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Post Posted: Tue Feb 13, 2007 3:22 pm 
 

bombadil wrote:Yeah, I just read about that.  The owner/manager must be absolutely nuts!


Apparently Schottenheimer and the GM didnt like each other at all and Smith was just looking for an excuse to get rid of him.  What I read was that he blamed Schottenheimer for letting both coordinators leave.  I guess he thought that Marty should have tried harder to keep them.  Isn't that the GM's job?

On a more ridiculous note.  I read that Carlos Zambrano of the Cubs and Mariano Rivera of the Yankees have told their respective organizations that if they dont get the money and respect they deserve that they will not be back after this season.  I understand that the primary job of a GM of a professional sports franchise is to build a team that will win.  But if one of your key players gives you an ultimatum on a nationally televised show that if you dont throw him gobs of money and kiss his ass he will not play for you, you tell the player to shove it up his ass and go work someplace else.  Both players are already making quite a bit of dough.  Both players stand to receive large raises this year.  Both players are highly respected athletes.  And yes they both deserve more money (if you look at it from a baseball point of view anyway).  So why would they blurt out to the media "pay me more than everyone in baseball or go find someone else" when they know that it will not only distance themselves from not only the organization but also the other players and the fans themselves because everyone will think they are nothing more than arrogant, greedy bastards.

Of course they are greedy, but why not keep the ultimatum's behind closed doors?  Save yourself the embarrassment in the media and the harassment from the fans.  Now I just wish they would trade the son-of-a-bitch.  :evil:

  

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Post Posted: Tue Feb 13, 2007 3:29 pm 
 

i think its great to see older bands reform and hit the tour circuit. i will try and ensure i get a few tickets as they are one of the bands i always wanted to see and didnt get the chance.

Al

ps. last one "off the list" was the new york dolls a few years ago - they were so cool!


Are we nearly there yet?

  


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Post Posted: Tue Feb 13, 2007 11:50 pm 
 

And yes they both deserve more money (if you look at it from a baseball point of view anyway).


I disagree with that statement.. at least with respect to Rivera. And its not really his fault either. Closers should command very little money the way they are used. Sure, you can have an ace in the pen and pay him accordingly.. but as much as starters? No way. And worse, teams don't even use their relief ace when they need to.

The save is the only stat that actually dictates how a player is used (which is one reason they should get rid of it). If Rivera was coming in on the 6th inning with the bases jammed in a tie game and getting outs.. pay him the money. Otherwise, let him walk. The ragtag group of people who can come in with the bases empty in the 9th inning and a 2 or 3 run lead -- to accumulate a worthless stat -- is endless.

  

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Post Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2007 12:43 am 
 

Sea-to-sky-games wrote:
I disagree with that statement.. at least with respect to Rivera. And its not really his fault either. Closers should command very little money the way they are used. Sure, you can have an ace in the pen and pay him accordingly.. but as much as starters? No way.


I do agree that closers shouldn't make near what starters do.  But a great closer can make all the difference in the world to a team that lives and dies by the one-run game.  Rivera is one of the most successful closers in baseball history.  He doesnt have quite the number of saves that Trevor Hoffman or Lee Smith has but he will most likely surpass them if he stays healthy for the remainder of his career.  He also has a career 2.29 ERA and the last four years it has been under 2.  He had a "down" year last year and only saved 34 games.  What cracks me up is that he told the media that he wasnt getting the respect that he deserves.  Of all the players on that team, besides Jeter he is probably the most respected of them all.

As for Zambrano...probably the most talented pitcher playing the game today and he deserves what some of the other pitchers are making but to compare himself to Barry Zito and then come off as a total greedy dickwad on tv just really chaps my ass.  Blame their GM for that though.  He paid a crapload of money to bring a couple of second-tier pitchers in Jason Marquis and Ted Lilly to the team.  I guess if I was Z I would be a bit miffed too.

  

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Post Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2007 1:49 am 
 

Only five days to the Daytona 500!


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Post Posted: Thu Feb 15, 2007 10:37 am 
 

It seems this person is copying Tonya's listing style (or is that one of her employee's listing styles...  :roll:  )



http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... Track=true



Pretty much cut, paste, trim for use.


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Post Posted: Thu Feb 15, 2007 10:46 am 
 

Kosh Vorlontay wrote:It seems this person is copying Tonya's listing style (or is that one of her employee's listing styles...  :roll:  )


** expired/removed eBay auction **


Pretty much cut, paste, trim for use.








Yup...stole Tonya's format.  I don't think that the seller is Tonya.  There are too many differences in the M/O of the seller. (Different sort of picture, not the type of lot Tonya sells, different shipping cost, etc..)



Tonya would also have described the condition of each of the items seperately, with at least a cursory description of each one.



Mark   8)


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Post Posted: Thu Feb 15, 2007 4:22 pm 
 

Kosh Vorlontay wrote:It seems this person is copying Tonya's listing style (or is that one of her employee's listing styles...  :roll:  )


** expired/removed eBay auction **


Pretty much cut, paste, trim for use.




The employees were a convienent excuse to blame someone else for any problems rather than the bright, happy, smart and kind college student.  :roll:


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Post Posted: Thu Feb 15, 2007 7:54 pm 
 

FormCritic wrote:Only five days to the Daytona 500!


Yes, I can tell by the way the streets around Orlando are already filled with folks zooming around like they're on the track! :D   Some work colleagues are coming this weekend for a training session and it looks like they're staying with me as the hotels are full.  Glad I like them!  I used to work at Halifax Hospital in Daytona which is about a mile from the track.  Whenever a driver would get injured and brought in to the ER, folks would hustle down to the poor guy's bedside and get him to sign his x-rays!  Quite a memento, I guess.  Anyway, here's hoping for a safe and fun race this year!


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Post Posted: Thu Feb 15, 2007 9:00 pm 
 

Badmike wrote:Any San Diego Chargers fans out there?  You guys just lost your entire coaching staff!!!!  The Def and Off coordinators had already gone (Phillips going to the Cowboys as head coach), now Shottenheimer has been fired!  After going 14-2, best record in the NFL!!! Crazy stuff!!!!

When you're 14-2 and don't even win a playoff game, it's not good enough. Especially when one of the reasons you lose is bad play-calling by the coach. (For the record, I think Andy Reid should be let go, too.)



  

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Post Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2007 4:22 am 
 

improvstone wrote:
The employees were a convienent excuse to blame someone else for any problems rather than the bright, happy, smart and kind college student.  :roll:


What college student were you describing!


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Post Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 5:04 pm 
 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17202448/?GT1=9033

This guy must have been a real prick.  No family or friends calling on him or stopping by.  What I want to know is who was paying his electric bill for the past year?  You would think after not getting a payment for a few months they would have turned off his electricity.  8O

  


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Post Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 5:27 pm 
 

This guy must have been a real prick. No family or friends calling on him or stopping by.


I know you're joking.. but when you get older your friends die and if you didn't have children, one could easily be left with no one around. Retirement probably didn't help because you wouldn't need to get out and about for work and meet new people.

What I want to know is who was paying his electric bill for the past year?  You would think after not getting a payment for a few months they would have turned off his electricity.


Many states can't cut off your electricity due to non-payment (like Texas).. or so I'm led to believe. They don't want people dying due to a lack of air conditioning (among other things).

Moreover, a lot of these electric companies require a deposit.. if it was something like a $250 deposit, one could probably live off that with just the TV on for about a year.

More reasonably, he was probably on government assistance as well as social security in which case the electric company may have gone to the government to pay the bills when they couldn't contact the guy upon his default (or when his deposit ran out).

In any event, that's a pretty weird story.

  


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Post Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 8:09 pm 
 

Could also be that if he was computer-literate or knew someone who was, they could've set up the gov't. checks for Direct Deposit and all bills to be paid online; you could go quite a while without writing a check or using a credit card that way......

Also, remember it's not just electric; trash pickup, phone, sewer, wastewater, etc. also have to be paid (here all but trash pickup and  phone go through the city utilities dept.), needs to be paid.

  

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Post Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 8:43 pm 
 

Still, you would think someone would notice something odd.  The mail would pile up whether he had a mailbox or a P.O. box.  Wouldnt someone at the post office or a mail carrier think "why the hell hasnt this guy retrieved his mail?"  Free newsletters, papers, or phone books piling up in the yard or on the porch.  Hell if I dont pick up the stupid free Plano paper out of my yard once a week it starts to look like a garbage dump.

  

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Post Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 8:52 pm 
 

Kingofpain89 wrote:Still, you would think someone would notice something odd.  The mail would pile up whether he had a mailbox or a P.O. box.  Wouldnt someone at the post office or a mail carrier think "why the hell hasnt this guy retrieved his mail?"  Free newsletters, papers, or phone books piling up in the yard or on the porch.  Hell if I dont pick up the stupid free Plano paper out of my yard once a week it starts to look like a garbage dump.


This story is pretty mild actually.  I've read tales of people being dead for many years in apartments with no one knowing...they had no relatives or friends, and they were set up to have money drawn directly from their accounts for services.  Often they are only discovered dead when the bank account is finally drained.  Most mail carriers will eventually just send the mail back return to sender, it's not their job to wonder why you suddenly stopped getting your junk mail.
  I'm sure I read of one awhile back in Germany that was pretty mind boggling.  I seem to think it was almost 20 years the guy had been dead.  Someone with more time on their hands than me might want to check google.....

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Post Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 8:53 pm 
 

Look this up, Kosh!!!!  :D

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Last edited by Badmike on Sun Feb 18, 2007 10:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 10:25 pm 
 

Had the time on my hands so.....

http://www.goofball.com/news/991228_deadman


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