OGTEleven

I blame the NBA for the closure in gap. They do not enforce the rules of basketball. It is like the WWE of "major" sports. I hate to criticze the almighty Jordan but I think a lot of it started (or at least escalated) with him. He never fouled anyone, traveled or carried the ball. Ever. When he did get called he cried profusely during and after the game. In the last olympics it was obvious the team was not ready to compete in the sport of basketball. Ironically, the one player I started to appreciate in those Olympics was Iverson. He hustled and cared about winning.

They said to Bledsoe it would be a competition in camp and that the playbook would change and favor more mobility. DB wanted no part of it and got his trade. Then JP was given the job.

This makes perfect sense but on PPP your opinions are all inside out. Or is it outside in? The one thing we can be sure of here is perpetual change.

If we simply traded him Whitney Houston for Al Zawahiri we'd get rid of all three. She'd binge and beat him senseless within days.

The news report didn't hint at being biased by having the same quote from the Israeli officer run over and over and over? This wouldn't have made you question the neutrality of the news agancy?

Just ball it up like you're making a snowball. It's messy but it works. Can I have some of the money?

What is your excuse for this? I can't get no......

People can really be idiots. Snakes on a theater seat Here's a good quote from the article: Where would he like to be when a rattlesnake bites him?

This thread is the first time I've ever heard that word. Then again, I don't go around making up new words as a general practice so it seems Allen had probably heard it before.

Where are you located right now? You must have a very strong wireless connection.

Rhode Island and Delaware were kind of tough to squeeze in there. I received a couple of Bzzzzzzts when I missed.

Next year, you'll drag her.

The first time I saw Petty was many years ago. I went with pretty much the same attitude you did: "They're ok". I walked out the same way you did. In awe. I went and bought all of their records the next day. I think their music (with a brief techn clunker being an exception) has gotten better and better over time. I haven't been to a concert in a while but they are one I'd see.

I want to do a new McLaughlin poll but wanted to change it up a bit. The toughest part of doing these polls is coming up with the questions/answers. I always use 5 questions. Right now, I have one good one ready to go. I need your help for the other 4. PM me your questions and answers. I will use the best 4 questions I receive. I reserve the right to change your answer if the one you provide is WRONG!!!!!!!! Questions can be serious like a tough trivia question, opinion based like "who is the best whatever" obnoxious, or goofy.

I could see that but some of the reports have stated they were separating the betteries from the phones and keeping them in separate bins when they were caught.

So I see there have been multiple arrests of people buying 1000s of cell phones. I understand that cell phones can be used as detonantors; but 1000s of them? That's a lot of bombs and a lot of dialing? It doesn't seem logical. What's the deal?

Is that an example of an extreme example?

Happy birthday. Eryn, go splurge on a new set of dentures.

"Inane threads".

Reilly may or may not be exaggerating the kids inability to swing a bat. We had a Downs kid on the team I coached last year. The kids were young and it was tee ball but he needed a parent with him to bat. It's not exactly the same but you do see different things like that. When I played, there was a kid with a prosthetic arm and a hook. He batted, but needless to say was not the league's top hitter. I've seen kids in wheelchairs, etc. It does happen. Is it right? To me it's ok to have kids play, but when the league gets to the age/level where there are tryouts, the kid would have to legitimately make the team to play. I wouldn't doubt Reilly embelleshing other parts of the story too. I'm not a big fan of his to begin with, but I based my replies here on taking his report at face value.

All rancor aside, I'll clarify my position here: If intentional walks were used routinely as part of this league, and thus the cancer kid was treated equally, I have no problem with the coach. If the intentional walk was never used but the coach used it as a loophole because he saw the cancer kid on deck and the slugger at the plate, I think he is a scum bag. My guess is that the latter is true. Maybe I have overestimated my personal knowledge in the matter. Maybe Reilly played it up as unusual (the umpire was shocked to see an intentional walk and even the 8 year old sister uncovered the plot) for the sake of the story and I got suckered in.

Way to refute your own argument....this is just like PPP. The pinch hitter and intentional walk can and do balance each other at all levels of baseball. The presence of one and absence of the other creates an imbalance. Rules are intended to promote balance, not inhibit it. There are many things screwed up about having a championship game in a league like this. Most of them have nothing to do with either coach. The first coach just took advantage of one of them. The most glaring to me is the four run per inning rule. It's there so the parents can get the kids to bed before 4 AM, but to me, can kill the "legitimacy" of a "championship". What if one team scores 4 runs and has the bases loaded in three of the innings before the first out is recorded and no runs in the other three innings. The other team scores 3, 3, 3, 2, 1, 1 and gets put out in all six? They win 13-12 but only got 18 outs to do it, and the other team got 9 outs and 12 runs. Which team is better at baseball? Either play by real rules or don't call it a championship. (Yes, I understand that there are reasons for both intentional walks and pinch hitters, but offsetting each other is part of the game.)

I never said I knew everything, but I do think seeing as many games as I have indicates that intentional walks are at least unusual. To know for sure, we'd need the scorebooks from their league, which we don't have. If I came off as knowing everything about the frequency of intentional walks then it was too much. Similarly, you can't claim to know that they were frequent in the league and say things like "he probably would have walked him to get to the fourth best hitter". What if Jordan was hitting .579 and the fourth best hitter was hitting .512? Would you walk the winning run then? Have you seen intentional walks with kids that age or was your question just hypothetical? So far nobody in this thread has said they've seen this. (Not that it is important, but I played in pony league and I caught. We never walked anyone then either. Our town is now Cal Ripken so it is a bit of a different format today. If you're saying mormons have more of a propensity toward intentional walks then you may be right. I have never even been to Utah.)

I've coached and watched about 150 games played at that age level and never seen an intentional walk, but what do I know?

Some of my best experiences were also in losing efforts. My favorite: We were clearly the second best team in the league. We had three losses against the undefeated top team and one against the rest of the league combined. Their team was stacked and they had not been in a close game all year. We were playing them for the last time. I don't think we'd gotten within 6-7 runs of them in the first 3 tries. We played them tight all night and managed to get a very tense game into extra innings. We failed to score in the top of the inning. I was the catcher. Our pitcher was tired. The first guy walked, next guy got a hit and third guy walked. Up stepped their best hitter. I still remember the pitch coming in....the sound of the bat....the kid jumping out of the tree overlooking centerfield because he didn't want the ball to hit him. We played great. We lost. We learned. I get it. Another as a spectator: My friend Jim overthrew the cutoff man like you. BTW, did you also overthrow the catcher, the 12 foot backstop and the concession stand like Jim? The ONLY thing I don't agree with about this story is that the coach made a highly unusual move to treat the cancer kid DIFFERENTLY than everyone else. After that, he lies about his knowledge of the kid's plight. That is low. I don't think it will hurt the kid's in the long run, but neither would manning up against the tough hitter and winning or losing.