Who said our pitching has issues...  USS Maine 1-hit the Cards through 7 strong...   Bye bye Birds!

Its great when you can score 6 runs without hitting the ball hard more than once all night.

A few thoughts:

Glavine should win at least 15 games this year....     He looked real sharp, especially with the change.

Moises Alou looked pretty good.. hustling around the basepaths, taking an extra on an aggressive play. 

Kind of ballsy to bring out Joe Smith in the 8th there.  Talk about trial by fire for the sidearming rookie.   Did Willie think that was Chad Bradford?   That should have been Heilman's spot all the way. 

I'm concerned about David Wright.  He had a weak 2nd half last year and he grounds the ball around the infield a lot, instead of driving the ball.  I'm afraid we're going to see him at .210 after April, but I hope I'm wrong.

First round of the A-10 Tourney...    Dunston has 21, Stout 17.  Go Rams.

Here's the deal.   13 Team League.  260 Fake dollars to spend.  10 Categories...  AVG, HR, R, RBI, SB, W, K, ERA, WHIP, S.   Top team in a category gets 13 pts, bottom gets 1.   Total points, not head to head.

I can protect 3-5 players at 5 dollars more than last year's salary.  Last year, the highest paid player went for 42 I believe.

Here's who I could protect at what prices:

Juan Pierre 26
Chone Figgins 16
Joe Crede 6
Michael Cuddyer  6
Anibel Sanchez  6
David Wright 34
Adrian Gonzalez 6
Bobby Jenks 12
Curt Shilling 19

What do you think?  Which 5 do I protect?

My ZogSports Football Team, "Ludacris Speed" is having its first practice today at 2:30 on 52nd/11th.  Wooooo.

When the Mets were in the playoffs last year, I couldn't get a video stream of the game on the web, even though I had paid for MLB Extra Innings.  Why?  Because I was actually in New York, so the game was blacked out locally.  Well, without a TV at my desk, I literally had no access to some of the daytime games.  It had nothing to do with whether I was willing to pay...  I was just shut out cold.

Now, the NFL wants to feature similar TV packages exclusively on DirectTV.  I don't have DirectTV.  Therefore, this sucks.

Argue away about business models and pricing...   about whether content should be free, paid for, freemium, ad supported or what have you... and that's fine...  but the following is UTF (utterly... ridiculous).

It is 2007 and there is digital content that I as a cable subscriber and broadband internet user  still cannot access, even though I am willing to pay for it.

When is this going to end?  It's one thing to say that the stuff is mispriced, but access?  Access should not be an issue.  If I want to watch any baseball game, I should be able to... on my TV or on the web, regardless of who I pay for my big fat dumb data pipe, which seems to be getting dumber by the minute.

All content on demand for anyone, period.  If I have to pay, I'll pay, but at least give me the opportunity.

Anyone want to venture some guesses as to when this happens?

...or the ads just royally sucked.

But Fred and I are in agreement....  the Doritos one was the hands down winner... and of course, it wasn't created by an ad agency...  it was a make your own ad contest winner.

Users 1.  Ad agencies 0.

I'd be curious to hear from agency folks on this one...  did they really think any of these were any good? 

Here are some random thoughts on the bunch...

Of course I was eyeing the Careerbuilder ones, and, well, they were sort of amusing, but really kind of heady, I think, for Joe Six Pack.  I mean, if you don't work in a cubicle, did you really relate to that commercial at all?  So it was like Office Survivor... I guess?

And what about those Toyota commercials.  So let's get this straight.  We go out to a canyon and contruct a huge and overelaborate track that just ends hanging over a cliff.  Then, we construct two huge metal doors halfway down the track... and see if this dude in a pickup truck can accellerate fast enough to make it through the closing doors, then brake hard enough not to go over the cliff.  If he fails on either part of the course, he'll die.

Are these people Bond villians, or what?

What else was there?  I vaguely remember some floating car parts.  Of course, there was GoDaddy...  was it me or was the GoDaddy chic not as hot as usual on that one?  I think that gag is getting a little tiresome.

The worst of the bunch?  Anything with a song was root canal painful...  the Garmin one, the Chevy song, Sheryl Crowe.   

I will hand it to K-Fed, though...   took a lot to totally make fun of himself like that. 

Hmm...   Jeez... I don't even remember half of them...    Some lame animal ones...  Gorillas, lions...   

I watched the game in Brooklyn with about a dozen people and we were all in agreement... worst superbowl for commercials ever.  Maybe the remakes on YouTube will be better.  Wait... I'm confused... YouTube has me voting for existing Superbowl commericals... weren't they having fans make their own versions or something?

It was a sloppy game and the commercials were pretty much the worst of all time, except for the fan created Doritos one in the beginning...   but at least one good thing came out of this year's Superbowl: 

$550 in charity donations in the Charity Superbowl Wiki.

At the end of the first quarter, it seemed like we might have an upset in the making.  The first play of the game resulted in a Bears TD and Peyton was the first QB to throw a pick.   Six turnovers later, the Bears were up 14-6, making sexy commedianne blogger Heather Fink our first quarter winner.  That will send a $55 check over to RAINN.

Of course, the Bears hold on the game, and the football, didn't last, and the Colts came back with 10 unanswered second quarter points, taking a 16-14 lead into the half...   which...   wait a second...   makes Heather a winner AGAIN.   Tack on another $137.50 unto the check for RAINN, bringing her halftime total up to $192.50.

The third quarter was all about kicking...   and three fieldgoals later, the Colts extended their lead ever so slightly with two of their own to one from the Bears, making the third quarter score 22-17.  Score the third quarter for Matt McLaughlin of Thermodepot's sponsorship of the American Cancer Society.  They'll get a check for $82.50 on Matt's behalf.

Still, the Bears were in the game...  until Grossman tossed up a duck and the Colts returned it in the fourth, putting the game out of reach, and giving us a 29-17 final, eh...   I add the "eh" because our final score winner is Ken King and he has selected the Canadian Diabetes Association as his sponsored charity.  They'll receive 50% of our pool total: $275 American.  I wonder if Ken is as successful in his Grey Cup boxes.

Thanks to everyone who played our Charity Superbowl Wiki... see you next year!

Checks will go out tomorrow.

Thanks