Just got back to Wyo. Left out of DIA to JFK. JFK (and most others compared to DIA) is not a great airport.

Game at Yankee Stadium - great experience. Fans were quite nice. The Girl is a huge Red Sox fan (wore her hat, of course), and while she got a good amount of ribbing, it was all in good taste. We even had a shot with some serious Yankee fans before the game across the street from the stadium. Not a word was said to her to and from the stadium on the subway. When I first got to the bar, they wouldn't serve me and I figured it was her hat. Turned out it was Sunday, and they couldn't serve for 15 minutes (it was 11:45). I hadn't been to NY in a couple years, but I forgot that it's relatively dirty. I couldn't get past that. As The Girl was getting heckled, she pointed out my Rangers hat and asked why no one had a problem with me. The answer was they don't care about the Rangers - just the Red Sox.

On the train to Boston we met a producer for XM Radio's MLB shows. He was cool and we met up with him after the Boston game and he came with Boston's Spanish radio announcer (who was wearing his WS ring - very impressive).

At the Boston home opener we saw that crazy hawk, the Air Force pilot go out of formation (and later grounded) and Bill Buckner's pitch. The weird thing is I got crap for wearing a Rangers hat. Guys behind us started a sarcastic "let's go Rangers" chant. I eventually pointed out that I had traveled over 1,500 miles for the game and was also at their home opener in 2005 to see the Red Sox get their rings. That got some kudos, but I was suprised about Boston fans. I had zero comments in NY about my Rangers hat but various people in Boston (a waitress, maintenance worker and fans at the game) all had comments about wearing a non-Boston hat. And that's what it was - a non-Boston hat. I saw people at the NY game with other team's hats but not a single one at the Boston game.

So my general impression having seen both cities (been to both a few times) and their fans in a short time is that NY is kinda dirty and Boston is great. I'd say that NY fans get a bad rap when they're actually pretty good folks. Although Boston's fans seemed a bit more intolerant, they are 100% for the Red Sox, which isn't a bad thing. I say that because I've been going to Rockies games for years (just to watch baseball, any baseball) and those people couldn't give a crap about the Rockies until September of last year.

So to anyone thinking about going to NY to see the stadium before they move to the new one, definitely do so. Fans are cool and Nathan's hotdogs really are better than the rest. If thinking of going to Boston, be prepared to immerse youself in 100% Red Sox fans.

Anyone notice the changes to the mlb radio and gameday?  MLB radio now has this graphic crap going all time which is new and annoying.  Anyone know how to shut that off?  And don't tell me to just minimize it - I like having it up so I can mute if someone calls or comes in my office (no handy mute button on my keyboard).  Gameday is huge now.  I used to like it because I could tuck it away to the side of my screen while working then just glance at it if I hear something going on in the game, but it's too big now.

I probably sound pretty whiny.  Not much one can do about gameday (unless someone knows of something) but there has to be a way to shut the graphics off on mlb radio. 

We know A-Rod was unhappy when he left. But it's good to hear that he never wanted to come to Texas in the first place. Just did it for the money. He took the money but in Texas just wanted to blow his ---head off (his words, not mine).  But don't take my word for it:

"I went for the contract when my true desire was to go play for the Mets," Rodriguez said of his decision to ink his $252 million deal with Texas eight years ago.

As A-Rod looked back on the events of the past offseason, he seemed haunted by the idea that in breaking free of the Yankees he could have made another decision based strictly on money and wound up as unhappy as he was in Texas for three years.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/2008/03/24/2008-03-24_arod_regrets_saying_no_to_mets_doesnt_ma.html

http://www.deuceofdavenport.com/2008/03/rod-hates-him-some-texas.html

The Ahmad did a diary (I would consider this a diary, not fanpost) of everyone's favorite/best movies. Big category. We already did comedies, so I figured Westerns were a defined subcategory.

I'm going to limit my picks to one actor  for each selection (not a rule). For John Wayne, I'll go with the Cowboys. I know there was one that many think was better, but I've always liked this one. Clint Eastwood - I'll skip the obvious one (that might be my favorite) and go with High Plains Drifter. I've always liked Jeremiah Johnson (I used to drive by Crazy Woman Creek frequently). I'll round it out with Tombstone, Dances with Wolves and Lonesome Dove (I know it was a TV miniseries; whatever).

I've never really known what makes a western a "Western". Is it locale, era, subject matter? I think Quigly Down Under was a Western, but it was set in Australia. If that's the case, couldn't Ghost in the Darkness be one (set in late 1800s, railroad, killing things)?  If so, it's one of my favorites too. For that matter, could a Civil War movie be a "Western"?

So what makes a Western and what are your favorites?

As an aside, I drafted this once. Went to preview it, told me I had popup blockers on, shut them off, it disappeared. Gonna have to figure that out sometime.

It seems that the Byrdman has been grounded.

No one things there will be a duplication of last year, which is justified.

With the exception of seasons in which he only played a handful of games, Byrd outperformed everything. He seriously outperformed his career numbers in every make shape and form.  Highest season slugging % ever. Highest BA ever (with the exception of one season in which he had 13 ABs). Second highest OBP (a whopping 355).

It appears everyone here thinks the 113 OPS+ was an aberration. Prove us wrong, Byrdman of Arlington.

I decided to go through all of them and find the highs and lows of the projections except for PA (weird thing to include; it's like a deadpool). Also attached are the names of those responsible. Just cause.

BA: .260 RangerMoto; .305 Escher
OBP: .324 Ed Coffin (Our elder statesman hates Blalock); .375 OKCRanger
Slugging: .420 Ortonius; .565 blueballlefty (too many "L"s?).

And just to fill things out, here's my Seussian response to Evan Grant's comment. Took too long to complete to not pimp it out.

http://www.lonestarball.com/comments/2008/3/11/225836/305/31#31

I'm looking for someone. Any ideas?

I'll delete this if we get some responses.