Today’s Leo Revelation: Leo instigated the AOL-Time Warner merger.
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Today’s Leo Revelation: Leo instigated the AOL-Time Warner merger.
Use code “Journal” for a 5% discount.
4 and a half hours and no comments on a new thread. Apparently everybody’s engrossed in the Olympics. Yay pageantry!
I think it’s a disco-induced coma.
Has anyone seen the movie “Supersize Me?” I just watched it, and I am totally grossed out. I may never eat meat again. What an eye-opener.
Oh, and as a side note, BP came out with their 2006 PECOTA-predicted VORP for NL catchers (wow, Acronym City, maybe I should work for NASA!) and Brian McCann is #2 and Salty is #5.
I saw “Supersize Me” & was reminded why fast-food is garbage. Of course, that guy ate it morning, noon & night for a month & damn-near died.
Flew from NYC thru Dallas to Phoenix today. I was playing 1964-season computer APBA on the first leg of my flight. I get on the plane in Dallas & there’s Tim McCarver was on my flight, wearing his 1964 WS ring. Weird.
Where did you leave his bloody, mangled corpse? Somewhere in Phoenix?
I have a huge favor to ask.
Would somebody with a non-recurring BPro subscription e-mail me a copy of the 2006 PECOTA Weighted Means Spreadsheet?
I will be forever in your debt. I will send you any Baseball America or ESPN Insider articles you need to see.
Pretty please?
stu – i don’t think it’s cool to steal bpro’s IP. if you want a good projections spreadsheet that’s free, try dan szymborski’s zips – .xls file here.
I think the Chipper forecast is 20-30 points on the low side for BA. It is obviously skewed by his 2004 season which is clearly an outlier … What does BP say about Chipper?
Kyle,
Nah, I don’t bother folks when I travel. I don’t pepper them with questions, don’t try to beat ’em up. I don’t “go Deion” on ’em. 😉
If it’s in the natural course of events, like if they’re in the bar or something, that’s OK.
Fact is, if I had a minute with McCarver I’d have asked him about Dick Allen. From playing that ’64 season and reading a little about him, I’ve become a little intrigued (in a Duane Thomas sort of way).
His 1964 season was pretty great & McCarver obviously had to deal with him as an opponent. Then in 1976 McCarver was his teammate in Philly. And considering that Allen bailed on his team for awhile in the ’76 pennant race to tend to his horses, I’m sure ol’ Timmy would’ve had a unique perspective on the guy.
Horacio really seems to be relieved to see Mazzone gone. his latest gem about mcdowell.
“He’s real approachable,” Ramirez said. “With him, no question is a dumb question.”
Brad Baker seems to be building up a rep, if the article is to be believed.
ran across this old chipper interview. seems like good stuff. Leaves himself open to lot of family related jokes.
end note : look who organised it..
Chipper Interview
If I had to make a list of worst people to sit next to on a cross-country flight, Tim McCarver would be near the top.
Possible transcript of a conversation with Tim McCarver during a cross-country flight:
Tim McCarver: This airplane is one of the best five airplanes ever made. It flies straight and high, which is what you want an airplane to do.
Me: Please, I just want to do my Sudoku in peace.
Tim McCarver: Of course, I’m saying that because the pilot’s a catcher. I played with him in the minors in ’58. He was one of the best changeup hitters I’ve ever seen, but couldn’t hit a fastball for the life of him. Then again, he was 15 years old.
Me: I hate you. I will always hate you.
Tim McCarver: Oh, look, we’re flying over Baltimore. You know, in the time it took for us to take this flight, you could have flown from Baltimore to Iceland.
Oh, he was fine.
My least fave would be Bill O’Reilly or Sean Hannity. I actually might “go Deion” on ’em.
Wait, what does “go Deion” mean?
What did Deion do?
I think to “go Deion” means to “give an unconvincing sermon on the virtues of humility”.
Either that or “to repeatedly pour champagne over the head of a blowhard, leaving the viewing audience completely befuddled as to who to root for”.
Sam,
You got it. It was actually a bucket of ice water that Deion poured on McCarver after the Francisco Cabrera Game.
I quit apologizing for Deion after that one. No matter how anyone feels about McCarver, that was lame & perfectly illustrated the nature of “Meion”: After one of the greatest moments in post-season baseball history, Deion made it about him.
I remeber when I pulled up next to Mccarver in Memphis and yelled, “Hey McCarver, you SUCK!”
Was he pooring the water to keep McCarver from talking?
Tennessee another big raod win on their way to a #1 seed
You really think Tennessee will get a #1? I’d be thrilled – Bruce Pearl has doenan incredible job with them this year….. but UT + #1 + basketball just looks weird…..
I don’t think anyone in the SEC is getting better than a #2… What’s really weird is that the conference might get five teams, and possibly none of whom would be Kentucky. Tennessee, Florida, and LSU are locks, Alabama should be the fourth team, and Vandy swept Kentucky and is a half game in back of them in the conference.
I saw where a few Braves minor leaguers were taken in the rule 5 draft. I guess that happened some time ago, and I missed it. I can’t remember where I saw it, but I remember that Cole Armstrong (catcher last year at Rome) and Iker Franco (catcher from Mississippi last year) were taken. 2 or 3 others, too…I can’t recall.
mraver,
McCarver had ripped Deion for basically lying to the Braves about the “2-games-in-one-day” stunt. He played a game for the Falcons in Miami, then Nike flew him up to Pittsburgh for Game 5 of the NLCS, hoping to get a TV ad out of it. The Pirates won 7-1 & Bobby never let him get off the bench.
Unfortunately, Vandy also has home losses to UGA and South Carolina. We’ll have to win, like, 5 of our last six (Florida, at South Carolina, at Ole Miss, LSU, UGA, Tennessee) or, win the SEC tourney to make the NCAAs. While it’s still possible, I don’t think it’s very likely we’ll be going to the Big Dance this year.
I think it’s between Vandy, Kentucky, Georgia, and Arkansas all fighting for one spot (if Alabama doesn’t fall apart down the stretch), with South Carolina with an outside shot. Having seen all those teams, I think Vandy’s the best of the bunch (they really impressed me Wednesday night) and most likely to play well.
Here is the deal with Leo…
The Braves diss him to give confidence to their new choice.
Or, despite our lack of understanding, there is truly bad blood. That is, the Braves feel slighted by his decision for whatever reason. Perhaps Bobby is pissed although he would never say so. Who knows? I don’t care if you’re an insider or not, there is a story here that no one will ever hear about. But why should I cry about the so-called character assasination? Leo gets paid and I presume he is a grown man. I could give a care less about his character, tenure, or book. Loyalty is a precious commodity these days and he’s made his choice. Best of luck to him. However, who really cares now? He is not a Brave anymore. Just like Glavine and Maddux and look where they are… Who ever said baseball was feel-good and equitable? Come on now!
Peace.
Brian
Mac,
I agree that we’re the best team of those 4, at least on paper. This is a SERIOUSLY talented basketball team. But we’re inconsistent and we lose games we shouldn’t. And we’ve already lost to Georgia and Arkansas in that group. Neither Georgia (just not good enough) nor South Carolina (already too far behind the 8-ball) will make the tourney. It’s really between Vandy, UK, Arkansas, or none. I think as of right now, based on the collective bed-crap we’ve seen from those teams, the SEC only gets 4 teams in. Like I said, that could change, but at least as far as Vandy’s concerned, I haven’t seen any reason yet to think it will.
As for Wednesday’s game, you shouldn’t be that surprised. It seems like we save some of our best games every year for Bama. I think we’d won 4 straight, actually. Remember when Freije went for almost 30 in the first half in Tuscaloosa a couple years ago? Wednesday also exposed this team’s inability to finish games. Up a bucket with 2.3 seconds left? No way that game should even have made it to overtime. Our loss to South Carolina, we were up 7 with a minute left and lost in overtime. Against both Florida and Tennessee, we led at the half, only to get outplayed down the stretch. Even today, we were up 10 with about a minute and a half left and ended up winning by three, with Bradley missing a 3-pointer at the buzzer that would have sent THAT game into OT.
I don’t know if it’s leadership or coaching we lack (probably some of both), but we certainly have underachieved this season, and like I said, I haven’t seen anything that makes me think that will change.
Sorry for the long non-Braves discussion. It’s just that these Commodores were supposed to smooth the transition from college football to baseball for me, and instead, they’ve given me ulcers.
No offense, but I hate your gym. I think that place is haunted. If nothing else, our coaches are always disoriented by the layout.
Vandy showed some real guts in that game, though. It helps that Bama is awful at guarding the three — honestly, I’ve never seen anything like it, and nobody should ever take a two-pointer longer than a layup against us — but you guys had a lot of chances to crumple and didn’t.
I think Bama is a lock to make it to the NCAA if they go 10-6 in the SEC. Every year they say that it doesn’t help to lose against good teams but that’s baloney. Bama’s strength of schedule is so high (#8 last time I checked) that “quality losses” will make a difference. They also play up the importance of the SEC tourney, but it usually seems to have very little impact in the end.
On the subject of baseball and basketball together, could you imagine Dick Vitale and Tim McCarver on the same broadcast team (or the same plane for that matter)? Who would talk the most?
As a Georgia grad, I’d love to think we had a chance to make the tourney, but it seems that the win in Nashville was the season highlight (next to beating Tech & UK, but it turns out neither was that big a deal). Today’s game was the real barometer, and we failed.
A sub-.500 conference record (in any conference) with only a couple “quality wins” ain’t gonna cut it. We gotta pretty much run the table now, and that’s not gonna happen. Still, coming out of the Harrick Era, I’ll take any progress and we are finally seeing that.
There was an article in the AJC yesterday about Felton being disappointed in the home crowds, in terms of numbers and spirit. He made a good point, too — that they’ve assembled a good, hard-working bunch who should be easy to root for. When you consider the sorry state of Georgia basketball after our deal w/ the devil ran out, Felton’s done a fine job. We gotta get some frontcourt help, though.
There were like 2,500 Vol fans at the game yesterday. That is a lot of people to show up in another teams arena.
I like Tenn, Fla, LSU, Bama as locks and UGA sneaking in to the dance. Gergia has a good team and they played Tennessee as well as anyone has in weeks yesterday.
Hey, now, Vandy went into Knoxville and played UT better than UGA did yesterday.
Seriously, Georgia is much-improved and well-coached, but that team is not making the NCAA Tournament this year. Talent-wise, they’re still the worst team in the East. I mean, Kevin Brophy gets minutes.
Also, Georgia typically has lots of opposing fans in its arena because of its proximity to Atlanta. It’s the biggest city in the South, and lots of alumni from all SEC schools are there. And it’s only an hour drive to Athens. It’s not necessarily a fault of UGA fans, just a practical reality.
I know there were three busses going from Knoxville to Athens with a car convoy behind them.
UGA made a good run at Tennessee yesterday, but they weren’t as conditioned as Tenneessee. Vandy did play UT tough, but I was more worried durring the Georgia come back than I was Vandy.
Well, we’re going to beat you guys in Nashville. Double-digit margin.
Stuck in Phoenix due to NYC weather. Oh well, I could be in worse places…
The history of UGA basketball is a strange one. Since the Hugh Durham Era, we usually get 2 seasons of NCAA tournament berths followed by 2 or 3 near-misses. Lotsa NIT action for us.
I was there for the end of the Dominique era & our one Final 4 season (we beat St. John’s with Mullin & UNC with Jordan/Perkins). Since then, we’ve made exactly one Sweet 16 (with Tubby), and was a John Wallace 3-point buzzer-beater away from the Great 8. But that was a while ago.
The coaching turnover hasn’t helped: Durham, Tubby, Jirsa, Harrick, now Felton. We’ve also failed to get a lotta top Georgia HS recruits (Kenny Walker, Jeff Malone, etc.) Whatever momentum we gain as a program seems to end when we get a new coach.
The only full-on disaster years have been the post-Harrick Era. He was a great X-and-O coach, but shady as a used-car salesman. I loved watching his teams play, but was always waiting for what eventually happened. You can also blame UGA president Adams for that one. But that’s another story…
These days, I’m merely hopeful & happy we’re not getting embarrassed on or off the court.
My favorite moment in UGA basketball history was when they lost in the first round to my current school The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, on our way to the Sweet 16. Go Mocs!
Who do you think is more likely to help the Braves significantly in 2006, Chuck James or Anthony Lerew?
Chuck James. I think Horam and one other starter may go down. We will need another starter and he will step up.
Now Leo was the root of our playoff failures.
http://braves.scout.com/2/498932.html
I just saw a guy drive down the road and hit a cat, then drive off. IT WAS LEO!
Well, since Everything isn’t Andruw’s Fault anymore, we needed a new scapegoat.
Do you think that possibly Andruw was taking hitting instructions from Leo until last year? This could have been the reason for Andruw’s breakout year. If that’s the case, then everything is Leo’s fault.
If HoRam jinxes us with all his anti-Leo negativity, I propose that we blame everything on him. After all, he’s not exactly a Gold Glove centerfielder with an .845 career OPS.
Also, I just heard from Smitty’s barber’s girlfriend that Leo demanded the Jermaine Dye trade.
I can’t believe someone from UTC can actually feel secure throwing hate at another school. Davidson is the power in the SoCon!
Tirk, guess what, we beat Davidson! Go Mocs!
Do you know my friend Sarah Heston , she goes to Davidson
My high school buddy Kenneth played football for Davidson.
Davidson has sports?
Hey go Davidson! We came within a 3-pointer of upsetting Ohio State in the Tourney in ’02 (’02? yeah, it was ’02). This year is our year! (in theory at least).
Other SoCon teams occasionally finish ahead of us, but we’re the ones that always go the farthest in the Tourney (by that I mean we lose by the least) or the NIT.
The point is I got to talk about my school’s basketbal team.