Maybe even take a phone call or two from regular folks out there. I'm gonna get the ball rolling on this.

I don't know if I want to see the Frank McCourt/Dr. Jerry Buss Celebrity Death Match.

Even in the winter?

I need to see the business plan for that enterprise.

Locally, sports teams are now covered by 4 stations, KLAC 570 covers the Lakers and UCLA Basketball and Football. They also have 17 hours of local radio sportstalk during the week. KSPN 710 covers the Clippers, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, and USC Basketball and Football. KTLK 1150 (which is affiliated with 570) covers the LA Kings and KFWB 980 has the Dodgers.

KLAC will move UCLA games to 1150 if there is a conflict with Laker broadcasts. KSPN did move some Angel games when it conflicted with USC football.

On the one hand, being part of Sports Radio station would probably mean better coverage, more Dodgertalk, etc. I think KSPN would be better only because the only time they would move a game would be during USC football season, while KLAC would always move it, ironically back to 1150, for Laker games.

What you are left with is the baseball, the NBA, USC and UCLA, and then the national sports scene. Also, LA is not homer town in the sense where no one wants to hear someone talk about who should pitch for the Dodgers in the 7th inning on a daily basis. There is only one Vic the Brick and most times one is too much.

And CBS is showing the Grammys.

And the Police will be the opening act.

Product placement?

You've all been warned.

Get down off the tower. Don Mattingly hasn't come close.

Burks has an adusted EQA of 294, eight points below Bernie. He had one WARP season above 8 because he was hurt so much. Nice player but not in Bernie's class. He is a good match for Jim Rice.
Reggie Smith does match the 302 EQA of Bernie. Did it as a corner outfielder but with great defense. He would get my vote long before Jim Rice would get my vote.
Dwight Evans was a better player then Jim Rice. Not saying any of these are HOF but if I had to put them in order it would be
Bernie
Dwight
Reggie
Burks
Rice

Dodgers:
Gonzalez
Pierre
Ethier

Giants:
Bonds
Roberts
Winn

Discuss

I think Ethier has the only average arm. If Bullethead could play against himself he might run himself into 5 to 10 more doubles.

I'm going to vote for the Dodgers, since a players arm has to be really good or bad to make a difference, and I don't think the Giants have any players like that.

I thought that happened the other night when I "got it" and Andrew didn't understand some The Office moment...

Everybody knows that.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070211/D8N7A0V80.html

Anyway, I find it immensely odd.

1. Some people like to be outrageous and/or offensive and attract attention.

2. Oh: and some people are stupid.

3. Oh: and there's a lot of crossover between 1 and 2

From this headline, I was expecting to read an actual fashion critique.

The most offensive costume I've seen at a party was of a terrorist. Most of the theme parties I have been to were 80s, Toga, and CEOs and Corporate Hoes (my personal favorite).

But some of us live in the right part of the country to see Charlie!

Some guys have all the luck...

Besides, who would be there to complain about being pre-empted by Spring Training games now? Not Michael Jackson, but Bill O'Reilly. The less time that drooling bullhorn is on the radio the better.

Rule 5 violation! Rule 5 violation!

If I was rooting for the Dodgers to go on KFI to displace Rush Limbaugh, you might have a point.

Coming up this week:
Washington State at Washington
L.A. schools at Arizona schools
Oregon schools at Bay Area schools

Plus Washington plays at Pittsburgh Saturday.

Wanna short report, or No Spoilers?

Did they, at the very least, sound decent?

-------------------------------------

Only played one song - Roxanne.

Of course that's a great song, and Outlandos is maybe their purest Rock n' Roll album, but their sound did get richer over the course of their albums and I think they'd have done well to play something a little more textured. Really, could the (um, er, generally dull) Grammys really not spare room for a second song?

It was just the three of them on stage -- not especially surpised by that but a lot of these fogeys do add some younger players/soungers in the shadows. Of course, who knows what's going on in the tubes/offstage.

It was good. They extended the song and it definitely rocked; the crowd of fabulous people was loud but not necessarily dancing. Since this was Staples, was there a big "regular people" filling hte arena but off camera?

I don't know what Stewart Copeland has been doing all these years, but it really strikes me as impressive to be able to build back up the kind of skill it takes to drum Police songs after a long hiatus (and 30 years of aging). I mean, what he has to do is just physically light years beyond the jobs of Summers and Sumner. And Sumner of course has been fully active all this time. (Where has Copeland been since Rumblefish and The Ryhthmatist?) He seemed pretty sharp to me, but again real hard to tell and especially on a straightforward Rocker like Roxanne.

In the end, whole episode has happily reminded of how great the Police were. I am sad all my Police tapes/CDs were stolen when house was robbed a while back.

The D.A. worked with the FBI and DOJ.

http://tinyurl.com/2aeds5

http://tinyurl.com/28u8tr

The fact that Sting was every college-educated woman's fantasy husband doesn't help. I hope to God he's too old for Gen-Y.

The Border Patrol's job isn't to keep track of merchandise coming across the border.

Copeland is still a great drummer.

Dixie Chicks currently playing. Is it UnDT to state that I dig the Dixie Chicks? The older I get the more country I get. I guess I'm just preparing myself for retiring to Arkansas.

Andrew I read the same article on irony and thought it was curious but I gave him the benefit of the doubt because I couldn't imagine being wrong with that much certainty. i'll sign on to the letter.

Andrew, buy and listen to all the Hank Williams you can find.

1. Drinking a bottle of wine
2. Eating a box of chocolates
3. Watching our Valentine movies (i.e. "Don Juan de Marco" and "Down With Love")

Note: I'll be engaging in activities 1-3 with my wife

Good Grief.

What, you prefer "Say Anything"?

Dale and the two county animal control workers beat it to death. We saw them grab its tail, then saw their silhouettes raising their various weapons and swinging them down onto the snake.

It was utterly gratuitous, and out of character for the show, in my opinion. My wife and I were both shocked and dismayed. Later, Hank told Bobby that they released "Josh" on a farm. From what I could tell, there was no compelling reason why they couldn't actually have done so instead of beating it to death.

It was weird. I didn't like it.

If Barry White were still alive, he could've saved that snake.

Snakes! Snakes! Snakes everywhere!

It's okay. We can share.

I missed the savage beating. That is out of character for KOTH.

http://tinyurl.com/2mdrau

Yeah. I would have thought they might have shown the two county workers preparing to kill it, then have Dale stop them and save the snake. Or something like that. But to kill it, and have Dale participate, just didn't seem right.

two different other threads? other threads? we're talking about other threads, man. other threads (trying to channel allen iverson tone when talking about practice. funnier if I was doing it in person, trust me)

nah your fine with that picture. actually she is fine in that picture, you are o.k.

I'll tell you what was out of character. I chuckled at three distinctly different times during the Simpsons. Laughed...Out loud...At a Simpsons episode made this century.

Amazing.

And my wife is a more developed Olsen twin...?

No, that girl weighs more than both Olsens combined. You could even throw in Jimmy Olsen and she still weighs more.

Maybe you should offer her a cold drink.

"You always have to be flexible. You can have a general thought process going in, and I have one. But I don't know how it's all going to play out."

http://tinyurl.com/2lotw4

Nice mascara-drawn beard, too. Egads.

I just meant to cool her off. I know you may not be aware of this, but there are actually beverages that come without alcohol in them.

Yeah. She's en fuego.

http://tinyurl.com/2l3w3b

http://tinyurl.com/ghuj9

BTW: Would Andrew be so kind as to tell us the month in which he found that photo...?

You're going to make it real tough for yourself if you allow your crushes to be on people you'll never even meet.

That's almost as bad as the time I fell in love with the little girl from the Inspector Gadget cartoon.

dont worry, my current "real" crush is of this cute redhead girl that works the front desk at the campus rec. i see her like 4 times a week and i give her my card and she swipes it.

once, she checked out a basketball for me though!

shrivels up into the wussy corner

http://tinyurl.com/2dlapy

No it's not that Ryan Klesko.

I'm gonna guess it's not Cristiaan Barnard.

There will be an (ss) to denote it on the schedule.

Do you need a permit? If so, from what agency?

I do wonder if we should let them know he's been safe here this whole time.

Well, after the Kumite anyhow.

I write for The Onion.

Dodgers are #11, behind Arizona in the division.
"They probably have the best rotation in the NL, but the offense could be problematic. In particular, the Dodgers figure to get sub-optimal production from each outfield spot. With that said, pitching will keep them in the race."

Yankees are uncreatively #1, and does anyone else expect the Mets to be overrated this year?

LA Dodgers - 15/1 - In all seriousness, this is the bet I would make. Veteran team with some young players and a good pitching staff.

The rest of the article is pretty funny, too. I enjoyed Tampa Bay's entry.

http://tinyurl.com/2aeds5

Ugh.

2007 -
Pitchers
After 2007 season status
Randy Wolf - FA (2008 guaranteed with 180 IP)
Mark Hendrickson - Arbitration (FA 2008)
Brett Tomko - FA
Elmer Dessens - FA
Joe Beimel - Arbitration (FA 2008)
Yhency Brazoban - Arbitration

After 2008
Derek Lowe - FA
Brad Penny - FA (Club Option for 2009)
Jonathan Broxton - Arbitration
Takeshi Saito - Arbitration

After 2009
Jason Schmidt - FA
Chad Billingsley - Arbitration
Hong-Chih Kuo - Arbitration

Players
2007
Mike Lieberthal - FA
Jeff Kent - FA (2008 guarantee for 550 PA)
Wilson Betemit - Arbitration
Olmedo Saenz - FA
Marlon Anderson - FA
Ramon Martinez - FA (Club Option)
Luis Gonzalez - FA
Jason Repko - Arbitration

2008
Russell Martin - Arbitration (Super 2)
Nomar Garciaparra - FA
Rafael Furcal - FA
Andre Ethier - Arbitration (Super 2)

The Dodgers will eventually do what the Lakers did and have two separate broadcast teams, one for TV and one for radio. I liked some of the guys they have down in the minors, the guy in VB and Vegas do a nice job on the radio. I hope they follow the Lakers and get someone who has done his time so to speak in smaller markets and then understands that LA is not a homer market. It is very likely that whoever replaces Vin will be someone that many of us will have never heard of before he takes the job.

It's all the rage these days. And very smart.

Kuo has about 123-127 days of service (172 is needed for a full year) and Billinsley has about 110. Since Kuo only got about 90+ days last year, if I read the CBA correctly, he would not have enough time from 2006 to qualify for Super 2 status like Martin, Ethier and Saito.

It seems unlikely that Kuo and Billingsley won't be in Dodger Stadium enough in 2007 in order to push off their arbitration status another year, but we shall see.

Also, I left out Matt Kemp and James Loney since their status for 2007 is unsure, if Loney made the club and stuck for the whole year, he would be luck Kuo and Billingsley and not be eligible for arbitration until after 2009, Kemp is the same but since has about 90+ days of service time, I would not be surprised if they tried to keep in Vegas at least until All-Star Break if not later so they would be able to get 3 full years from him starting in 2008.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07042/761182-63.stm

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/6467752

Still not as bad as the Brian Lawrence escapade in DC though the Nats did get rid of Vinny Castilla by making that deal.

I'm sure it's not a hard test, especially for someone educated in US schools, but a perfect score is a perfect score.

Yeah, maybe we could finally pry Larry Bigbie away from them!

Symmetry hasn't reached this kind of apex since "Tracy to the Pirates"

What? Because they still lost 95 games? Oh, okay.

Jon - I have gone ahead and sponsored the R.J. Reynolds on Baseball-Reference.com, take a look, would love to link that sponsorship to your DT entry, if anyone knows how to do it and its okay with Jon, let me know.

Seriously. Stop talking. For a decade.

also, we would be very wise to lock up some of our up-and-comers in the next few years. to me it's obvious that martin should be the first to sign, and after that, maybe billingsley.

assuming we will have a long list of players we might want to lock up in the future, i think one approach is to start with the guys who exemplify what the next championship team should look like. that doesn't mean character is the overriding factor, but it does mean you want to send an organizational message that all players should model themselves after martin or billingsley or whomever.

considering we currently have zero contracts tied up in young home-grown talent, i can't wait for the trend to start . . .

That said, I find it hard to believe that anything Plaschke said influenced the McCourt's about DePo, I think that came from a much closer source, say someone who sold pasta sauce and ribs.

Part of it, is that Ned talks a lot more than Paul DePodesta. I know I have said this before but I would say Ned talks on local radio shows about once every few months and always after they make a big move.

So, while I won't say that never talk anymore but its a lot less and since they have actually spent money, you don't hear as much about them as you used to when they first got here.

2002 Ricardo Rodriguez, RHP
2001 Ben Diggins, RHP

I know DePodesta was always available after major moves, and I feel like he would periodically appear on KFWB and such as well.

NUMBER OF PEOPLE TALKED TO AT COMPANY CHRISTMAS PARTY

Colletti: A lot
DePo: A few

My point about Ned and the McCourts, is that I think last year, there was an effort for the McCourts to move into the background and let Ned and Grady speak for the team as well as guys like Nomar and Russell Martin.

So no question, the media plays a role and the current ownership is learing on the job on how to use it to their advantage.

I don't think you have to choose one or the other (between Ned and Paul) but I am probably in the minority on this one.

[hides]

Shoot Jim Tracy with Dad's .22.

What was the right way to handle __________ situation?