Vegas Halo Fan

I wonder how long this guy had to dig to find something that Trout was "historically bad" at.

I'm sure that we are all in a lot more danger - at least that is what the people at The Weather Channel would like for us to believe. TWC says that they are asking for a penny more per subscriber while DTV says it is quite a bit more than that. DTV has replaced TWC with their own weather station, Weather Nation. TWC, trying to up the ante, says that DTV is endangering their subscribers by depriving them of potentially life-saving information. For the moment, at least, The Weather Channel is off DirecTV due to a rate dispute. DTV says that one thing that prompted the move was customer complaints about TWC's programming, specifically reality shows. My own experience has been that I have sometimes had to wait for 20 minutes or more to get an actual weather forecast because of such life-saving programs as Prospectors, Coast Guard Alaska and It Could Happen Tomorrow. TWC devotes as much as 40 percent of their air time to programming other than weather, which is supposedly their primary mission. By the time you add in commercials, I am certain that the amount of time they spend actually keeping people informed about the weather is less than half the time they are on the air. I'm sure it is much more important for me to know what thickness of garage door will withstand a 2X4 fired out of a cannon at 70 MPH than it is for me to know that a storm may be moving in. TWC has also started naming winter storms much like hurricanes, to increase their importance, I presume. My own take on it: TWC lost the plot when they decided to add entertainment programming to their weather coverage. I used to be able to tune to TWC any hour of the day or night and apart from a brief commercial break here and there,see weather conditions and forecasts across the country. Now I have to endure literally hours of reality programming (as if I have nowhere else to find it) hoping to find a break of a few minutes to find out what is coming later tonight or tomorrow. WN is what TWC used to be: Purely weather programming. Honestly, I don't care if I ever see Jim Cantore again. I had rather keep Weather Nation. Now, if you will excuse me, I have to find an online feed of When Weather Changed History to see the impact of weather on the D-Day invasion.

...and tell everybody that his childhood nickname was Bear.

Guess I'll coach the Cleveland Browns next year, since nobody else seems to want the job. I can buy a house in Cleveland for about $1.50 and the rest will be gravy.

Rather fitting that they chose a cartoon.

I will defer to you on the inside stuff, since you are much closer to the situation than I am. I wasn't bothered at all by the talk of the commercial. It is a lot like what the gulf coast states did after the BP oil spill was cleaned up. It was a signal to the rest of the country that "We're open for business, come and see us." Just smart advertising, IMO.

That is my question.

To extend it a little further, my grandfather died the day after my mother's birthday, my father two days after that. My grandfather's death was expected. He was 100 years old and had just had a heart attack. My father's wasn't. He had just come back from the hospital after being treated for a respiratory infection but was supposedly fine. My sister debated about telling him about my grandfather's death but she decided that he deserved to know. Two days later, both of them were gone. I didn't go to my grandfather's funeral (in Newfoundland) because I had just been informed that I was being laid off. Had I gone, I would have found out the night before my grandfather's funeral that my father had died, and I would have had to divert to Florida before returning to Las Vegas.

Probably the best he could come up with, with that analytical mind of his.

After my last remark I decided to do a comparison, to see how many home runs that Wells and Blanton have accounted for with the Angels. VDub hit 25 HR in 2011 and 11 in 2012 for a total of 36 with the Angels. Blanton surrendered 29 home runs last year, so pretty close. JoeBlo's total beats Vernon's best season, if you want to look at it that way. One bit of suckage that really jumped out at me: Blanton surrendered 180 hits and 34 walks in 132.2 IP. That is a hell of a lot of baserunners.

At least both of them accounted for their share of home runs. There is a word on Blanton, and that word is sucks.

I will have to find the interview. I had to go inside just as Cowherd was beginning to box the guy in. I'm not a big Cowherd fan, but he said before this guy came on the air that it wasn't going to be a fluff interview and that tough questions would be asked. He was true to his word. A-Roid's entire defense seems to boil down to this: 1. Everyone is lying but me. 2. I was taken advantage of by an unscrupulous man who deceived me. 3. Everyone involved in this should be punished except me. 4. Selig is out to get me. Looks solid. I would go with it, Alex.

I didn't realize that Carlos Zambrano was back with the Cubs.

I suppose that he can post when he finds one. IMO you have made a compelling case. Durability is a big plus, and if it only takes a two-year contract it's worth the risk, IMO. Much more solid recent history than Joe Blanton, who he has drawn comparisons to. Besides, we have Mike Butcher to fix anything that goes wrong.

I would put the ass percentage at considerably more than half.

I was really hoping that tragedy and sadness would not come calling on you this holiday season. It can be a very rough time of year. I lost my father and my grandfather two days apart in January 2000 (the anniversary is coming up in a couple of weeks), and my mother died on my father's birthday in October 1984. I can identify. Like you, my father imparted on me both my work ethic and my love for this great game. Maybe they have met in Heaven and the two of them are talking baseball. As always, a great job of writing. My thoughts and prayers are with you at this time of great loss.

Colin Cowherd had A-Roid's lawyer on this morning. I had to go in for work, so I only caught the first few minutes. This guy is as much of a sewer dweller as A-Roid himself (hard to believe he would hire someone with the same level of character, I know). This guy believes he is skilled at muddying the water, but he came across as a total buffoon who is certain that he is really convincing. For instance, he is still selling the tired old line that A-Roid believed that this was nothing more than nutrition, that it didn't come out until much later that he was dealing PEDs. This lawyer really believes that we will buy that A-Roid found out along with the rest of us that this guy was dirty. The lawyer also tried to advance the argument that because A-Roid has had subpar seasons the past three years, he had no reason to believe that he was taking PEDs because they didn't work - another totally lame statement. He totally ducked the question about A-Roid not testifying, as he was trying to discredit Selig for not doing. He had no meaningful reply when Cowherd pressed him about A-Roid storming out of the hearing, immediately running to the studio where a sympathetic sports broadcaster was on the air, and spilling his guts about nothing. One of ESPN's legal analysts said that A-Roid's lawsuit is going to end quickly, and it isn't going to go well for him. He said that federal courts have shown a complete reluctance to overturn the rulings of arbitrators in cases like this, and that his argument about Selig not personally taking the stand isn't going anywhere either. When major companies get sued, or are suing someone else, it is the rare exception that the CEO will personally take the stand. The other part of the equation is that by being a member of the MLBPA, which ratified the current setup under baseball's collective bargaining agreement, A-Roid agreed to participate in, and abide by the findings of, this process he calls a "farce" because it didn't go his way.

This has been my point all along. This franchise absolutely cannot blow it on another high-priced free agent with a lengthy contract. We aren't the Yankees, just casting such players aside and picking up another one. There is a limit to what can be spent. If the Angels do this, we will see how it unfolds. People just need to know that this deal would come with a lot of implications for the future, some of them potentially devastating.

I also wonder what would have happened to him had he accepted the offer to go to Colombia and "lay low until this blows over". He would probably have never been seen again.

I have to give Bosch credit. He says that had he not been caught, he would still be doing the same thing. I'm sure that is an honest statement. It is clear that A-Roid was both purchasing and using PEDs. They even have texts from him to Bosch praising the bounce that he got from a particular mixture - and asking what he had for the next big night he had coming up.

I rarely vote for Republicans (so far the only one has been Reagan, who I voted for twice), and I was considering Christie as an alternative in 2016. This casts an entirely different light on things.

The full 60 Minutes episode from January 12, 2014 There are a lot of stories summarizing what he said, including one from a Yankees fan site. New York Daily News PinstripeAlley.com The Sporting News Sports Illustrated CBS Sports Bleacher Report

I have never gotten a group message, so I have never encountered this issue.

I wouldn't be against giving him an invitation to spring training with no guarantees.

It's interesting that, for all the grousing about the writers' vote, we would have elected the same three men they did, and no more.