Yankee4Life

Updated to 1-25 ...If you read my predictions last week for the AFC and NFC championship games you will notice that I was wrong on both of them. It happens. Seattle had a miraculous comeback that I am still having a hard time accepting. The Packers fell apart at the very end and I have to imagine they'll be thinking about that the entire off-season. I don't blame Brandon Bostick though for not catching that onside kick. He had so many people around him going after the ball. It was a tough play. As for the Patriots, the less said the better. Even when they win big (this time by thirty-eight points) they still have to find a way to cheat. I have no doubt about the accusation that they deflated footballs. When you deflate a football it makes it easier for you to throw it, catch it and hold on to it. Who knew? I certainly didn't but New England did and they made sure to do it. The NFL conducted an "investigation" and they determined that eleven out of the twelve footballs supplied by Belichick's boys were deflated so there could be no way that this was just a coincidence. The Patriots knew what they were doing. It's my guess that the NFL will have to do something to penalize them but I don't expect anything serious to happen besides a slap on the wrist and some off-the-record advice to not get caught the next time. It's Boston. Cheating is expected there. ...Bud Selig was at a Baseball Writers awards dinner last week and when it was time for him to get up and say a few words he must have realized that he was no longer the commissioner and couldn't ramble on about his latest idea to make money and inconvenience fans at the same time so he decided to wing it by using flattery. The trouble is this guy is as sincere as a car salesman trying to sell a set of wheels to a blind guy. When he got up there he started singing the praises of St. Louis and called them the best baseball city in the country. On the surface that wasn't a bad thing but of course he was in St. Louis when he said it. In a few weeks he'll be in San Francisco and he'll say the same thing about that city. This guy needs to be put in a home and never be let out again. ...According to Tiger Woods' agent Woods got his tooth knocked out last week in Italy when a member of the media with a shoulder-mounted video camera turned around and accidentally hit him in the mouth, resulting in the loss of his tooth. That's the official story and Woods is sticking with it. Like any story you hear there is some truth to it. Woods was in Italy to surprise his girlfriend Lindsay Vonn, who was competing in a World Cup event there but it was Vonn who surprised Woods when he was getting room service from one of the luscious Italian maids at the hotel he was staying at so for Woods it was better to blame a cameraman for what happened instead of the truth. ...I was happy to see Max Scherzer sign with Washington last Tuesday because even though the Yankees kept on saying all the right things about curbing their spending in the off season I could not imagine that you could have gathered together five people that actually believed what they were saying. Scherzer is a fine pitcher and he'll help any team that he's on but for 210 million dollars for seven years was too much. The Yankees are still trying to dig their way out of three of those long-term contracts with players that are shells of their former selves. For a few more years they are stuck with Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira and C.C. Sabathia. Name one team that would want to have any one of them for the money that they are making. You can't. It's taken then awhile but maybe the Yankees are finally learning. ...Oh wait, James Shields is still out there. They still have another chance to spend like crazy. ...I couldn't help but think what Madison Bumgarner would have made if he was a free agent this off season. I wouldn't be exaggerating by saying he could have had the first 400 million dollar contract. ...Did you hear about that guy who bulldozed his wife's house to the ground? What I want to know is what the hell she did to him to get him that unglued? ...A man was arrested down in Atlanta last week because a police officer saw him eating a cheeseburger while behind the wheel. It must have been one hell of a burger to be that much of a distraction. I admit I don't eat burgers while driving because the ingredients have a tendency to fall out of it and on your shirt and when you get home you have to explain to your wife why there's mustard on your white shirt. Not that this has happened to me of course. Nevertheless the guy was charged for this and has a court date set on February 3rd to plead his case. The judge will probably say that the next time he goes out for a burger he should get enough for everyone. ...Mets fans are very familiar with Fred Wilpon. He is the owner of the team and is the guy responsible for the Mets being in the position that they have been in for the past few years and it isn't a good one. Wilpon is the guy who lost about seven hundred million dollars investing in a Ponzi scheme seven years ago and has barely managed to hold on to the ownership of the team since then. Apparently that little mistake didn't matter, at least to new commissioner of baseball Rob Manfred because he put Wilpon in charge of baseball’s finance committee. I hope he also hired someone to watch over Wilpon at the same time. It didn't take Manfred long to show everyone he can make boneheaded decisions just as good as Bud Selig was able to. ...Alex Rodriguez made news last week in the only way that Alex Rodriguez can when you mix a bit of controversy with a whole lot of stupidity. He was in California getting hitting tips from Barry Bonds, who is no stranger to steroid allegations himself. Bonds though wasn't caught and suspended during his playing days while Rodriguez was. While seeking help from Bonds makes sense on the surface because all you have to do is look at the back of his baseball card to see his impressive, but tainted numbers to understand why Rodriguez sought him out because Bonds knows a thing or two about hitting, a fact that all the steroid allegations can not deny. Keeping a low profile before spring training starts is what he really should be doing because once Rodriguez gets down to Tampa it will only be a matter of time until he says something ill-advised. Then again how is this really going to hurt A-Rod? It's not like Bonds is going to corrupt him. Rodriguez took care of that long before this hitting session last week. ...I'm really having a hard time believing this but here goes. A woman from Weymouth, Massachusetts checked herself into the emergency room last week because of sudden pain in her stomach and back. When doctors decided to give her an ultrasound to try and determine the cause of her pain they discovered that she was pregnant and they rushed her off into labor. The woman's story is that she had no idea she was expecting a child and she's sticking by it. She did say she knew she was putting on some weight but she blamed it on all the eating she did over the Christmas holidays. What about over Thanksgiving? How much did she put away then? I went straight to the the source and over the past few days I asked women that I know who had children if they thought this was possible, that the woman didn't know she was carrying a child until the day she gave birth? Every one of them told me that there would be no way she didn't know because of all the changes that go through your body during the three trimesters. Nausea that can come out of nowhere, fatigue, avoiding favorite foods and craving others, weight gain and other hormonal changes that I really did not need to know about. There's no way she would have not known. The next thing she's going to say is that she's still a virgin. ...Hold that Phone, Dept: My wife and I went to Pizza Hut last Thursday night because we wanted to try out the new flavored crusts that they are putting on their pizzas and at the same time the salad bar they have there is very under rated. Usually it is only her and I that go there but this time she brought along a friend of hers that she works with. We were there a little more than an hour but I could not learn one thing about her because she would not leave her phone alone. All I did for the entire time was nod my head at whatever she was saying or blurt out a 'Uh-huh' when I thought the situation required it. She showed my wife videos and funny pictures and web sites and all the important things you want to think about when you are out getting dinner. If the phone ever left her hand I must have missed it. She treated it like it was an adult pacifier. My wife congratulated me when we got home for not getting upset because she could tell I was two seconds away from asking the waitress for a box so we could finish the rest at home. People like this who are unable to talk to someone else unless it has something to do with their phone have major issues. I happen to believe that people like this who are so addicted to their cell phones are not interesting to be around and that is exactly what this woman was. A few minutes before we got to her house to drop her off she finally put her phone away because she needed to recharge it. I figured she probably does that every day. Then she looked at me like she just discovered I was in the car too and said to me that I don't talk much. How could I? She never came up for air. At least the asiago crust was good. ...A father down in Pennsylvania is being charged with aggravated assault after catching a nineteen-year-old man alone in his house in his seventeen-year-old daughter's room. He knew something was going on when they tried to explain to him that all they were doing was watching movies but since the TV was not turned on in the room Dad knew something was up. When the kid refused to leave his house after being asked the father grabbed a knife and cut off his dreadlocks just to get his point across. It didn't. The kid continued being disrespectful towards the man even though he just got a free haircut moments before. He was told to leave and not come back but he wasn't ready to go just yet without having a few more choice words thrown in. He kept on antagonizing the father until a punch in the face let the kid know that dear ole dad finally heard enough and it was time to go. Besides being charged with aggravated assault the father was also charged with terroristic threats. Is that what they call it these days when you are trying to get someone out of your daughter's room that shouldn't be there? This kid was stupid and lucky. If the girl's father was really mad he could have cut off something else, something that he was planning on using very soon if her father had not shown up. His hair will grow back. That won't. ...Every time I hear about a celebrity pulling the "Don't you know who I am?" card when they get into a situation that they shouldn't be in I immediately wish the worst on them only because of their arrogance. The Palins have done this on more than one occasion. So has Miley Cyrus and Tara Reid to name a couple more. Even Kanye West has been known to do this when he notices people around him are not genuflecting fast enough. The latest one to do this was Hope Solo and her husband when they were pulled over in Los Angeles for what turned out to be a DUI case. Police initially pulled the car over because the headlights were off but they quickly discovered that there was a lot more to it than that when her husband refused to submit to a breath test but based on his condition at the time police still arrested him for DUI. The people that run the United States women’s national team suspended Solo for thirty days because of this. They let the incident where she assaulted her half-sister and nephew last June when she was under the influence slide by but not this one and that's good. These are the things that happen to people when they think they are a bigger deal then they really are. ...R.I.P. to one of baseball's true greats, Ernie Banks who died yesterday at the age of eighty-three.

Hey, no problem. I'm glad you were able to get it.

There is nothing wrong with the download link. Just click on the green box that says download and you are all set.

Put the download link to the mod here so I can check it out.

Thank God Scherzer found a home.

Here's where I can try to redeem myself. There was a "reboot" edition (if you want to call it that) for Mvp 2008. Near the end of that year Kraw and the modders released an updated version of Mvp 08. That's probably the version that is on our website now. As for Mvp 07 there was only one edition but there was a patch made for it and there is also a fix for the pitching meter for that mod and both of these files are hosted here on the site.

Good job Kyleb. I mean I only work here. I should have known! I'm disappointed in myself.

No, it's not hosted here. It is one of the many mods that did not make it over here when EAmods/MLBmods closed up shop.

Nice to see you pistonJ!

Updated to 1-18 ...There is a possibility that Miguel Cabrera will get a late start to the season after having surgery in October to remove bone spurs from his right ankle. Right now he's wearing a walking boot until at least until mid-February which for him is perfect timing because he will miss the start of spring training and if he plays his cards right and limps around long enough down in Florida he may get Tiger management to put him on the disabled list once the season begins because as everyone knows, it's pretty cold in April for Tiger home games. Tiger fans should worry because once he "heals" something else will miraculously come up that will prevent him from breaking a sweat. The only good thing about Cabrera wearing that boot is now his wife has a better than average chance to get away from him when it's time for her morning beating. ...If you have not seen the fly-through preview for the new stadium the Atlanta Falcons will be playing in in two years do yourself a favor and check it ">right here. The first thing I thought of was that you had better bring plenty of currency with you when you go there because you can expect to leave it there and secondly I wonder how a team like the Raiders must feel after seeing this? ...The lawyers for the Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (yeah, he actually has some) asked the judge to suspend jury selection in his trial for at least a month because of the Charlie Hebdo incident in France because that has once again placed the 2013 marathon bombing at the center of attention. I don't know what these lawyers are trying to prove because these bombings have forever affected the lives of the victims on that April day nearly two years ago along with the entire city of Boston, whose unity and resolve as a city impressed the entire country. My point is what is one month going to do? Fortunately the judge rejected this request. We could learn something from the French here because none of those three terrorists there got anywhere near a trial. They got rid of them right then and there. The same thing can still be done with Tsarnaev. They can drive him out to some woods in New England and let him loose with an ankle monitor on him that he is unable to get off. Give him a five minute head start and then go after him with long range rifles. That should terrify him plenty but since he's a terrorist he should be accustomed to the feeling of getting as much a chance to get away as the victims he and his brother killed. ...Some Islamist hackers attacked over one thousand French websites after the Charlie Hebdo attack and posted anti-French and pro-Islam messages on the main page of the sites. At least the North Koreans can't be blamed this time. This was done to the French as simply an annoyance because no matter how many times you hack a website you can not actually kill anyone this way and when you can't pile up a body count the Muslims simply are not happy. ...I spent some of my Amazon gift card that I got last month for Christmas when I bought the complete series of Magnum, P.I. Besides being a big fan of the show in real life I am almost a dead ringer for Tom Selleck if you overlook the fact that he is almost a foot taller than I am and has a moustache. ...The Yankees hired a brand new hitting coach last week and for the first time in their history they also hired an assistant hitting coach. That way when things go wrong this time they can fire two people instead of just one. ...David Price avoided an arbitration hearing by signing a one-year contract with Detroit for $19.75 million. Price was an average pitcher at best for Detroit last year. The Tigers got to be desperate to keep some pitching because next year at this time Price could be signing a bigger contract than the one he just finished signing and the next time it could be with another team. ...The Joys of Winter, Dept: I was getting out of my car one day last week. It was a bitterly cold day and the wind was so strong that all I had to do was glance at the houses nearby me to tell if their screen door was not shut properly because the ones that weren't were making noises like they were going to break at any moment. I did not stay out any longer than I had to but just as I was turning to go back in my garage I saw a Christmas tree rolling down the road aided by the strong wind and not far behind the tree was a guy trying to chase it down but he was losing ground fast. Despite the cold I had to see this through because I had to see how far the tree would end up traveling and if the guy would end up getting it or stop and say the hell with it and go home. Luckily for him the wind shifted and the tree veered off to the left and hit a parked mail truck where it stopped and traveled no more. That was the only way that guy ended up catching up to that tree and if it wasn't for that truck the tree would have pulled away and won going away. I give the man credit for not giving up because if it were me I would have stopped and waved goodbye and walked home. ...Many times when things happen in real life I say to myself that if you saw it on TV you'd never believe it possible. But people never cease to amaze and all you have to do is pay attention and see. Take for instance that woman in California who went to her ex-boyfriend's house for a visit. She arrived, knocked on the door, got no answer, waited a bit, tried again and got the same result. At that point she should have got the hint that no one was home and should have just left to try again at another time or at the very least if she had her phone with her, call him up to let him know she was there. Instead she remembered that he had a chimney in his house and since the chimney starts up at the roof and ends in the living room she decided that was her way in the house. What an inspiring idea. Somehow she made it on top of the house and just to be sure to eliminate any problems on the way down she removed all her cloths before climbing in the chimney. It turns out the guy was home but he was asleep because he had to go to work the next day and when he woke up to begin his day he heard cries for help coming from inside the chimney. He tried to free her by himself but was unable to so the fire department was called and it took them two hours to free her and that involved busting the entire fireplace open, which now has to be rebuilt. This actually happened and it's still hard to believe. This is probably one of the reasons why she is that guy's ex-girlfriend. ...And one more, although luck wasn't with this guy at all. A man decided to go camping but since it's January and it's too damn cold outside in Delaware this guy checked into a motel and set up a tent on top of the bed in the motel room and was found dead when employees went to check on him because it was past his check-out time. The tent that he was in was surrounded with propane canisters and that may have contributed to his death. When I read about stuff like this the first thing I ask myself is what the *$@% were they thinking? You want to go camping? Fine. Go pretend you're Daniel Boone when the weather improves But when you check into a hotel leave your camping equipment in the car. Chalk this one up in the dumbass column. ...Can't help themselves, Dept: Summertime may be a distant memory and something that we can not wait for to come back but right now down in Australia it is their summer season and that means a lot of time at the beach for residents and tourists alike. Unfortunately for over a week now there have been several popular beaches in the Newcastle, New South Wales area that have been closed because of the sighting of an enormous great white shark. Arial shots of the shark have measured it being sixteen feet long and it has been estimated to weigh around 3,700 pounds. But despite knowing how big of a shark it is many people have chosen to ignore the posted warning signs and have gone wading, surfing, or paddling in the closed-off areas because as some of them explained "it's hot out and they want to go in the water." No matter what you do you can not save people from themselves but since God watches over small children and idiots maybe these people have a fighting chance after all. At least I hope so. ...Sony is coming out with a new Walkman that will be released in the spring in Europe. When I found this out my ears perked up because I've owned Walkmans before in the past. This new one is made out of solid aluminum alloy and packed with gold-plated copper wiring and circuitry. As soon as I read that I knew this thing was going to be expensive. It has support for mp3 files, FLAC, Lossless and many more and with 128 gigs of disk space you will have a hard time filling it up. At least I would. The battery in this new device has thirty-three hours of high-resolution 24-bit music playback. Sony had me reeled in and I was ready to put my name on a waiting list as soon as it became available in the U.S. but then when I read it was going to cost $1,200 any dreams that I had of owning one evaporated. ...An actress named Naya Rivera was on The View last week and some way or another the subject got around to people's showering habits and she said that "showering more than once a day or every day is a white people thing." Wow, did that hit home. Guilty as charged. I have no idea of what the hygiene habits of her household was when she was growing up and I don't want to know but it has always been my belief that taking showers consistently is not reserved for Mr. and Mrs. White Guy. Perhaps she was afraid to say what she really meant because I have heard that if you give a twenty-ounce bottle of body wash to a Muslim it will last him five years and if she would have said that on TV one of them would have got sore since many of them can make that last longer than five years. ...Los Angeles Animal Services made a surprising discovery last Wednesday when they found an eight-foot alligator living in a suburban home. The animal has been living at the home for thirty-seven years now so it's hard to understand why it took them so long to remove it. The homeowners have owned the gator since it was a baby and when it was smaller it lived in the house with them but as it grew bigger it had to stay outside because the last thing you want to do is wake up an eight-foot alligator in the middle of the night on your way to the bathroom because the next time you go out to buy a new pair of shoes you'll only need to get one for one foot. Animal Services found the "pet" in their backyard with two cat carcasses next to it because as the owners explained gators need to eat too. The gator was transported to the Los Angeles Zoo where her diet of felines will be a thing of the past. The house where the gator lived all these years was a family residence with multiple occupants, but no children were found there. The gator probably took care of that too. ...With the AFC and NFC Championship games being played today it is not too early to look ahead to Opening Day, which will be on April 6th, seventy-seven days from now. Looking forward to that day is a lot more important to me then the games being played today and the Super Bowl combined. Giants fans though should be pretty upset with ESPN because when they released the Sunday Night schedule for the first five weeks of the season their team was not on it. They're just the current World Champions but that still doesn't matter. But in case you can't get enough of the Yankees and Red Sox on Sundays you'll get to see them twice in the first five weeks. If this isn't the best reason to get the MLB package on DirectTV then nothing is. ...Time for predictions. Make sure you read this closely so you can bet the opposite. Green Bay over Seattle and Baltimore over New England.

Hahahaha, yeah, well good point!

Sabugo I suggest you look up a player named Mike Hargrove on Youtube.

A little bit about the 1980 Syracuse Chiefs. They were the AAA team of the Toronto Blue Jays and they finished in last place that year in the International League with a 58 - 81 record, 24 1/2 games behind the pennant-winning Columbus Clippers, the AAA team of the Yankees. Notable players in this team photo are first baseman Willie Upshaw and shortstop Danny Ainge, who went on to play for the Boston Celtics. The condition of the photo is good but not in excellent condition. I'll keep this open for a few days and then I'll close the thread.

I bought this many, many years ago on a winter day because I wanted something to read. It's called The Detroit Tigers An Illustrated History and it is by Joe Falls, who was a very famous writer in Detroit. It is 212 pages long and you can see what this book looks like if you go to this Amazon page right here. This is the exact copy that I have and it is a paperback book and is in very good condition. I'll keep this open for a few days and then I'll close the thread.

Yeah man, good point. Boras always inflates the value of his client and I am going to be very curious to see what happens if no one budges. You can't discount the Yankees here even though they have sworn up and down that they won't sign him but they are the Yankees and you have to compare their attitude toward free agents like this to a small child that you have to keep on reprimanding. As soon as your back is turned the kid will do what he is told not to and at the last second I can see them having a "change in policy" and Scherzer will be a Yankee. I hope not, but as someone who has followed these guys for years it won't surprise me. Not me. You know why? Because it's going to be ignored.

Let's use this to talk about anything baseball while we wait out this long winter. Talk about anything at all. I'll try to get it going. Who do you think is going to wind up getting Max Scherzer?

You have to search the download area because that is where

That is quite a timeline you got going Kyleb. I wonder how Kraw has been doing? He hasn't been here in awhile. I wouldn't mind helping more but with the 262 photos I collected that should be enough images for another mod.

Don't look at this post as anything else than what it is and that's just out of curiosity. We are getting into the middle of January and the news on this mod has been quiet for awhile. I understand that people have many responsibilities and interests besides this but again, I am just curious as to what's going on. Now let's get this damn winter over with!

How did you know? I was trying to hide my admiration for the people who can deal with this kind of weather so defiantly. I must disguise this a lot better in the future.

Excellent point sabugo. I am in no way saying that Christians have their hands clean but this happened six hundred years ago. What the hell can anyone do about it now? And since I don't see Catholics or Baptists or anyone else stringing people up forcing others to worship like they do this isn't something to worry about anymore. I am going to have to take your word for this Sabugo because I personally do not know any Muslims and at this point I don't want to know any. I don't care how it sounds but after all that has happened I don't trust them. Agreed 100% I think this right here was my favorite part of your post. I literally clapped after I read it. Isn't it funny? You can't name one person that you know that decided to uproot themselves or their family to go live in Syria or Pakistan or whatever toilet country these people come from. No, these people come to Europe and North America and instead of learning how to adjust to how life is here they want us to adjust to them. That's not happening with me. I'm sorry to find this out. I feel for you. He did a good job, didn't he?

Updated to 1-11 ...What I liked most about last week's Hall of Fame announcements was that the four cheaters (Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa) did not even get close to being elected. Forget about their statistics. It's how they got them. I'm glad Craig Biggio made it along with John Smoltz and Randy Johnson was a shoo-in. Pedro Martinez got voted in somehow but then again you can't have everything. I was planning on a trip to Cooperstown this year but with Martinez being elected it's going to be infested with Red Sox fans who will act like they own the whole damn town. The last time the Sox fans were in Cooperstown was six years ago when Jim Rice got in and the only way the town got rid of all of them then was to stop selling liquor. Mike Piazza and Jeff Bagwell got shut out again and if I was a voter they would have received one from me. In a way they did because for the second straight year I was able to take part in a voting process run by Jaxen, who is a member of our website. Three of the four guys that got in this year I voted for with Martinez being the exception. I have my reasons. ...Another guy who didn't get elected was Curt Schilling and since he's Curt Schilling he knows exactly why. He pointed out that the only reason why John Smoltz got in and he didn't was because Smoltz is a Democrat and he is a Republican. That cleared that up and it make perfect sense for no one except for Schilling. He played twenty years in the major leagues and only four with Boston but the way he complains and makes excuses you'd swear he played his entire career with the Red Sox. ...When I first heard of Charlie Hebdo I thought the news people were talking about a person. I didn't know it actually was a French weekly satirical newspaper and what they were famous for was their popular cartoons about the Prophet Muhammad. The cartoons must have really hit home because a bunch of Muslims stormed the place last Wednesday and killed twelve people that worked there, including the editor of the paper. With everything that has happened in recent years is this really surprising to anyone? These butchers killed a dozen people over cartoons. Think about that for a minute before I go on. When are we all going realize that it is time to declare war on Islam? It seems like every time you turn your head one of those bast**** are starting something. These people get worked up and offended faster than a group of old ladies. And I don't want to hear that the people that do this are only a small sample of what the Muslim community is, etc, etc, ad nauseam. Where were the peaceful Muslims after this happened? They were so quiet that they didn't even organize any protests about the killings at Charlie Hebdo. Sure, they were quiet. They were in their house having a party. This is getting so out of control that I would not be upset at all if all the Muslims in the United States, Canada, England and France are all rounded up and thrown on a ship to take them back to Syria or wherever the hell they came from. That way if they feel like they want to kill someone they'll be killing a fellow Muslim and will be doing the world a favor at the same time. I have no doubt that some people will have as much objection to what I just wrote as compared to what happened in Paris and that's really a shame. I wasn't born feeling the way I do about Muslims. Their actions and total disregard for life and human compassion have made me feel the way I feel about them. Whenever Muslims are around bloodshed is not too far behind. We still haven't caught that guy who was having so much fun chopping off people's heads. He hasn't done it in a while so he must be getting antsy. And now these people. Many families in France will never be the same because of some cartoons. Islam is the religion of peace? Don't believe it and don't laugh too hard the next time someone tries to tell you that. ...I can tell that the Dallas Cowboys are getting back to their old selves and it has nothing to do with their won-loss record. I have hated this team for a very long time and it dates back to the Tom Landry days with Roger Staubach, Drew Pearson and the rest of those lucky SOB's. Back then when you played the Cowboys and you had a slim lead late in the game you knew anything could and would happen. The officials would throw a flag at just the right time and it would turn the game around in their favor. Did your team just run for a fifty yard touchdown to make it a two score game? Forget it, it's going to get called back on a holding call. Or how about when it's third and long and Dallas desperately needs a first down? Staubach will go back to pass and before you can say North Dallas Forty there's going to be a pass interference call and the Cowboys will score and win the game. Ask veteran Vikings fans about what Dallas pulled in Minnesota during the 1975 NFL playoffs. I watched that game and even though the Vikings were dominating Dallas all game they only had a slim 14 - 10 lead and with that lead against that team you knew anything could happen and it did. With less then thirty seconds left in the game Staubach, who must have been born with a silver spoon in his mouth, threw a fifty-yard touchdown pass to Drew Pearson that I can still see in my mind's eye as clear as day. The replays showed Drew Pearson pushing off cornerback Nate Wright of Minnesota and when a flag was thrown I had a moment's hope of having it called on Dallas but I should have known better because Wright was called for interference. And now almost forty years later the Lions know how it feels. ...The New Era Cap company gave David Ortiz his very own custom hat featuring a likeness of him doing his signature skyward point after every home run. If New Era was going for the gaudy and ugly look then I am here to tell you that they nailed it. Since the only photos of Ortiz that I allow in this thread are of when he is hit by a pitch I will not be posting a photo of it but if you are curious to see for yourself then just follow this link right here. Like I said, this is a custom hat made only for Ortiz and is not available for sale for any other damn fool out there (Red Sox fans) who wants it but if it ever became available to the public it would be in high demand for street gangs everywhere. ...Stephen Drew had a whopping .162 batting average last year but that didn't stop him from getting a one-year five million dollar contract for this upcoming season. Naturally the Yankees were the team that gave him all this money. They're probably hoping he makes a comeback and hits .220 for them. ...You will find no one that will disagree with you when you say that Alex Rodriguez has done more than his share of things to earn himself a lifetime of scorn and ridicule. Just the very sight of him this year will make him an easy target for every writer covering the Yankee beat. And that's exactly what's going to happen once the season starts. All that Jeter love we saw last year is going to be replaced by the constant booing of fans every time Rodriguez pops his head out of the dugout. If they want to boo him for what he did that's fine. At least they have a reason. But don't get on his case when he's not doing anything wrong. Last week he posted pictures of himself working out by taking batting practice and fielding ground balls and when one of the New York writers saw it he accused Rodriguez of trying to make trouble for the Yankees. In what way? He's still a player and he's missed a full year so getting started early with some spring drills will benefit him and in turn the Yankees. What's wrong with that? Would they rather have pictures of him going bar hopping with Johnny Manziel? ...A woman in Boston was arrested for bombarding a local police precinct with uncooked bacon and pork sausage because she said God told her to go there to "feed the pigs." You know, I've been saying for years that there are nothing but a bunch of animals in that city and people tend to think I am just exaggerating but this just confirms it even more. ...By now everyone has heard about that two-year-old boy in Idaho who accidentally shot and killed his mother after reaching into her purse and pulling out the gun that she had in it. The child, thinking it was some kind of toy, pointed it at his mother and the worst thing you would expect to happen did. I feel bad for this kid because there is no way to know how he is going to handle what he did when he gets older and understands what happened. The mother was twenty-nine-years-old and while you hate to pass judgment here you still have to wonder what the hell she was thinking by having her toddler in the shopping cart with her purse knowing that she had a gun inside of it? The victim's father-in-law, who must have been too blinded with grief to think straight described her as someone who was "not the least bit irresponsible." Right. Because responsible people let their two-year-olds handle their purse with a gun inside of it with the safety off. R.I.P. Mother of the Year. ...The city of Denver is finding out their homeless population is growing steadily because of legalized marijuana in Colorado. The older homeless people arriving there are coming for medical reasons and the younger ones are coming just because it's legal. Who didn't see that coming? The next thing that will happen is that some city will round up their homeless and throw them on a bus with a few bucks in their pocket with instructions to get off in Denver and have a good time. ...A nationwide atheist group called the Freedom from Religion Foundation is threatening to file a lawsuit against a Georgia public school district because bibles were being distributed to elementary school students. Their complaint was that by giving the bibles away to these children they feared that these kids would have become a captive audience to the teachings of the bible because they were so young and impressionable. You can't have that. If you get kids believing in God at a young age you might run out of atheists in the future and what are you going do then? What actually happened here was that representatives from the Gideons were the ones who passed out the bibles to the kids and not the school district. This is what the Gideons do, they pass out bibles. They have so many that they left one behind in every room in all the hotels and motels across the country. The next time you go on vacation when you are in your hotel open the drawers and eventually you'll find a bible and you'll know that the Gideons were there before you. Since the Freedom for Religion people couldn't fight the Gideons head-on they targeted the school district since they knew they could scare them without breaking a sweat. I'd like to see how fast they blow the whistle when they find out someone is passing out the Koran to junior high students. ...The recent drop in gas prices have put a big smile on everyone's face and even though I don't get gas as much as the next guy it still is a nice feeling not having to pay fifty dollars or more every time I fill up. But there is still one thing I don't understand and that's gas prices in different areas of the city. If I drive twenty minutes south of where I live I can get gas seven cents cheaper a gallon. Same city, same company (Sunoco) but different price. What's even more incomprehensible is the two Sunoco stations five minutes away from my house that are literally across the street from each other. The station that has west bound traffic is selling gas for $2.77 a gallon but if you are on the same road driving east you'll be paying $2.75. This makes no sense at all. ...That same day that I got gas it was four degrees outside and the wind chill was so bad that it was better not even knowing it. Halfway into it when I was filling up the tank my hands were starting to get numb and that's when you start dancing around a little to try and keep warm. I was so cold when I got done I had to go inside and buy a cup of coffee. When I was driving home I saw a guy walking with a T-Shirt and pair of shorts on and I swear to God this is not the first time I have seen people do this in this kind of weather. You really have to live in the cold area of the country to really appreciate what I am trying to explain here. If you live in Arizona or Florida and are curious about what I'm saying here just go into a walk-in freezer and stay in there for about twenty minutes without getting out once. Then you'll get an idea of how it is but without the wind of course. This is the kind of weather when you let the dogs out they find a spot right away and go and then they come back to the door without having you call them. But I see people all the time walking around like it's the middle of summer instead of the beginning of January. Maybe it's some kind of club. Every time I see one of them I say to myself that it "must be another person from Massachusetts" and I laugh all the way home.

Please don't be a stranger here!

Thank you for this Rising Sun. They look great!!!! どうもありがとうございました!!

Already??