a700hitter

Yes, thank you for that information @ s*** for Brains.

I' ll be down there the first week of March.

I held a mirror to its nose and it fogged up. It should not take more than a couple of posts to beat it to dust.

Leake had a better year than Porcello. They are about the same age. On the open market, the Cards got an extra year for less total dollars than we will pay Porcello (under the rushed deal to wrap him up before he hit the open market). Leake gets $16 million/yr and Porcello gets $20.6 million/yr. Porcello would not have gotten as much as Leake on the open market. Good weather doesn't add up to a 22% discount.

Cardinals To Sign Mike Leake --Leake’s deal is for five years and worth $80MM, per Ken Rosenthal of FOX Further evidence of the folly of the 4 year Extension of Porcello for $82.5 million.

As much as the horse thing bothered me, I have come to realize that Red Sox ownership just cast him aside and made no attempt to re-sign him. He still had good seasons in him and he was not that old. I no longer fault him for leaving the Red Sox or going to the Yankees. I have met him in person and spoke with him on the phone on another passion in recent years. I thought that he was a good guy. Many players will not engage fans in a conversation unless an MLB team is paying for them to be at the event. He deserves the honor. It will be interesting to see how popular the event will be.

This did surprise me. I can't get the horse riding episode out of my head.

Holt will have to change his number.

Thanks SFOC. I had to open a big lead before SNF. Your running back got 40 points.

Carlin was the best.

We are trying to shift the discussion to Farrell.

Baseball shows no mercy, and I love baseball even though (like nature) it can seem cruel at times.

It is clear as the nose on my face. Unbelievably, many would disagree with your conclusion.

He has managed 5 years and finished last 4 times -- and the team played its best ball after he was gone last year. They almost climbed out of the deep last place hole that they had dug for themselves under Farrell.

It was terribly sad news that Farrell was diagnosed with cancer, but the minute I heard that sad news it did occur to me that we would be stuck with him for another season. He is a terrible manager.

I also agree. I would leave the decision to those who are in the Hall of Fame. It is an honor that they have all earned. They should decide whether admitting Rose would besmirch the honor.

O.J. is in the Football Hall of Fame. If he can be in the Football Hall of Fame, baseball would not crumble if Rose is inducted. I remember Pete Rose as possibly the hardest working player of his generation. Hence, the nickname "Charlie Hustle." He exuded a love of the game. I remember that he used to say that he would walk through hell in a gasoline suit to play baseball. His fate has been a tragic one as he has been banned from the one thing he loved most.

Bench has been very vocal about it. I am not sure about Joe Morgan. i don't recall him being as opposed, but he has definitely not taken a supportive stance. Edit: Joe Morgan's latest on Rose is not a ringing endorsement but more positive than what I remembered from him:

Not everyone who ascribes to a philosophy is competent at implementing it. I don't think ownership changed their philosophy on a whim. Finishing last in 3 of 4 years was hurting their brand. Ben forced their hand. Ownership gave him plenty of rope, and he hung himself. 2015 was his crossroads, and he s*** the bed. I don't think many other owners would have been as patient if they were spending as much on payroll. Ben's results really were unprecedented.

I have gone both ways on the Rose matter throughout the years. I do understand that there has to be a zero tolerance for gambling on baseball as that could destroy the integrity of the game. It almost destroyed baseball once. That being said, I would have no problem with Rose being inducted after his long exile. Who is right on this issue? For me the best barometer on this issue is the opinion of the Hall of Fame members including his for Reds HOF teammates. They are predominantly very opposed to Rose being inducted, and many have said that they would boycott his induction. In their opinion, he crossed a sacrosanct line.

This question in the context of a team payroll of $184 million in 2015 and a payroll that has to bust through the luxury threshold just to field a competitive team in 2016 is fallacious. It would be like saying "thanks to Ben finishing last, we have no place to go but up."

Of course, you would understand my posts better than I do. My post about the meaning of the term sycophant was tongue in cheek. You missed that one too. On the Cherington debate, you lost that one. Ownership was the arbiter of that debate.

I had an egg nog martini tonight. Good Christmas cheer.

Kimmi, as usual you completely misunderstand my posts. This time your misunderstanding is understandable. Pal may not even have understood my post. Let me explain. I really didn't care about what Pal said in his post. I was just needling him, because recently in this or another thread he asked me to stop my personal insults. I really don't care what he thinks about me or what he posts about me, but turnabout is fair play. He chastised me. Tongue in cheek, I chastised him in return. So, you see your moralizing to me about insults in this instance is misplaced. I wasn't insulted. BTW, sycophant is a very sophisticated description of a homer and we have a few of them on TalkSox. Homers are partisans. Partisans are fans. I find none of these to be derogatory terms. Edit: I would think you would be complimented by being asked if your name is Cherington since you have such a high opinion of him. LOL!! Also, that came from a Yankee fan. You should expect insults from Yankee fans, and that was really a light weight insult from a Yankee fan. You could never make it in NY as a Red Sox fan if that got under your skin.

We played central roles.