Yankee4Life

On NFL relocations: Phoniness and fake sincerity can be seen in professional sports on all levels. You just have to know where and when to look. You'll see it in the newly-signed free agent who, with a sad look on his face informs his former home town fans that money was not the reason that he signed a six-year 200 million dollar contract with someone else. Of course not. That never entered his mind for a minute. Team owners are just as bad and maybe even worse. But NFL owners are in a class by themselves. These highway robbers in suits and ties have been threatening their hometown cities with relocation promises if they don't get what they want when they want it for years now. Ever since Al Davis first left Oakland after the 1981 season and got away with it they looked at themselves and said 'why not us'? Why not us indeed. I grew up a football fan in the 1970's and the differences between where the teams were then as compared to now is a result of one thing: greed. Younger fans may find this interesting. I honestly find this disgraceful. Back then there were teams called the Baltimore Colts, the Houston Oilers and the St. Louis Cardinals. Because of pettiness and the never ending search for another dollar those cities lost their teams. Baltimore got a team back but by doing that Cleveland had to lose one and the Browns were out of the league for a few years because of that. Same for Houston although they were given an expansion team instead of a current one. The Cardinals went to Arizona and St. Louis was without football until 1995 when the Rams left Los Angeles. The Rams were in Los Angeles for forty-nine years until their owner decided for some reason that Missouri was a better place to be. The fate of the Raiders and the Chargers has not been decided yet but it is the fans of those two loyal football towns that will suffer the most if they lose their team. St. Louis is a city that got taken by the NFL twice and that was two times too many. They lost the Cardinals after the 1987 season and now the Rams. They wanted another NFL team so bad that they built a dome to attract one. Now after 21 years they have a state-of-the-art dome but without a team to play in it. Over the years there have been many teams that have threatened to move. There were rumors and insinuations that the Vikings would leave Minnesota to go to Los Angeles if their demands were not met. They were. There was talk about the Bills going to Los Angeles or Toronto. The Falcons could have left Atlanta. Rams owner Stan Kroenke could have built a new stadium for his team from the money that was in his back pocket. Kroenke happens to be the billionaire son-in-law of Walmart co-founder Bud Walton, so this guy does not need St. Louis to raise money for him for a stadium. That's a big reason why he is in Los Angeles now. Those people are spending their money so he doesn't have to spend his. Where will the NFL go next? It's a safe bet that St. Louis will say take a hike. At least they should. These are the same owners that gave Al Davis such a hard time when he made his first move back in '81. I find it ironic that they have now become even worse than Davis ever could have dreamed to be.

Why thank you very much! I was secretly hoping someone would do this for me.

Figures.

Patches 3, 4 and 5 were roster updates from EA. You don't need them since those rosters are well out of date. Just install up to patch #2.

Adrolis Chapman to the Yankees? Adrolis Chapman??? The guy who can throw 100 miles per hour?? And he's left handed. Stay with me for a minute and you'll see why I have been smiling ever since the trade was announced. The first time the Yankees visit Boston Chapman is on the mound and David Ortiz lumbers up to the plate. He takes his time because he owns the place, or at least he acts like he does. Ten minutes later after he digs in he faces Chapman. POW...a 100 mph fastball hits him right in the head. You have your little fantasies I have mine.

Jim, my kick in the stomach came one week later as the Raiders lost on the ice field in Pittsburgh. I liked football as it was played back then. Now, not so much. If you sneeze near a wide receiver you get a pass interference call.

This next little piece is for my friend Jim825, who no doubt was in front of the TV that day like I was. Unlike me, he cared about what happened that day because he was a Viking fan. It was forty years ago today, December 28th, 1975 that the world first heard the term "Hail Mary" pass when talking about a desperation pass to the end zone. That's the date the wildcard Dallas Cowboys invaded Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, Minnesota for the second of two NFC playoff games that were played that weekend. The day before on December 27th the Pittsburgh Steelers hosted the Baltimore Colts and the Los Angeles Rams hosted the St. Louis Cardinals. The Cowboys - Vikings game that day was followed by the Raiders hosting the Bengals in Oakland. I still have very clear memories of this game. I was pulling for the Vikings because I could not stand the Cowboys. That is still true to this day. If you were a Cowboy fan back then you were guaranteed to watch them on TV each week. It was like an early version of the Sunday Ticket on DirecTV for Cowboy fans because that team got more attention than any other team in the league. And at that time there were some very good teams. It was a defensive struggle throughout the entire game but with less than a minute to go Dallas got something going. That's when you had to pay attention because the Cowboys of that era were a very lucky team. Calls always went in their favor. And that was no exaggeration. With less than thirty seconds left the Vikings were holding on to a slim 14 - 10 lead but Dallas was at midfield and you almost had the feeling anything could happen. Unfortunately it did. Roger Staubach went for broke and threw the ball as far as he could to Drew Pearson, who was running down the right side of the field. Pearson caught the ball for a touchdown but not before pushing off of Minnesota cornerback Nate Wright. When I first saw this happen on TV I saw a flag thrown and my first reaction was out of hope and not common sense. I thought the flag would be against Dallas because it was obvious that Pearson pushed off Wright for the catch but of course I was wrong. The referees called defensive pass interference and the Cowboys got their touchdown. Suddenly the usually friendly place of old Metropolitan Stadium became angry. The referee that made the pass interference call against Wright was hit in the back of the head by a whiskey bottle. That one throw was more accurate than all of Fran Tarkenton's were for the entire game. The referee's name was Armen Terzian. Amazing how you remember the little details. After the Dallas score the Vikings could not manage a miracle of their own and went down to defeat by a 17 - 14 score. At the end of the game when Staubach was interviewed about the play that won the game he told the press that he closed his eyes and said "Hail Mary." And so a new football phrase was born. Youtube video of the play (excellent quality) Game photos The Vikings' Jim Marshall (70) got this sack of Dallas' Roger Staubach during their 1975 playoff game at Met Stadium, but the Cowboys' quarterback got his revenge on his final throw of the game, the famous/infamous "Hail Mary" play. Dallas Cowboys receiver Drew Pearson walks into the end zone after catching a 50-yard TD pass from quarterback Roger Staubach during the fourth quarter of a NFC divisional playoff game at Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, Minn. on Dec. 28, 1975. Efforts to block Pearson by Minnesota Vikings defenders Nate Wright (43) and Paul Krause (22) were futile and Cowboys won the game 17-14. Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Drew Pearson (88),third from left, looks back to see referee Jerry Bergman signal touchdown after catching the famous 'Hail Mary Pass' from quarterback Roger Staubach (not pictured) during the final minute of a NFC divisional playoff game on Dec. 28, 1975 at Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, Minn. Minnesota Viking defenders Nate Wright (43), Terry Brown (24) and Paul Krause (22), partially hidden, watch in dismay as Bergman signals the touchdown. Minnesota Vikings cornerback Nate Wright falls down while defending Dallas Cowboys receiver Drew Pearson as Pearson traps a 50-yard pass between his right elbow and hip, giving the Cowboys a 17-14 upset of the Vikings during the final minute of the 1975 NFC divisional playoffs at Metropolitan Stadium. 1975 Playoff results December 27th, 1975 Pittsburgh Steelers (12 - 2 in 1975) 28, Baltimore Colts (10 - 4) 10 Los Angeles Rams (12 - 2) 35, St. Louis Cardinals (11 - 3) 23 December 28th, 1975 Dallas Cowboys (10 - 4) 17, Minnesota Vikings (12 - 2) 14 Oakland Raiders (11 - 3) 31, Cincinnati Bengals (11 - 3) 28 January 4th, 1976 AFC Championship Game (At Pittsburgh) Pittsburgh 16, Oakland 10 NFC Championship Game (At Los Angeles) Dallas 37, Los Angeles 7 January 18, 1976 Super Bowl X Pittsburgh 21, Dallas 17

By reading the directions that are provided with the mod.

The Rams are the only team who belong in Los Angeles.

Yeah, check out this article right here. From the article: The undergarments cost up to $100 per pair.

It has been a couple of months since I discontinued my weekly random thoughts and I have to admit I missed it somewhat. I'd like to try to make more of a contribution to this thread but I'd like to begin doing that after I get my knee surgery out of the way that I will get done after the first of the year, most likely in February. Obviously, this "Christmas wish list" is not an original idea of mine but I have always enjoyed it when someone else made these lists so I decided to make my own. Feel free of course to add your own to the list! Best wishes for a wonderful holiday season from me to all of you! My Christmas giving list. Trues: a site upgrade without any problems attached to it. Mvpmods.com: People that will come and talk about baseball. Or anything. Mark Teixeira: to break his other leg right before spring training because he's a useless son of a *^#$%. Brett Gardner: Remembering how to hit once the second half of the season begins. C.C. Sabathia: Now that the bottle excuse is out of the way a new one that he can come up with to explain why he can't make it to the fifth inning anymore without giving up seven runs. Yasiel Puig: A wife. That way he won't have to push around his sister anymore. Yasiel Puig's sister: Concealed mace. So the next time she sees her brother she can give it right back to him. Mrs. Zach Grienke: An affair or something to occupy her time just so she doesn't have to look at her husband wearing those new Diamondback uniforms next year. Derek Jeter: A slap in the head. When you sign on to promote underwear that costs $100 a pair you deserve to get sued no matter what the reason. David Price: A new cell phone provider because Carl Crawford was desperately trying to get in touch with him before he signed so he could tell him himself how "special" Boston was. David Ortiz: A revoked Visa. Jason Heyward: A history book, because when it is said and done Cardinal teams beat Cub teams. It's been that way for over one hundred years. Chicago Cubs fans: Same thing. Because they haven't won anything yet. The Boston Red Sox: Nothing. Because whatever they want they get anyway by crying or begging for it. Star Wars fans: A life, since some of them are already doing a countdown for the next movie just days after the new one came out. San Diego Charger and Oakland Raider fans: Teams to root for next year. Odell Beckham, Jr: Cheap shot lessons from Ndamukong Suh. Donald Trump: A filter for his mouth. Steve Harvey: A pair of glasses.

This has nothing to do with examples being set for kids. If a kid would actually want to find out why someone would become a permanent persona non grata when they are caught gambling on baseball all he has to do is do a little reading on the subject. I am not saying that drug use is no big deal because it is but in this case it is the lesser of two evils.

You're right. The question is not about them. It is about gambling.

As far as I know nothing was ever made for the Gamecube pertaining to mods.

I decided to give one more shot to try and generate some baseball talk in here because to be honest I really enjoy this website and have nothing but respect for it. The site means a lot to me. SUBJECT: The Pete Rose decision. While it was always a long shot that Pete Rose was going to be reinstated by Major League Baseball, this week commissioner Rob Manfred erased all chances of Rose being welcomed back into the inner circle of baseball forever. All I can say about that is this is the best decision baseball has made in many, many years. Rose supporters continually say he belongs in the Hall of Fame because he's the Hit King. They'll run to baseball reference.com and quote you his statistics from his rookie year to his last year in the majors. But what they are not understanding here is the numbers he put up during his playing career is not the issue here. Granted, if you just look at his personal statistics he should have been in Cooperstown long ago. Rose was a gambler. When he was still a player he bet on baseball and when he was the manager of the Reds he bet on his own team. Gambling is still and always will be the number one offense anyone can do in baseball. How serious does baseball take this? It's been ninety-six years since the infamous Black Sox scandal but every time there is even a hint of anything that has to do with gambling the movers and shakers of baseball get very nervous. For example, Brooklyn manager Leo Durocher was suspended for the entire 1947 for his "association with known gamblers" by commissioner Happy Chandler. Durocher did not bet on baseball - not when he was a player or a manager but because he knew gamblers that was enough for Chandler to suspend him. In the early 80's Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays were temporarily banned from baseball because they took jobs at a casino. Their jobs? To greet people who came in, shake their hands, say hi and take pictures and represent the casino they worked for at charity events. That job description was enough for Bowie Kuhn to ban both of them. Superman turned into just a regular man when he was confronted with kryptonite. Baseball turns into a little kid who is scared of the dark when the lights go off when confronted by gambling. Pete Rose was banned from baseball in 1989 by Bart Giamatti. He told Rose he had to reconfigure his life if he ever wanted to have a chance at reinstatement. Since that time Rose continually denied he bet on baseball until he was given a nice payout by a book company to admit that yes, he did bet on baseball. Rose also continued to bet on baseball after he was banned from the game. While that isn't illegal it is also something you should not do when you are trying to get back into baseball's good graces. After twenty-six years baseball said enough was enough. Thank God. Still, Rose supporters do not understand. Some of them might bring up Steve Howe. They'll say what about him, he was suspended from baseball seven times and finally banned from the game. What about him? That's true, that's exactly what happened but Howe was suspended for alcohol and cocaine abuse and that is why he successfully won his appeal when he was banned. All he trouble Howe got into during his playing days had nothing to do with gambling. That's why Howe got a longer leash than Rose. Rose did this to himself. I can't fault baseball for keeping him out of the game because he hasn't proven all this time that he belongs back in. I just thought of something while I was writing this. I never had the talent to play in the major leagues and the closest I got to being on a major league field was when I was sitting in the box seats. But I have a better chance of having a bust in Cooperstown then Rose does simply because I'm not banned from it.

Let me tell you something. When you are not trying to be a smartass you really make a lot of sense. And this is no knock on you. I'm complimenting you. Now, here is my question for you. How would you go about embracing the masses? You joined here back in 2006 and that was still the time when this place had a heartbeat. You know how much everyone posted back then. No one ever had to bring up the subject about asking people to talk about things. They did it all by themselves. These days, not counting the occasional mod announcements, all the posts we get are "how do I..." or "fix this problem for me..." or "can you make me this?" These people bring nothing to the table here except for what they want and when they get it nine times out of ten they don't know how to say thank you. I have no idea how to go about reaching them.

When you get past everything else that has been brought up here this is what it is really about. Sorry to say I have no idea how we would go about changing this.

Hahahahhaa Post of the day!

What if the goat kicks back?

This just confirms what I was saying. Your opinion is just as good as anyone else's.

Jim I see what you mean all too well. I remember those political threads and how they escalated quickly. You remember Rolie, right? He left in 2008 due to some kind of political disagreement then. I don't know what it was because I didn't get into those threads. But you are right and we've both seen it. These topics lead to name calling because people got passionate about what they were talking about.

That's true and besides, turkey tastes better.

I don't want that to happen either. I think that is a good idea and at the same time I don't believe anyone would have a problem with this. I know I would welcome it. However, you are overlooking something very important in order for this to happen. Nobody posts in here anymore. NOBODY. We are lucky that we get ten posts per week in here and that includes the posts from the people who ask for help downloading the game for free. And please, don't tell me because it's the off-season that's the reason for the lack of posts. This place wasn't on fire in June or July either. I don't know why people do not come in here and post anymore. I have talked about this in the past. I made a thread out there about this same subject a few years back and I have talked about this privately with some people. I don't get it. And you want people to discuss baseball? So do I man, so do I. But let's look at the past season. How many threads were made to talk about it? How about over this past World Series? Not one. When Dylan was around here he would make a thread with a poll about what team you wanted to win the Series and then we'd have some Series talk in that. But we had nothing like that. If it wasn't for occasional comments in that chat box you'd have never known the Royals were playing the Mets. To successfully have people come in here and talk baseball you need a group of people that will do it. You can't have just one person or else he'll just end up talking to himself. I'm not saying the people we had here years ago were better than the ones we have here now as regulars but I am saying they were different. At least they came in here and posted about anything and everything. Go back and look at some of those threads in the Left Field section. Some of them look pretty funny but they got people talking. That's because everyone contributed. Let me give you just two examples. There was a group of us hanging out here when the 2008 All-Star Game was going on. That was the game played at Yankee Stadium that went fifteen innings. We stayed around talking baseball to the very end of the game. Mark watched the entire game with us and he was five hours ahead of us in Scotland. When the game ended the sun was coming up over there. But a whole group of us including him stayed here until the end watching the game together and talking about it. You think that would happen again. And we are not talking about a long time ago. That was only seven years ago. The second example in a way touches on what Dennis James said about reading the comments in the chat box that had nothing to do with baseball. Non-baseball threads and posts in the chat box about that stuff is as old as this website. We had some knock-down fights about the presidential election back in 2004 and again in 2008. Things really got heated at times but it was always secondary because at the same time we were still talking baseball. In 2012 there really wasn't a lot of people talking about anything in here so that election came and went without any of the drama we had in previous years. The reason why talking about ISIS and Muslims and current events got so much attention here recently is because it overshadowed everything else here because nothing else goes on here. This site is big enough to have us talk about everything. From opinions about ISIS, to what your favorite music or movies or TV shows are, etc and anything and everything that has to do with baseball from the start of spring training to the final pitch of the World Series. But nothing will get done when there are ten or less posts a week in here.

The way I look at it that is how you should play the game. For example if I am using the Yankees and you are using the Angels why would I want to throw all my pitches in the strike zone to someone like Mike Trout? Eventually you are going to time one and it's going to be in the left field bleachers. He's someone I would always pitch around.

This is above and beyond anything I have ever played in online Mvp gaming. :)