World Forums

did someone call for a turkey?

They aren't going to win anything. They are peaking early...

Bineaz:

When do you think the Cubs will falter?

Wimbledon 2008

anybody else watch the Mens Final today between Nadal & Federer ? What a great match. John McEnroe from NBC is calling it the 'best match of all-time'.

I usually don't watch Tennis, but there were lots of storylines in this one. Namely if Federer would win 6 in a row. Could have been anybody's match but in the end Nadal won it. Rain Delays, first final to go past 9pm London time, longest match of all-time -- Epic match.

From what I took out of it (again someone that doesn't watch too much tennis) was that Federer is more of a tennis player and relies of guile, tennis smarts, etc, whereas Nadal is more of an athlete. Being 22 years old helps but it was something to see him get to balls that were surely going to drop in. He chased down more balls than palo.

Actually Federer depends more on his powerful serve and Nadal depends more on position and guile. I watched the start and came back at the end of the 4th set. I was surprised that it was still going. Good match though but I don't know much about tennis to agree that it was the best match ever.

palo,

The Cubs have been on thin ice for about a month now. They've played OK but St. Louis and Milwaukee have kept the heat on. We did take 2 of 3 from the Crads this weekend after losing the second game in the bottom of the 9th when our closer gave up 3 runs. Too bad we're not in the West Division. The Dodgers can make it just by playing .500 ball. I think we'll be in it 'til the end.

BTW: EAMUS CATULI = Let's Cubs in Latin.

Habemus Dodgers.


Ubfortunately the Dodgers have been cold with the bat and our luck will eventually run out. We had a nice outing up at Fag Park but who knows. I'm glad it's almosttime for the All-Star break.
Maybe we will meet the Cubs for a ticket to the WS. WE all know you will choke there.

Nadal-Federer

The first 3 sets I watched on & off. The last 2 sets I was glued to the TV. Unbelievable match. Great comeback for Nadal since he was up 2-0 and then Federer tied it up at 2-2. I truly thought that Federer was going to pull it off but in the end, Nadal's athleticism won out IMO.

I also heard John McEnroe state that this was the greatest match he ever witnessed. He thanked both Nadal and Federer after the match for having the pleasure of witnessing it.

I must say that I'm not a huge tennis fan. I have witnessed some truly great Wimbledon & US Open matches in my day (McEnroe-Borg, McEnroe-Conners, Lendl-Becker, Agassi-Sampras) but this was truly special, IMO. It is one of the great tennis matches I have ever witnessed. And let me tell you: this 22 year old kid (Nadal) will be around for a long time and he will be dominant.

And how bout them Mets?

Actually I don't think I've seen a more pathetic 4 game series for the Mets than the one we just saw against the Phillies. If you're outside looking in you can say that the Mets took 3/4 in Philly and are now 2.5 games out and finally 1 game over .500. But the bottom line is this: on Friday they blew a lead and the game, Sunday they blew the lead and depended on a bench player to hit the winning HR and then last night they almost blew a 10-1 lead letting the Phillies back in the game that ultimately finished 10-9.

So for as bad as you think the Mets are, what does this say about the Phillies? What does this say about the NL East. Geez.... these are some bad ball teams were seeing.

You forgot to mention the Mets have Jerry Manuel as a manager.

I'm just as surprised too that the East is so wide open. The best three records in the NL are in the Central. Pennants aren't won in July however.

bineaz wrote:You forgot to mention the Mets have Jerry Manuel as a manager.

bineaz - I know you're a Cubbies fan realizing that he managed the White Sox but what's opinion of Manual? There are many who don't care for him in NY.

Casati,

Manuel wasn't highly regarded here either though he had a couple decent years after coming over from Florida where he was a 3rd base coach. He was considered too laid back and had problems motivating his players. He also didn't handle the pitching staff well. White Sox fans were happy to see him leave. He may do OK with the Mets but I don't see him lasting long. Where's Davey Johnson when you need him? (Or Bobby Valentine for that matter.)

If the East is weak, the West is worse. The Giants are pathetics, the Dodgers are hanging in there with no hitting. By far the weakest baseball I have watched in years.


The Tour is on also, it also looks weak. I have no idea who most of these riders are anymore. What happened to the Big Time Riders?

rehab...

Hopefully.

bineaz wrote:Casati,

Manuel wasn't highly regarded here either though he had a couple decent years after coming over from Florida where he was a 3rd base coach. He was considered too laid back and had problems motivating his players. He also didn't handle the pitching staff well. White Sox fans were happy to see him leave. He may do OK with the Mets but I don't see him lasting long. Where's Davey Johnson when you need him? (Or Bobby Valentine for that matter.)

Davey Johnson? Even though he won a WS managing the 86 Mets (they won 108 games that season) he was too laid back for a team that needed a stricter manager. There were alot of young & talented players on that team and they brought with them alot of vices that ultimately ruined them. They should have won at least 3 WS from 86 to 90. Also, Davey Johnson managed horribly the 86 WS and ultimately won the darn thing because the Boston skipper, McNamara, made the fatal mistake of leaving a cripple Bill Buckner at 1st base in that infamous xtra-inning game 6.

Bobby Valentine? I liked him alot. But he is such an icon in Japan he may never manage in MLB again. I believe he's won at 2 championships (if not more) in Japan in the last few yeras.

agentesecreto wrote:If the East is weak, the West is worse. The Giants are pathetics, the Dodgers are hanging in there with no hitting. By far the weakest baseball I have watched in years.


The Tour is on also, it also looks weak. I have no idea who most of these riders are anymore. What happened to the Big Time Riders?

Don't fret Paolo: Don Mattingly (newly named Dodgers hitting coach) will change that in no time! What a crock of shit. I have never seen such an over rated coaching job than a hitting coach. Mattingly was hitting coach of the Yankees in 2005 & 2006 (he was their bench coach in 2007) and the Yankee offense never looked better. But maybe, just maybe, the NY media forgot that the Yankees had by far the best 1-9 lineup in baseball. But the pundits would reply "look at the Yankee offense now.... their 12th in runs scored since Mattingly left!" But I say, look at the injuries that lineup has endured all season (May-Rod, Matsui, Damon, Posada). I find that most people are idiots. But I also find that most Yankee fans are assholes.

Well, hitting in the NL has been weak the past 4-5 seasons. The pitching hasn't been as bad as the hitting. But the AL has had better hitting & pitching for some years now. If the NL signs an average AL pitcher he lowers his ERA by 0.5 to 1.0. But that doesn't mean he becomes a CY Young winner.

Casati - McNamara was guilty of one other mistake and, I think, it was a bigger mistake than leaving Buckner in the game.

He brought in Stanley to pitch against Mookie Wilson. Stanley was a sinker ball pitcher. Most of his pitches went in the dirt AND he had thrown his fair share of wild pitches during the season, not to mention the past balls that had gotten by Rich Gedman (?).

The wild pitch got Kevin Mitchell to score, to tie the game. And then a sinker to Wilson which led to that easy ground ball that got thru poor ol Billy Buckner's legs. The rest is history and I am still hearing and watching the Shea crowd go into delirium. Bellissimo!

I repeat: in my opinion, that was a more costly error than leaving Billy Buck in the game.

Pram

Good point about Stanley but in the end I'm not sure what were McNamara's options. Remember that Calvin Schiraldi couldn't get the job done and the game was in xtra innings. Stanley may have been McNamara's last option.

Casati wrote:Pram

Good point about Stanley but in the end I'm not sure what were McNamara's options. Remember that Calvin Schiraldi couldn't get the job done and the game was in xtra innings. Stanley may have been McNamara's last option.

I'll give you one other mistake: Why in the world did he take Clemens out the game to begin with??? He was pitching well and had a 3-2 lead in the 8th. Not only does he take Clemens out the game, he takes him out the game with a pinch hitter, and a stiff pinch hitter no less, and keeps Don Baylor, his designated hitter, on the bench!

But back to Stanley. He had other options. Wilson was a switch hitter so he didn't have to go with a right-handed pitcher. Sure Stanly was arguably his best reliever but you can't briing in a sinker baller who has a history of wild pitches with the tying run on third base in game six of the World Series.

McNamara screwed up royally with Clemens and then bringing in that choke Schiraldi to close the game. I probably would have gone with Stanley to start that final inning and not Schiraldi.

So the winning run is at second base, with two outs, three and two to Mookie Wilson. Little roller up along first; Behind the bag! It gets through Buckner! Here comes Knight and the Mets win it!

—NBC Sports play-by-play announcer Vin Scully calling the final moments of game 6.


...and a ground ball, trickling, its a fair ball..gets by Buckner!! Rounding third, Knight! The Mets will win the ball game! The Mets win! They win! Unbelievable, the Red Sox in stunned disbelief!

—Bob Murphy and Gary Thorne, respectively, on WHN Radio, radio home of the New York Mets, calling the same moment as Scully above.


If one picture is worth a thousand words, then you have seen about a million words, but more than that you have seen an absolutely bizarre finish of Game Six of the 1986 World Series, the Mets are not only alive, they are well, and they will play the Red Sox in Game Seven tomorrow.

—NBC's Vin Scully, three minutes after Bill Buckner's error.

That's what makes sports so great and baseball in particular is all the second guessing. The bottom line is this: everything that could have went wrong, went wrong for the Red Sox in that game.

What if Clemens had remained in the game and the Mets would have won it anyway? What would the pundits have said then? What if Stanley had closed out the game instead of Schiraldi? What if, what if, what if. We can be here until tomorrow discussing this.

Great memories. Thanks for not rubbing it in. I won't begin to describe 2003 or 1984.

bineaz,

Well my 2nd favorite bball team are the Red Sox because of their rivalry with the Yankees. If the Cubbies are are not playing against the Mets I root for them too. I root for teams that haven't won titles in a while.

I'm not one of those Mets fans that still hold a grudge on the Cubs due to the 1969 pennant race. Back then I have read that the Cubs were public enemy #1. I actually read an article on the NY Mets website today written by Marty Noble (former NY Mets beat writer for Newsday) about Tom Seaver's almost perfect game (he faced 28 Cubs batters) on July 9, 1969 at Shea Stadium against the Cubs. Supposedly it was standing room only at Shea with over 59k in attendance (the stadium seats 55k).

http://mets.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ym ... p&c_id=nym

Well, considering the way the Cubs COLLAPSED in 1969, I think you guys can forget now.

The bitterness still remains on the north side for that choke job as do these images from Shea that August:

In 1969, the Cubs had a substantial lead in the newly created National League East in August, led by All Star Ron Santo and Hall Of Famers Ernie Banks, Ferguson Jenkins, and Billy Williams. Ken Holtzman pitched a no-hitter on August 19. At mid-month they led by 8½ games over the Cardinals and 9½ games over the New York Mets, but they wilted under pressure, lost key games against the Mets (who had lost a record 120 games 7 years earlier), and finished up 8 games out of first at 92-70. Many superstitious fans attribute this collapse to an incident at Shea Stadium when a fan released a black cat onto the field, thereby cursing the club.

The Cubs should have added their story to the book, Collapse. IT's about how groups of people decided to destroy their societies.


Cubs= Mayans

LOL!

Another one of Armstrong's lieutenants bites the dust. Manuel Beltran tested positive at the Tour and was led away by the police.

That's the fourth cyclist from Armstrong's team who has tested positive: Landis, Hamilton, Herras and now Beltran. But Armstrong didn't dope. LOL!

Who cares?

Lovers of the Tour do. But in classic American style, you don't and most don't. It's unamerican to think of sports, languages, cultures that exist outside our Empire. That's why the NBA winners declare themselves "World Champion" and the majority of folks enjoy fat men wearing tight clothes and handling a ball, yet calling it football. And yes, they also call themselves World Champions, even though the sport is basically an American sports.

Shithead, your name is perfect for you.

Armstrong is a fucking cheat. Same for his wagon pulling, cheese selling bearded throwback.

Lovers of cycling don't care... "Lovers" of the tour, that only know the tour do, like you, Americans... cycling=the tour. Unamerican to know any other cycling event, unamerican to know more than "Lance is the best of all time, Landis was framed" Lovers of cycling know that there is doping, they know that Armstrong, Ullrich, Basso, Contador, Evans, Indurain, Rominger etc etc. are not clean in a basically doping infested environment. And again, who cares. Armstong won his 7 tours, he's retired. Over and done. Andy Schleck and Contador are the future, the doped future, but that's the way it is. Why waste time discussing Armstong? Beltran doped, doesn't change anything at all about Armstrong...

Except of course little american minds like yours, who only can discuss Armstrong, not cycling.

Unlike you, I still follow the tour and most importanly, own 2 bikes and actually ride, unlike the fatass American public. ( No offense to Falc, we all know he has a slow metabolism)

I have a bike and I ride it too. I just don't put on bright yellow extra small shirts or shorts that restrict my balls and act like I am on some tour driving through traffic with the hope that no one hits me because I have to hog the road. We get plenty of that in the DC area.

If people are into that, fine. If people like to ride their bike to go on a casual ride, even better. You are becoming a politician, in particular an elitist like you know who.

I ride single file and I ride a mountain bike modified to ride ion the street. MOst of the time I ride back streets or the sidewalk whenever I can. Fucking people in LA are cracy fucks.

Who's becoming a politician?

Captain Shithead wrote:Lovers of cycling don't care... "Lovers" of the tour, that only know the tour do, like you, Americans... cycling=the tour. Unamerican to know any other cycling event, unamerican to know more than "Lance is the best of all time, Landis was framed" Lovers of cycling know that there is doping, they know that Armstrong, Ullrich, Basso, Contador, Evans, Indurain, Rominger etc etc. are not clean in a basically doping infested environment. And again, who cares. Armstong won his 7 tours, he's retired. Over and done. Andy Schleck and Contador are the future, the doped future, but that's the way it is. Why waste time discussing Armstong? Beltran doped, doesn't change anything at all about Armstrong...

Except of course little american minds like yours, who only can discuss Armstrong, not cycling.

My intention was not to undo what Armstrong has done. I just want to point out what the most casual cycling fans do not know or do not want to know.

There's doping in ALL professional sports and not just cycling and soccer.

On my Saturday monring ride we actually talked about doping in cycling and the majority now believe that although LA never tested positive that he doped with the rest of them.

It really doesn't matter simply because it's a level playing field. Let them dope. It's been going on for years.

Did you cathc the stage today?

I only get it on ESPN LA and I have no DVR connected to that. Fucking event has been relegated to the Versus channel.

I didn't see today's stage. I don't even tape it since versus shows it 4 times a day. But tonight I'm watching the HR derby with my son who's bday is tomorrow. He will go see a matine movie with a couple of his little friends and then have them over for cake and cookies. Afterward he has his 3rd travel bball game of the season. Big day for the little guy to say the least.

Happy Birthday to him

Enjoy your son's birthday Papa!

agentesecreto wrote:Unlike you, I still follow the tour and most importanly, own 2 bikes and actually ride, unlike the fatass American public. ( No offense to Falc, we all know he has a slow metabolism)

I'm proud of you little american boy.