Yankee4Life

1915 continued Not surprisingly, Babe Ruth was in complete control the entire game even though he faced a Philadelphia team that went 43 - 109 in 1915. The Athletics scored their fourth and final run in the seventh as Amos Strunk knocked home a pair of runs with an RBI single. By this time it was too little too late as the Red Sox had a 13 - 4 lead. Coming into pitch for Philadelphia, Herb Pennock. Pennock's another Hall of Famer you will find on the rosters of this mod. Stuffy McGinnis had a tough time at first base today although it was no fault of his. This here is the fourth error of the game by third baseman Rube Oldberg, who threw the ball as if he didn't know where first base was. Heinie Wagner bothered the Athletics all day. He collected four hits, scored two runs, had three RBI and here with a stolen base.

1915 continued In a preview of what he was to accomplish in the 1920's, Babe Ruth takes Athletics pitcher Weldon Wyckoff (10 - 22 in 1915) deep to extend Boston's lead to 4 - 1. Napoleon Lajoie, however great he was, was not a left handed hitter. This isn't pointed out here to say A-HA! to Dennis, but rather it is part of the mod and therefore is part of the mod review. What Dennis James does for Mvp along with Jim825 is nothing short of sensational. The next time you hear someone say baseball is a game of inches, remember this image. Second baseman Heinie Wagner of the Red Sox has just hit an opposite field two run double to increase Boston's lead to 6 - 1. Wagner could not have placed that ball better even if he had laid it there by hand. Stuffy McGinnis gets a run back for the Athletics with this RBI single in the fifth inning. Overlay of the 1915 Total Conversion Mod. I especially like the picture of Joe Jackson included here.

The next mod to be reviewed in this thread is the 1915 season mod by Dennis James. Anyone who is anyone on this website is familiar with Dennis and the kind of work he does, so if you see his name on a mod you can be assured that the mod is of the highest quality. With this 1915 mod it is obvious that he has accomplished this again. You can download this mod right here. It installs very easy and includes the Legends of the Booth announcers that add that special touch to the game that only Vin Scully, Mel Allen and Ernie Harwell can provide. Once you get the game installed and get into the game you will see that Dennis did a lot in it to give it that early 20th century feel. There are sixteen teams because that's all there were back then and there are correct uniforms and stadiums for each club. As a bonus there are three additional teams to explore. The AL and NL All Stars and the Chicago Whales, who were the champions of the Federal League, which only lasted a couple of years. One note about the All Star teams on here, there was no All Star Game in 1915. The first one was not until 1933. Dennis just got the best players from each league and formed the All Star teams with that. This way you get to play with the best of 1915 under one setting. Also, you may wonder why every player has a zero ( 0 ) for a uniform number. That's because uniform numbers were not used permanently on uniforms until 1929 and Dennis was just being accurate here. The loading screens were a pleasure to look at and I kind of wished my game wouldn't have loaded up so fast because they were impressive. And the music captures the time and period perfectly. There's nothing flashy or overdone in this mod. The overlay is simple and unobtrusive. There's a nice touch with the song "Take me out to the Ballgame" played between innings. And Dennis in his description of the mod said that he removed the fireworks display when someone hits a home run. I thought that was the right thing to do because at that time when they hit a home run they ran around the bases and that was that. There's only one thing that I caught when I first was looking around in the mod that can be corrected easily if this mod gets updated in the future. Some of the player attributes are off, and it is just a simple case of overlooking something, which I am surprised does not happen more often in the creation of these mods. Brooklyn's Zack Wheat is a left handed hitter. In this game he is listed as a switch hitter. Chick Gandil (yes, that Chick Gandil) is listed as a left handed hitter where in fact he hits right handed. The same for Philadelphia Athletics second baseman Nap Lajoie. Finally, Tris Speaker is listed as a right handed hitter and thrower when he actually was lefthanded in throwing and hitting. These roster miscues can be fixed and I am sure they will be if Dennis decides to update this mod like his description said he might. But let me tell you, this did not take away anything from the mod. I believe that if I never brought this up some people would never have known but from what I know of Dennis he is a perfectionist and he'd want to know this. It's not like the guy had some obvious errors in there like having the Boston Braves play in Turner Field. To wrap it up, if you download this mod you won't regret it. And if you download it, thank Dennis or give him a nice rating. Saying thank you goes a long way. Screenshots Welcome to Total Classics 1915! Starting pitcher for the visitors today is Babe Ruth. 1915 was Ruth's first full year in the majors and he went 18 - 8 for Boston. Philadelphia second baseman Napoleon Lajoie gives the Athletics an early 1 - 0 lead over the Sox with an RBI single. This lead did not last long. Athletics first baseman Stuffy McGinnis had his hands full with the throws from third baseman Rube Oldberg all day. This throw however he was able to pull down and record the out. But in the very same inning McGinnis was not as lucky as this errant throw from Oldberg sails past him for a three base error as Boston tied the score at 1 - 1.

When I was younger I would feel sorry for myself because I didn't live in a major league city. I was envious of those people that got to see American or National league games on a regular basis. But now with those high ticket prices I am happy I live in a Triple A city where the ticket prices are very reasonable and I get to see the players before they become big names.

It's been more than three times.

You are not being negative Jim. You were just stating the truth. Just as you said, Trilinear has come here in the past with announcements about some mod he is working on and he stays around a few days, posts some screenshots and answers some questions about his mod and then he disappears for months and the mod he was talking about is never made and quietly forgotten. Does anyone want proof? Ok, you got it. Three years ago he was going to make the new Yankee Stadium. He never made it. Don't believe me? Go in the downloads section and look for it. You won't find it. And while you are there look for ANY mod by Trilinear. You won't find any. There's more. In this thread right here he asks about modding 3D crowds for stadiums and he announces that he is going to be working on the Metrodome followed by Yankee Stadium. And how about the time he announced he was going to release Custom Pants? That never happened either. He also said in the past he was going to release uniforms, but that also never happened. And that is why Jim said what he said. Thank you.

Updated to 2-5 ...Finally Super Bowl Sunday is here. I love this day for a variety of reasons and they have nothing to do with watching the game, which I won't see in its entirety anyway. I love Super Bowl Sunday because it's the end of another football season, baseball is very close to sending their players to Florida and Arizona for spring training and that means spring games and news and photos and interviews before this month is through. ...By default, I have to root for the New York Giants. The be-loyal-to-your-conference argument is a moot point today because I don't wish for any Boston team to win a championship. ...I wonder if Beckett and Lackey were at the Super Bowl this week passing out fried chicken and organizing PS3 tournaments for the Patriots? ...The foot in the mouth prize goes to Tom Brady, who insulted the city of Buffalo by telling a reporter that the hotels in Buffalo are not that good. He immediately took back his comment but Buffalo is a paranoid city to begin with. They take every single comment to heart and when he goes to Rich Stadium next season you can be assured that no one in that stadium is going to forget what he said during the week of this big game. ...By the way, if Brady had said that the weather in Buffalo sucks and no one in their right mind would want to live there or drive by there or have any reason to drop by for a little visit, I'd agree with him. The last time I was in Buffalo was in 1988. That's still not long enough time for me to think about going back. ...The I hate you because you are different dept: A group called the One Million Moms organization has set up a campaign to pressure the J.C. Penney company to fire Ellen DeGeneres as their spokesperson. The members of that organization are probably afraid that their kids will automatically become gay if they wear any of the clothes that DeGeneres is selling on TV. ...My version of hell would be to be trapped inside a Chuck-E-Cheese's on a Saturday afternoon jam packed with kids. ...What the hell is this crap with the Yankees signing ex-Red Sox pitcher Manny Delcarmen? Didn't they pound him enough? And now they want him to pitch for them? Sometimes this team really makes you scratch your head. ...Big thanks to the Washington Nationals for taking Edwin Jackson off the market. The (you guessed it) Yankees were interested in him at one point this off season but for some reason didn't sign him. Now that he's unavailable the Yankees don't have the option of retracing their steps to go back and give this putz a 17 million dollar a year contract so he can turn around and win seven games for them. ...Those Egyptian soccer fans make the Philadelphia fans look like choir boys.

You can not think of playing a season without these superb schedules that have been released over the years.

Updated to 1-29 ...With the signing of Prince Fielder the Detroit Tigers have probably sewn up the American League Central this year, barring injury of course. Is there any other team that can compete with the Tigers through the entire year? I can't think of one right now. ...23 million dollars a year for Fielder? And again no one complained about it only because Fielder is going to be wearing a Tiger cap and not a Yankee one. ...You see, signing free agents is ok just as long as they go to your team and not the New York Yankees. ...One article that caught my eye this week while surfing the web was about a 13 year old 105 pound Colorado girl who is able to weight lift 176 pounds. For a girl that age and weight, that's impressive. Of course I can do the same thing but only if I combine the weights of three separate lifts. ...The Idiot of the week award goes to a 17 year old British girl who was recently hospitalized because for 15 years she ate nothing but Chicken McNuggets. This dumb *&#^ refused to eat anything but those damned things all this time and now she is vitamin deficient and has anemia. Amazingly she does not have a weight problem. You can argue that the parent has a blame in this and you would be right, but I think she is old enough by now to realize that she needs vegetables, fish and protein too. ...Last week actress Fran Drescher came out and said that she was "abducted by aliens." She didn't say how long the aliens had her but I'm sure that they immediately let her go as soon as she opened up her mouth and started talking. ...Poor Cher. There was a rumor on Twitter that reported her untimely demise and it quickly was squelched as a lie. Makes me wonder what her daughter -I mean son- thought when first reading the news. ...So the Oakland Raiders got themselves another new head coach? Hue Jackson really wasn't the problem. When you lead the entire NFL in penalties and can't catch the ball consistently and you lose four of your last five games to end the season, that's the problem. It's the players fault. ...Somehow I am waiting for someone to still blame this latest mess on Al Davis. ...For those of you who need to catch up on some sleep on this Sunday afternoon, I give you the NFL Pro-Bowl. ...Dennis James has to be applauded again for his release of the 1915 season mod. Even though I have not had a chance to play it yet because I've been laid up with a bad cold I have no doubt that this is going to be another great mod for Mvp 05. Thank you very much Dennis and what you do is very much appreciated. ...Has anyone actually read Google's recent privacy policy changes? ...Hey the Yankees signed Hiroki Kuroda! Is this supposed to be good news?

Updated to 1-22 ...I succeeded once again leaving my wife's hometown with my sanity. I have never been in a city where nothing happens as much as that place. That town makes Pleasantville look like Times Square. ...Somehow I knew the Rangers were going to get the job done and sign Yu Darvish. After dropping 52 million dollars just to talk to him, they had to sign him. And it only cost them another sixty million. ...Right now I'm trying to picture that guy walking around Dallas in a ten gallon hat. ...Now that Darvish is signed, does anyone know who the next great Japanese pitcher is that everyone should sign right away? Whoever it is I don't think the Red Sox want to know. Daisuke Matsuzaka burned them enough as it is. ...Who else thought that the blackout of Wikipedia last Wednesday was a pain in the a$$? ...Terrell Owens is finally getting back into football as he signed a contract with the Allen Wranglers of the Indoor Football League. Owens is also a co-owner of the team so that means the ball will be thrown to him every other play. ...A sixty five year old woman was caught with a loaded gun in a Dallas airport last week. She probably was going to protect herself from being roughed up by the TSA staff. ...Cleveland's Fausto Carmona really isn't Fausto Carmona. He's the second Dominican player to be caught so far using a false name. And to make matters worse for the Indians he is three years older than he claimed to be. I got to admit though, Carmona had everyone fooled. I mean who the hell would choose a name to use like Fausto if you weren't born with it? ...What happens to all the fans who bought Carmona jerseys? Can they get half their money back? ...How many other Dominican players have done this? And wouldn't it be funny if Albert Pujols is sweating it out right now hoping that the feds don't knock on his door? ...Tiger Woods is putting down a new book about him calling it "unprofessional." Come on Tiger, not all of the book is going to deal with hookers and one night stands. There will be some golf talk in it. ...If you have an extra $139,000 lying around you can rent Hitler's Wolf's Lair in Eastern Poland. That's the going price for a one year rental of the place. Take a look at this dump. You probably can't even get DirectTV there. No thanks. Uploaded with ImageShack.us ...Conference Championship game picks time! AFC: I don't care. NFC: I don't care. Two guaranteed winners right there.

Updated to 1-15 ...What a week to forget. Commissioner Do-Nothing officially got his contract extended for two more years and you can bet before he leaves office in 2014 -unless he decides to stay again- is to expand the playoffs. Leaving well enough alone is something this guy can not do. ...The firing of Oakland coach Hue Jackson was something I never expected. Honestly, I liked what he did this year. It wasn't his fault that the Raiders couldn't help getting flagged for their stupidity week after week. There's only so much you can teach an idiot and then you can't go any farther. That was Oakland's main problem this year. That and having their wide receivers drop an average of seven passes a game. Finishing 8-8 was a miracle in itself. ...Can someone explain to me why the Yankees are talking to Scott Boras about Edwin Jackson? Don't they have enough trouble with A.J. Burnett? ...Manny Ramirez said this week that he would be a "role model" for any team that wants to sign him this year. Thank heavens for that. I really needed a laugh this week. ...I sometimes wonder if the Athletics franchise ever regretted leaving Philadelphia all those years ago. ...An Apple store in Beijing, China was pelted with eggs last week by angry customers after they learned the the new iPhone was not being released. There's no telling what those same people are going to do to that store once they finally get their hands on that phone and find out that the new phone has more bugs in it than the old one. ...Philadelphia police caught the instigator of the fight that sent an off-duty New York police officer to the hospital after the Winter Classic hockey game. It is unsure what will end up happening to this guy but apparently the mayor of Philadelphia has given him the key to the city and the Phillies are going to have him throw out the first pitch on opening day. ...And the Tim Tebow craze goes on. A pizza maker in Alabama, who apparently is a huge fan with a lot of free time on his hands, created a pizza with Tebow's face on it. I had to provide a link to this and supply a photo because I didn't think any of you would have believed this. Even I still don't. You can have this pizza for yourself for a mere 100 dollars by the way. Drinks not included. I wonder how many more of these are going to be sold now that Denver has been eliminated? Uploaded with ImageShack.us ...Sure Tim Tebow is down in the dumps now that the Patriots demolished the Broncos last night. But look at the bright side Tim. Now you have even more time to pray. ...And with this game ends my association of rooting for a New England team. I feel so dirty right now. ...Everywhere I read on the net I see people praising the Yankees for trading Jesus Montero and Hector Noesi for Michael Pineda and some slug. I don't get it. I really wanted them to keep Montero and Noesi I had high hopes for. Pineda's been in the majors for one year now and had a terrible second half. Why give up so much for someone that unproven? ...We all know how the Yankees do business. They have a ton of money to operate with and very little patience to go along with it. Have Pineda struggle for awhile in New York and they'll have him doing the Scranton shuffle before you know it. ...And while we are at it someone please explain to me the signing of Hideki Kuroda? This is the same damned guy they were trying to trade for during the trading deadline last year. Sure it's only a one year signing and what's ten million dollars between friends? But when are these people going to learn that a pitcher that is effective in the National League doesn't mean he's going to do the same in the American League? ...I hate these two moves. ...It took Jorge Posada of all people to make me feel better this week with his announcement that he has decided to retire as an active player. Now I wonder if he is going to write a book to complain about everyone he played with on the Yankees except for Captain Twenty Million of course. ...There will be a random thoughts next week but it will be late in the day on Sunday because I'll be out of town (weather permitting) at the in-laws next week. Feel free for anyone to jump in though.

Everyone hold on to something because I, Yankee4Life, being of sound mind (no comments please) and body (ok, not exactly) am going to be rooting for a New England team in the NFL playoffs this coming week. Even I can't believe it. I have a few reasons. One of them is that I don't like Denver or any other AFC West team except Oakland. I'll pull for the Patriots to beat the Broncos this week and then I'll root for anyone else to beat them in the Championship game.

Updated to 1-8 ...Some restaurant owner in Japan forked over $736 thousand dollars for a blue fin tuna that weighed in at a whopping 592 pounds. The first thing I thought of was how much mayonnaise they were going to need for it. Here's a picture of the fish. That thing would scare the hell out of me if I happened to see it swimming around. Uploaded with ImageShack.us ...Microsoft is coming out with an Xbox 720 console? Damn, I haven't even worked my way up to the 360 yet. ...I can't decide if the people I see jogging outside in five degree weather are dedicated or just out of their mind. ...I got to root for the Steelers today only because I don't want to hear about Tim Tebow anymore. ...The Chicago Cubs finally found someone dumb enough to take Carlos Zambrano off their hands. Maybe now they can go into the new season concentrating on baseball instead of when that guy was going to blow his stack. ...It's going to be funny to see what happens down in Miami this year because if Zambrano pulls the same stunts with Ozzie Guillen around and threatens to retire again, Guillen is just as crazy and hot tempered as he is. He'll help him pack up his stuff and he'll kick him out the door. ...Philadelphia fans welcomed in the New Year the only they know how as they beat the hell out of some Rangers fans after the Winter Classic between the hometown Flyers and visiting New York Rangers. With a couple of well timed kicks, a few left hooks and right jabs, they taught a few fans a lesson they won't forget just because they happened to be wearing a jersey different from theirs. ...If you bothered to read that short article and then came away saying to yourself that this is very familiar, well you are right. Every single time I read about something these animals from Philadelphia do I can always count on the article quoting some fan who says what happened was terrible and it doesn't make the fans or the town look good, ad nauseum. After all these years, who are they kidding? If you are not a borderline psychopath with a perverse pleasure on inflicting pain on another human being, you can't be a true Philadelphia fan. ...Hey, don't shoot the messenger. Everyone's entitled to their opinion. Not everyone in that city goes around pounding on guy sitting next to them at a ball game but their is more than enough of them to go around. The thing is they went too far this time because one of the guys they beat up was an Iraqi war veteran. ...And yes, before anyone asks, even the sainted Yankee Stadium has more than their share of nuts that belong behind bars instead of being at a ball game. ... Later on this month a fast food company is going to be releasing a Darth Vader burger and to give the Jedis equal time, the Jedi Burger. You can't even credit American ingenuity for this one. Belgium gets the distinction here. These burgers are only going to be sold in France. How much do you want to bet that some of the Star Wars fans, (you know, the ones that have said goodbye to reality several decades ago) go to France just for this? ...I just remembered. Prince Fielder still hasn't signed yet. Makes me wonder where he's going to end up. Now watch the Yankees do something stupid. ...For reasons too many for me to get into here, I am thrilled to learn that Jorge Posada has decided to retire. Now I'm waiting for the day when Captain twenty million a year says goodbye. ...Ok, I get it. Tiger Woods cheated on her. He embarrassed her. Her life was plastered in the tabloids for awhile. I can understand Tiger's ex-wife Elin being mad. But to bulldoze a $12 million dollar home? After learning about this, I don't want to hear anyone ever say that women are not irrational ever again. Sure, get mad at Tiger. Stay angry at him for as long as you want. But what the hell did the house do to you? ...Rumor has it that the Raiders want to hire Reggie McKenzie out of Green Bay as their next general manager. That's fine I suppose but what I really think they need is someone to catch the ball consistently and for that entire team to finally stop getting flagged for stupid penalties.

I got to agree with you Veesmack 100% with your opinion on Selig. I can't wait until this guy's term in office is up.

And another thing I forgot to throw in. You can't expect one person to do the bulk of the work for a mod like this. And I'm thinking about someone like Dennis James, who last year made a lot of uniforms and stadiums for Mvp. I would imagine making a regular season mod would be harder to do than making a classic season mod. For example, I'm sure it was easier to get the portraits for the 1978 mod as compared to portraits from today. People like Jim and Dennis can make a classic mod by themselves because they have more time to make one too. This has to be kept in mind also. Bottom line, it brings us right back to the same thing and that is having people willing to work on the mod.

Bingo. Daflyboys did come up with a great suggestion for a 2012 mod and to be honest I really hope that this does get made. And I don't want to be a Debbie Downer either, but as Homer said, talk of a new mod for Mvp has taken place for the last three years. Believe me, I do not want to kill this idea or not support it in any way. In fact, I am all for it. But for something like this to be made, there has to be one main guy who is in charge of things. And in the previous mods that was Krawitham. Many people worked on individual parts of the mod, but Kraw was the guy in charge. Do we have one here who can take his place? I don't know. Another thing that has prevented a new mod from being made is the lack of any kind of commitment from people to actually work on the mod. Sure, you'd get a lot of people that will say they are interested in a new mod for 2012 but what they are really saying is that they would be willing to download it and not work on it. Clearly what you really need for this to happen is to get people to say yes, I will be willing to work on a part of the mod and the people that agree to it have to stick to it. You don't need someone that says they are going to make portraits for example and then the next thing you know they haven't visited the site for three months. It is that lack of real commitment that kills projects like this around here. Secondly, I would find out how Kraw kept everything in order and working smoothly. What kind of communication did he have with the other modders working on this, etc. Maybe Homer can let you all know how things were behind the scenes in this and how things were done if and when there is some serious commitment to this project. This mod has been made before. In 2006, 2007 and 2008. So it can be done. Many of the modders from a few years back are gone now so the big problem is finding replacements. I literally have over 6,000 hi-res photos just from the end of June last year to the end of the season. And that doesn't count the post season. Or the separate photo gallery of Yankee pictures. I would be very happy to go through my DVD's and get the best ones for the loading screens, etc. But I will not do it unless I see other people working on this first. I have a reason for this. Anyway, I wrote enough. Is this a good idea? It sure is. Daflyboys has his heart in the right place. But at the same time you can't ignore what Homer brought up.

What a waste of time that was. They played like, well, themselves. :sad:

It wasn't an oversight. I'm superstitious. I didn't want to mention them because for the first time in years they have a chance to make the playoffs. I'll be tuned in at 4 pm today to root them on though.

Updated to 1-1 ...Happy New Year everyone. I hope this year is safe and healthy for all of you here on this website and for your families too. ...As per tradition, I watched the ball drop at Times Square and again I was glad not to be there. I can not imagine standing outside for that long of a time in one place freezing and waiting for midnight to get here. ...No matter how nice it looks when that ball drops, it can't compare to what Sydney, Australia does every year to welcome the New Year. Those Aussies really know how to put on a show. ...Besides, I know my luck. I never would have got to kiss Jenny McCarthy. ...Hey, guess what? Yorvit Torrealba expressed his "sincere apologies" for what he did and he now regrets his actions and blah blah blah. What is this? Do these players have a form letter that they read from after they have done something stupid? How many times have we heard the same apology -maybe in different words- but all in all the same? What the hell does Torealba care that he is suspended from the Venezuelan league for the rest of this year and next year? It's not going to affect him in the American League where he still is going to make his millions. ...Ok, I know that January is not even an hour old yet as I post this and that I'm getting way too ahead of myself but the fact remains that next month is February and that means spring training and all the wonderful things we associate with that. ...Yes, I am impatient. ...If you have heard enough about Tim Tebow during this NFL season you are not alone. Now this guy is having a beer named after him. The catchy name? Tebrew. Makes you really want to go out and get one, doesn't it? ...Sinead O'Connor didn't waste any time. After only 18 days of marriage, she decided to call it quits. And we all laughed when Kim Kardashian only lasted 72 days. I don't get it. 18 days?? You can keep a bag of salad in your refrigerator longer than this marriage lasted. ...The purge out in Oakland continues and this time it's the Red Sox who benefit, of course. The Sox were able to steal reliever Andrew Bailey away from the Athletics for three players that the Red Sox probably didn't want in the first place. Is there anyone else left on Oakland's roster that is worth trading for? ...I don't know about any other Yankee fan out there but you have to be concerned with how much they are standing pat this off season in the trade and free agent market. There's no way you can be confident with the starting pitching that they have going into the upcoming season. ...And signing washed up 37 year old Hideki Okajima doesn't count. ...Verizon tried to pull a fast one on their customers by trying to stiff them with a two dollar charge for every payment they made over their phone or online with their credit or debit cards. Imagine having their customers conduct business over their phones instead of sending text messages to each other! This two dollar fee got their consumers in such a clamor that they quickly dropped the idea. Makes me wonder what they have up their sleeve next to bilk their customers.

Very nice. Best of luck with this.

The Boxscore Extractor can only be downloaded at MLBmods. You have to be a registered member there to get that file.

Updated to 12-25 ...Finally the big day is here and now we all can relax. No more Christmas commercials telling you what to buy. No more Christmas movies. No more Rudolph and Frosty and the Miser Brothers. All done! That is, until next year when it begins all over again. ...The best part about Christmas is the songs sung at Christmas mass. Walmart and Target and everyone else still haven't found a way to ruin that yet. ...I'm lucky that my wife didn't get me anything from Best Buy because chances are I would have never got it. Seems as if a lot of people got their orders canceled at the last minute with no explanation at all. Game on Santa? I don't think so. He showed them who's boss. ...Thanks to the Oakland Raiders for giving me an early Christmas present yesterday. ...The Texas Rangers found out they had 51.7 million dollars lying around and since they had all their Christmas shopping done they decided to throw it at the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters just for the right to talk to pitcher Yu Darvish. Now if they happen to sign him they'll have to come up with close to 100 million more. ...I'd have loved for the Yankees to get Gio Gonzalez from Oakland but the Athletics would have demanded the entire Yankee farm system. Instead, they allowed Washington to fleece them as the Nationals unloaded four pieces of driftwood to Oakland. ...You got to like the holiday spirit of the Minnesota Twins. They made American League hitters happy by signing pitcher Jason Marquis to a one year contract. National League hitters pounded him for twelve years. Now the AL is going to get their chance. ...There was nobody more surprised to learn about the death of Jon Bon Jovi than Jon Bon Jovi himself. Then again, if you read this on Twitter it just has to true. ...All I could think of after reading the article about some guy winning a Lamborghini and then wrecking it after owning it a few hours is that I was glad he didn't win a house or else it would have burned to the ground. ...I miss baseball as much as anyone but it sure is nice not having to listen to Michael Kay talk or the disciples of Derek Jeter going on and on about how great their hero is. ...The Atlanta Braves must have nothing better to do this off season then fight with the Walt Disney company about the name of their newest movie. Clearly this is more important to them instead of trying to beat the Phillies and not choking at the end of the season, again. ...The movie trailer of The Hobbit makes me wish 2012 would fly by. ...I still enjoy playing All Star Baseball on the original X Box. Even though it is a few years old I loved the games that Acclaim Sports made. Too bad they went bankrupt because they really put together some good games. Those guys were head and shoulders above 2K Sports and yet 2K is still around despite the lack of quality in their games. ...Rangers catcher Yorvit Torrealba hit an umpire right in the kisser with his palm in a recent Venezuelan League game. I don't know what made this guy so mad. He struck out on a low pitch. It happens. And it certainly wasn't the umpire's fault. Who knows, maybe Torrealba is still upset about losing the World Series. This guy's a classless hothead and I'm anxious to hear his explanation as to why he did this. No matter what he says, he should be thrown out of the winter league. Here's the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEUUJiSu3V4 ...Enjoy your Christmas everyone!

Updated to 12-18 ...This week the Red Sox signed infielder Nick Punto to a two year contract. Punto has played in the big leagues for eleven years and during all that time has done nothing worthwhile to talk about. That being said, he'll probably hit .400 against the Yankees. ...It is just baseball's luck to have something like the Ryan Braun steroid incident ruin their image once again especially after the way the season ended and what happened in the post season. All that is erased right now. The September run of the Rays, the Rangers winning the American League and the Cardinals winning an exciting seven game series all takes a back seat to this news. Spring training is only a few months away. This is what is going to be talked about until then. Not baseball. The winter just got longer. ...Can you imagine how worse this would be for the sport had Milwaukee won the National League pennant and gone on to beat the Rangers in the Series with Braun winning the World Series MVP? The proverbial &@*% would have hit the proverbial fan. ...One thing that I noticed right away after the Angels signed Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson on the same day was that no one complained about it. Sure, the subject of how much Pujols was going to be paid was talked about but there was no grumbling about what the Angels did. Now, had the Yankees gone out and done this and signed the same two players for the same amount of money.... ...You wouldn't have heard a peep out of me had the Yankees traded Phil Hughes (5-5, 5.79) over the winter meetings. ...Barry Bonds will not be going to jail. Did anyone really expect he would? ...What's Kobe Bryant doing messing around on his wife for? She's stunning and she's got a brain in her head. What the hell does he want, a Kardashian? ...While that name is brought up in here, I really can not feel too bad for Kris Humphries, Kim's ex. After all he did marry her and on the wedding night he did <ahem> her. Not exactly hazardous duty if you know what I mean. ...Overheard while standing in line at the post office the other day: the lady ahead of me bought a book of the "forever" stamps. She asked the clerk how long they last for. ...Plaxico Burress became an avid reader during his stay in prison and since his release he has continued to do so, stating that reading books is something that gives him peace. I feel the same way Plaxico but I didn't need to shoot myself in the leg to find that out. ...It has been years since I read a Christmas story like this that really gives you an idea of what this holiday used to mean before the retailers started shoving it down our throats beginning in September. People from all over the country have been anonymously paying other people's KMart layaway accounts just so those people are able to have a good Christmas. It is remarkable. And this was done without a clever ad campaign or TV commercial behind it. When it comes from within you don't need any fancy words. ...I've owned my Amazon Kindle for quite some time now and I am absolutely satisfied with it. But it still does not explain why I still prefer to have a book in my hand when I'm reading. ...It sure was nice to see that Barefoot Bandit SOB get sentenced to more than seven years in prison this week. And if he knows what is best for him he'd better erase that grin on his face before he gets there before someone named Bubba steps up and does the job for him. ...One week to go. Thank God.

That's right. The night stadiums are the ones usually used in the Caribe series.Even though I used a day version one it still was not bad. And I'll do as you say with the tip about the DH rule. Thank you. I think it's great that you are able to get people to get involved in the Caribe series like this. I can not imagine how popular this baseball series is down there. I'm glad that people down there have embraced it as well as they have. And thanks for working on the subtitled version. By the two graphics that were put up I knew what he was talking about but the rest of it I was lost.

Mvp Caribe 2011 Continued Cecilio Garibaldi warms up for the Mayos de Navajoa in the late innings. The beginning of the end for the Tomateros de Culiacan: this errant throw takes the first baseman off the bag during a botched double play attempt where all runners were safe. And just like that you knew it would happen. A single up the middle scores the first run of the game here in the eighth inning. One more run would score in the inning. Nick Singleton, the pitcher for the Mayos, lays down a perfect sacrifice bunt in the ninth inning that sparked the second two run inning in a row for the Mayos. With runners on first and second, this force play at third was the only out the Tomateros could record. Both runners would eventually score on a two run double that gave the Mayos a 4 - 0 lead, which is how the game ended.