dc.

What I also like is that all these guys are actually old MacPhail recruits from his days in Chicago... and outside of these Cubs moves, I have liked MacPhail's eye for talent overall. Again, I think it's a great move for the O's because it gives us the option of using Hill and letting him eat innings and perhaps find his stride again... or if he doesn't, we can still dip into our nest of prospects, just not as early in the season.

Well, in Phelps defense when comparing him to Pacman... Phelps hasn't had any (public) physical or violent altercations. He had a DUI and now a photo of him smoking up. Both stupid, both ridiculous... but both minor. If he were getting into trouble on a regular basis, if his stupid drug issues were interfering with his physical abilities, and if all his issues were being compounded by his own physical violence... then it would be a lot more like Pacman. For now, Phelps is acting like 50% (or more) of the college-age population. Which is what he is. Doesn't make it right, just makes its normal.

But they were able to go across the middle because the safeties were playing so far back because of the deep threat... Just like the Titans, Steelers and Colts have success against the Ravens not by going deep... but by drawing our DBs back and then going over the middle... But our receivers can't push their men back because there is no deep threat.

Oh, I wasn't making excuses for him... I was just saying... this is classic him... he is like every other frat boy out there and can't help it... and it's a shame, but it's his own damn fault.

They only really showed one replay I saw... I thought Harrison blocked the guy and knocked him down (fair enough)... the guy went to get up again and Harrison "blocked him" again (admittedly, fairly harshly, but not entirely illegal)... before the guy could even get up a third time, Harrison clearly hit him again and then stood over him as if saying "Don't get up." That's what I saw, at least. PF? Sure. Ejection? I don't know that you can make that call, that easily in such a game. Meanwhile, the PF calls against the Cards for roughing Ben and for running into the holder were both pretty lame...

on ESPN's NFL Blog Network, the Cards blogger brought it up right away... saying the ref cloud will be over this game... he thinks Harrison should have been ejected for punching the Cards player on that punt (I think thats a little extreme) and he calls out the non-review of the last fumble. funny thing is, after all the talk of warner's gloves, i think the gloves are the only reason that ball was in his hands when it moved forward...

Tried to post this earlier... but error... 1. Classic Phelps. He's a frat/party boy. His friends are frat/party boys. He's just a big child who's never seen the light of day. Can't expect him to act like he knows what he's doing... 2. I keep seeing this in my head: DUI, Strip Clubs, Illicit Drugs... Pacman Jones? 3. Endorsement punishments are going to hurt. His sucky apology was fun, though.

Yeah, forgot about that... would have put them at the 30, right? That's right where Larry likes it...

Where was the review on the final Cards play?? That's another shot we can take at Replay... it's not used or effective when it is most critical. It may not have changed the game, but in my view, that should have been ruled incomplete, not a fumble. The Cards would have had one or two more plays. I think the replays and analysis will agree with that in the days to come. And here is the NFL's response, guaranteed: The replay official wanted to review the play and was in the process of making that decision when the Steelers snapped the ball for the final play. Unfortunately, at that point, there was nothing the officials could do to change the outcome and replay was no longer an option. Totally covers their ass... they don't have to say that it was incomplete, but they don't have to take the brunt for not reviewing it.

Once again... Juan Dixon was underrecruited and unwanted by major programs (I was thinking Francis when calling him a JuCo transfer earlier). Gary got the talent, but not through great recruiting. I don't know a ton about Wilcox or Smith's recruiting... but I do know that Wilcox was here for all of one year, right? I also know that three players... hell, include Steve Francis, another JuCo nobody... in 20 years as a head coach is pretty pathetic. Even more pathetic is that a team that went to two Final Fours in a row and won a National Championship is unable to hold on to the homegrown talent in the Maryland, DC and Va areas ... especially in the year or two following the title. Everyone knows that Gary passed recruiting off to his assistants... and Patsos, Dickerson... and they were great at it. And now that they've been gone, he's been dead in the water. No talent coming in, no winning on the court to help.

First, the expectations for Mosley have always been high. Just not for his freshman season. As for the recruiting, the two recruits that Gary is talking about... maybe those go to the AD. But, in the words of some others, they weren't exactly Magic and Kareem. They weren't anything close. Gary has never been a good recruiter. Never. The post-championship classes have SUCKED. Horribly. He prefers to go after nobodies and make them something, he never goes after five stars. It's 'too easy' to win that way. That's how he's always been. Even Juan Dixon was a fixer-upper from JuCo. And as for the comment about Worthington, I could care less whether she was new or not. Gary's been here long enough to know that these kinds of disputes shouldn't be public (even if she brought them up somehow) and it's even worse for him to be flaunting his record when he recent record has been flat.

Yeah, but the service of TV is free... but you have to buy the TV in the first place, right? So if you have to buy the TV, then why not have to buy the converter? And if a converter is 100 bucks... and the coupon is worth 40... so you still have to pay 60... well, damn. You can get a digital TV for 60 bucks!

I have the subscription... It pretty much says that by their standards... he has some of the highest numbers ever... literally, tops all time in some of their stat projection models... PECOTA projects him to have the 17th best season of any catcher ever this year. Their EQA model puts him 20 points ahead of any catcher in the league presently (if EQA is batting average like, Wieters is projected at 319 after being over 300 for two straight years... Mauer is at 291). It just goes on and on and on... And in terms of player similarities, the projections keep saying early years will look bunch like Mark Tex.

... wow. There's a full article on ESPN Insider if you want to read it...

Well, right. The gov't is paying the manufacturers to provide free converters. And I don't get it. The converter would cost all of $10 or something, right? And the gov't believes that the right to a television is so crucial to Americans that we must be provided with free service? Did the government pay for the conversion of all the old VHS tapes I bought to DVD? Or to get my VCR to become a DVD player?

I've been wondering the same thing. But they are pretty deep at pitching right now and OF, so Pie and Hill, coming off very disappointing years, aren't that valuable to them. Even so, it seems silly to me. From the view of an O's fan, we'd all love to have the kind of depth they have and would have no problem just holding on to it to no end.

Wasting money more than time. Costs more for TV companies to dual broadcast. Most probably want to go to just digital anyway. WBAL has already gone all digital. I also heard the Dem's new stimulus package includes another 650m for the project to transition... WHY? First, I don't know why the government is paying for converter boxes for people who need them. They'd be cheap anyway. Second, I know they ran out of converter boxes, but not 650m worth.

Yeah, was reading that last night but it wasn't quite final - said they needed a bit more waiting. I agree, awesome deal. Hill will probably wind up the #2 in our rotation and I couldn't mind less.

Force, I'm not saying it's outright wrong... I'm saying it's slimy at a time like this to enforce that kind of crap. Every where out there breaks are being given because they need to be. PSLs are a luxury for sure. So if the people can't afford the playoff seats, they probably can't afford to renew their season tickets next year... but hey, they could earn a few bucks selling the PSL. I just think it's sad that the Panthers are enforcing a stupid rule at this point.

Yeah, in the midst of millions of layoffs... no one with PSLs is going to be affected. And of course, only the rich own PSLs anyway. Like I said, I know many people who are not exactly rich or swimming in disposable income... but they find a way to make season tickets and a PSL work... its their one expense. In my mind, this is just as bad as the Wall Street bonuses. PSLs are a nice way for teams to make some extra cash and suck a little more out of fans - they are a big reason the NFL still charges full cost for preseason games, because so many PSL owners are forced to buy preseason prices anyway, the team can charge anything and get away with it - and just like Wall Street, the team looks out for itself instead of the investors. That's what PSLs are... team investments. --- It's a different conversation, but PSLs are a bit of BS anyway. They are there to help teams pay for stadium construction and maintenance costs. Once you pay your PSL, and you pay for your season seats... why should you have to pay more? And how does the team justify going out and selling the same PSL again? What they are really saying is that you are "renting" the license... you "buy" it... but if you don't pay for your seats each season or you don't pay for playoff seats in this case... the team gets the PSL back and gets to sell it again? So, in essence, you never really "owned" it, right? In most cases you have the right to sell your PSL (either back to the team or to anyone else), but not if its revoked, obviously.

I was gonna say, what did we all love? The fact that there was some other bad writing, bad journalism out there?

Even worse to do it in the midst of an economic crisis and meltdown. I know plenty of folks in Baltimore who give themselves one gift each year... one major expense... and its their Ravens tickets. Hard working folk who put it all into their Ravens. And if the Ravens hosted a game you can bet 90% of them would drop everything to be there... but it's not always possible. It's not always affordable. What douches you are, Panthers.

Dee, you're not taking my douche title away, are you? ARE YOU?!?!!

where are YOU in all of them dee?

I remember seeing the guy and his work in recent tournaments (I think the Terps even player VCU in recent years). I was impressed with his coaching but he's definitely young. At this point, I doubt the Terps are putting out feelers quite yet. This sounds like someone's dream over at TerpCenter that they are just feeding info to. But I think he would be a strong candidate and I'd like it. We need to oust Gary first, which is not only going to be hard for the school, but also hard on the fans and the program - even those that want to see him go a bit