BlakChamber

Since the fiance and I are saving up for a house and a wedding, I have to re-read my books instead of going to Barnes and Noble and buying new ones. Apparently I'm supposed to be saving money. So right now I'm re-reading The Informant by Kurt Eichenwald. It's a true story about an FBI operation to an international price fixing conspiracy. And, the FBI had an informant (hence the title) in the company who was feeding them information. But, it turns out the informant is a complete nutcase and is just as much of a liability as he is a help. If you like true crime stories, I'd recommend it. It's not your usual true-crime fair, since it's not about grisly murders, serial killers or mobsters. White collar crime can be a little dull, but its extremely well written and it keeps you interested in finding out what happens next.

No love for CCR's version? Right now I've got going...

How are you going to figure out which companies used the tickets and which ones didn't? And if you honestly wrote to companies and complained about them not using their seats (assuming you figured out which ones weren't) that would just be sad. Besides, the Wings sold out every game in the regular season. And as I said earlier in this thread, it's interesting that so many people ***** about the suits buying up the tickets, but when OsGod offers season tickets at below face value, there's no takers.

While it isn't exactly the same as what Vick is looking at, RMWG is right. A past history of animal abuse is one of the major signs looked for when police are looking for a serial killer. I tend to believe that how people treat others below them, person or animal, is a good sign of what kind of person they are.

Dallas is about 1.2 million people and Fort Worth is about 653,000. L.A. has about 3.8 million people, and Anahiem has 334,000, I think the you're right on the with the difference though, Anahiem has their own teams while Fort Worth doesn't. Well, they've got TCU and a minor league baseball team, but that's it.

Good to see the D getting some love

Glad to see it looks like the Preds will be staying in Nashville

Interesting that so many people here complain that they can't go to the games because all the corporations buy up the seats. But when there's a set of season tickets on sale for below face, there's no takers.

You're right on about McCarty's popularity. And, while I hesitate to bring this up, knowing where it may lead, the type of team the Wings have could be a factor. It's Detroit, its a blue-collar, working class town. And, those are the type of teams that Detroit fans like. Ones that play hard and play with an edge. Maybe a team that's (man I hate to go down this road) a little tougher and grittier would help was well.

I'm surprised Gagne went to Boston. From what I read, his whole deal was he wanted to go someplace where he'd be the closer. Isn't Paplebon still closing in Boston, or am I just out of the loop? I don't think this is really DD's fault either if the Tigers don't make a trade. There don't seem to be many relief arms available, so the asking price is probably too high.

I don't know about that. For so long, Wings tickets were next to impossible to get and I'm sure there's plenty of people who just stopped trying. Letting people know that they can get tickets to the Wings isn't a bad idea.

Yes. Although I bet they'd be willing to bend the rules for a school like Texas. The one problem with Texas is their fans. Legions of white trash that couldn't get into the school unless they were pushing a broom. Considering that's a good description of UM's fanbase as well, the Big 10 doesn't need two schools like that

Bonds admitted to using steroids, the cream and the clear. He claims he thought it was flaxseed oil at the time. But he has admitted to using.

Texas would be pretty sweet. Hell, I'm completely on board for Texas. I'd get to see a lot more of MSU if they were part of the Big 10.

Because of the CID, there's a lot of money in Big 10 academics as well.

Both West Virginia and Louisville don't have the academics to be a Big 10 school. West Virginia really doesn't add anything in the way of expanding the market. Yeah, it opens up the West Virginia market, but there's only 1.8 million people in the whole state. Pitt isn't a bad choice sports and academics wise, but it really doesn't expand the Big 10 that much. The league is already in Penn, and given Pittsburgh doesn't seem to be a big college football town. As far as divisions, earlier in the thread I suggested a north/south breakdown that I think would work.

The one problem with Louisville is that their academics are waaaaay behind the rest of the Big 10. Indiana and MSU are lowest ranked Big 10 schools, at 70. Louisville is a tier 3 school, being they're not even in the top 125.

The problem with both Pitt and Iowa State is that it doesn't expand the Big 10. Pittsburgh doesn't seem to be much of a college football town, so putting them in the Big 10 probably wouldn't be much of a boost. Plus in academics, Iowa State is ranked behind the rest of the Big 10.

The indictment alleges that while Vick wasn't the ring leader, he was an active participant at the fights and was more than just slightly involved.

^^^ It's pretty unlikely this case will end the same way the Duke one did. I believe the Feds have something like a 95% conviction or guilty plea rate on cases that get indicted.

Cuse is a poor choice for the Big 10. The school only has 19,000 students. The football isn't that great, although they have been. The basketball team is better, but they still lack the facilities. The carrier dome only holds 55,000 for football. We've already got a small private school in the Big 10 with Northwestern. We don't need another. Pitt would be a possibility. Decent football and good basketball, but they're a smaller school as well. While it would renew their rivalry with Penn State, the Nittany Lions might not go for it, since they'd have to share being the Penn Big 10 school. Rutgers might be a decent fit. Their football and basketball programs are improving, it's a much larger university than Pitt or Syracuse and they're a good research school. And (I say this because you know its on the Big 10's mind) they're in a much better TV market than either Pitt or Cuse. Granted, from what I've heard, college football really isn't big in the NYC market. Acedemically, they're ahead of Cuse and just barely behind Pitt. Notre Dame is obviously the best choice. But I doubt they'll ever go for it unless they lose their contract with NBC. I've also seen people suggest Louisville, West Virginia, and Missouri. And Timothy, the Big 10 would never allow Penn State, MSU, UM, and OSU to be in the same division. It would probably be better to split them into north/south. North Minny Wisconsin MSU UM Northwestern South Indiana Purdue Illionis Ohio State Penn State Iowa If the new school was farther south, Iowa or Penn State could move north. Although in the interest of balance, it would probably be best for Purdue to be the swing school.

Nice Right now I'm rockin'

That isn't how it works. A corked bat will generate more bat speed. However, because the bat is lighter and there's less mass, the collision between the bat and the ball isn't as powerful, and doesn't generate any real difference in distance. The increase you get in bat speed is canceled out by the reduced mass of the batt. The advantage of a corked bat is since it takes less time to swing it, the batter gets more time to look at the ball and figure out what the pitch is and what it's location is. It helps when you're hitting for contact, but not if you're trying to hit homeruns. Here's a good explanation. http://www.kettering.edu/~drussell/bats-new/corkedbat.html

Actually, science has shown that a corked bat doesn't give the players an advantage when hitting homeruns, which is the reason they cork their bat. A corked bat might help a player make contact, but it won't help them hit the ball farther. If the biggest problems in the NHL are stick curves and goalie gear, I'd say they're in pretty good shape.

I just finished re-reading No One Here Gets Out Alive by Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugerman. It's a biography of one of my all-time favorite rockers, Jim Morrison. I think it was the first real bio of him that was done. Next up, I'll probably stay on the same topic and re-read Jim Morrison: Life, Death, Legend by Stephen Davis.