Badmike wrote:This is for Kingofpain and any other sad-sack Cub fans here...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... ml?mod=efb

Mike B.

Thank God I'm a White Sox fan...  

Badmike wrote:This is for Kingofpain and any other sad-sack Cub fans here...

Pretty sure I'm the only one.  Course I hardly ever watch any of their games anymore.  I've lost a lot of the enjoyment I used to get out of baseball.  Probably because the teams I root for end up losing in the worst ways imaginable.  Cubs in the 2003 NL Championship and the Texas Rangers the past two seasons.  I'm only 40....I dont need an ulcer or a stroke.  

I'll continue to watch the Cowboys run of mediocrity year after year and spend weekend mornings watching English football and not caring who wins (unless its Everton....Liverpool sucks!).  And for you people who think soccer is boring, you should have seen the down-to-the-wire match between Manchester City and Queens Park Rangers that decided the Premier League championship on Sunday.  Fecking nail biter and an awesome end to an awesome match.  

Speaking of baseball.....when does football start up again?

There was a donation of tons of old lead miniatures and role-playing games to the Duke University Library.

blogs.library.duke.edu/rubenstein/2012/ ... r-dragons/

blogs.library.duke.edu/preservation/201 ... ollection/

Were these collectors known to anyone? Were they someone here? Just curious.

Bonus photo of Wabbit Wampage at the link.

Zach

no kidding.  Roll Tide!

As an Astros fan who's season is over, all I can say is "Boomer! Sooner!"

FormCritic wrote:One wonders about the Cowboys.

It used to be so simple....

Two words: Jerry Jones.

He is still taking credit for the three superbowls they won 20 years ago...that were actually won by Jimmy Johnson, a blockbuster trade with a sad sack Viking franchise that never does anything right, and accidentally drafting the greatest RB of all time (who wasn't even on their radar the day of the draft until he started falling in the first round). Somehow despite all evidence to the contrary Jerry still thinks he has a shot at being a good GM (there is no other team in the NFL, even ones like the Bengals, Lions or Cardinals, that would have kept around a GM of Jerry Jones quality as long as the Cowboys have). Until Jerry steps down (never) or dies (hopefully soon), this franchise will be mediocre, winning some years, losing other years, but never putting together anything lasting. You have to remember that the years from 1996 until now are the WORST 15 years in Cowboy history, much worse than the anything before, you can't pull 15 consecutive years from any era that sucked this bad. Think about what the ONE thing that is the same in those last 15 years and you'll see why they'll never again accomplish anything with Jones in charge.

Mike B.

mike,

there is much to admire about emmitt smith, but he is not the greatest running back in nfl history. there are 3 that are clearly better (brown, payton and sanders). avg yards per carry for career: brown 5.2, payton 4.4, sanders 5.0, smith 4.2. avg yards per game: brown 104, payton 88, sanders 100, smith for the cowboys (taking out his 2 arizona years) 85. smith accomplished this running behind tremendous offensive lines (he had multiple pro bowlers every year of the glory years) and of course they had a nice aikman/irvin alternative to stop defenders from stacking the box. brown had gene hickerson, who became a h-o-f a few years ago. payton didn't have a pro bowl lineman until his 10th (!) year in the league and Sanders had Lomas Brown and not much else. payton and sanders had lousy offensive teammates all the way around for the majority of their careers (my god payton was even taking snaps at quarterback). i'm not even addressing payton's impact as a blocker (one of the best ever along with marion motley and marcus allen) and receiver.

stratochamp wrote:mike,

there is much to admire about emmitt smith, but he is not the greatest running back in nfl history. there are 3 that are clearly better (brown, payton and sanders). avg yards per carry for career: brown 5.2, payton 4.4, sanders 5.0, smith 4.2. avg yards per game: brown 104, payton 88, sanders 100, smith for the cowboys (taking out his 2 arizona years) 85. smith accomplished this running behind tremendous offensive lines (he had multiple pro bowlers every year of the glory years) and of course they had a nice aikman/irvin alternative to stop defenders from stacking the box. brown had gene hickerson, who became a h-o-f a few years ago. payton didn't have a pro bowl lineman until his 10th (!) year in the league and Sanders had Lomas Brown and not much else. payton and sanders had lousy offensive teammates all the way around for the majority of their careers (my god payton was even taking snaps at quarterback). i'm not even addressing payton's impact as a blocker (one of the best ever along with marion motley and marcus allen) and receiver.

I've addressed this before: Emmitt not only was a great athlete but had all the intangibles that makes him a better RB than all of the above. Two of these are longevity and drive, something missing in all of the above except for Walter Payton (who reminds me a lot of Emmitt in his mental outlook).  Sanders shouldn't even be mentioned in the same sentence as the others, because he quit like a little baby and showed he didn't have the mental fortitude to ever be the best RB of all time...I truly think if he had ever gotten close to the record he would have mentally futzed it up. True the Lions in their Lion way refused to trade him (inexplicable considering what they could have done with him, but they are one of the stupidest football franchihses in history) but then again Sanders should have never signed that extension during the height of his power...he could have gone to a better team and got more money to do so had he ever been available on the open market, so it's all on him.
Talent wise Sanders was the best of all of them but maybe Brown, but mentally he was a failure which is why he quit when he could have played another decade and put all the records out of reach. Also, quitting in his prime means he did not experience the let down in production that most RBs get as they grow older, inflating his yds per carry.  I would also like to point out that at points of his career he had pro-bowl seasons from Herman Moore at WR so it wasn't like he had no talent in that direction on those Lions teams to take the pressure off.
Likewise, Brown did not play a full career and quit at the height of his greatness, sparing us (perhaps) a gradual degradation of skills and some bad years at the end had he stuck it out 15 years. Also, like other black athletes who competed among mostly white talent, (Chamberlain, for example) he dominated in a time when he was truly one of the best athletes on the field. Of course you can't blame a guy for being born into an earlier era, but I've always thought that was a component of Brown's success. Plus Brown truly got screwed over by another perinally idiotic sports franchise.

The only one I might be convinced on is Payton.  For most of his career he played with zero help and a crappy o-line. I'm glad he did get a ring during that time because he deserved it. It was fitting Emmitt broke his record and that the record never belonged to crybaby Barry.

I am extremely biased as I watched every single game Emmitt played in for the Cowboys and I've never seen a runner like him since (BTW, I'd take him over AP or Chris Johnson, neither couldn't even shine Emmitt's shoes).  Something to remember about Emmitt was that he very, very rarely missed time to injury but it wasn't all luck...he taught himself to roll out of the way of hits or tackles and if you watch film of him he is never directly hit.  A lot of RB's try to take on tacklers nowadays and often come out of that more beaten up than they need to be.  Second if you look at his stats he just didn't have two bad games in a row...he was one of the most remarkably consistent RBs in history.  Also, a great receiver out of the back field, which isn't remembered as much. Finally, he played with a chip on his shoulder and this kept him going even when he played for teams post-superbowl that perhaps weren't that great.

Final evidence: 1993, last game of the season, NFC championship and rushing championship on the line, at the Meadowlands vs the Giants, Emmitt turned in one of the great RB performances in NFL history. Separated shoulder so bad he was crying in pain in the locker room at half time. 168 yds on 32 carries (78 after the injury), 10 catches for 60 yds, a TD, the rest is history.

http://www.knowyourdallascowboys.com/20 ... ants-1993/

Mike B.