Discuss KG_Norad's Underground: Spring Fever!

[KG_Norad]

Please utilize this thread to discuss the above article available in the news forum and KG's home page. I encourage you to share your spring time activities, your thoughts on baseball or my article. Enjoy.

[KG_Cloghaun]

Great job on your first article for KG, Norad. Thank you for contributing to the group. I appreciate very much.

My spring time activities in large part, continue to be working on my house. I've taken a break from remodelling the basement (which will be my crowning achievement), to breaking ground on a major landscaping project in our backyard, which is approx. 1 acre. Yesterday, I rented a Case 580 backhole tractor and tore out our decaying concrete patio & side parking area of our driveway to make way for a new (paverstone) patio. We also transplanted (9) 25 year old hedges that over 7ft tall using the tractor.




Baseball!

I love it. I have row F (6th) behind the visitors dugout, June 4th, for the Tigers vs Boston.

Can't wait!

[KG_Panzerschreck]

I enjoyed your article Mike. I miss my younger days of playing softball after high school. I didnt play baseball in highschool. I focused my off season after Football entirely on weightlifting. It was a smart thing to do for my football playing, but i regret it now, man i could crush a baseball. Oh well, great job on the article!

[KG_Kharkov]

Great article, Mike, but I disagree with your assessment that baseball is healthy. I would strongly disagree. The large market/large payroll teams have permanently upset the balance of the sport (at least til such time as a salary cap is put in place). Every year, one or two small market teams will perform well and people will point to them and go "Aha, it's not broken" but that ignores the larger issue of the fact that the teams in the top half of payroll are much more likely to get into the playoffs and win the series than the bottom half. It's like a silent cancer that will eventually eat this sport up if nothing is done to cure it. Combine that with the steroids controversy and Bonds surpassing Ruth, and you get a recipe for apathy.

Not a person in Pittsburgh talks about the Pirates, except when there is no news whatsoever about the Steelers. Ben's trip to Switzerland will get more press than the Pirates. Why does this once proud baseball town now sink in apathy -- because of over a decade of sub-.500 performance anchored by one of the lowest payrolls in baseball. They self-feed. Bad performance equals low attendance which equals low payroll, rinse and repeat.

Look at the NFL by contrast and see a vibrant growing sport with strict drug policies and a salary cap that gives every team a real chance at the Lombardi trophy at some point over a 5 year period. When was the last time you could say that about Pittsburgh or Kansas City. I miss George Brett and Willie Stargell -- back then, it was a game worth watching and getting excited over!

[KG_CrimsonTrooper]

Until Baseball either puts a STAR not an asterik by Barry Bonds name it will FOREVER be tarnished...

Bonds is DIRTY and the only reason he's not gone is because he fills seats and thats the bottom line. There is no Integrity in baseball and unitl that happens I will catch a game maybe once a year ( because my kids like it ) or watch just a handfull of games....

Actually they should completely remove ALL of Barry Bonds stats if it was up to me.... And for that matter Mark Mcguire as well....taking the 5th when asked by congress if he took enhancing drugs or steroids.... what a complete putz.....

I say reinstate Roger Maris's mark and be done with it....

Funny, after baseball says that they are going to crack down on players using drugs of any form..Do we see players hitting homeruns like they were 5 or 6 years ago? What happened to Sammy Sosa or Jason Giambi hell, fill in the blank_______? Baseball is in a PATHETIC state of affairs... they only throw the sacraficial lambs to the slaughter for Steriods... Funny, no big names..... could it be necause they ( the league/owners ) are protecting their investments.... Until that happens Baseball will continue to falter the way it has been and soon will find it below Hockey ( I saw that because Hockey is not as huge of a draw with the country as much is say.... the NFL or the NBA ).

The NFL will continue it's dominance in the world of sports because it already has surpassed baseball as our National Pastime.... They need to wake up and smell what their cooking....because the customers aren't coming back like they used too....

[KG_Kharkov]

Here's a short article showing the correlation between money and World Series championships in the last ten years:

http://morehardball.blogspot.com/200...s-winners.html

Here's a short article on the top 10 payrolls versus the bottom 10:

http://morehardball.blogspot.com/200...gs-part-i.html

This is a more indepth article -- be sure to click on the chart at the end of the article showing things like playoff team average payroll versus league average etc.

http://www.whitesoxinteractive.com/r...gory=2&id=2414

[KG_Soldier]

A sample of the AWESOME Smallmouth fishing here the last week. I've been catching on average 20 or so per two hour trip. I know that seems like a lot, but most are around fourteen inches. I can't seem to find the big ones--yet. Last Tuesday from 09:00 to 15:00 hrs. I caught over 40 Smallies, 10 largemouth, and about 70 perch the size of my hand, all on H&H beetle-spins (Black,red,yellow--with gold spinners or pumpkinseed worms). The first pic is my friend John with a nice Largemouth (on one of my Kayaks), the second a nice Smallmouth on my float-tube, and the third a Smallmouth caught right behind the house (those are my stairs to the river in the background). Super ultra-lite spinning reels with five-foot rods and four lb. test. And even though I live in the city, rarely do I see anyone else in the river fishing behind my house unless they're with me (my secret heaven). 31 May 2006, 13:00 hours, I'm headed back out!

[KG_CrimsonTrooper]

This is the nicest hijacking of a thread I have seen in a long time.

[KG_Kharkov]

I figured that since I was slamming the underlying hypothesis of Norad's article, I should at least throw out something positive about summer -- just as his thread starter requested. I'm glad I did -- look at those beatiful bass.

[KG_Swampfox]

Great looking bass indeed!!!! I think I've seen the mug in the picture at the post office before though.........