There’s something incredibly impressive and admirable when a player overcomes his own recovery and becomes viewed in the context of “just” an athlete, not a “comeback story” or anything of the sort. I would think most athletes vastly prefer the latter to the former; for example Jon Lester is now more well-known as an…

I think they do it because it helps the cars stand out on the road. When I see the headlights from afar on the highway I immediately know it’s a Cadillac.

With Maddux “wins” are shorthand for “20 incredible years of dominance.” Obv wins aren’t the best metric for analyzing pitchers. I was trying to keep my statement brief.

My dad used to call Roger Clemens a “thickhead” and after reading your note I think I may have misheard him all those times.

Your last question is really easily answered: all pitchers are different. They have different stuff, different approaches, different working paces, etc. If a pitcher, especially a good pitcher, finds that he likes working with one particular catcher, AND is getting good results with that catcher, why mess about with…

In the cases of Cone and Maddux, I would argue that the results from having a personal catcher were well worth it. Unless you think that somehow Maddux winning 355 games was disappointing.

Malcolm Butler.

Brady came into the league as a little bit of a tubby.

In my many, many years of following the Pats as a (I hope) informed fan, I cannot recall a single time when he’s thrown one of his players under the bus in public.

Kyle Van Noy missed last night’s game because his wife was giving birth. While I certainly hope every coach wouldn’t have a problem with the player missing the game for that, BB gave his blessing for it.

James Harrison had a cool interview/bit on ESPN after the SB about his brief time in New England. He made the interesting point that Brady himself doesn’t act like a diva, he treats the practice sqaudders with the same respect he treats the stars, and Brady’s the first one to head out to practice in some shitty…

They did the same to Haynesworth the year they signed him. Cut him in the middle of the season when he popped off on coaches during a game. BB is very tolerant of big personalities as long as they come to play and don’t become a distraction.

I guess Flipper really is faster than lightning...at leaving.

Haha, Bruce Dickinson kept telling the crowd to “Scream for me, Minneapolis!” and while they did my buddy groused that ‘WELL ACTUALLY IT’S SAINT PAUL.”

I just saw Iron Maiden in Minneapolis a week or so ago and holy hell they were incredible and so very, very entertaining. They had a fucking Spitfire flying over the stage to open the show!

Yes, that’s right. ‘88/’89 or so.

Fuck that guy with a fence post.

Tommy Hodson and Jeff Carlson too. Scott Secules. Matt Cavanaugh.

Sure thing. We already saw what happened in SB 52 when they didn’t have Hightower.

Grogan and Eason swapped around for a while as starters. Eason was drafted to replace Grogan but kept getting benched. Eventually they were both supplanted by Hugh Millen.