When teams (i.e. the Reds) start trading players primarily to get money in return, there is a huge problem. The money is only a temporary fix and in the process they are digging themselves a bigger grave to attempt to get out of. So far they've traded Williamson and Boone primarily for money (a total of $4.25 million) and the Guillen trade also had money involved. MLB should change the money structure of the game, or force out owners who cannot afford to play.

I know the only long term solution is a complete restructuring of the money part of baseball, but the owners and commissioner refuse to see that themselves. That said, there aren't many owners out there who will pay $110 million in salaries when their club is only bringing in $65 million in revenues.

Nice try Exlax!

There's a new trend sweeping baseball that I can't quite wrap my head around. It goes something like this:

Team 1 places a call to Team 2.

Team 1: Hey Team 2, you have this player that we would really like to have. It would be terrific if we could work something out, because man, I'll tell you... having this guy would go a long way to making us a legitimate World Series contender.

Team 2: Wow. That's really wonderful. I would love to help you out. Man. Gee whiz. Golly. That's just great.

Team 1: This is where it gets tricky though Team 2. I can't offer you anything of any value except for my enduring love and friendship, and maybe a gift certificate to McDonald's.

Team 2: Excellent! That's even more than I had hoped for. Wow. Love and friendship. What more does a baseball club need? Throwing a McDonald's gift certificate in just clinches the deal. Man alive! I've never been so happy.

Team 1: You know what Team 2? You're my favorite team ever! It's been a real pleasure to work with you in this trade.

Team 2: No, no, no! The pleasure is all mine. Please let me know if there are any more players of mine that I can give you. I really covet your friendship Team 1, and anything I can do to solidify that is ok by me.

Do I have anything to say? No.

Is that going to stop me from saying it? No.



A nail in the wall is better than two in the foot.

Apparently it has been decided that if Hurley hires me and gives me his house as a benefit, I will move to Indy. I will then trade Ryan for his house, and Mark can move in to his new house.

That way everyone gets what they want. I get a house. Ryan gets Mark's house. Mark gets a new house with a gigantic basement.

I just made the leap. I ordered my TiVo today. I'm not 100% sure that it's going to work with my digital cable box, and I'm not convinced that they are going to be around for more than 2 years, so I don't know if I should get the lifetime subscription... but I bought the unit anyway. I'll decide on the subscription later, and I'm sure I'll be testing different hookups to the current home theatre.

Who needs rookies? Not the Browns. Training camp has already started, and they have signed ZERO rookies. Does it matter that you cut your starting center last year because you drafted a new center in the first round? YES IT DOES. It matters because you still haven't signed the frigging guy and last year there was about as much cohesion on the offensive line as there is in that festering pit of mucus.

Since they don't have any rookies to worry about, I sure hope that Butch Davis makes them practice that good ole prevent defense he loves so much. I can't wait to see that scheme. Why not just announce it already that the whole year we'll just play prevent defense. Maybe we can start up a new offense too... the prevent offense. That is sure as heck what it looked like we were playing last year anyway.

Hey kids, I'm Butch Davis. My strategy is to score zero points and to let the other team gain 9 million yards a game but hope to keep them out of the endzone. And you know what boys and girls? I get paid a trillion dollars a minute to do that. Whoopee. I am so fantastic.

This just in: Ryan doesn't like fantasy sports because he is gay.

The Indians just played the fastest game in Jacobs Field history tonight. The game only took 2 hours and 4 minutes.

That's a spicy meat-a-ball!

No.... there's no competitive imbalance in Major League Baseball. The Yankees payroll is only $64 million higher than the SECOND highest team.

You can fit the payrolls of Oakland, Kansas City, Montreal, and Tampa Bay combined in the Yankees payroll.

Oh hey baseball.... there's no problem.

They should've taken their opportunity last year to break the union. When you lock out the players for 2 years and they aren't making $25M/year anymore, I have to believe they'll come back begging for a chance to make money for playing baseball.

100% revenue sharing is the answer.

You can read all about the bloated payrolls here.

What a rip off! I was expecting to see a new episode of American Chopper tonight and they showed a repeat.

I won't get to hear anything new about Paul Sr's size 12's.

Here you go! Here I am!
Uncle Moe -- thank you, ma'am!
This'll be a treat: Uncle Moe!
Here I am, while you eat!

I've been playing Sly Cooper and the Thievious Raccoonus for the PlayStation 2 the past couple of days. It reminds me a lot of the early Crash Bandicoots. It's fun and has a nice style to it. I'd have to say that it's one of the best games out on the PS2. Also, because no one bought it, it can be had for cheap. I'm sure you can probably find it for $10 at FuncoLand.

There are few things I enjoy more than being paged from work at 7:08 AM on a Saturday morning. One of them though, is being paged from work at 7:14 AM on a Sunday morning.

Here's the air show in summary form.

Hot.
B1
Hot.
Concrete.
B52.
Hot.
Sausage.
Hot.
Desert.
Dry.
Death.
Hot.

I'm going to the Dayton air show tomorrow, so again, my insightfully insightful insights will be unavailable.

Here's a fun little distraction. Go to www.google.com and type in "weapons of mass destruction" in the search field. Then hit "I'm feeling lucky."

Enjoy.

Ok, so I'm back from Texas now and you know what I've discovered? Keira Knightley is HOT! Check out these pictures from the premiere of Pirates of the Carribean if you don't believe me.

I was watching the Indians game tonight and they cut to a fan in the stands that had an Indians jersey on. His last name was Yankees and his number was 666. I thought that was clever.

Also, it is true.

And clever.

I'm flying to Texas tomorrow in order to cross off to more stadiums in my quest to see all the MLB stadiums. I'm seeing the Astros and the Rangers, so you'll have to do without my insightful updates for the whole weekend.

Did I mention yesterday that I was at the Indians - Yankees game yesterday and the Yankees only got 1 hit?

I'm with the Indians

Here, in Cleveland? I didn't know we still had a team!

Yeah, we've got uniforms and everything. It's really great.

I'll be at the Indians game tonight when I should be at home watching LeBron's first game as a Cavalier. Oh wait. It's only summer league. Why would I want to watch developmental basketball when I can watch the lowly Indians play the sucky Yankees?

Answer: I wouldn't.

My predictions for tonight: Billy Traber goes 6 innings, gives up 7 hits, 4 runs, 2 walks, 3 strike outs. Jeff Weaver goes 7 innings, gives up 6 hits, 3 runs, 3 walks, 5 strike outs. Indians win in 37 innings by the score of 77 - 39. They will have quite an extraordinary 37th inning. The bullpens will be a little shaky for both teams though.

How sad a commentary on life in the U.S. is it that people are even wondering if Kobe Bryants arrest for sexual battery will help improve his shoe sales by giving him street cred? What kind of a society do we live in where it takes an arrest and a guilty charge to be respected on the streets? That's just pathetic.

I want a new car and the more I see of the 350Z the more I want one. The only problem I have with it is that it is completely impractical for me. Not only is it even smaller than the car I have now, but I'd have to keep my current car to drive in the winter.

Still though, I want a new car. I don't need a new car, but I certainly want one.

I saw 2 Fast 2 Furious, and I don't really have much to say about it. It was a better movie technically than the first, but it wasn't as fun as the first. What could've been the star of the movie -- the Nissan Skyline -- was instead relegated to a single scene. Boo.

This isn't something I would normally say, but today I enjoyed watching the Red Sox win.

Also, I'm still irritated that the freaking Indians traded away Karim Garcia for ZERO. NOTHING. NADA. EL SUCKO NOTTO.

I want to punch someone in the face, and that someone has a name that rhymes with Shmeorge Leinbrenner.

Bah.

It's July 4th. I'm going to be watching fireworks later, and then hopefully making fireworks of my own.

No really. Not the boom boom shake your rump type... real fireworks.

It's a dangerous job, but someone has to do it.

I just hope my new nickname isn't stumpy.

I played through another 2 seasons in NCAA Football 2002 last night. Chalk up two more perfect seasons for Purdue. Tiller is now 242-10 with 17 national championships. I haven't played an actual game for a long time. I like to do the recruiting more than anything else in that game.

A few seasons ago I made myself in the game, but I couldn't even recruit myself. I ended up going to Oklahoma.

Jerk.

I'm back from Cedar Point now. I had the best coaster ride I've ever had on Millenium Force yesterday. It was running fast (due to the heat) and I rode it at 11:30 PM. The lights were out, you could see the stars as you climbed the lift hill, and you couldn't see the bottom. It was fantastic.