Vegas Halo Fan

Excellent point. Selig's hands were largely tied because of the CBA.

In many ways baseball is becoming a niche sport. For a generation of young people raised on action-based video games, MMA and other fast and/or violent sports, I constantly hear the comment that baseball is "slow" and "boring". For me, one of the big appeals is that timing is determined by the frames on the scoreboard and not a countdown clock. The game sets its own pace. There are a lot of nuances of the game that the casual fan just doesn't get.

Pretty much all of us expected either Scioscia or Dipoto to be canned after last season, and my money was on Dipoto despite the fact that I believe that much of the blame lies elsewhere. I hope that Dipoto gets the chance to at least rebuild our foundation - scouting and the farm system. Until that happens there will be no sustained excellence.

Jerry DiPoto, Angels: He’s respected in the industry but walked into a tough three-way battle with the owner and manger for control over personnel decisions. DiPoto has the least leverage of the three and someone will have to answer for the high-profile mistakes. If accurate, sounds like a nearly impossible situation.

Tina Louise is 79. Here is a photo from 2013.

One that I saw tonight seems pretty ridiculous: The Bullseye Pee Pad. Apparently your dog hits only the target in the middle when peeing on them instead of everything running off the pad - or so the sales pitch goes. But wait! There's more! If you order in the next ten minutes, we will double your order!

I saw that, and it put me firmly on Denver's side for the Super Bowl when I had no rooting interest.

Their situation is not good, and as time goes along they have less and less leverage to fix it.

I just finished listening to the Joe Tacopina interview in its entirety. A-Roid has no prayer. You would have to be a total idiot to believe his defense. Of course, if Red Sox are doing it too, I suppose that it's OK. Talk about weak attempts at deflection.

I understand this. Their IPP* is well below the MLB average. *Infield popup percentage

Don't be dissin' grits.

Here is a Joe Blanton autographed baseball on eBay. Opening bid is $4.99 (which wouldn't pay for the baseball) and there are no bids. No word on whether it is from one of his pitches that wound up in the parking lot. Grab it while you can Cheap gift for your son or grandson? Joe Blanton youth jersey. Your kid will be beaten up every day There are plenty of Blanton Phillies jerseys on eBay, most at ridiculously high prices, but the only listing for an Angels jersey besides the youth one above is an offer for an Angles jersey that can be personalized for any player. Take the plunge, and be ahead of the curve when Joe makes that Cy Young push that nobody expected.

This issue is one thing that returned Harry Reid to Washington. His opponent, Sharron Angle, was/is a raving nutbag (thank you, Tea Party), but the first nail in her political coffin was footage of her addressing hard-core right wingers stating "We need to phase Medicare and Social Security out." She first tried to deny making the statement, then she tried to soften her stance, but the damage was done. That footage ran on multiple Reid ads leading up to the election. Angle probably got less than ten percent of the vote of people 65 and older.

It would appear to be well on the way.

So about the end of April and you will jump in.

I did some looking, thinking that I couldn't have possibly found all of the funny product reviews on Amazon. Here is a page that lists some other products that have humorous reviews. The two that I listed are on there (the Huge Ships book and the banana slicer), but there are eight others I haven't read yet. For some reason it doesn't include the sugarless gummi bears. Just a quick peek at one revealed - if you want to bust a gut laughing, read the one about uranium.

Neither did I. Came as a hell of a surprise.

Precisely my point. If they are paid for their programming, why do they care where the dollars come from? I'm not watching them at all if the game I want isn't on, so they are just driving me away to watch a competitor, which I don't get.

Went to Sonic today and got a flier about this.

The truth? The only thing they protect is their right to lose me as a viewer. If my game isn't on I'm shutting the TV off and doing something else, not watching televised poker on the Fox regional affiliate. I'm no economist, but it seems to me that this equal less eyeballs on the product making it worth less. I'll bet you that if they stopped blacking out games to viewers hundreds of miles away, they would bag enough additional subscriptions for MLB Extra Innings to more than make up for any lost revenue. Of course, I don't expect Bud to do that much thinking, or to care about the people who actually pay the freight. It's an alien concept to me, increasing interest in the game by restricting access to it.

Happy birthday, Albert. Enjoy the day. You only turn 48 once.

One even better, IMO: Have you been walking down the street and been struck by a massive ocean liner or aircraft carrier? Are huge ships following you around,scaring away your friends and family? Have you lost sleep at night due to a ships's whistle? Does the Navy harass you because all the ships at the base follow you home? Don't feel alone or threatened literally billions of people deal with this problem every year and fortunately there is a quick and easy solution. Leading scientists at Pompous Blowhard University have developed this easy-to-read book to help people just like you. In this comprehensive guide you'll learn the following skills: - How to ship proof your house - How to make a scareship - How to turn your front lawn into a giant reef - How to ward off evil ships with the sign of the anchor - Where to purchase icebergs - Feel like a ship is stalking you? Learn how to hire pirates to kidnap it and sail it far away from you You'll learn and this and much much more but only if you act now! Operators are standing by

TWC put out another plea on Facebook today for people to demand that DirecTV put them back on. I had no idea that so many people feel the way I do. They are getting obliterated by people who are sick of all the reality shows and just want the weather.

I thought that you had to be at least 80 and from San Diego to be allowed to visit Laughlin.

Let us not forget the arcane blackout rules for telecasts that he has saddled us with. In every other sport, blackouts only occur within 50 miles of the stadium if the game is not sold out. With baseball, any team can claim any city as a "home market" (outside of another MLB city) and their games are automatically blacked out there unless they are broadcast on the local regional Fox network - even if the viewer has paid extra for a subscription package. This includes replays of spring training games, as I found out last year when I tried to watch a replay of an Angels spring training game on MLB Network - only to get the message, "Program is not available in your area". In other sports, blackouts are meant to protect ticket sales. Since I am obviously not going to drive to San Francisco, Oakland, Anaheim, Los Angeles, San Diego or Phoenix if a game isn't on, baseball's agenda is not to protect home teams' ticket sales, but rather to force fans to watch specific channels. Drives me nuts when the Angels are in Boston, the game is only on NESN and FS West is showing a replay of a high school football game from last year. Thanks, Bud.