Billistic

1. The changes were not made with benefit of forethought using a strategy. Peters (Gene V's meal ticket) was never going to play for the Bills, after they pulled his chain during the 2008 hold out fiasco. That tipped over the 1st domino. Jason will now be replaced by...oh no! 2. Derrick Dockery played well before he was sentenced to play for Kugler, and he'll play well again now that he's escaped from the gulag. The FO dumped him because they already had (fill in the blank) as a ready, superior replacement. 3. EVERYBODY knows that the Bills haven't had a big league center dating back to the Pleistocene Era. Is Hanglider the answer, or is he another Larry Tripplett, i.e., another of John Guy's many masterstrokes? 4. Langston, Butler and Chambers are going to have to buy their tickets just like you and me in order to get into the Pro Bowl game. (Who wouldn't love to see Langston on Dancing With the Stars?) 5. Eric Wood and Andy Levitre versus Vince Wilfork, Jason Ferguson and Chris Jenkins and the rest of the 3-4 hammers in the East just doesn't thrill me as much as it thrills Chris Brown and you. Besides, Andy's arms are so short that he has to get his short sleeve shirts hemmed. 6. So you're recommending that I stick my Kool Aid in Buffalo? 7. Passing on the Kool Aid is different from knocking what you haven't seen. Am I knocking the OBD ability to gauge and acquire talent? Damn right. What comes after 7?

Phoenix metro area.

Thanks, Singers Gym, and the pool hall was up a long flight of wooden stairs. Another piece of the puzzle...

Thanks so much!

Lets YOU blow a little less hot air, Bucko. Yeah, the pieces of the Patriots dynasty just accreted by themselves.

OBD, OBD, OBD, OBD = Ralph Wilson, THE Architect of Disaster

Very, very cool!

I don't think so. This place was somewhere tucked in around Main and maybe Seneca, deep in the old downtown. It was upstairs over an old time boxing training facility. The name was Garron's or Garrund's. Used to be full of gangsters playing cards. Great place to grow up.

No. Last time I didn't watch any replacement games.

What was the name of the downtown pool hall up above the boxing gym? I think it was Garron's, or something like that. Also, there was a bar somewhere right around the old Offerman Stadium that had some great music, like Bo Diddly. Many the Friday night I was the only white boy in the place, but always had a blast. Anybody help me out with the name?

Good analysis. I remember that I didn't actually watch any replacement player games, the last time.

I don't miss winter drifting into April, and that's for sure. Now I've got 100+ degree summer that sometimes goes from the end of May to the beginning of October.

Truth (in terms of the USA). Long island has soft shell crab sandwiches (in season), and Cajun country is fantastic, SF and The City have great Chinese including dim sum, but Europe has some mighty stuff. The USA has become all about corporate franchise crap, but Europe still has individually owned and operated, which is what I sense we're saying about Buffalo too.

Tony Boselli: The Bills played the Jaguars when Tony was prime. The network had Bruce Smith "live miked" for the game (Monday Night?). Tony just totally beat up poor Bruce all night long, like he was a rag doll. After one play, Tony dramatically pancaked Bruce, and Bruce was heard to say, "Was that really necessary?" I think later on, Tony turned into some Geezus freak, or something.

Get your inner ears surgically removed.

Apparently you haven't met any of my ex's...or in-laws...

On the other hand, I always thought that Salvatore's Italian Garden on Transit, maybe Depew, was the most garish, overblown place I ever went to. The only place close is Baby Does Matchless Mine in Denver.

Oh, damn, at first I thought it was Christie...

I dated a girl who waitressed at the Anchor Bar, and I got the original process. It's a lot of work and starts the day before. I only go to the trouble once a year at the Super Bowl. I could NOT buy a decent for any $ in Phoenix.

Buffalo trivia: What was at 998 Broadway?

Yeah, I had that kinda figured. I'm not a real sensitive type, more of the scarred knuckles, if anything. I'm on Pacific time, so you get to start your weekend first. But Monday morning, I get to sleep in longer.

I went into a little super market on the Navajo reservation. Zero vegetables. I've been told, but have no real personal knowledge, that the typical diet is mostly fry bread, coffee and cigarettes. Fry bread is kinda if you took focaccia or naan bread dough and deep fried it instead of baking it. It's great for making huge tacos. It's about half an inch thick and comes out with a golden, crispy surface with some poofy bread in the middle.

I left Buffalo decades ago for The City, but used to make frequent visits for reunions with my family. Now my parents have passed away, and I don't go back anymore. Now I live in the Phoenix area. What I miss mostly is the food: * John & Mary's Royal sub (Harlem Rd. only) - cappacola and I-sausage * Texas Red Hots (the sauce, diced raw onions, and some mustard) * local pizza shops * real butcher shops like Redlinski's (don't tell me if they're gone)

Good article on how the owners have a strategy in place, and what the deal is on free agent signings in an uncapped 2010: owners' strategy & free agency