Youk Of The Nation

My stepfather was watching last night, I happened to notice as I was cleaning and stopped to watch skiing for a minute or two. Did I see Kazakhstan in the running for skiing?

No it doesn't...baseball is played on a field. "Court" makes no sense at all!

My ulcer agrees with you.

I had never heard of Simon Templar, I had to google it. Since it was obviously Moore in the picture, I just assumed it was James Bond with the halo photoshopped in.

We get the point. Parents are responsible for every single act their children commit. As we all know, no child raised by a drug addict, murderer, or neglectful parent has ever done anything positive, so naturally the reverse must be true as well. But by all means, continue to post the same single-sentence denouncement of Remy's parenting skills, based on your extensive knowledge of the situation.

Soriano is a few years away from going to bed at 9PM and watching daytime court shows at high volume. His stats would probably be HOF-worthy if he hadn't lost a couple years to service in the Korean War. Beltran had a good season, but given recent history it's very reasonable to label him a "question mark". In the last five seasons, he's only played over 100 games three times, and almost all of his stats show a decline over the last six or seven seasons. He's also not getting any younger. Brett Gardner is an asset to the team in the field and not too much of a detriment to the lineup, but he's also not powering baseballs out of the park on a regular basis, despite playing in a stadium that is only slightly larger than the trunk of a Volvo.

I met VA at a smoky, intimate little bar-slash-inn on the coast of Virginia one magical weekend, and...well, I promised not to mention anything beyond that.

Making your argument based on one hit in a postseason game makes no sense at all. Prior performance in a single game, postseason or no, should not factor in to resigning a player. After the 2011 World Series, David Freese could have received the key to the city of St. Louis while having anal sex with the mayor's underage daughter during the ceremony. And what did he accomplish for the Cardinals in the 2013 World Series? Take a look at some of the Cardinal fan's Twitter feeds. You would be convinced the man single-handedly planned and executed 9/11. Dave Roberts stole the most important base in the history of Boston Red Sox baseball, and he was gone the next season. Aaron Boone had one of the most dramatic home runs in Yankee history, but that's the only thing anyone ever remembers about him, aside from his having the most redneck-sounding name in the history of organized sports besides maybe Bubba Watson. I'm open to arguments for or against guys like Middlebrooks and Drew and Bogaerts, but the only performances that should be used as debate points are season-long performances, not nine-inning performances.

Oh, yeah, good call. I didn't consider that. Alright, let's add that the whole thing is void if even one of the four doesn't get at least 100 PA.

I will make a sig bet with you. Here are the conditions: At the end of the season, instead of comparing every possible statistic, we will simply add the batting average and OPS of Roberts and Johnson, and do the same with JBJ and Pierzynski. Whichever number is higher, wins. Injuries will not be excepted. Meaning if Brian Roberts falls apart like a child's party balloon that has carelessly drifted into the ambient heat of the barbecue pit, or Kelly Johnson accidentally pricks himself on one of Joba's needles while sitting in the dugout and watching other people who aren't going to suck take his playing time, you can't cry foul. And I can't break the best if Pierzynski goes on the DL after someone punches him in his annoying, ugly face or JBJ doesn't move quickly enough out of Papi's way when D'Angelos brings in the catering table. The only exception either of us can make is if one or both of our players either get sent to the minors or traded to another team before the season ends. The sig bet will be for the entire offseason.

Hmm, for some reason I thought he came from a Japanese team. Did another Japanese player sign with Oakland sometime in the last few years? I swear I remembered them signing someone.

Scouts also raved about Dice-K having some magical pitch that could both strike out batters and cure cancer. All of the hype surrounding his coming to Boston was like the second coming of Jesus Christ. We all know how that turned out. I've seen this story before, and it ends with a minor league deal in Cleveland. How's Hideki Irabu doing? Or Hideo Nomo? Or Dice-K? Or Kaz Matsui? Kurt Suzuki? Akinori Iwamura? It's possible that Tanaka will end up being as great as everyone seems to think he will, but the weight of Japanese star's history is stacked against him. I'm not guaranteeing that he will tank, but temper your hilarious expectations of glory with reason. The Yankees are tossing one of the most inept defensive lineups I've ever seen out on the field in 2014, backing up a pitching staff full of guys who have either A: Never pitched a season in the major leagues, B: Faded quickly down the stretch last season, or C: Gained enough weight to qualify for their own seat on the United Nations council.

The Dodgers are making the Yankees look frugal and responsible.

"I don't want to name names, but all the important Red Sox are juicing." Really? I hope by reposting a tweet from the totally not-trying-to-deflect-attention-and-completely-unbiased Joe Tacopina, the highly paid and professional legal counsel for the most legally distraught player on the Red Sox' biggest rival, you aren't actually trying to get us all riled up. I'm not saying it's impossible, but given that no Sox player has tested positive since the new testing was initiated and also given the fact that the only Sox player who was even accused or hinted at was accused of using in 2003, you'll forgive me if I don't consider Joe Tacopina's word to be anything other than blather.

Well, soon enough they'll only be wishing they didn't know who you were!

Don't call him back! I hate that guy. How have you been?

Depth? He played 2 games last season and none in 2012, and he didn't exactly tear it up in 2011, his first season.

From now on no one is allowed to use the dollar sign unless they are posting actual dollar amounts or talking about Ke$ha.

Generally, guys who are on the cusp in their first couple years get in eventually. It's not often that the voting percentage for a guy goes down every year. He'll be in next year.

At least no one voted for Paul Lo Duca. Two people voted for JT Snow, though!

I really despise the BBWAA. No unanimous inductees, ever. Six people voted for Hideo Nomo and two people voted for Eric Gagne, but 16 people didn't vote for Greg Maddux?

.2% short for Biggio. Ridiculous. At least it seems likely that he'll make it next year.

Oh, I like this guy.

Thanks. You should probably expect it, I do it a lot. At least Savannah eight times a day.

I'm impressed that you've been to that many games despite living in Georgia. Sounds like you're Macon the best of things.