Taro T

1. Rockpile 2. Dan Gross 3. dave_b 4. 5.

Happy belated.

Kind of surprised you had a bad experience picking up your food at the Phoenix. Before having kids, the wife and I used to eat there a lot and since we still get takeout from there on a regular basis. The owner and his wife are usually working the door and the phone, so I'm not sure why a kid was working the phone / counter. The service when you eat there is usually very good and they typically give you a complementary shot of apple brandy at the end of the meal. Next time you go there, be sure to ask for the "stamp". They will give you a booklet that you can fill up with tags from your meals. Once you've had 12 (?) meals there, you can turn the book in for a discount off your next meal (IIRC, the discount is 10% of what your total $ value of the meals you ate). I agree with you that Pataya's is excellent for Thai food. I prefer it to The King & I because Pataya's uses the thinner hotter Thai sauces and TK&I makes the creamier sauces. PF Chang's is good when someone else is paying, but I find it pricey for what you get. BTW, for a good "Buffalo style" pizza, try J&L's on Hogan near Rte 31 (~1/4 mile west of Golden Phoenix).

I'm pretty sure it was before your time. ~1990.

The best I've been to: Rich Stadium (for obvious reasons) The Aud (ditto) The (Montreal) Forum (great atmosphere) Staples Center (LA, surprisingly loud fans for a hockey game) M&T Bank Stadium (Baltimore, real nice stadium) Make Us Laugh Gardens (again, great atmosphere) Tiger Stadium (Baton Rouge) (ditto) Michigan International Speedway (you can see the entire track from the grandstand and bring in as many coolers of beer as you want) Watkins Glen (cool road course) Giants Stadium (very similar to Rich Stadium) The Mmarena (she's growing on me) Happy Valley (small seating space on bleachers per person, but great atmosphere) University of Texas football field (forget it's name; kind of a dump, but good atmosphere) Walker Arena (where else could you sit on a rail to watch a game?) The rest: Boston Garden (sit behind one of the columns and you'll understand; that and lousy beer stands) Fenway Park (dump and lousy beer stands) Schaefer Stadium (I've been to high school football fields that were nicer) The Astrodome (just something wrong about watching baseball indoors) Exhibition Stadium (Toronto, nothing special) Riverfront Stadium The Summit (Houston) The Metrodome (bad memories) The Rosebowl (bowl rises at too low a slope, seats end up far from field & bad memories) The Superdome (too big, seats are VERY far from the field) The Rockpile Pilot Field Arlington Stadium Olympic Stadium (went there when the roof wouldn't go back up) I'm sure I'm missing a few, but that covers most of them.

Considering how much a healthy Spikes would bring to this defense, I'd rather have him sit one more week rather than risk reinjuring it against the Lions.

That's a darn shame for Alec. If he'd have moved to France like he promised he wouldn't have this sort of inconvenience in his life.

No, no, no. It is the abominable snot smear. And it was posted on TSR a month or so ago that the team petitioned the league to wear the "throwback" sweaters in the playoffs, so when the Sabres win it all this year, if they have the good taste to win it at home, the unis Perreault, Crozier (well if they had shoulder patches when he played), and Gare wore will be drenched in champagne flowing from a very large silver chalice.

This one is one of only 6 "gold" games this year. One of the other Hab games is "gold" and all 4 Loaf games are. Which makes sense. The Loaf games will sell out at pretty much any price and the Habs are usually a pretty good sell as well.

Darn near a perfect post. Well said.

LSU does a great job of tailgating, but I still think Buffalo tops them.

Didn't mean to sound QUITE as harsh as it came off. Sorry. But what I was getting at, for that game in Buffalo last year, the Sharks had an incredible jump because they were playing with their superstar for the very 1st time. I can't think of a single time off the top of my head that a team didn't come out screaming the 1st day they had a top tier player in the lineup. The Sabres looked like they'd win the Stanley Cup the day that Lafontaine 1st wore B&G. Thornton had EVERYTHING to do with that game. When he rang the puck off the goalpost ~10 seconds into the start of the game, there was no looking back. Yes, Buffalo was a little flat in that game, and it probably was due in part to the game in Montreal the previous night. But the way SJ had been playing heading into that game, a flat Sabres team would have beat a Thornton-less (Joe, not Scott) Sharks team and a Sabres team that had its usual jump would have won big. SJ had not won in 10 consecutive games heading into Buffalo. They had gotten thumped by Detroit 2 nights earlier 4-1. The team appeared to be, at least from this outsider's perspective, a mess. Which was very surprising, because before the season started, I would have thought they would probably be the team from the west to make it to the Finals. If they hadn't picked up Joe, the team would have had a Chicago or St. Louis type of season. Buffalo had won 8 of their previous 9 games and the only loss they had in that span was a shootout loss to the Strangers when Noronen hurt his leg and Marty had to come in cold to finish the shootout. As I said previously, without Thornton that game is 100% different. I also don't deny that Thornton is fantastic in the regular season. But, until he actually shows 1 time that he will show up in the post season, I will consider him another Yashin type player. One that will not bring it when it matters most. Grier and Bell are good acquisistions for you, but the loss of Scott Thornton will ofset their gains to a degree. If Grier can make Thornton show up in the playoffs, he'll have been a great pickup. I seriously doubt though that anyone can do that.

The guy who put this together is obviously an idiot. Anyone who thinks fans in Houston are better than those in Buffalo has his head up his bippy. I lived in Houston when the Oilers were in the midst of a 7 year playoff run. The SOB's couldn't sell out ANY games in a 65,000 seat stadium in the 4th largest city in the country with a playoff caliber team without the local grocery store (Randall's) buying between 4-8,000 tickets.

Doctor Formerly College Guy, Congratulations. It is an achievement that few attain. Over the years, you will find it was definitely worth it. I hope your future endeavors are as successful as this one was.

I got mine today as well. I was actually very impressed by the Sabres Bucks not having the abominable snot smear on them. The letter that was sent out was finishing up the Shatanic Goathead stationary, which I also appreciated. The ticket books, yeah they have the abominable snot smear across the front of it. But it is so small and so high on the ticket, that you can rifle through your tickets without seeing the abominable snot smear.

Yeah, they were REAL friggin' road weary. You might have noticed that that was the 1st game a Mr Joe Thornton played for your team. You might not have, I don't know how closely you follow your team, but if you thought they were road weary, you obviously don't follow them very closely. Heck, that team that day could have beaten the '77 Canadiens, the '83 Isles, or any of the Oiler Cup winners. You may also have noticed that same Mr. Thornton who played so well for you in the regular season all but disappeared in the playoffs, just like he did the last time the NHL played for real. And, not to bust your bubble, but just like he most likely will do this season.

Jay and Rockpile, Thanks for setting this up. It was good to be able to place some faces with names.

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. My Name is Earl.

He definitely had a good day on ST's. But I would have had him as runner up. Moorman had the fish starting at the 10 or worse 4 times and inside the 20 another time. That is a seriously good day.

(Apologies to all who are sick and tired of Sabres logo posts (especially on a BILLS board), but here goes.) If that's the case, I hate the logo even more. If you look at the logo from different angles and stare at it for a really long time (which is something I don't recommend prior to consulting your opthamologist), you can see a couple of things that Picasso might have used to represent a saber and a few things he might have used to represent a B. (So I now know how we ended up having this abomination forced down our throats, the designers were on an acid trip.) If the spin doctors are that desperate to try to get people to look at the abominable snot smear in a favorable light, then they truly are starting to realize just how horrible it is. I heard about 5 minutes of D'ohopp's spin in the car today. He was claiming that the only negativity towards the abominable snot smear were imaginary protests on the internet and not in the real world. He was using the selling out of 100 sweaters at the Sabre Store as proof that the masses love the sweaters. After a lady called him on it, he explained that he was being such a jackhole about the subject because the "haters" are being so "aggressive". Huh?

Obviously stopping the pass. On a running play, after he whiffs on the tackle there will typically be someone else there to help out (about 20 yards downfield). When he whiffs on a pass, it's a Touchdown for the bad guys. After Bowen comes back, I don't mind Coy staying on the team because he IS a good STer. Even before Bowen comes back, I am not happy with Coy playing safety. Heck, even Meathead was smart enough to exploit his being on the field on a play or two.

Yeah, but Sully wasn't over the top praising JP. It actually read as a well thought out article, which is not now, nor has it ever been, a hallmark of a Sully newspaper article or radio broadcast. I will give the jackhole credit. (I doubt I will have to do it again for another 10 years, but he did surprisingly write an article that didn't read like it was written by a petulant 6 year old.) And to be fair, he didn't start to read like a petulant 6 year old when TD took over. He's been that way since at least the late '80's.

For Wings, I would go with the Bar Bill, Buffalo Brew Pub, Elmo's or Duff's. (I haven't been to the other bars mentioned, so have absolutely no comments on them.) Elmo's and Duff's are kind of out of the way from where you're staying and opposite direction from the Stadium, but the Brew Pub isn't too far from your hotel. The Bar Bill isn't too close to your hotel, but it isn't too far (~10 minutes) from the Stadium. It's been a while since I was able to get to the Brew Pub, but it had TV's near the bar (might have more now, I just don't know), let you throw your peanut shells on the floor, and had an excellent selection of beers, including several of their own brews. It was one of the 1st 10 microbrewery pubs to open up in the US back in the '80's. (I can't remember if it's the 4th or the 8th.)

We will never know whether he is right or not about that. (My gut feel is that he is wrong, but that is just as speculative as claiming that he IS right.) But either way, since the Bills were certain that they wanted Whitner and were reasonably sure that other teams had at least an interest in him, I don't see a reason for them to trade all the way down to 15 to get one extra pick. If they could have dropped to 9th or 10th, it may be a different story, but a lot can happen (trades, somebody having their 1st choice grabbed so they settle for 2nd / 3rd choice, etc.) in those 6 picks between when the Bills did draft vs #15.

For Beef on Weck, it has to be Schwabl's in West Seneca. It's a VERY small place, no TV's, and there may be a wait; but it is definitely worth it. It's on Center Rd about 100 yards East of Union. So it's very easy to get to from either the hotel you are staying at or the stadium. Schwabl's Restaurant 789 Center Rd West Seneca, NY 14224 (716) 674-9821