I think that, at this point, Godfrey's really chasing down a blind alley with this whole Delgado thing. Better to let JP use his melon and put that money elsewhere.

Here's hoping mother nature is kind and there's no rainout tonight!

Where we really get screwed in this AL East thing is when 13 of our final 20 games in 2005 are against the Yankees or BoSox. But an optimist might point out that if we make it through those 13 games, the other seven are Seatle and KC.

The last time Godfrey interjected in contract discussions, the team was stuck with Alex Gonzalez for 4 years at 20 million (or something like that). Luckily JP came along and found an idiot to take that contract.

Kudos to Asher for correctly identifying Blind Melon's 'no rain'.

Every year Greg Easterbrook (the Tuesday Morning Quarterback) writes about how every team in the NFL thinks they have a horrible schedule. My guess is that it's similar in MLB. I'll bet if you go to other sites like battersbox you'll find that everyone thinks their team has an unfair schedule, and that there will be multiple GMs criticizing their schedule.

Am I the only one tired of hearing complaints about the schedule? (I don't mean having away games on Canadian holidays).

You're going to play the same teams in the same locations eventually. Who cares if the tough ones are in April or September? If that's the case there's easy games somewhere in the middle.

I'm always afraid of posting a link to something political, but this is so funny, I think it's pretty safe.

Did anybody see Jon Stewart on CNN's Crossfire yesterday? Funnyest thing ever. You can see it online here.

Thank God the 2005 schedule is finally out! Opening Day can't get here soon enough. The countdown to April 8th begins......

Things I like about the schedule, it'll be neat to see St. Louis here for the first time (unless you count spring training because I believe the Cards were here in '98) and seeing Milwaukee come back here again for the first time since 1996 will be cool too. I'm also glad they end the year at home against KC. Here's hoping those games will mean something for the Fighting Jays in 2005:).

I figured they would play Houston but I was hoping it would have been here and I was also hoping they'd be in Pittsburgh because PNC Park is absolutely gorgeous and very much worth the road trip. They also play the Cubs at Wrigley Field which is good but it sucks that it's not on a week-end.

Also, I wonder why the Jays have not played at home on Canada Day since 2001. The last time they even recognized Canada Day was in 2002 when they wore the Canada Day uniforms on June 30th. You would think the Jays would request that the schedule makers make an effort to have the team at home July 1st. But we all know how much MLB cares about Canada, just ask Expos fans.

I'm glad to hear Godfrey is involved in the Delgado negotiations. I've always felt his value to the franchise goes beyond his rather large on-field contributions. For me, since Godfrey is the teams direct conduit to Ted Roger's pocketbook, this is a small, but positive sign.

If you can afford 1.6 billion worth of debt to aquire a wireless phone network(as Rogers did last week), surely they can afford an extra 4-6 million to retain an important asset such as Delgado.

Did anybody see Jon Stewart on CNN's Crossfire yesterday? Funnyest thing ever.

I saw it and agree with everything he said about Crossfire. Even though I would be a Democrat if I were an American, I can't stand Carville and Begala on the show. They have no objectivity whatsoever and turn every issue into some kind of attack on the current U.S. administration. I like Novak and can tollerate Carlson since neither of them are blind partisans like their Democratic counterparts.

I also think it was a huge mistake for the show to move to GWU. The audience is always left-leaning, giving Carville and Begala the opportunity to play to the crowd. The show was better when it was filmed from an empty studio.

http://me.woot.net
I've always felt his value to the franchise goes beyond his rather large on-field contributions.

Yeah, there's nothing better than seeing Godfrey run the bases. And defense—that man can pick it.

Did anybody see Jon Stewart on CNN's Crossfire yesterday? Funnyest thing ever.

Ouch - you can just see the show's hosts grimmacing, praying for it to be over. Speaks volumes when a mockumentary news show on Comedy Central is being watched by more younger people than any other news show. That said, for any 'real' news show, even one as politically-biased as CNN to even question the morality of a comedy show (which, when it comes down to it, is no different than This Hour has 22 Minutes or Dave Letterman) is kinda, well, sad.

CNN's job = to relate the news as it happens, to separate editorialization from the facts.
Jon Stewart's job = to entertain and poke fun, to have a talk-show like atmosphere.

Big difference.

I don't understand the complaints about road games in April. April is generally the least attended month. Most teams presumably prefer to have their home games later in the season. (Not that the April schedule is really that unbalanced.) Plus, only 2 of the games are in a place which is likely to have bad weather in April (Boston).

As a fan, I dislike days off in April; I'm anxious to see the team play. I don't mind off days so much after a few weeks. Usually there are lots of off days in April. This year there are just two. I like that. I think the players will also appreciate the off days more later in the year.

The Jays have home and away games against all 4 division rivals in September, which is better than a lot of previous years. (They also play all those teams in April; no major imbalance like some previous years.)

I wonder when SABR will pick to hold the convention in Toronto. It's normally held from Thursday-Saturday near the All-Star Break, which would suggest the Tampa series July 14-17. I'd prefer if they waited two more weeks, when Anaheim and Texas are in town. But revenue-wise it might be smartest to wait one more week and potentially draw a lot of New Yorkers.

Joe, you're forgetting Godfrey's helicopter with lasers. Every team needs one of those!

Something to do before I die:

Have a martini at a baseball game while wearing sunglasses.

Okay, this has been bothering me for too many years now. Does anyone actually know what the hell a "fifty mission cap" is?

From a generic google site: "A fifty mission cap is what WWII ace's wore to identify themselves as pilots with over 50 missions flown. They were "allowed" to beat the crap out of their otherwise militarily proper flight caps. This obviously made them more identifiable and therefore respected by the rookies. Other than making for an interesting song there is no connection between Bill Barilko's hockey card and 50 mission caps."

Sweet.....

I finally have the answer. I feel like Patrick Swayze in Ghost. I can finally rest.

Hey Bauxites

Suggestions and information regarding the lefty situation in he Jays bullpen? 1 guy? 2 guys? Who do you think they will be? Who should they sign?

And the schedule. Wow, hopefully its a year where Oakland gets off to a horrible start and since we haven't played well in Texas or Tampa Bay in the last few years maybe this will be the year it turns around.

I don't know about Carlos. It'll be one hell of a strange sight to not see him in a Blue Jays uni in March should he go elsewhere.

Hmm. If there is still no hockey in March and , could we see a bigger contingent of Ontario lisence plates in Dunedin, Fla in March watching the Jays in the grapefruit league? Perhaps more talk and emphasis on the Jays as they head north for the season? Maybe an attendance boost for the early season? Sounds more like the good ol days to me. Hopefully it happens, because it would be refreshing.

Sorry, I alienated people when I said "Ontario Lisence Plates"
How about Canadian lisence plates with Blue Jays stickers on the window or lisence plate!

I don't think we'll see many Ontario plates if hacks like Mr. Cox *giggles* keep calling the Jays "the forgotten team" like he did in today's paper.

Sweet! The Jays are coming to Chicago. Ah, I've waited for quite some time for this-to go to Wrigley, and not just cheer against the Cubs...actually cheer FOR the opponent! June can't come fast enough, nor can April.

Am I the only one who finds the Sportsnet website to be extremely Mozilla hostile?

No, you're not.

I hate going to the sportsnet website.

Am I the only one who finds the Sportsnet website to be extremely Mozilla hostile?

It is. It's all to do with Mozilla uses Flash and the overuse of Flash on the Sportsnet site.

I can't stand going to Sportsnet with Mozilla.

The annoying thing is all the Flash on the site is completely unnecessary. It was probably done by somebody so in love with gadgetry and tricks that he never bothered to ask "Is this actually useful?". And I'm certain it was a guy who made that decision. :)

The funny thing is, having that much flash just KILLS your SEO (search engine optimization) and any chance you have of placing well in Google. I'd bet $100 that my little website on Economics gets more Google referrers than their site on a popular topic like Sports does.

Wow, what a great question on Wilner's BJADPPGS by Leigh at York U.

Wilner gave my thought rather short shrift, but I really think that the negotiations with Delgado could hinge on whether or not there is a no-trade clause. We know that JP wouldn't want to give one, but we also know that if Delgado took a "hometown discount", he would reasonably expect to remain in Toronto (otherwise, what is the consideration [in the contractual sense of the term] for the discount)?

I see the absense of a no-trade clause greatly affecting the price. Something like: I'll sign for x/year with a no-trade, or x+$2m/year without.

So, everything can be "bought", including a no-trade clause, so the no-trade issue really feeds into the money issue (which Wilner contended was the sole issue).

When was that question, Leigh? Is Wilner's show on now?

Yeah, it started at about 3.05

Sportsnet's website constantly hangs my computer, and I use IE.

The funniest addition to the site that I've seen is they added a random text / number generator to make sure that the results of their polls aren't prone to one person repeatedly voting. I know they show the results on Sportsnet News, but does it really matter if someone stacks today's poll to make it look like a majority of Canadians want Don Cherry to be commissioner? Apparently, everyone at Sportsnet is praying that proposition 304 passes, so that these polls become legally binding.

Jeez, and here I am listening to the Dead Kennedys like some kind of punk kid. Thanks! :)

Jeeze, I didn't think about that. Gtg Listen to Weiner Milk.

What did I miss on the show? Was anyone listening?

WHERE WERE YOU TO REMIND US, MR. WILNER!!! :)

Gabe Gross is on right now.

Leigh, doesnt Carlos being a 10-5 player if he resigns give him the no-trade clause automatically?

Yep. Carlos will have a no-trade contract no matter what.

Excuse me while I temporarily adopt Grimlock's speech pattern: me Leigh is an idiot.

Ya I only caught the very end. 3.3 GPA isn't half bad.
"Ya'll have a wonderful day" - Nice guy too.

Excuse me while I temporarily adopt Grimlock's speech pattern: me Leigh is an idiot.

Don't worry Leigh. Coach made the same mistake until some jerk (me) pointed it out to him. If Coach can forget, then ANYBODY can. :)

I would imagine that at times Boomhauer and Gross could forgo signs and just speak to each other and they'd be the only one's to understand.

I love Gabe's accent. I could listen to that all day.

ha ha ha...

"Chacin for Women"

Good one Stellick.

You've got questions, we've got blank stares.

Sorry.. I've just got a hate on for Radio Shack. :)

Hey Moffat,

You going to put a ALCS series thread up for today.

By the Prof ,Dan Shulman is coming on.

Duh. That'd be helpful.

Consider it done, guys. Gimme 120 seconds.

By the way Prof ( should read).

That's okay. I meant D'oh, not Duh. :)

Earlier this year, Wilner said Gross was "polite to a fault, calling me 'sir'...we need to beat that out of him very soon."

And I missed the entire BJADPPGS, but I listened to Wiener Milk talk about basketball for 20 minutes yesterday and was shocked that he knew as much as he did. I figured baseball, the quiet thinking-man's game, would not have the same fanbase as basketball, the flashy short-attention-span game.

The LCS thread is up. Thanks again for the headsup Jeff!

Did anyone catch that exchange on the pre-game show?

"Is that a Willie Nelson concert going on in the background?"

"Actually, it's a tribute to Ken Caminiti."

Yeah, I heard that too -- who is that guy that asked what the noise was? J.D. something, he's always on the pregame show on Sunday night...kind of annoying...

I hate going to the sportsnet website.

I never go to the Sportsnet website. If ever I click on a link to Sportsnet, without knowing that's where it is, I get their "choose your location" screen, and I just go back. I haven't been there since the spring, and I'm never going back until they fix it.

I figured baseball, the quiet thinking-man's game, would not have the same fanbase as basketball, the flashy short-attention-span game.

I love basketball. And while I like baseball, I'm not quiet and I don't think.

Although I did read this initially as "I figured the nerd game would not have the same fanbase as the jock game."

Yep. Carlos will have a no-trade contract no matter what.

10/5 rights are not the same as a "no-trade clause", but they do indeed have the same effect. Incredibly, Delgado makes the threshold for automatic 10/5 rights in his next contract by *two days* of service time.

Jon Stewart on CNN's Crossfire yesterday?

He kicked Begala and Carlson up and down the schoolyard. It was awesome.

Money Quote #1

"I didn't realize that -- and maybe this explains quite a bit - that the news organizations look to Comedy Central for their cues on integrity."

Money Quote #2
"You're on CNN. The show that leads into me is puppets making crank phone calls."

Other than making for an interesting song there is no connection between Bill Barilko's hockey card and 50 mission caps.

Unless there's something we don't know. Who was flying the plane Barilko died in? It was 1951 - did he fly in the war?

The great thing about the Stewart appearance is that you can be of any political stripe and you can agree with it.

In essence he was attacking blind partisanship and since few people self-identify as blind partisans, there aren't going be too many people who don't relate to what Stewart was saying.

I dont know what you guys think of bittorrent, or cpyright laws, but if you go to fark, there were 2 links in the comments that had bittorrent feeds and an ifilm link of the episode.

I have never seen CNN Crossfire before, so I didn't really understand what his problem is. Can someone elaborate? :

PS. Does anyone else think that dude on the WalMart commercial looks like Rios?

I put the iFilm link in comment 7 of this thread. You can view it there.

RE: Crossfire. It's this politics show where they have a couple of guys from the "right" and a couple guys from the "left" and they debate the issues of the day. Well, that's what it's SUPPOSED to be about.

Instead the guys on the right are horrible Republican apologists and the guys on the left are horrible Democrat apologists and they NEVER talk about the issues. They talk about non-issue and scandals and try to humiliate the other side. They essentially act as mouthpieces for their respective parties.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0410/15/cf.01.html
You can COMN for a transcript, which contains:

Stewart: "stop hurting America . . . You're part of their [politicians] strategies. You are partisan, what do you call it, hacks."

Anyways, if you read the transcript (or watch a video of it, which makes it a lot funnier), you can see why he doesn't like the show.

basketball, the flashy short-attention-span game.

I think of football as the short attention span game. You know, they run a play, it takes five seconds, and then everybody stands around for a minute, and they run another play.... :-)

OK, not much a football guy.

Hey Craig, whatever happened to that "Magic Twenty" thing you and Gleeman were doing over at THT? I quite enjoyed reading those, but IIRC you stopped at third base.

In terms of boringness, I rank the sports as such:

Basketball
Football
Baseball
Hockey

I've gotten way more into baseball now than I ever have in my life, but I still find hockey more exciting. Football is a tad dull for the reason that Magpie stated above, but I still follow the CFL and watch all the Lions games.

Basketball though, ugggh...they just go end to end scoring baskets. Nothing special ever happens. They go one way, score a basket, they go the other way, score a basket, then back the other way, score a basket, etc. etc.

Imagine hockey without goalies...ugh.

The great thing about the Stewart appearance is that you can be of any political stripe and you can agree with it.

Exactly, which is what makes Stewart such a great broadcaster. He has his political opinions (he was fairly neutral on TDS for a while, but he's been showing his dislike of Bush more as the election nears), but he's intelligent and will not hesitate to call either side out on inconsistencies or deceptive rhetoric. He will not simply sit there and spout left-wing talking points, but will actually engage in a discussion with guests and will admit when the right is right. And he's funny as hell.

He screwed up his Kerry interview, however that's a very minor problem when one looks at how news networks refuse to hold anyone accountable for the most part and simply air shows like CrossFire or Hannity and Colmes.

Big Vito had a monster game going 4-4 with 2 home runs

Yeah, with a walk - just to make JP smile.

if you knew anything about basketball you wouldn't say that, anybody can say something dumb about every sport.

Although I did read this initially as "I figured the nerd game would not have the same fanbase as the jock game."

Well, I didn't mean that...but Raptors games are usually more flashy and visually exciting than Jays games. This can be a good thing, however, because the Obey-O-Tron and the sound effects at the Dome get on my nerves. Bottom line: I don't like basketball.

they just go end to end scoring baskets. Nothing special ever happens. They go one way, score a basket, they go the other way, score a basket, then back the other way, score a basket, etc. etc.

It's tedious, I think. Although that's what non-baseball fans say about baseball, so what do I know?

And Jon Stewart kicked ass. I actually saw it live...whoa, that was great. Then they had a woman in the audience ask him a very smart question...and the show ended 18 seconds later. The leftwing guy sure shut up fast, eh? Bowtie was getting crucified.

Sorry if I'm rambling...it's 17-8, I need something to talk about. ;)

In terms of boringness, I rank the sports as such:

Basketball
Football
Baseball
Hockey



Interesting. My list is the exact inverse...

I wonder how the average North American would rank Soccer vs. Hockey compared to the average European.

IMHO, a big part of it all comes down to familiarity and understanding of the game (although I did play alot of hockey growing up; I should clarify, it's the NHL that bores me, not Hockey).

if you knew anything about basketball you wouldn't say that, anybody can say something dumb about every sport.

Fair enough, and obviously I was exaggerating.

And I actually find soccer fairly enjoyable to watch. It does get dull though. Say what you want about the NHL, but usually there are more than five shots on goal in a game. :)

By the way MiVulgar, I find it funny that you find baseball the second most boring sport.

Also, what makes other hockey better than the NHL?

Also, what makes other hockey better than the NHL?

I can't speak for MiVulgar, but for me, the biggest difference is that other leagues don't revolve around money. For some of the players, they are playing to move up to something bigger; for others, it's purely for the game. Corporate involvement and gouging fans doesn't seem to be as dominant in other leagues. Also, seems like a lot less fighting, and a lot more of that skating, strategy and sportsmanship in other leagues (take note Don Cherry: less fighting doesn't make it wussy or the players sissy; it's called talent!)

And finally, other hockey is not dominating every friggin' second of the television! Did anyone see the Global special on the lockout? Uck, you couldn't cut the melodramatic bull with a butcher's knife, it was being laid on so think. A country in shock; people dejected like the bomb has dropped, all without a few days of precious Leafs. When Nascar and 'professional' wrestling are outdrawing a sport in its target (read: US) market, there's issues that need to be contended with, and egos that need to left at the door.

That's the end of my NHL rant. I just find it incredibly overhyped and underachieving, and the media attention that is paid towards it in this country borders on Jeter fever (do you really need a 4-man hockey panel to work in June, and give discussions about things that have already happened, and have been analyzed and previewed ad nauseum?). I'll go have a sandwich now :)

By the way MiVulgar, I find it funny that you find baseball the second most boring sport.

Really? Perhaps it is odd. I've played more baseball than any of the other sports on that list. I'm more interested in reading baseball boxscores and playing rotisserie baseball than any other fantasy format. But when I think about what I'd rather watch on a lazy afternoon, that's the list I come up with. I don't expect many on this site would rank them similarly :)

Also, what makes other hockey better than the NHL?

Of course, this is subjective, but I think it boils down to the combination of rink size and the sheer athleticism and size of NHL players. The way games are officiated also doesn't help.

Players "close" in on each other damn fast in the NHL. With discipline and smart positioning, you can literally take away all of a guy's room to make a pretty offensive play. Left-wing locks/traps are prevalent because they work well (I'm still shuddering from the great Wild vs. Mighty Ducks series of 2003).

Currently, there is more of a premium on great, physical skaters than there is on great stickhandlers; I think that says something about the style of play in the NHL.

The game is largely north-south, with a heavy reliance on chip-ins and directing shots at the net while hoping for deflections, interference or mad scrambles. Too often, games are decided by the following question: "Which team has the better goalie?"

As far as the officiating goes, well, everybody knows there is a problem. Nearly every year, the league makes a lame attempt to correct that problem. The interference and clutching/grabbing drives me insane and allows guys like Chris Chelios to extend their careers due to their "caginess".

My favourite hockey to watch is Olympic and World Junior (on international ice). I find the games more open and generally enjoy watching the action unfold more. I notice there is a greater propensity for odd-man rushes and great passing plays.

I'm not sure I've done a great job articulating why I can't stomach a regular season NHL game any more, but it's late and I'm tired :)