Mike In Illinois

How about WHEC? Rochester Sign-Off

Sadly, it sounds like you were better at preparing a space ship that the Soviets were. (no offense to you)

Kind of eerie in my opinion. I'm not old enough to remember The Race To the Moon- Challenger is more of my era- but you had to think this type of thing happened. In a desperation to explore space/reach the moon that corners were going to be cut. It is chilling to think the man knew his fate and would (could) not stop it. Beerball, I appreciate you (and others) who add these links. I sometimes feel close-minded to things in this world but it's articles like this that allow me to fill in the holes in world history. Kinda mind-expanding without the narcotics

More with Checketts. In this article it mentions that the NHL was keeping an eye on the situation and would have stepped in to run the franchise if it got bad. There's always a possibility the new owner could move the team but Checketts is adamant about selling to an owner who will keep the team in St. Louis. One of the partners in the ownership group has shown interest in buying the team but their offer is not quite up to market value as of now. St. Louis is a great (US) hockey city that was slowly coming back to see the Blues play the last couple of years. I don't think Phoenix or Atlanta have proven to be great cities for NHL franchises- Atlanta has proven this more than once now. Right after the lockout the franchise took a nose dive (remember Mike Danton?) and the new ownership group was working hard to get the fans to come back. Many of the home games are sell-outs, even if the team is near the bottom in the conference standings, and the Blues are now break-even on their finances. It will take that new owner to infuse money into the team in order to bring in some quality players via free agency or trade. I heard on the radio last night that they are financially sound enough to sign their core players (TJ Oshie, Patrick Berglund, David Perron, etc) to long-term contracts so they should have a stable nucleus for many years. A brief history on the Blues for those who may not know much about them: Their inaugural season was 1967-1968; they made the Cup Finals their first three years- the coach was Scotty Bowman. They've also had Al Arbour as a coach. The team qualified for the playoffs 25 straight seasons ('80-'04) but never got to the Cup Finals during that stretch. They won the President's Cup in '99-'00 but were upset by the San Jose Sharks in 7 games (Roman Turek, anyone?) of Round One. The low point was in 1983 when owners Ralston Purina (Dog Chow) practically abandoned the team and put them up for sale. They did not send any team representative to the Entry Draft and thereby did not draft a single player. The team was initially sold to Bill Hunter who planned to move the team to Saskatoon (maybe Goons for a nickname?) but the NHL stepped in because they wanted the team to stay in St. Louis; they were eventually sold to Harry Ornest and remains in the Gateway City to this day. I think the team will stay in St. Louis but it may take a while to find someone willing to spend $175 million to buy the franchise. EDIT: Chuck Berry is still around. He plays a monthly show in the Duck Room at Blueberry Hill.

Article. Dave Checketts led a group in purchasing the St.Louis Blues in 2006. One of the investors decided to withdraw in 2010 and Checketts was unable to secure a replacement partner for the ownership group. As a Blues fan I've been encouraged by the current ownership group and I feel they have the foundation in place to be a good team soon. I just hope they turn the corner and do not regress any more. Do any of you Sabres fans have any perspective or thoughts on this (given you just went through an ownership change)?

I feel like this is turning into a bitter divorce battle and the role of the kids caught in the middle is played by the incoming collegiate players. I don't think it's fair to them if they are strongly discouraged from attending the draft. Walking on stage for the world to see and to shake hands with the commissioner has turned into a rite of passage for these men. They've worked very hard to get to that point in their careers and it would be a shame if it was taken away or frowned upon by The Union That Is No More ("it ceases to exist!").

Bernie Miklasz from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch had a pretty good take on this PR move the "former" NFLPA suggested to the draft picks: Bernie's Article. He does bring up a point that was mentioned here: how can a defunct organization dictate what an athlete, who's not a member of the NFL or in a union until he signs on the dotted line, does during the NFL Draft? I think this was a bad move by the "remnants" of the NFLPA. One or two more bad PR moves like this and I think the support for the players may start to wane.

Nevergiveup also broke the news about Buddy Nix becoming the new GM, I think. That poster has their pulse on the team's operations and I know many of us appreciated the information.

Looks like there's a few locations in St. Louis, Missouri. The next time I'm down there I will try it out.

Didn't Jimbo have dinner with Tim Tebow last year? The speculation was rampant that the Bills would draft him, but as luck turned out he was taken by Denver.

I'm sure Brian Atene read that article. He received a Web Redemption on Tosh.O recently: http://tosh.comedycentral.com/video-clips/web-redemption---brian-atenehttp://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=3&sqi=2&ved=0CCoQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Ftosh.comedycentral.com%2Fvideo-clips%2Fweb-redemption---brian-atene&rct=j&q=brian%20atene%20tosh&ei=jm12Ta3UEoTVgQfuo_y7BQ&usg=AFQjCNGASQQoP4nSi5GnLxQlCIf7uDMAWQ&cad=rja

This is only for those who pay the $79/year subscription to Amazon Prime. It doesn't include those of us who get a free version of Amazon Prime: Link

If I'm not mistaken the car can be pulled from display at the team's discretion. It's not as if the Wood Brothers are contractually obligated to keep the car in Daytona USA for one year. I'd think that NASCAR would not object if there was a request to pull the car out for use. That said, there' a couple of points to add: The Wood Brothers have equipment support from Roush/Fenway Racing. So I'd guess they won't have an issue preparing another "plate track" car to compete at Talladega or Daytona. Trevor Bayne is not running a full season in the Cup Series; he's running for the Nationwide title. If the Wood Brothers don't have either Talladega race or the summer Daytona race then they won't have to worry about that car. However, I believe they usually enter the higher-profile races during the season and will enter the three remaining restrictor plate races. I root for Tony Stewart but it was a nice surprise to see the Wood Brothers back in Victory Lane. I know some NASCAR history so I get what that win meant for them and their fans.

There are at least three players on the '85 Bears that are dead: Walter Payton, Todd Bell and Dave Duerson. Mike Richardson also had several run-ins with the law due to drugs, William Perry nearly died a few years ago, and Wilbur Marshall is in bad physical health as well. ESPN Chicago had a series of stories on the '85 Bears this year.

I heard the Buffalo Springfield were reuniting for Bonaroo. (In case the image doesn't show.)

Is that the same guy that passed on visiting a birth mom that he and his wife were trying to adopt from?

I personally like the Norwood picture. Y'know, the one of him after he missed the kick in SB XXV.

REAM Project, huh? I'd think the Bills wouldn't need to go external to do some 'reaming'. They've done just fine getting reamed on that field for quite a while now.

Sad update: Bob Cook passes away. At least he got to see his Packers win it all once more.

Cowbell Hero.

I was browsing the channel guide on my TV recently and saw that MTV2 has been showing some of the games. The games that were on were the Conference Championship games. Just think if they had a Media Day. And if the Super Bowl MVP does a Disney World/Land commercial what would be the Lingerie Bowl equivalent?

"Take Back the Anthem"

As a matter of great timing, Daniel Tosh gave a 'Web Redemption" last week on Tosh.0 to the girl who forgot the lyrics in Portland before a TrailBlazers/Mavericks NBA Playoff game. (cannot link to it right now) As her redemption she sang the National Anthem at an Anaheim (Mighty) Ducks game. Daniel held up cue cards for the girl while she sang. I couldn't help but think of this bit after realizing Aguilera butchered the lyrics.

He knew somebody: his dad is Jack Buck, the longtime broadcaster at KMOX-AM and CBS Radio/TV. Joe cut his teeth broadcasting St. Louis Cardinals baseball games and worked his way onto the national stage. I personally like Joe, maybe it's due to his connection to the Cardinals, even though many people despise him.

13-18 inches of snow with drifts up to four feet. I shoveled a path in my driveway for my car in case the city comes to plow our subdivision. While I was out shoveling I noticed a Jeep Patriot 4x4 stuck in the road about a block from my home. The guy was trying to get to work but made it only onto the street from his driveway. Eventually it took three guys about 20 minutes to get him down the street and out of our subdivision. I don't think I dare try it with my Nissan Sentra.