Yankee4Life

Yes it is an important tool. But there should be no reason why you can't download it. Does it time out all the time you try? I'll log back on here tomorrow to see if you can finally get this file.

I have no idea why you are getting that message. I wish I could help you. All I know is that there is nothing wrong with the link. I don't know how you can fix that.

I can't even see your screenshot because it is so small.

I don't know what you mean. The link for TiT is right here and there is no problem with the download.

This week recognition is given to a modder who provided updated portraits to the last three modern day conversion mods that we made here and a cyberface modder who first became well known for his work in Mvp before moving on to 2k Sports baseball. And the Behind the Scenes modder this week is another guy who helped make the players in Total Classics look so good. PhilthePat Philthepat was a modder who created updated portrait sets for existing mods that included photos of players that for some reason had their status changed after the mod was released. These were made after trades were made during the season and in the off season and with free agent signings. Each of these new portraits made the mods look a lot better. August Portraits Update. For Mvp 13 Offseason Portraits Update. For Mvp 12 Missing Portrait Set #1. Set of two. For Mvp 2008. 2009 Updated Major League Portraits. For Mvp 2008. Complete Portrait Update. For Mvp 2008. Zach Many of the new members here know Zach from his excellent cyberface work in MLB 2k11 and before that he created stadiums for the 2k9 and 2k10 versions of the game. And even before he began lending his hand to improve the 2k Sports game he was creating some very impressive cyberfaces for Mvp Baseball. No matter what game he happens to be working on his cyberface contributions stand out in it. For MLB 2K 11 Matt Kemp Cyberface. Jimmy Rollins Cyberface. Josh Hamilton Cyberface. Ryan Braun Cyberface. Cliff Lee Cyberface. This particular cyberface is so good that it looks like a photograph. Behind the Scenes TheMadcap TheMadcap was another modder whose contributions included creating quality cyberfaces that were used in Total Classics and Mvp 06 and 07. His individual mods were all of Phillie players including the very first cyberface of Gio Gonzalez when he was playing in the Philadelphia minor league system.

I am not too sure of what is going on around here with this download except that I've had two reports that a file of his is broken. Just by taking a guess here it appears to me that lifo80050917 is updating this mod. If this is the case then just let him do it. It will be done.

Updated to 3-2 ...I feel bad for the Australian officials who are working hard to get everything ready for next month's Major League games that will be played at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Baseball's pretty big down under and it's getting even more popular so you can understand the organizers are doing everything they can to make the best impression possible. So you can understand their disappointment when they heard that one of the players who is making the trip to Sydney say publicly that there is no excitement in going to Australia and honestly can not think of one reason to get excited about going there. One thing that is pretty clear here is that Zach Greinke is not that well known down there because if he was they would have ignored his comments and just considered the source because Greinke has as many psychological issues as Derek Jeter has base hits. ...I understand the need to promote baseball around the world. The game doesn't need any bolstering in Asia anymore because they are baseball-crazy over there. There hasn't been a regular season game in Europe yet and I wonder if that is next and if relations with Cuba ever improve they will go wild to host a few major league games there. But let me tell you what I really miss. Opening Days that begin in Cincinnati. I remember many years ago that on the first game of the season, even though there were a full slate of games to be played in the eastern time zone, the Reds would begin their game a half hour before everyone else. That was baseball then and it's just another tradition that has been taken away over time. ...So far the first few days of Yankees camp have been pretty good. The shock of Derek Jeter's retirement announcement has worn off and life has gone on as we know it. But then Alfonso Soriano put a smile on everyone's faces (well, at least mine) when he said that he also may retire at the end of this season. He said it depends on how he feels. If he feels ok, Soriano will play next year. If he doesn't feel ok then he won't. That's good. There's no room for debate. Either one way or the other. Here's hoping he has a year like Curtis Granderson had last year. ...Last week the temperature around here rarely got above ten degrees and on two occasions I was forced to leave the house to run some errands and get gas and each time I was out I saw people walking around without a coat on and who were seemingly oblivious to the cold front going on literally before their eyes. And here I was wearing a winter coat with the hat and gloves along with it and I'm saying to myself that even with this stuff that I'm wearing I'm the one that ends up catching the colds instead of them. ...Colorado has been raking in the money since retail sales of marijuana became legal this past January 1st and it's no wonder because their highways have been jammed with out of state visitors since that day who have all suddenly decided to visit the Centennial State. Some of the money that the marijuana sales generate will go towards substance abuse prevention and youth marijuana use prevention. In other words they plan on printing out a bunch of pamphlets to pass around to all the schools in the state telling schoolchildren to avoid it but once they are of legal age by all means buy as much as you want. And in Washington, the other state that legalized cannabis in 2014, things are looking just as good financially for the state. Economic forecasters are predicting that Washington's new legal recreational marijuana market will bring nearly $190 million to state over the next four years. It should be noted that this figure was estimated before the Seattle Seahawks won the Super Bowl because by the middle of the fourth quarter when the Seahawk fans knew they were going to win they started lighting up and passing the pipe around and running out to get more. You have to wonder how long California with all their money problems will hold out and join these two states because if they do their sales will overshadow Colorado and Washington combined. ...I have to give Orioles manager Buck Showalter a lot of credit for being a no-nonsense sort of manager especially with the young prima donnas that seem to be all over baseball now on every single team. When Hall of Famer Frank Robinson visited Baltimore's spring training home last week in Sarasota, Florida, Showalter casually asked Josh Hart, a ninteen-year-old prospect of the ballclub if he knew who he was. Hart said he didn't and that he never heard of him. Now had you asked him if he knew who Mario Brothers were he'd be able to tell you but Frank Robinson to him was a mystery. Showalter couldn't believe it and instead of giving him chapter and verse on who Robinson was and what he accomplished he made him submit a one page report to him so he could be sure that he knew who he was. Talk about an easy homework assignment. Although it would have been funny had he given Showalter the report the next day just as he asked but instead of writing about Frank Robinson he wrote about Brooks. ...This isn't the first time we've heard of younger players not knowing who the older players were. It's just that this time it happened to make the wire stories. I remember something that Don Mattingly of all people said many years ago about Babe Ruth that still is one of the dumbest things I have ever heard. Early in his Yankee career he was asked a question about Babe Ruth and he said that when he was growing up he thought that Babe Ruth was a cartoon character and the reason why he thought that was because he wasn't born until 1961 and that he grew up in Indiana. There are some things you just can not make up. ...A big middle finger to Joe Torre and Tony Larussa for changing the rules concerning home plate collisions. Understand that I don't get any satisfaction out of seeing the catcher or the baserunner get hurt on these plays but by putting these rules in you could cause other injuries. One of the new rules states that the catcher can not block the plate without the baseball. What if he's waiting for a throw? Where is he going to wait, in the on-deck circle? When the throw is coming what do they expect from him? To run in front of the plate, catch the ball and either run or dive back to make the tag? Try to picture that in your mind's eye for a moment. Wouldn't that leave the catcher wide open to any base runner who is charging towards home as fast as he can? And the other thing that is now banned is that baserunners can not deviate from the direct path to the plate in order to initiate contact with the catcher. Now what the *$#& do you want to do that for in the first place? Again, try to picture this. You've just rounded third and are going to try to score but before you try to do that you are going to veer off a foot and a half to your right so you can plow the catcher. What for? This is all being done because of the injury that happened to Buster Posey a couple of years ago but as serious as it was it wasn't a cheap shot and it was part of the game. ...There was a bill in Arizona last week that was currently awaiting the approval or rejection of Arizona Governor Jan Brewer that many people across the country were paying close attention to. It was a bill that would protect any Arizona businesses that refuses service to gays and others on religious grounds and that the governor ended up vetoing last Wednesday. This was one of those topics that if you came out and publicly said you supported it you risk the chance of practically getting labeled a monster and someone who is intolerant towards others. You may think I am exaggerating the point a little here but I don't think by much. Right or wrong I feel that this is something that should only involve the people in Arizona because it should not matter what I think, being a New York State resident. It's none of my business. The NFL also kept watch on what happened down in Arizona because as they said in a PR statement last week their policies "emphasize tolerance and prohibit any kind of discrimination." This is also the same league that employs rapists, killers and wife beaters. I don't trust any organization that comes out making statements like this because you have no idea when the sincerity stops and the bull**** takes over. Without even saying it the NFL is getting the point across that if the bill passed the Super Bowl may not be played in Arizona in 2015. If that ended up taking place it would not have been the first time that the NFL took its football and went to play somewhere else. Back in 1990 when Arizona voters refused to honor Martin Luther King's birthday as a holiday the league moved the 1993 Super Bowl to Pasedena, California and as soon as the NFL saw that those same voters were going to play nice when they approved King's birthday as a holiday a few years later, they gave them the 1996 game. Maybe the next bill that comes before Governor Brewer is the one to send the Cardinals back to St. Louis. ...A man's got to live somehow, Dept: Spring training has already started but Ervin Santana has not budged one inch on his demand for a fifty million dollar contract for four years. That's pretty steep for a guy who didn't even have a winning record last year. So, he's sitting home waiting for some major league team that is dumb enough to sign him and he knows that could happen at any time after someone goes down with the first major injury of the spring. Besides, Ubaldo Jimenez recently got a deal for around the same amount of money he's looking for with Baltimore and wherever he goes Santana knows he can give up just as many home runs. ...There is a wild tiger that is loose in the northern part of India that has killed ten people over the course of two months, some so bad that they were beyond recognition. Since this has been going on the people in that area have been terrified of where and when this tiger is going to strike again. Right now a hunt is going on with the intent to shoot and kill this animal and be done with it but amazingly enough there are some wildlife conservationists who do not want these hunters to kill it and they also don't want it to be captured and be sent off to a zoo someplace. Naturally they did not offer any answers on what should be done about this problem. It seems that all they were good for was telling everyone what not to do. Somehow I don't think they'd have any problems with a hunter shooting that thing where it stood if they were face-to-face with it and they were going to be her next meal. ...What the hell is going on down in Florida? They've already got Pythons, boa constrictors, alligators and some snail that has a hard enough shell that it can puncture your car tires. Now they have something called a tegu lizard that has already been seen by residents in central Florida more than one hundred times now. These damned things can reach up to four feet in length and weigh up to thirty-five pounds and while they are not a threat to people, they have a bite on them that can literally crush the bones in your hands. Just like the snakes they have down there these lizards were originally released into the wild by idiots who bought them as pets and didn't know what to do with them anymore. If I lived down there I wouldn't go anywhere without a baseball bat in my hand ready to clobber anything I see slither around. All of a sudden the snow and freezing temperatures don't seem so bad. ...Finally I have to stop and remember the greatness that was Harold Ramis. I first saw him when one of the TV stations in town began airing reruns of Second City and this guy was hilarious. They all were. Writer, actor, director, comedian, the guy could do it all and he did. R.I.P.

The Book of the Month for March is The Long Ball - Summer of '75 - Spaceman, Catfish, Charlie Hustle & Greatest World Series Ever Played. Book Description. The 1975 World Series between the Boston Red Sox and the Cincinnati Reds is generally considered the best of all time, and baseball historians often rank its sixth game as the greatest single game ever played. In this resoundingly acclaimed bestseller, Tom Adelman tells the story of the season that led up to that classic Series and then delivers the inside pitch on those amazing seven games. I will be doing something different this month for this book since I had no idea if anyone downloaded last month's book and I want to be sure that I am not just wasting my time here because I can find other things to do. I see too many people uploading their mods here and they hardly get a thank you or some kind of comment. Those guys are not here because they work for you and I, they are here because they donate their own time and skills to improve Mvp 05 or the 2k game. Ok, off my soapbox. However if you want this book then you come in this thread and make a post saying that you'd like it. That's it. Then I will provide you with the links for this because this is a full and unabridged audio reading of this book. It's twelve CD's. And if anyone thinks I am going to upload twelve CD's that no one plans on downloading then...well I won't answer that.

Here I am thinking he is talking about a milkshake.

It has been a little over a month since I was last in here trying to explain the seriousness of having a duplicate account here and what would happen if you were found out and what would happen if you came to us and let us know that you had one. Since the last time I was in here not one person has sent me (or anyone) a private message to let us know of another account that they have. To remind you once again what would happen if you do this is that you would not be suspended at all and we would just suspend your other account and be done with it. I really believe this arrangement is more than fair and in the end everyone comes out ahead. We get rid of a phony account and you don't get banned because of it. Despite the fact that no one has stepped forward here do not assume that the reason for that is there haven't been any to report. Not one day has gone by that a new duplicate has been discovered and subsequently banned from this website and every one of them could have been avoided. It is discouraging to see the lack of cooperation in here concerning this. Therefore due to our repeated requests in the past to come forward, more additional steps and procedures have gone into effect to identify members with more than one account and the results have been more than what I expected them to be. There is another thing that is part of this same problem. I can not understand why any member who is a contributor or a modder would need to have a second account since you have unlimited downloads, but yet this continues to happen regularly. I personally believe the length of the ban in these instances should be longer but that is not the case. If any of what I am talking about here pertains to you then I can only ask you again to do something about it because if you leave it up to an administrator here you will discover that the next time you try to log on here you will not be able to and any e-mail you send about you being banned will not be answered. You'll already know the reason why.

You know, I'm not sure that it did. I think they tried to change the game around so much and that could have been a problem.

Another text-based game is Dombrov Baseball.

I never said they were still up. They've been gone for awhile and I also have no idea where everyone from that place went to. The last few years over there people were leaving in droves. Before the place closed down they had a section in the forum for High Heat gameplay. Some guy joined up and started posted mod updates for HH2004 on rapidshare and I grabbed every one of them.

Some guy on TPG made updated uniforms and rosters (last year) and updated logos and I believe he even did a stadium. It was in a thread over there that no one ever seemed to go into. They were also on rapidshare or whatever it is but luckily I saved them.

What mods are you talking about? The ones from The Perfect Game?

That's good. One problem solved. Welcome to the website.

Here is a comparison between the 2003 and 2004 versions of High Heat. 2003 2004 Recently thanks to a one month subscription that I had to a site called Old Games, I have started to play Tony Larussa Baseball 2 again. This game is now twenty-one years old and it still plays great. And you know what? You can save a game in progress. I also have been playing Hardball 5, Oldtime Baseball and Tony Larussa 3, but Tony 2 was the best.

Thank you Jim. Like the mods from Mvp '05 that I have I also have some for HH 2004, including the latest ones someone posted over at the Perfect Game before they shut down.

The 2003 version had mouse support with it and the 2004 version did not. Also, these were the last two years that High Heat was made before 3DO went bankrupt. These two games looked different from each other but they both played very well. Trues even made mods for HH 2004.

What does this have to do with this thread?

High Heat Baseball was very good. That came out before Mvp baseball. A lot of the baseball games made for the PC were more towards arcade style play like Triple Play baseball but High Heat was more involved than that. My favorite was High Heat 2003.

Says who? You? This thread is fourteen pages long and if people want to come in and read about this subject that occasionally comes up then we are going to make it as easy as we can for them to find this thread and spend time here. I hope that in the future this does not happen again because I believe we have a good handle on what threads are pinned and what threads are not. What my response to that user was just that, a response. I answered her question and then corrected her on my screen name which she got wrong. You on the other hand can interpret that any way you want. Nice first introduction to this community? Oh yeah, you really had a good one. I suggest that you change your approach.

This week, two modders who have made key contributions to the Mvp 12 and 13 mods with their portrait and roster creating talents. Also, the roster maker for the Total Classics series is featured as our behind the scenes modder. Ar_key Along with the portraits that Ar_key created he was someone who came out with a very good roster set from 2010 to 2012 that proved to be one of the most popular roster sets during that time period. The first four portrait links listed below were minor updates for the 2008 mod because at that time that was the latest mod available. Most of Ar_key's mods are his latest version of his roster set and even though these can not be used now the time and effort that he put in to making them has not gone unnoticed. Philadelphia Phillies 2010 Portraits. New York Mets 2010 Portraits. Boston Red Sox 2010 Portraits. Kansas City Royals 2010 Portraits. Waiver Portraits (for Mvp 2012 mod.) Toleton Toleton was a modder who updated the logos of many minor league teams when a change took place either in their name, team logo and design or major league team affiliation. All of his updated logos were incorporated into the Mvp 12 and 13 mods along with logo changes on the major league level. His portraits that are listed below have all been included in the Mvp 2012 mod. Toleton is also responsible for creating special roster sets that concentrated on playoff rosters and updated All-Star Game rosters, both which were downloaded faithfully by users. Portraits 2012 Pack 1. A total of four portrait packs were made. Miami Marlins Portraits 2012. Seattle Portraits 2012. 2012 Blue Jays Logo Update Version 1.0 New MiLB logos for 2010. Behind the Scenes Capa Capa was the modder who was involved in developing the rosters that are in the Total Classics mod. For some teams it was hard to decide who would make the final twenty-five man roster and Capa was the guy who helped decide these moves as well as setting up the default batting orders. A tough job considering how many teams were included in Total Classics. He only released three mods while he was here, all for the Xbox. They were a trio of Action Replay rosters so that someone with a modded X-box could use the Total Classic teams on that console.

Updated to 2-23 ...There is a football league called the Indoor Football League that has been in existence since 2008 although to be honest I have never heard of them. I have heard of the Arena Football League but as I learned these are two separate leagues. Anyhow, last week during an IFL game it was believed that for the first time ever a woman made an appearance in a men's professional game in a non-kicking position. Jennifer Welter, a 5-foot-2, 130 pound running back entered the game midway through the third quarter with her team a few yards away from paydirt. After given the handoff she ran a few steps to her left and before she was able to run into the end zone she ran into the defensive lineman for the other team and when that happened she immediately stopped running and got up close and personal with the artificial turf. That's what usually happens when you run into a lineman who is six-foot-four and weighs 245 pounds. Later on she was given two more chances in goal line situations but the results were the same. When the game was over the usual banter could be heard. Look what she did! That was impressive! She showed she can play a man's game! I don't buy any of this. The woman is 5'2" and 130 pounds. There are kids playing Pop Warner football who are bigger than her. She's got no business out on that field. And you can be damned sure that the three times she was tackled the player on the other team took it easy on her because if he would have went full force and leveled her she could have broke and arm or a leg and people would have come down on the guy for doing his job. She's also lucky she didn't run into a Ndamukong Suh copycat because he could have kicked her where she didn't want to be kicked. ...Already the Red Sox are getting lucky this season. Ryan Dempster informed them that he won't be playing at all this year due to health reasons and a desire to spend more time with his kids. Privately the Red Sox must be jumping for joy knowing that they got rid of him. ...Even though I have never listened to their music (80's rock bands are more my style) I have always thought that Lene Nystrom was absolutely beautiful. She's the lead singer of some Danish band I never heard of called Aqua. ...I don't know what's the matter with me because I can eat Hostess Ding Dongs but not Hostess Ho-Ho's even though they are both chocolate cake with creamy filling and therefore basically the same thing. But I won't eat a Ho-Ho. By the way don't bother. I already know there is something wrong with me. ...During an interview that A.J. Burnett gave last week he said that his family brought him to the Phillies because he only lives about an hour and a half from Citizen's Bank Park. I don't know if he should have said this because now the Phillie fans know who to blame. ...Am I a bad Yankee fan because I am not all broken up about Derek Jeter retiring? ...Things are so bad for the sales of the X Box One that stores such as Walmart and Target are giving away a free game worth fifty dollars with the purchase of one. Target's so desperate to get rid of them that if you don't want the fifty bucks to put towards a game they will give you a gift card for the same amount. On the flip side no such incentives are being given for the Playstation 4. That's simply because the stores can not keep them in stock. That's how well they are selling. It wouldn't surprise me to find out that Microsoft employees have PS4's hidden in their basement. ...Did any of you hear about that guy in North Dakota who was going to the same Walmart for years and was exchanging pleasantries with a cashier there whom he thought in the back of his mind resembled him a little bit? The man was given up for adoption as a baby and had a brother and three sisters that he had never met. That is until he began searching for his birth family and he found out through medical information that the same Walmart cashier was one of his sisters. How do you like that? About a month ago I went into Walmart looking for a halfway decent pair of winter shoes. I looked around for about an hour and had no luck. This guy goes to Walmart and finds a sister. ...Jamie Coots, who up until last week was a Pentecostal pastor down in Kentucky who believed that a passage in the Bible suggested that poisonous snakebites will not harm believers as long as they are anointed by God died after receiving a poisonous snakebite during one of his sermons. Who the hell didn't see that coming? This religious practice is illegal in most states but it still goes on in the South, the same place where the Confederate flag is hung higher than the U.S. flag. The National Geographic channel aired a reality show called Snake Salvation which was about Coots and the handling of different poisonous snakes that he used in his sermons but that thing hit the crapper as soon as that snake decided to deviate from the script. Not to be outdone by a snake, NatGeo is going to air a tribute episode so people can understand Coots and his method of worship and to see that he died doing what he believed was his calling. And if it increases the ratings for that evening, even better. Had Coots lived his plans were to pass on the practice and his church to his son when it was time for him to retire. Now that those aspirations were changed his son plans on going into a more safer line of work like capturing and training alligators to do tricks. ...There should have been something put into the Bible that said "use your head" but maybe it was a good thing that they didn't because by now someone would have tried to put a nail in a wall by doing it that way. ...You know, now that I remember I can recall something just as dangerous that our priest did in our little Roman Catholic church that I went to as a boy. During mass the collection plate is usually passed around once and then the money is collected and brought up to the altar. On the rare occasions that the collection plate made a second trip, you could almost see some of the people gritting their teeth as they had to come up with another couple of bucks. ...I didn't realize how bad things were down in Venezuela until I read some articles and saw some news footage of a group of people there being injured during a political protest by members of the armed militias when they fired shots at the organizers. As they fired on the crowd one bullet hit a pretty Venezuelan girl named Genesis Carmona who was a model and also held the title of Miss Tourism 2013 for the central Venezuelan state of Carabobo. Talk about having a hard job, trying to get people to come to Venzuela. Of all the South American countries Venezuela is the most dangerous. Along with the high rate of random street violence that country has one of the highest murder rates in the world. Picture Detroit but only bigger. What those people were protesting was that they have no food. No food for themselves or to feed their babies. They want the basic necessities that we all take for granted. Out of milk? A trip to 7-11 will take care of that. When Venezuelans are out of milk they are out of luck. That's the real story going on down there. But in many of the articles that I read it seemed that the focus was on this poor young model that was gunned down instead of the reason why she was there with those others trying to improve the conditions of her country. ...Should have stayed in bed, Dept: Of all things to escape from an enclosure on an early Friday morning a little over a week ago in the Southern California community of Acton, a camel would probably be near the bottom of anyone's list. But since I spoiled the surprise I may as well tell you that it was a camel and the animal must have been pretty mad from being locked up because once he got out he ran after every human being it saw, including a seventy-two-year-old man who did all he could to get the hell out of its way. The camel bit him on the head, knocked him down and stepped on him and when the guy crawled under something to get away the camel tried to pull him out from under it because apparently he wasn't done with him yet. Eyewitnesses all agreed afterwards that the camel won by a T.K.O. The camel stopped trampling the old man when some other people came by to lend a hand and when the camel saw what they were about to do he went after them and they decided to get in their car and literally head for the hills. The trouble was they couldn't get far because the car keys were still in the house. The people were at a loss as to what to do until someone remembered that an Arab family lived two blocks away. After they got in touch with them and assured them that they weren't joking, the family came to where the camel was causing all the commotion and calmed it down and were able to tie it up in less than a minute. You got to have the touch. Before they had a chance to bring the camel home so the kids could ride it animal control officials arrived on the scene to cart the camel away. So much for good deeds. ...According to the World Clown Association, which is an organization that makes up the largest trade group for clowns, there is a shortage of people who are entering the clown profession these days. A statement like this leaves itself wide open to jokes and tempted as I am to make a few of them myself I am going to take the high road and try to offer some suggestions. 1. Every politician that loses in this November's political elections should serve four years as a clown since they were going to get laughed at anyway had they ended up winning. 2. The Palin family can help out with the clown shortage since they've been acting like them ever since they were introduced to the American public back in 2008. 3. I know of one ballplayer that now plays in Seattle who got a 240 million dollar contract in the off season that plays like one. 4. Come to think of it I know an entire team that is completely made up of clowns who plays their home games on Yawkey Way. 5. Bud Selig's retiring this year. Now he can go into a job that he was born to do. ...Speaking of clowns, David Ortiz threw one of his famous profanity-filled tirades that he is known for every time people around him do not readily agree with him and praise him unconditionally. Ortiz wants a one-year contract extension for the sole reason being that he wants it and that should be good enough for everyone. But there are some people who are telling him to put a lid on it and honor the final year of his contract and they are the same people that he's mad at and swearing at. Ortiz said he is tired of hearing people talk about his contract when he brings it up because when he talks about it he earns it, which is neither here nor there because no one said he didn't earn it. They just said to honor the one he had first but that's how it is when you only hear what you want to hear. ...North Korea has gobbled up another foreign missionary that was dumb enough to go to their country as part of a tour group. The victim this time was a seventy-five-year-old Australian man named John Short and he was caught with some Gospel tracts that were translated into Korean and they did not like that at all. That's a big no-no there because Christianity is as welcome in North Korea as a swarm of bees are at a picnic. But I got to ask what the hell was he thinking? I'm sure he knew before he got there that there was another guy (Kenneth Bae) that was being held there already for the same reasons that they ended up detaining him for. It doesn't matter how good his intentions were because these people are not wanted there and if they had sense at all they'd realize that themselves before they made up their mind to go there and get themselves into a situation where their governments have to jump in to try to get them out. Meanwhile before that happens Kenneth Bae has a new cellmate. ...Finally, spring training games start on Wednesday with four games on the slate. Here we go.