Well, not for the Rangers, but rather, for Liverpool, who is about to sign Atletico Madrid striker Fernando Torres for 27 million pounds- that's $54 million.

http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,2114541,00.html

I'm sure this will tick off a lot of Ranger fans who don't care about soccer, but as a Liverpool diehard, I'm pretty stoked!

Just got alerted to this by one of my fellow Rotojunkie staffers who is a Rays fan- Tampa has either released or DFA'd Elijah Dukes- press conference forthcoming with further details:

http://www.tboblogs.com/index.php/sports/comments/dukes-off-rays-roster

If you're JD, do you take a shot on him?

Looks like a heart attack. He was 73.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070515/ap_on_re_us/jerry_falwell

I'll leave the comments to others. Suffice it to say I wasn't a fan.

I love baseball. Baseball is fun. Yay baseball!

Just thought I'd put one up, even though the game doesn't start until 8 pm tonight. I'll be missing the first hour to watch the Sopranos, but this should be a great series.

Nellie can give the Mavs trouble, but I think our boys win in six. After that, it's Houston or Utah, then probably either the Spurs or Suns. Not an easy road, though home court throughout will help.

Go Mavs!

trza asked me to post a review of the Isis show at the Ridglea Theater, which was earlier tonight.

Short version: Totally. Fucking. Awesome.

Long version:

Intronaut and Torche were the openers- both played about 45 minutes. I liked Torche a bit better; they're sort of a harder version of old Black Sabbath (particularly around the Sabbath Bloody Sabbath era) while Intronaut reminded me of early Isis, with a bit more emphasis on the hardcore/thrash elements.

Isis played about 75 minutes; here's the set list, so you know what to expect if you see them in Austin:

Wrists of Kings
Not In Rivers, But In Drops
False Light
Dulcinea
1000 Shards
Wills Dissolve
All Out of Time, All Into Space
Holy Tears
Celestial

If you can make it to the show at Emo's (I think it's later today, the 28th) I highly recommend it.

Dead at 74 from cancer. Most of you probably know him from the AFL, the Kansas City Chiefs (originally the Dallas Texans) and his work with the NFL. But he was also a founder of Major League Soccer, and owner of the Columbus Crew and FC Dallas. Hunt probably did as much as anyone to make both the NFL and American soccer what it is today.

The Rangers lost Alfredo Simon to the O's, and did not make a pick in the major-league portion of the Rule 5 draft. The Cubs took Josh Hamilton from the Rays; the Yanks took Josh Phelps from the O's.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/prospects/news/262980.html

I haven't seen the minor-league picks posted yet.

Looks like the Rangers will pick either 14th or 15th, depending on what they and the Reds do tomorrow.

While it's been another disappointing year, Texas is guaranteed to:

Since I know a few other people follow the EPL, I thought some of you might enjoy this-  Liverpool midfielder Xabi Alonso scored a goal from his own half of the field yesterday against Newcastle.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7032316303141404085&q=xabi+alonso&hl=en

This is the second time in the last six months Xabi has scored a goal from long distance- he put one in against Luton Town last year from slightly further out, though that one was the soccer equivalent of an empty-net goal.

Just saw this posted online. No word yet on a reason for the firing.

http://www.nypost.com/sports/espn_fires_reynolds_sports_andrew_marchand.htm

Maybe now they'll get rid of Brantley and Kruk, as both of them have even less to add to Baseball Tonight than Reynolds did...

300 character limit sucks.