Opperman

I doubt anybody from his family will see this, but we'll miss him here on coacht. Really nice guy, wish I'd had a chance to meet him in person.

Two things. First, I like how the site's still TBA on the AAA bracket for games that have already been played. Second, the scorer for bracket two in AAA only listed first names for most of the kids. VERY poorly done on their part. (And I'm qualified to say that, because I was one of the ones doing this in Memphis the last two years)

Yes, Phil's Phelons come to the Liberty Bowl this fall.

It's always been pretty good for the quality of play on the field. Now that it's a good product, they're drawing 40k. They still drew 20-25 even when they were wretched.

More support? They've averaged 40,000 people three years in a row, with only two SEC home games. And why can't Memphis be a powerhouse in football? As long as Tommy West is there, they'll be good. They're doing about as well as anybody in the nation that doesn't get a BCS welfare check.

Yes, it's the rule. That's one thing that's nice about the Memphis Redbirds' operation. They're a non-profit organization, and most of their proceeds go to helping inner-city baseball and softball programs -- providing fields, gloves, bats, balls, etc. so they can play. They fund some junior high programs for the city too. I think it'll help make city baseball more respectable in the long run, but it'll take a while for them to catch up. One thing that's sad is that the park system was one of the first things they cut the budget from -- and that meant the city quit maintaining baseball and softball fields for anyone, period.

Not Tuesday or Wednesday for sure. If Bartlett's still alive Thursday, I'll probably try, and if they make it to Friday I'm there no question.

That 7th inning just about killed me. Went into it up 11-2. Germantown pinch-hits for their 9 and 1 hitters...one gets out, one gets on. Then it goes homer-homer-single-homer-single-single-single, with two pitching changes, before the two pinch hitters strike out their second time up in the inning. I think we all had the sense that it wasn't going to end easily when Bartlett couldn't get the 10-run rule in the fifth or sixth...but nobody was expecting THAT. Would have been a much more exciting game to have been a neutral observer!

City school baseball just isn't that good. Mitchell was the best of the city this year in AA, but they're still no match for the best of region 7. Covington beat Hillcrest 24-0. Same thing happens in the region 8-AAA tournament every year. Both District 15-AAA teams won 15-0 in the region semis. So the only four city teams to make it to play non-city teams this year lost by a combined 73-0.

Anything can happen. But nobody wanted to face Pomeranz tonight.

Do you really want to guarantee that someone from, say, Region 8-AA will be in the state tournament? No offense to anyone from those 11 schools, but they'd pretty obviously always be 2 and 'cue, and probably run-ruled. I like the Limbaugh plan better.

They are, but WM usually has several key players play both BB and football, and their football team is still alive in their playoffs. Also, IIRC they lost a bunch of seniors last year.

The Cardinals' bullpen wasn't suspect? And would you rather have Abraham Nunez or Andy Marte? John Mabry or Adam LaRoche? So Taguchi or Jeff Francouer? Einar Diaz/Mike Mahoney or Brian McCann? In every single case there, I'd rather have the rookie. Talent is MUCH more important than experience.

Let me help make your point more accurate. "Too many people have a mindset that they should be entitled to special treatment." You know there's guys in the NFL that would say the same thing. But nooooo, we can't dog the sacred cow of the NFL. And there's idiots all over college and high school sports too. It's a society problem. The only difference between NBA players and a lot of our high school and college athletes is that they have money and microphones.

Del, I'm proud of a couple of my arguments on the boys basketball boards...but you're out of my league. Kudos for a job well done.

By the time Houston will play again, they won't be tired at all -- they get Monday and Tuesday completely off -- the only people to be adversely affected by then would be Backe and MAYBE Clemens.

Haven't had time to get on here lately, and then my computer dying last week didn't help things. Due to my job, I'm probably going to be down to once-a-week or so, and the last few weekends have just killed me in terms of energy. (I'll put it this way, I work in a college athletics department...and with football every weekend AND being responsible for all our other sports too, I don't have as much coacht time)

All votes are due before the playoffs, they aren't released until November.

Yeah, but when you lose Sanders, Walker, AND Rolen, as well as Yadier Molina...and you STILL win 100 games. I could see Jones getting it this year, but I think Pujols had the better year. The fact that he made his team that much better shouldn't be held against him.

Said it the time, I'll say it again now. No, he wasn't a wonderful addition to anyone's bullpen.

And your NL East IS done for the winter. Beaten by a team that was never even in the race in the lowly NL Central. So sad...

Sure, but they're still good players, and that's a pretty good return for three guys they were basically just trying to get rid of.

Germantown grad Paul Maholm made his debut the next night, believe it or not.

I think it does make some sense. Williams and Posey were troublemakers last season, so West wanted them gone. Considering they got Eddie Jones and a little more payroll flexibility back for what they were trying to get rid of, I think they came out ok. The four guys they were trying to get rid of were Williams, Posey, Wells, and Swift -- Swift left as a FA, and they got Bobby Jackson and Eddie Jones back for the other two, and they used a large chunk of the freed-up money for Damon Stoudamire.

You realize this is the second Cubs castoff you guys have picked up in a month, right?