were trying to compare him with Steve Carlton on the '72 Phillies,who also lost over 100 games.... Geeze,if I could type faster I could go on and on about this subject...Defence can definitely inspire good pitching...That's one of the main reasons Johnson's record was mediocre with the D-backs...His defence and him never were on the same page...Your heart and soul of a team,I don't think,will be a pitcher...It's got to be one of the guys out there every day...The Cardinals,I thought,had an average starting staff,but a hell of a line-up,and the best coaching staff for pitchers(Duncan and LaRussa)...They made it to the series,but by then,nobody was going to stop the runaway Bosox train....

I'm not so sure if the way really cost me anything....All the costs of the way's classes notwithstanding,I'm sure I would have spent my cash on other frivolous things in my youth,like pot or cheap liquor....The only two things I could remember wanting to be before my way years was a baseball player or a Hell's Angel....Since neither of those were going to happen,I think at the time,the way's alternative lifestyle was more appealing to me than the thought of going out and starting a career in the work-a-day world... Maybe it was the gypsy lifestyle that was appealing to me;the travel light,work part-time on your "earthly job" and full time for God thing,....I don't know...But the way did help me get something out of my system....just not sure what it was...So did the way really cost me,or would I have ended up ....ing away my youth elsewhere? Strangely,my oldest daughter(who spent her first 15 years in the way)went to college here,teaches school nearby,and for the most part has the rest of her life mapped out already...My other daughter,on the other hand,who remember's very little of the way,keeps fighting off the urge to drop out of college,grow her hair into dredlocks and buy a broken-down Volkswagen bus and travel...And I really don't discourage her...other than to tell her to wait 'til she finishes college...She seems to have the same restlessness that I had at her age... I'm sure many people sacrificed a lot more for the way than I did,but I could never put a 'cost' on my time spent there because I have no idea where my journey would have taken me otherwise...

Yes it really did happen....I think...Boy,you edited the hell out of that post....What's going to happen with Schilling?....AL pitchers only need to give you six good innings per start,so some of these old-timers like Wells can flourish there,although they are facing 9 real hitters a game,so maybe it's a wash...I still feel like if you can field the best starting nine batters,you can always find some pitching to pick up the slack....Down the stretch,it really was the Cubs hitting that let them down...

That's right,Tommy....I'm believing for God to take away my desire to smoke....

In a sense,they really did make you lose your spelling ability....

Okay....Thank you....And I think you're hot....

So,Excie,is soul stealing grounds for going to hell?...Do you believe in an eternal hell?.....What about purgatory?...I'm serious(sorta)...

You go shipper...You must have prayed for more boldness to speak thy word...I hope he didn't think tongues was least because God put it last...Something has to be last...

Yeah,it's something in your coffee...Just won the world series and you're already bitchin'.... He still can be a big game picher....And may be a good spot starter....A good team can afford to take chances on a guy like Wells...Face it,every other team is going to try to improve so the Sox can't just sit on what they've got...D-backs are really trying to keep Johnson,although I don't see why they don't trade him for some young position players...He wants out and they need some major re-tooling....They're missing more than a few pieces...Plus they still got a lot of bills to pay...

You don't need counseling,you need the witnessing and undershepherding class...I'm disappointed in you,fellowshipperinthecockpit,I thought you were starting to say that you 'witnessed in the cockpit' the greatness of the word or the benefits of the class...That's why you were scared...Perfect love casts out fear,and if you were witnessing the word while they were refueling the plane you would also have had the perfect peace that passeth understanding...I don't mean to preach,but like they say,'fear is sand in the machinery of life'...

I don't even remember what the Bible says about heaven and hell anymore...I tend to think that most persons' concept of the hereafter includes some sort of vengeance to the evil ones,a system of rewarding the good ones and ultimately is the great equalizer,providing an eternal "fairness" to our supposedly "unfair" mortal lives which we explain away with phrases such as "What goes around,comes around"... If there is an all just and loving and merciful God,I don't think there would be a hell...Just as nobody could earn,or deserve an eternal heaven(saved by grace),I don't believe anybody could deserve an eternal damnation of hellfire and brimstone.... I ask myself,if I woke up from death in heaven,would I really care who was in hell?....If I did,it really wouldn't seem like heaven to me... If I were St Peter at the pearly gates?...I wouldn't tell anybody to go straight to hell,do not pass go,do not collect $200....Eternity seems like a long time...Those that didn't make it would take away a little bit of the 'heaven' from those who did,unless we completely lose our minds when we get there...

I like that.....The Yugo...Call it the Wierwille Yugo,as in the "Wierwille Yugo when you die?"....

A hippo,a lion and a giraffe stop for cocktails after work...When it's time to go,the hippo says "Shoot,I'm broke,I can't pay for these drinks"...The lion says "me neither,I don't get paid 'til Friday"...The giraffe says "Oh,well,I guess the highballs are on me"...

Oh,yeah,Mstar...Ty !@$%# Cobb...I took that ball with me everywhere for a week to show it off... 66 days,huh?....Fortunately,I have an old truck to play with and occupy my time...If you mean Matt Mantei,there was a couple weeks where he was serving up gopher balls(home runs)in the ninth inning like the Salvation Army serving up soup to the homeless...It all depends on if he can get his confidence back.... Yeah....the memories..For some reason,since it's so early out here,and my mind is still a little fuzzy,what comes to mind is a rather meaningless game in another Cubs rather meaningless season,when I was working delivering appliances my apprentice corpse year...We had no radio in our truck,and it was a wild game the Cubs ended up winning 15-14 in extra innings,with Big Daddy,Rick Reuschel scoring the winning run as a pinch runner...At every stop we made,we'd either watch or listen to the rest of the current inning with the customer until our last delivery,when the driver,customer and I went berserk watching Rueschel score the winning run....Well,I guess you had to be there,but it was what I thought was a Kodak moment,anyway....

Years ago,a mean,miserly,ornery,dastardly and bastardly of a S.O.B. named Joe found out he had only a very short time left to live...So he decided to go to church for the first time in his life and make his peace with God...After sleeping through the sermon,he was wakened by the passing of the collection plate....To avoid further embarassment,he reached into his pocket,through the wad of bills,and grabbed a nickel and tossed it into the plate... The next day,he died anyway... When he got up to the pearly gates,he met St. Peter...St Pete said "Name?"...He told him "Joe...Look,St. Peter,I know I didn't live a very good life,but I was just starting to turn it around,and I went to church and even put a nickel in the collection plate the day before I died."...St.Pete says "Hmmmm,I better check with the Big Guy upstairs about you...Wait here."... St. Pete goes upstairs,knocks on God's door,and after being let in,tells God the story of Joe,then asks "Should we let him in,or not?"....God thinks for a second,then reaches into his pocket,tosses a coin to St. Pete and says "here,give Joe his nickel back and tell him to go to hell"....

I thought that was a joke at first...The sad thing is,there are a bunch of nuts out there who will pay that kind of money for those autographs....These are the people,who,to paraphrse one VPW,have "queered" the whole baseball experience for good,honest,sincere baseball fans like the rest of us(no offence meant,Tref,but I figured you Limeys don't read these baseball threads,anyhow)... Baseball has turned into a big enough money-grubbing corporate business as it is,then you also have vultures in the trading card and memorabelia business who wouldn't know a bunt from a sacrifice fly exploiting baseball's popularity into stratospheric prices for ridiculous things like an autograph or gum that was actually chewed by Luis Gonzalez... Don't get me wrong...I don't mind the casual fan...But who are these people who would pay a grand for A-Rod's or Bonds' autograph?...I mean,so you paid for their autograph at a card-signing...Who gives a shi t?...It's not like you bumped into them in an elevator or at the Family Dollar Store... I enjoy my own baseball memories more than any piece of baseball memorabelia could ever give me...One piece I do have,tho, is a baseball I bought at a thrift store for two bucks...It was very old looking,the red seams were faded,and the leather was very dried out and porous...After studying the signature on it,and seeing that it was as old as the baseball,I finally made out whose it was....Ty Cobb....Now,it may or may not be authentic,but hey,it only cost me two bucks and I have fun showing it off once in a while... Fortunately,my work's been very busy...Else I'd be climbing the walls...My son doesn't start playing ball again 'til after the holidays,and spring training is how many days away?

We're standing on God's Woooooooord! Steadfastly on God's Woooooooord! In one spirit with one mi-ind for the Lord We-re standing on God's Wooooooord! Steadfastly on God's Woooooooord! In one spirit with one mi-ind Praaaaise the Lord!

Who was George Sumner?

That's right,Tommy,and nobody can call you a Jesus Christ so-and-so...or a God...damned so-and-so....

It would be a tough one to really expose with full honesty,Hairy....For example,Mark McGwire has been retired for several years now...Unless he admits to it,how do you prove he was on steroids the year he hit 70 home runs?....But if they expose Bonds,who's still playing,does he get an asterisk and not McGwire? I think Major League Baseball will have to live with the rules it makes and enforces,and ultimately pay the price,sans asterisks * in the record books...In the "dead ball era",Babe Ruth shattered the home run record with a whopping 29 homeruns....MLB picked up on the popularity of the home run and livened the ball,and not only Ruth,but other sluggers as well(Hack Wilson-56 hr's in 1930)took advantage of the slugging era in Baseball... I agree that it cheapens the records....but hopefully with a full exposure on steroids use in MLB,baseball will return to what it once was instead of juiced up behemoths swingin' for the fences...

Tommy, Does that mean you bill them for time reading greasespot or only time spent posting?....I'm sure the time you spent on staff at HQ learnt you to work the works of him that sent you....

Tommy, It is the silliness in your soul that makes you you...and not ol' Bessie the cow or ol' Rover the dog... Now we see through a glass darkly,but then face to face shall we know even as we are known... I'm growing my hair long and a beard so's I can have the faith of Jethuth Chritht.... Tommy,the news of your mother's passing brings sadness to my soul...I know there's nothing we can say here to make your bereavement go away...Maybe give it a brief respite...All we can do is deal with death the same way we deal with life...For sure,we have no miserable comforters here...'Tho my heart hurts for you,my friend...One day....the sting of death will be gone...But until then....my ears will go on ringing....

Merry Kriston and God bless us every one...