RuntheDamnBall

1. I don't know how anyone can say a guy who won all four Slams on three different surfaces wasted his talent -- Andre is the ONLY one EVER to do so (Laver, et al won when the Ozzie open and the U.S. were on grass). Can you say Andre was capable of much more that he didn't realize? Of course. He knows that. But we've watched him grow, become a real gentleman of the game, and take the sport on his shoulders. That's something that Sampras, great as he was, couldn't do. Andre certainly could be overwhelmed by the best of servers like Sampras, but he had a game that was always competitive. 2. I saw Blake-Moya and Gasquet-Hewitt the past two nights. Blake is going to have a tough one assuming he is to meet Federer. But I liked the way he showed up, especially down so badly in that tiebreak. Gasquet played a hell of a match. I really despise Hewitt, and wanted the French kid to win. Too bad cramping basically ended a real close call for him. He can pull off some amazing shots and will be one to watch. He displayed some great groundstrokes and backhand shots. As an aside, there was a beautiful, probably 20-year-old ballgirl out there and the crowd kept cheering for her every time she ran out there to pick one up during the Hewitt-Gasquet match. I think they made her switch a shift out because people kept doing it and it was distracting from the tennis action. Those funny quirks really make a match memorable. 3. Another run at the Open is over for me (at least seeing it in person). I strongly recommend it to anyone who has the opportunity. You'll have a new appreciation for the game, specifically the speed of it. TV has nothing on the real live thing.

I am in agreement with you here, but it appears the coaches just felt that having a back that offers something different than AT is a good idea.

You get a refund on next year's tickets. Unfortunately, nothing good for this year since tickets are so in demand that you can't just refund them for the next day. Mmmmm. Black outfit.

Sort of. I'm definitely fortunate to be able to attend. At the same time, showing up and waiting for the rain to stop or for the day's play to be called, then not being able to redeem the day's ticket for anything of worth is kind of lousy. Still, I'm very much looking forward to tomorrow. I get to see Sharapova and Blake v. Moya.

Can we start calling him the Beast, or "Ol' Kiwaukee," after certain swills of choice?

I could see Gates landing w/ the Texans now that Domanick Davis is out for the season. He has a similar running style.

I have tickets for all the nights this weekend. It was a shame it was rained out today. Booooo. Tomorrow's forecast is more optimistic.

I'm just glad we cut those 22 cokeheads.

Whose ass are you pulling this sh-- out of?

If "depth" means an Offensive Turnstile who is going to get your QB killed and still hasn't figured the position out after 6 years, you have to pass on it in favor of a guy who is learning but has upside. I'm so glad they've done this.

As a certified member of the Greg Jerman Haters Club (GJHC) I am very pleased with this move. It was far past time we ditched this trash Miami bestowed upon us.

What the hell is this, 1885? Why don't you go get your musket balls and wax your moustache, Custer?

Not only that, he'd certainly be citing the stats if they suited his "Negative Nancy" cause.

Didn't want to see anyone losing that match. I like Baghdatis (and I think his pain was genuine). He's one of the good guys and a true entertainer in the tradition of Ivanesevic. Marcos has had some pretty good showings at Wimbledon and the Australian this year. He'll be back, I'm thinking, and this certainly deserved to be a later-round match. Good on Andre, of course.

Please, please, please, PLEASE did Greg Jerman lose his roster spot tonight? Jiminy Christmas, that guy looked horrible in the few "highlights" I saw. Go with the new blood. Experience for experience's sake is not worth it, and the Greg Jerman Experience is one I'd rather forget forever.

I'll second the strong recommendation of "Hunky Dory." What a damn good record. "Queen B word," "Oh! You Pretty Things," and "Changes." All classic tracks. I definitely dig "Low," also. A really commercially underrated record. The other record from that Berlin period ("Heroes") -- also very good. I'm not sure how Weezer got mentioned in this thread, but for the record I love their second album (it's like the Pixies but even more tuneful), really like the first, and find all the rest to be simply atrocious.

It's about time we started running the Wishbone. The high-power WAC offense is finally coming to Buffalo. All options, all the time. I'm going to go affix a blue lightning bolt to all my Bills paraphernalia.

Is that for real? Was he active for more than 8 games?

He sure can't be much worse at blocking than Shelton, or Willis, for that matter.

Also, we're comparing the reactions of a 32-year-old with those of a 21-year-old. I can imagine it would be pretty devastating to him.

Wow, excellent post. I echo your sentiments on McGahee's difficulties with the blocking game and Shelton as an inadequate #1 FB in this league. Did you see any improvement or anything better from Gates, Goldsberry, or Ricard?

What a match that was! That was last year's quarterfinal (pretty sure) with James Blake, probably my new favorite player. You gotta like that the guy grew up playing on the public courts and has risen above all sorts of adversity to become the US's top player. I felt bad for poor James, happy as I was for Andre in that one. They'll probably be running that match instead of Connors-Krickstein from now on in the rain delays.

Practical=human logic. Sustainable=earth logic. If you affect the system to the point of damage, you're going to get diminishing returns from it no matter how much you think you're in control of it. It's like the difference between stem-cell research (potentially good) and engineering super-human clones (probably not a good idea). We need to reconcile our logic or it won't matter squat how much food we have.

I'll agree on that. I also think we could do a lot to curb population growth and solve a lot of the problem that way... Again, another issue. I think there does need to be some factory farming involved, and pesticides to an extent are a way of life. But we do need to use these things with caution. And I, myself, am going to avoid using them or eating food that does use them if I can. Still not sure what's "freaky" about that but, I guess ADM and co. are infallible and have feeding the world as their No. 1 interest. (That's for JSP, not you. ) It's also funny that ballplayers using steroids is unnatural and might cause all sorts of adverse effects, but pumping your food full of them is A-OK. Here's one: Link An excerpt:

This has little to do with the stem cell discussion, but since JSP made it part of it: How did honest-to-goodness small farming, something that's sustained civilization for thousands of years, become the domain of the freaks? Gotta love it. You've also gotta love people who bemoan that people are incapable of fending for themselves and taking care of themselves, yet support in every way companies that make it the norm to not support yourself, and never question where your food is coming from. What's freakish about eating food that was raised/grown within a functional ecosystem as compared to pumping things full of hormones and god-knows-what that actually do make your food freakish? It's already clear we're affecting some of the species on the lower rungs of the ladder with this stuff. I don't really want to see what comes next. We buy locally grown foods from the nearby farmer's market (i.e. not trucked from California or Peru or flown in from China) whenever we can, and if not that, organics. I also have a small vegetable garden and it's a real source of pride when I can come up with a good part of my meal from it. They taste better and I can be pretty sure I'm not using a ton of resources and I'm not ingesting a ton of Franken-food. But yeah, that's total freak-talk. Meanwhile, people complain about how much gas costs. Look up how much of an ecological footprint your dinner occupies, ecologically. It's insane. It doesn't have to be that way.