Remember the Titans
Braveheart
Super Troopers
Transformers
Saving Private Ryan
Dave Chappelle's Block Party
Love Actually
Field of Dreams
Dumb & Dumber
Saving Silverman
Garden State
You've Got Mail
The Shawshank Redemption
Movies I feel like I should have seen but haven't:
The Dark Knight
Good Will Hunting
The Godfather (any of them)
Caddyshack
Rudy
Raging Bull
Pulp Fiction
Scarface
The Karate Kid
Movies I don't understand peoples fascinations with:
Harry Potter (though I've only seen one and didn't really pay attention)
The Nightmare Before Christmas
The Princess Bride (funny, but not that funny)
Movies I used to watch one after another when I was sick:
Toy Story
Babe
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The two signs that are most apparent to me that the economy sucks: 1. Halls is using one generic wrapper on all of their cough/sore throat/vitamin C drops. They used to have different wrappers for all of their products but now they're all in the gross yellow Halls wrapper that usually signals "gross cherry menthol flavor." 2. MLB free agents deserving of a roster spot on almost any team are not being signed. I took some time to put together a 25 man roster of free agents and compared them to the arguable worst team in the league, the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Here's what I came up with:
Free Agent Pittsburgh Pirates Advantage:
C Paul Lo Duca Ryan Doumit Pirates
1B Doug Mientkiewicz Adam LaRoche Pirates
2B Orlando Hudson Freddy Sanchez Free Agents
3B Joe Crede Andy LaRoche Push
SS Orlando Cabrera Jack Wilson Push
RF Ken Griffey Jr. Brandon Moss Push
CF Jim Edmonds Nate McLouth Pirates
LF Manny Ramirez Nyjer Morgan Free Agents
SP Ben Sheets Paul Maholm Free Agents
SP Livan Hernandez Zack Duke Push
SP Tom Glavine Ian Snell Push
SP Chuck James Jeff Karstens Free Agents
SP Mark Mulder Tom Gozelanny Pirates
RP Will Ohman John Grabow Pirates
RP Juan Cruz Tyler Yates Free Agents
RP Joe Beimel Craig Hansen Free Agents
RP Anbriorix Burgos Sean Burnett Free Agents
RP Dennys Reyes Jesse Chavez Free Agents
RP Julian Tavarez Matt Capps Pirates
B Garret Anderson Brian Bixler Free Agents
B Ivan Rodriguez Robinzon Diaz Free Agents
B Mark Grudzielanek Luis Cruz Free Agents
B Luis Gonzalez Steve Pearce Free Agents
B Jay Payton Ramon Vasquez Free Agents
B Miguel Cairo Eric Hinske Pirates
13 advantages for the Free Agent team, eight for the Pirates, and four ties. Keep in mind, this is my quick evaluation and I didn't match up players exactly how they would be on a depth chart, but it's pretty close. Also, the Pirates roster is filled with young, less-than-three-years service time players that make well under $1 million per year and the Free Agent team is full of veterans that all demand/require a salary of well over $3 million, so total payroll for these two teams would be remarkably different. But I think it's still very interesting to look at. Also, some of the veteran pitchers would need to be healthy, which most of them aren't right now, in order to actually be better than their younger, Pirate counterparts.
One more baseball thing: Everyone is wigging out lately over steroids in baseball. I agree, MLB is too far behind other sports concerning drug testing and penalties for positive tests. A-Rod coming out as a user surprised me as much as anyone, but he's still one of greatest players of all time. A lot of people who don't know the game will say he isn't because of the steroids. There's an easy way to prove those people wrong.
Any fairly fit, reasonably athletic person could do the following things if put in the situation: score a basket in an NBA game, score a touchdown in an NFL game or even catch or throw a completion in an NFL game. Any fairly fit, reasonably athletic person could not touch a Major League pitcher. I'll give you 100 pitches and you would not foul a pitch off. Unless you played college baseball, or the game at a higher level, you're not going to touch any current MLB pitcher unless they throw you a melon.
Hitting a Major League pitch is the hardest thing to do in sports. Some might argue hitting a hole-in-one in golf, but often times that's because of the chances of doing so are so small and has little to do with talent or ability. There are many other things that are very, very difficult, but hitting pitching in Major League Baseball consistently is the hardest of them all.
Now, go take steroids for a year and then try to do all of those things I mentioned earlier. You'd have an easier time playing a physical game like football and would be stronger on the basketball court, but they're still not going to help you but the bat on the ball.
I agree, taking steroids or other performance enhancing drugs is illegal and shouldn't go unpunished, but we should not take away anything that has been done in the past because of baseball, as an organizations, ignorance to their own problem. All of the statistics should count int he record books just as they do now; an asterisk is already next to those numbers in almost every one's head anyway, so what does a literal asterisk do to help the problem? I know I'll tell my children about baseball when I was growing up just like my father told me, so this era will not go forgotten.
Enjoy the opportunity to watch the players we have in the game today. Manny Ramirez is one of the top five pure hitters of all-time; Greg Maddux, Roger Clemens (as much as I hate him), Mariano Rivera, and Trevor Hoffman are four of the greatest pitchers of all-time; and Alex Rodriguez is the second best offensive player the game has ever seen (behind Babe Ruth).
Love the sporting world we live in if you enjoy sports. The NBA is the best it's been in 20+ years (I'm addicted suddenly), the NFL is as entertaining as ever, the NHL is...well, the NHL (Canada loves you), NASCAR, though it ruined its championship system, is filled with young and talented drivers, and if you aren't watching tennis, you should be. Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer are two of the best players ever; their rivalry, friendly as it is and should be, is something I wish will go on for years (and Federer wins every match in 5). Oh, two more words: Tiger Woods.
Pitchers and catchers report today!
B
