Yankee4Life

I got to agree with you Veesmack 100% with your opinion on Selig. I can't wait until this guy's term in office is up.

And another thing I forgot to throw in. You can't expect one person to do the bulk of the work for a mod like this. And I'm thinking about someone like Dennis James, who last year made a lot of uniforms and stadiums for Mvp. I would imagine making a regular season mod would be harder to do than making a classic season mod. For example, I'm sure it was easier to get the portraits for the 1978 mod as compared to portraits from today. People like Jim and Dennis can make a classic mod by themselves because they have more time to make one too. This has to be kept in mind also. Bottom line, it brings us right back to the same thing and that is having people willing to work on the mod.

Bingo. Daflyboys did come up with a great suggestion for a 2012 mod and to be honest I really hope that this does get made. And I don't want to be a Debbie Downer either, but as Homer said, talk of a new mod for Mvp has taken place for the last three years. Believe me, I do not want to kill this idea or not support it in any way. In fact, I am all for it. But for something like this to be made, there has to be one main guy who is in charge of things. And in the previous mods that was Krawitham. Many people worked on individual parts of the mod, but Kraw was the guy in charge. Do we have one here who can take his place? I don't know. Another thing that has prevented a new mod from being made is the lack of any kind of commitment from people to actually work on the mod. Sure, you'd get a lot of people that will say they are interested in a new mod for 2012 but what they are really saying is that they would be willing to download it and not work on it. Clearly what you really need for this to happen is to get people to say yes, I will be willing to work on a part of the mod and the people that agree to it have to stick to it. You don't need someone that says they are going to make portraits for example and then the next thing you know they haven't visited the site for three months. It is that lack of real commitment that kills projects like this around here. Secondly, I would find out how Kraw kept everything in order and working smoothly. What kind of communication did he have with the other modders working on this, etc. Maybe Homer can let you all know how things were behind the scenes in this and how things were done if and when there is some serious commitment to this project. This mod has been made before. In 2006, 2007 and 2008. So it can be done. Many of the modders from a few years back are gone now so the big problem is finding replacements. I literally have over 6,000 hi-res photos just from the end of June last year to the end of the season. And that doesn't count the post season. Or the separate photo gallery of Yankee pictures. I would be very happy to go through my DVD's and get the best ones for the loading screens, etc. But I will not do it unless I see other people working on this first. I have a reason for this. Anyway, I wrote enough. Is this a good idea? It sure is. Daflyboys has his heart in the right place. But at the same time you can't ignore what Homer brought up.

What a waste of time that was. They played like, well, themselves. :sad:

It wasn't an oversight. I'm superstitious. I didn't want to mention them because for the first time in years they have a chance to make the playoffs. I'll be tuned in at 4 pm today to root them on though.

Updated to 1-1 ...Happy New Year everyone. I hope this year is safe and healthy for all of you here on this website and for your families too. ...As per tradition, I watched the ball drop at Times Square and again I was glad not to be there. I can not imagine standing outside for that long of a time in one place freezing and waiting for midnight to get here. ...No matter how nice it looks when that ball drops, it can't compare to what Sydney, Australia does every year to welcome the New Year. Those Aussies really know how to put on a show. ...Besides, I know my luck. I never would have got to kiss Jenny McCarthy. ...Hey, guess what? Yorvit Torrealba expressed his "sincere apologies" for what he did and he now regrets his actions and blah blah blah. What is this? Do these players have a form letter that they read from after they have done something stupid? How many times have we heard the same apology -maybe in different words- but all in all the same? What the hell does Torealba care that he is suspended from the Venezuelan league for the rest of this year and next year? It's not going to affect him in the American League where he still is going to make his millions. ...Ok, I know that January is not even an hour old yet as I post this and that I'm getting way too ahead of myself but the fact remains that next month is February and that means spring training and all the wonderful things we associate with that. ...Yes, I am impatient. ...If you have heard enough about Tim Tebow during this NFL season you are not alone. Now this guy is having a beer named after him. The catchy name? Tebrew. Makes you really want to go out and get one, doesn't it? ...Sinead O'Connor didn't waste any time. After only 18 days of marriage, she decided to call it quits. And we all laughed when Kim Kardashian only lasted 72 days. I don't get it. 18 days?? You can keep a bag of salad in your refrigerator longer than this marriage lasted. ...The purge out in Oakland continues and this time it's the Red Sox who benefit, of course. The Sox were able to steal reliever Andrew Bailey away from the Athletics for three players that the Red Sox probably didn't want in the first place. Is there anyone else left on Oakland's roster that is worth trading for? ...I don't know about any other Yankee fan out there but you have to be concerned with how much they are standing pat this off season in the trade and free agent market. There's no way you can be confident with the starting pitching that they have going into the upcoming season. ...And signing washed up 37 year old Hideki Okajima doesn't count. ...Verizon tried to pull a fast one on their customers by trying to stiff them with a two dollar charge for every payment they made over their phone or online with their credit or debit cards. Imagine having their customers conduct business over their phones instead of sending text messages to each other! This two dollar fee got their consumers in such a clamor that they quickly dropped the idea. Makes me wonder what they have up their sleeve next to bilk their customers.

Very nice. Best of luck with this.

The Boxscore Extractor can only be downloaded at MLBmods. You have to be a registered member there to get that file.

Updated to 12-25 ...Finally the big day is here and now we all can relax. No more Christmas commercials telling you what to buy. No more Christmas movies. No more Rudolph and Frosty and the Miser Brothers. All done! That is, until next year when it begins all over again. ...The best part about Christmas is the songs sung at Christmas mass. Walmart and Target and everyone else still haven't found a way to ruin that yet. ...I'm lucky that my wife didn't get me anything from Best Buy because chances are I would have never got it. Seems as if a lot of people got their orders canceled at the last minute with no explanation at all. Game on Santa? I don't think so. He showed them who's boss. ...Thanks to the Oakland Raiders for giving me an early Christmas present yesterday. ...The Texas Rangers found out they had 51.7 million dollars lying around and since they had all their Christmas shopping done they decided to throw it at the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters just for the right to talk to pitcher Yu Darvish. Now if they happen to sign him they'll have to come up with close to 100 million more. ...I'd have loved for the Yankees to get Gio Gonzalez from Oakland but the Athletics would have demanded the entire Yankee farm system. Instead, they allowed Washington to fleece them as the Nationals unloaded four pieces of driftwood to Oakland. ...You got to like the holiday spirit of the Minnesota Twins. They made American League hitters happy by signing pitcher Jason Marquis to a one year contract. National League hitters pounded him for twelve years. Now the AL is going to get their chance. ...There was nobody more surprised to learn about the death of Jon Bon Jovi than Jon Bon Jovi himself. Then again, if you read this on Twitter it just has to true. ...All I could think of after reading the article about some guy winning a Lamborghini and then wrecking it after owning it a few hours is that I was glad he didn't win a house or else it would have burned to the ground. ...I miss baseball as much as anyone but it sure is nice not having to listen to Michael Kay talk or the disciples of Derek Jeter going on and on about how great their hero is. ...The Atlanta Braves must have nothing better to do this off season then fight with the Walt Disney company about the name of their newest movie. Clearly this is more important to them instead of trying to beat the Phillies and not choking at the end of the season, again. ...The movie trailer of The Hobbit makes me wish 2012 would fly by. ...I still enjoy playing All Star Baseball on the original X Box. Even though it is a few years old I loved the games that Acclaim Sports made. Too bad they went bankrupt because they really put together some good games. Those guys were head and shoulders above 2K Sports and yet 2K is still around despite the lack of quality in their games. ...Rangers catcher Yorvit Torrealba hit an umpire right in the kisser with his palm in a recent Venezuelan League game. I don't know what made this guy so mad. He struck out on a low pitch. It happens. And it certainly wasn't the umpire's fault. Who knows, maybe Torrealba is still upset about losing the World Series. This guy's a classless hothead and I'm anxious to hear his explanation as to why he did this. No matter what he says, he should be thrown out of the winter league. Here's the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEUUJiSu3V4 ...Enjoy your Christmas everyone!

Updated to 12-18 ...This week the Red Sox signed infielder Nick Punto to a two year contract. Punto has played in the big leagues for eleven years and during all that time has done nothing worthwhile to talk about. That being said, he'll probably hit .400 against the Yankees. ...It is just baseball's luck to have something like the Ryan Braun steroid incident ruin their image once again especially after the way the season ended and what happened in the post season. All that is erased right now. The September run of the Rays, the Rangers winning the American League and the Cardinals winning an exciting seven game series all takes a back seat to this news. Spring training is only a few months away. This is what is going to be talked about until then. Not baseball. The winter just got longer. ...Can you imagine how worse this would be for the sport had Milwaukee won the National League pennant and gone on to beat the Rangers in the Series with Braun winning the World Series MVP? The proverbial &@*% would have hit the proverbial fan. ...One thing that I noticed right away after the Angels signed Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson on the same day was that no one complained about it. Sure, the subject of how much Pujols was going to be paid was talked about but there was no grumbling about what the Angels did. Now, had the Yankees gone out and done this and signed the same two players for the same amount of money.... ...You wouldn't have heard a peep out of me had the Yankees traded Phil Hughes (5-5, 5.79) over the winter meetings. ...Barry Bonds will not be going to jail. Did anyone really expect he would? ...What's Kobe Bryant doing messing around on his wife for? She's stunning and she's got a brain in her head. What the hell does he want, a Kardashian? ...While that name is brought up in here, I really can not feel too bad for Kris Humphries, Kim's ex. After all he did marry her and on the wedding night he did <ahem> her. Not exactly hazardous duty if you know what I mean. ...Overheard while standing in line at the post office the other day: the lady ahead of me bought a book of the "forever" stamps. She asked the clerk how long they last for. ...Plaxico Burress became an avid reader during his stay in prison and since his release he has continued to do so, stating that reading books is something that gives him peace. I feel the same way Plaxico but I didn't need to shoot myself in the leg to find that out. ...It has been years since I read a Christmas story like this that really gives you an idea of what this holiday used to mean before the retailers started shoving it down our throats beginning in September. People from all over the country have been anonymously paying other people's KMart layaway accounts just so those people are able to have a good Christmas. It is remarkable. And this was done without a clever ad campaign or TV commercial behind it. When it comes from within you don't need any fancy words. ...I've owned my Amazon Kindle for quite some time now and I am absolutely satisfied with it. But it still does not explain why I still prefer to have a book in my hand when I'm reading. ...It sure was nice to see that Barefoot Bandit SOB get sentenced to more than seven years in prison this week. And if he knows what is best for him he'd better erase that grin on his face before he gets there before someone named Bubba steps up and does the job for him. ...One week to go. Thank God.

That's right. The night stadiums are the ones usually used in the Caribe series.Even though I used a day version one it still was not bad. And I'll do as you say with the tip about the DH rule. Thank you. I think it's great that you are able to get people to get involved in the Caribe series like this. I can not imagine how popular this baseball series is down there. I'm glad that people down there have embraced it as well as they have. And thanks for working on the subtitled version. By the two graphics that were put up I knew what he was talking about but the rest of it I was lost.

Mvp Caribe 2011 Continued Cecilio Garibaldi warms up for the Mayos de Navajoa in the late innings. The beginning of the end for the Tomateros de Culiacan: this errant throw takes the first baseman off the bag during a botched double play attempt where all runners were safe. And just like that you knew it would happen. A single up the middle scores the first run of the game here in the eighth inning. One more run would score in the inning. Nick Singleton, the pitcher for the Mayos, lays down a perfect sacrifice bunt in the ninth inning that sparked the second two run inning in a row for the Mayos. With runners on first and second, this force play at third was the only out the Tomateros could record. Both runners would eventually score on a two run double that gave the Mayos a 4 - 0 lead, which is how the game ended.

Mvp Caribe 2011 Continued Tomateros pitcher Hector Rodriguez helps out his own cause with a leadoff single in the bottom of the fourth. But then in the same inning he makes the first out of the inning by getting tagged out at third base. Pitcher Nick Singleton of the Mayos then retired the next two Tomateros to end the inning. Ramiro Pena of the Yankees. If you examine the rosters of the Caribe teams you will find some major league players on them. The Tomateros kept the pressure up all game against the Mayos. Here an opposite field single starts the fifth. Another baserunning mistake proves costly to the Tomateros as the leadoff hitter in the sixth inning is out trying to stretch a single into a double.

The next mod reviewed in here is Mvp Caribe 2011 from that extremely talented group of modders over at Mvp Caribe. First before we get started I should go over a few things before you go over there to download this mod. You must be a member of Mvp Caribe to download the mod and anything else over there. Registration is quick and painless and you'll be downloading before you know it. Secondly, I have to report a problem that is currently affecting the Caribe website. If you are using Mozilla Firefox, you can not download this mod. Right now there is a problem with Firefox and their website and I was told by HFLR that they are aware of this problem and working to correct it. You can go there and look around and register there and post, but right now you can't download with Mozilla. Update: I just checked it again before I wrote this and the problem still exists. You can however download the mod right now if you use Internet Explorer, Google Chrome or Opera. No problems have been experienced with those browsers. Now that this bit of news is out of the way, the link to download Mvp Caribe 2011 is right here. Please do not install this over an existing mod or a previously installed version of Mvp Caribe. When asked for the password during installation, type this in: www.mvpcaribe.com. Do yourself a big favor and watch the entire Caribe 11 introduction that these guys made. It is impressive. They had someone by the name of Apolo Velez do a narration for them and while I did not understand anything he said, I did make out by the graphic that was posted that he was telling the people that since 2007, the Caribe series has had over 300,000 downloads and the website at Mvp Caribe.com over 31,000 registered users. I don't know who Apolo Velez is but he seemed pretty excited to be associated with Caribe 2011. Maybe Hector can come in here and tell us who this guy is. The rest of the introduction video goes back and forth between game shots and actual Caribe game film. There is also a nice touch in middle that pay homage to Geremi Gonzalez and Jose Lima, two players who played in the Caribbean leagues that have died in recent years. This was a well put together start for this mod. The music included in here is once again an essential part of this mod. From the moment you hear that first upbeat, rhythmic number you just know you are in a Caribe mod. The choice of jukebox music here is brilliant and the walk up music during the game is just as good. The Caribe teams are well represented and there are a lot of throwback uniforms for each team, so there's a lot of choices to be had here. Along with the standard teams there are four special teams. The Estrellas (from Venezuela and Puerto Rico), The Astros (from Mexico and the Dominican Republic), The Los Sin Oficio (a team made up of the creators of Mvp Caribe) and the Leyendes Latinas, which is a team made up of Latin All-Stars such as Juan Marichal, Luis Tiant, Rod Carew and Roberto Clemente, just to name a few. The game that I played that is featured in here was between the Mayos de Navojoa (from Mexico) and the Tomateros de Culiacan (also from Mexico.) I was the Tomateros team and I lost 4 - 0. I hit the ball well off of the Mayos pitcher but it was one of those games when the line drives went right at somebody. It was a fast game and a fun game and I went away thinking that this was the best Mvp Caribe yet. Video: The last out of the game, thanks to Ramiro Pena. Screenshots Welcome to Mvp Caribe 2011 The Tomateros had a rally going in the first but it was stopped cold due to this double play. The impressive looking Overlay for Caribe 2011. The Tomateros first baseman catches a line drive for an out but is not fast enough to tag out the Mayos baserunner, who makes it back safely to first. The Mayos de Navojoa get a lead off double in the fourth but are unable to score.

I won't lie to you Jim. That did help.

Updated to 12-11 ...Jose Reyes is the problem of the Miami Marlins now because he said the Mets showed "no interest in signing him." Say what you want about the Mets but losing this guy to a division rival most likely isn't going to keep them up at nights. They probably figure by the middle of August with that heat down in Florida, Reyes will shut it down and quit for the rest of the season. ...And with the signing of Mark Buehrle the Marlins should have third place clinched next year. ...Albert Pujols takes himself and his bad attitude to Los Angeles for 250 million dollars for the next ten years. For the Angels sake he had better be 31 years old as he says. ...Hey, I wonder if they can move Pujols' statue that is in St. Louis to Anaheim ? St. Louis doesn't need it anymore. ...I bet that no one in St. Louis will have a hard time getting a table in Pujols' restaurant now. And according to this guy it is a good thing Pujols is gone. ...Maybe Lebron James should give Pujols a call to let him know how things are going to be from now on. ...The happiest guy in this Pujols deal isn't even Pujols himself. It's Prince Fielder. Can you all imagine what that guy is going to want just to have him sign his name on a contract? ...Enough of Pujols already. He got more attention in here than he deserved. ...Now that Manny wants to be re-instated I am curious to know how soon he gives Bobby Valentine a call? ...You got to feel bad for Virginia Tech. This week another nut decided to use that university to shoot people for no apparent reason. Virginia Tech is a fine school and always has been but unfortunately now when you first hear the name of the school you associate it with people like this. ...Surfing has to be one of the hardest things in the world to do. I can't even do it on the Playstation. ...You can tell it is a changing world when kids who are waiting in line to see Santa bring their tablets along with him to show him what they want online, pictures and all. ...Grease was on TV the other night. That remains the only musical I can watch all the way through without having a need to grab the remote. ...Lindsay Lohan posed for Playboy? She must have squeezed that in between court dates.

Some pictures from around the Arizona Memorial, March, 2011. The entrance to the Arizona Memorial National Park. Uploaded with ImageShack.us Approaching the Memorial via boat. Ford Island is in the background. Uploaded with ImageShack.us This is the part of the ship where oil still rises to the surface to this day. Uploaded with ImageShack.us Another part of the sunken Arizona that is photographed a lot. In the background of this picture is Pearl City. Uploaded with ImageShack.us I learned something about the Arizona today while doing some reading on it. Did you know that the USS Arizona was in a James Cagney movie? It's a movie called Here Comes The Navy and it was made in 1934. I've never seen it but if Turner Classic Movies ever aired it I'd tune in. This is about the only chance we'd get to see a movie this old on TV and that's on TCM. Old stuff doesn't make it on the air that much unless it's The Wizard of Oz or something like that.

You're right mcoll but you got the time wrong by two hours. The attack started at 7:50 am Hawaii time and that was 1:50 pm on the east coast.

Reviving this thread on the 70th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack. Later on I will try to locate some photos I took of the Memorial when I was there in March of this year.

Updated to 12-4 ...The stock from Netflix continues to fall and they have no one to blame but themselves. The only thing these people succeeded in doing was to upset their customers so much that they turned on them as one. Every once in awhile the voice of the consumer is loud and clear. This time it could cost Netflix their company. ...If you needed yet another reason not to live in Alaska, here it is. A recent storm has prevented the residents of the little town of Nome to receive the fuel they require and they are facing the possibility of $9 a gallon gas. If it isn't bad enough they have to live in that hellhole now they have to fork over this much for fuel. ... Casey Anthony (remember her?) was the most searched for person on the internet in 2011. For almost anyone else that wouldn't be so bad but she's too busy to notice because she's still hiding away somewhere from her <ahem> adoring public. ...The hiring of Bobby Valentine as manager of the Boston Red Sox this week overshadowed all other baseball news from the past seven days. Naturally I don't wish him any luck at all, but I just wonder what Dustin Pedroia really thinks of this hiring because he's been acting like he is in charge for years now. ...How long now until the Red Sox are favored to win the division now that Valentine is on board? And if you don't think the Red Sox were covered a lot by ESPN in the past, I can just imagine how bad it is going to be next year when one of the ex-employees is running the show over there. Forget about baseball news because now it's going to be the nightly Red Sox report - only this time it will be a sixty minute show. ...The one thing that gets me about Valentine is that every single time you see him he has that same grin on his face like he saying I just got away with something and you don't know what it is. ...Bernie Williams' name is on the Hall of Fame ballots for the first time. Don't hold your breath, ok Bernie? ...If you were Albert Pujols, would you seriously consider going to the Chicago Cubs? ...Mindy McCready and her son were found hiding in a closet by police because she didn't want to give him back to her mother, who is the kid's legal guardian. Maybe the only reason why the boy went along with her initially was that McCready promised him Roger Clemens' autograph. ...I don't believe any of that nonsense about David Ortiz coming to the New York Yankees. And if this does happen I will be numb for days. ...It happened again and this time it was this unlucky 86 year old woman who was pushed around by the TSA people at the airports. Why does it seem that the TSA treats these old folks like quarterbacks and they are the defensive line? ...Remember Pearl Harbor Day on Wednesday the 7th. And on that same day it is HFLR's birthday, so have a great one Hector. You guys at Mvp Caribe always do a great job.

Oh my God. What's the matter with people? That is awful. :sad:

Updated to 11-27 ...The long arm of the NFL has reached out to EA Sports and has basically ruined a key feature in the video game NFL Blitz. The NFL does not want the latest edition of this game to include late hits. The problem is this is what this video game franchise has been built on and EA Sports predictably showing no backbone, quickly adhered to the NFL's wishes. Why did the NFL do this? Because they've become more safety conscious and they don't want to give people the wrong impression. Apparently the higher ups in the NFL have a hard time with reality and the video game world. ...Well I tried to watch Two and a Half Men. I really did. But it's just not funny. I'd rather watch Red Sox highlights and that's saying something. ...One woman went to great extremes to make sure she had every chance imaginable to get an X-Box on Black Friday. After waiting in line in a Los Angeles Walmart, she went to the electronics department and right before the store brought out the consoles, she pepper sprayed the hell out of everyone. It isn't known if she came away with what she wanted but if she did I wouldn't want to be in line with her when the games go on sale. ...Every year you hear about kooks like this pulling these kind of stunts. Just three years ago a Walmart employee was killed in a stampede of crazy shoppers. And all people do is when they hear what happens on Black Friday is shake their heads and say that's terrible. It's the stores fault for hyping this up so much. God knows what is going to happen in the coming years because people sure as hell aren't getting any smarter. ...By the way, I had a great Black Friday. My head was on the pillow all morning while I was under the covers. And I didn't even have to wait in line. ...Kim Kardashian served meals to the homeless at the Los Angeles Mission on Thanksgiving day and just by coincidence there was a camera crew who just happened to be in the neighborhood at that time to take pictures of her. I was as surprised as the next guy that they were there. ...I've become quite the fan of a website called Bits du Jour. It is a site that has daily deals on many various kinds of software. Each deal lasts only twenty-four hours and if you are interested in a particular program, there's a good chance it will be advertised there for quite a bit of savings. If interested, you can sign up for the daily newsletter that lets you know what the deals of the day are. I've already purchased two programs from them in the past few months and I've saved a lot of money. ...For all of you with Imagecave accounts: Keep waiting. Whatever their problem is they are keeping it to themselves. ...I've been reading a lot of sports books ever since the Yankees did their annual exit from the playoffs and just about everything that I have read about Billy Martin makes me wonder why I thought he was the greatest guy in the world when I was a kid. He couldn't do no wrong back then in my eyes. But if he were alive today I wouldn't walk across the room to get his autograph. ...My wife got all upset when she read this article the other day. She said that lady stole her idea. ...The latest word with the NBA is that they are supposed to begin their season on Christmas Day. And all this time I thought Christmas was a time for celebrating. ...The Yankees re-signed pitcher Freddie Garcia. And I found out about this the old fashioned way. I went to their website. ...Note to DJEagles: Don't get to used to the new logo and uniforms for the Blue Jays. By 2015 they'll change them again. Check out their uniforms on that baseball uniform database. They're always changing them. It's like they can't make up their mind what they want. ...Finally, if you have not seen this video from Macy's that advertised Black Friday, you really missed something. Someone's got a good sense of humor here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpqBmt8yWfs

The bible thumpers are probably too scared to get within 100 miles of the place. I agree. Oh, do I agree. Well I'm not surprised. This guy's done nothing to improve the game. I wouldn't be shocked at all to find out that Nolan Ryan has been whispering in Selig's ear to make this move. This guy is a terrible example of a commissioner. Just think of all the good that Bart Giamatti could have done had he lived. Are you kidding? They don't care who Natalie Wood was. They are too busy text messaging. But she was a real beauty in West Side Story, wasn't she? Hey you never know man, you could be right. Unless we find out otherwise all we have is speculation. This Captain, Dennis Davern, is someone who is not that trustworthy. Again, why wait thirty years?

Updated to 11-20 ...The Florida/Miami/Whatever Marlins have reportedly offered Jose Reyes a six year contract with a lot of money attached to it. Reyes plays shortstop and the problem here is that the Marlins already have a prima donna shortstop on the team already in Hanley Ramirez. After Ramirez heard the rumors of Reyes possibly becoming a Marlin, he came out with a statement telling everyone that "he's the shortstop of the team and no one else is going to play it." I was immediately transported back in time 7 1/2 years when the Yankees acquired Alex Rodriguez from Texas and Captain Selfish said essentially the same thing. ...What a combination those two would make on the Marlins though. Ramirez, who only plays all out when he feels like it and when he doesn't he goes through the motions and Reyes, who just quits on the team when he thinks the time is right. ...Congratulations to Jim Crane, the Houston businessman who just purchased the Houston Astros. His main concern should be how to turn around a ballclub that lost 106 game in 2011. But because of something he had to agree to before Bud Selig gave his final blessing to the transaction, his ballclub will become an American League team in 2103. The traditionalist that I am hates this move. Houston has been in the National League since 1962, starting up in the same year as the New York Mets. They belong there. Bud Selig continues to prove that the changes he makes are moves that really do not have to be made for the good of baseball. ...Don't feel too bad for former Red Sox manager Terry Francona. He continues to prove that he is no fool because he quickly withdrew his name from consideration for the Cubs managerial job. Stating that he wanted to "re-energize" himself before he took on another job as manager, which was the nice way of saying to everyone there is no chance I am going to manage that team. Are you nuts? It should be pointed out that Francona did not say he needed to re-energize himself when he was in consideration to manage the Champion Cardinals. ...Nice to see so far that the Yankees haven't thrown a Brinks truck or two filled with money at some overrated free agent pitcher. On the other hand it's only November 20th. It's still too early for them. ...The latest gossip about the Yankees is that they are interested in pitcher Yu Darvish who just happens to be this year's version of the greatest Japanese pitcher ever. Who knows, one of these days the numbers that these pitchers put up in the states will equal the hype that surrounded them. ...I thought in this country you were supposed to be able to express your opinion freely. But in this politically correct society that we are in that is the furthest from the truth. Take what just happened with Franco Harris. Harris came out recently supporting his former Penn State coach Joe Paterno and said that the University should have backed Paterno during this time instead of firing him. That's it folks. That's all he said. And because of that he lost his job at a place called The Meadows Racetrack & Casino in Washington, Pa., a job which required him to be seen by customers to glad-hand them, welcome them to the place and make public appearances representing the racetrack. In other words, a friendly familiar face that the customers can see right before they go into the casino and lose all their money. Well, because of what Harris said, he has this job no longer. It was his opinion. Nothing more and nothing less. If you agree with him, fine. If not, that's fine too. He didn't force his views on anyone. He just told people what he thought. But these days you can not do that. You can only speak out and not worry only when you say things people want to hear. Franco just found this out the hard way and all it cost him was his new job. ...Reading about stuff like this makes me laugh out loud when I hear America described as "the Land of the Free." If they really want to get it right they'd add on "provided you say and think and believe what everyone else does, or else you won't like what happens." Makes me wonder how bad things are going to be fifty or a hundred years from now. ...The Natalie Wood drowning case has been opened up once again after thirty years. The captain of the boat, a Mr. Dennis Davern, claims that Robert Wagner was responsible for Wood's death because of a huge fight the two had and that he initially lied to police during the investigation. Why wait all this time to say he lied? Why be dishonest in the first place? The only thing that is certain from that night thirty years ago is that a woman is dead for no apparent reason. ...I was at a place called the Finger Lakes Casino and Race Track yesterday. That's not exactly how I'd like to spend a Saturday afternoon, but it was interesting. I was watching people that were so absorbed in those machines that they didn't know what was going on around them. One lady was putting twenty dollar bills in a slot like it was nothing. By the way, that is exactly what she won. ...Can't make this stuff up Dept: There's a small town in Texas named Turkey. Reading up on this town from their Wikipedia entry their population, according to the census taken in 2000, is 494. So maybe now eleven years later they have ten or twelve more people. This small town's claim to fame is being the home of a man named Bob Wills. Wills was responsible for introducing something called "Western Swing", which was an offshoot of country-western music. If it were not for Bob Mills, this small town of Turkey would not have had any attention. That is until this week and the quacks who run PETA are responsible for it. PETA informed the town that they would like them to change their name from Turkey, Texas to Tofurkey, Texas for Thanksgiving. No kidding. Because you know, that will stop everyone from coast to coast from having Turkey this thursday. ...Well, with that out of the way I would like to say Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in here. Have fun on that one special Thursday of the year where we put away a lot of turkey (and everything else that happens to be on the table) and when we are forced to watch the Dallas Cowboys year after year without fail.