The Buscher

Bagwell not getting in on his first ballot has me a bit worried that Piazza is going to be screwed and left off on his first try in 2013. Some voters have basically said that they will blackball every steroid era slugger even if they have no connections. Anybody who says that openly should be stripped of their right to vote. Also, maybe its the Mets fandom in me but John Franco being one-and-done is kind of ridiculous. I can live with him not getting in but how does a guy with 424 career saves not get enough votes to stay on the ballot for more than one year?

Hmm, come to think - there are one or two players on the volleyball team from California. Athletic scholarship or no, I cannot fathom picking Danbury over Cali. Much worse weather and absolutely nothing to do in the area.

I can actually see a 5 seed hosting a 6 seed (Green Bay @ New Orleans) in the NFC Title game this year. I'm almost certain the Bears will be taking an exit in their first game, and the Packers going over the Falcons wouldn't surprise me either. In fact, may as well make my predictions: Wild Card Weekend: NFC Saints over Seahawks Packers over Eagles AFC Colts over Jets Ravens over Chiefs Divisional: NFC Saints over Bears Packers over Falcons AFC Patriots over Ravens Steelers over Colts Conference: NFC Saints over Packers AFC Patriots over Steelers Super Bowl 45: Patriots over Saints --- Certainly not the way I hope it goes down as the Eagles and Patriots are the two teams I really don't want to win the whole thing, but I have to call it as I see it.

I'm not even sure Division 3 schools bother too much with athletic recruiting, since anybody with any serious talent would wind up at other schools. Especially in football.

We all know what happened in '07. 2004 - 5-2 start, 1-8 finish 2005 - 11-5 regular season . . . 23-0 loss at home to the Panthers in the playoffs. 2006 - 6-2 start, 2-6 finish gets them to backdoor into the playoffs where they lose to the Eagles 2008 - 11-1 start, had the best record in the league until Plaxico shoots himself . . . they finish 1-4 and lose their first playoff game yet again. 2009 - 5-0 start, 3-8 finish, no playoffs 2010 - 6-2 start, 4-4 finish including the most epic of chokes, no playoffs. How many more years does he get to see the team fail once again down the stretch? Like I said, pretty certain 2011 is his last year if they don't make the playoffs. I'm willing to write off the pre-Super Bowl stuff because the teams were so different back then, shitloads of roster turnover in the NFL. Even to this day I think we would have gotten a Giants/Steelers SB in 2008 if Plax wasn't a moron. I think 2009 is the only year that truly reflected badly on Coughlin since the team so clearly gave up. This year they didn't give up, they just melted down and had a hard time recovering. No coach can shoulder all of the blame for that collapse against the Eagles. I will say though that if they managed to lose to that horrendous Redskins team, dismissing Coughlin would be warranted. The only way I will regret keeping Coughlin is if Cowher goes to another team this offseason. If he stays with CBS for another year, he's a great fallback option for 2012.

I'm actually glad Coughlin is staying. If they had lost today I'd have agreed with dismissing him, but he's not the one who choked away a crazy lead. I say give him one more year, and dismiss him next year if they don't make the playoffs. Kevin Gilbride most definitely needs to go though. If I can sit on the couch and accurately predict the plays that often, the opposing defenses most certainly can. Also, the constant 3rd down draw plays make me want to fucking scream.

Danbury eh? I went to WestConn. Good times. If the Brookfield guy sticks around, nice. Heh. I go to WestConn now, graduating in May. I also work in the often-loathed Registrar's Office. Small world. Pretty bummed that Edsall is leaving.

I think Todman is going to wind up being a 2nd or 3rd rounder. To be honest, I'm not sure if staying an extra year would have changed that. Maybe the potential 2012 draft class is more RB-heavy or something. He's an explosive runner who can fill many different roles running, receiving, and doing kickoffs. There might actually be a pretty good crop of UConn players in the draft. Lawrence Wilson will probably be a mid-round selection, and Zach Hurd is huge and will probably be picked somewhere. Scott Lutrus will also wind up somewhere, not sure if he'll be drafted though. Good player but injuries have hurt his draft stock significantly. Kendall Reyes may also declare. Being from Danbury, I really hope Lutrus can stick with an NFL team. He's from Brookfield (the next town over) so it'd be kinda cool to see someone from that close make it to the NFL.

Garbage time TDs notwithstanding, UConn kept it closer than most would have thought for most of the game. Their D looked shit in the first half but played well through the majority of the second half. Never thought they'd WIN the game, but they really had nothing to lose. That being said, they are probably fucked the next couple of years. Their offense is shit outside of Todman, and he just declared for the draft. And then in 2012 TCU is joining the Big East and will have that on lock-down.

RIP Leslie The baseball scene from Naked Gun will probably always be one of my favorite movie scenes. *calls strike 3 before the ball even reaches the catcher before doing a ridiculous dance*

This is one of the few years I actually like the BCS, but that's just because I'm from Connecticut and so UConn is the school I root for by default. Playoffs would be so much more fun. You can even keep it similar to the way it is so that the conference wins mean something (much like in the NFL, nobody from the NFC West deserves to be in the playoffs but hey, they won the division). But you add two extra at-larges. Top 4 conference winners receive byes, and you go from there. Not sure what to do with all the Bowls though. The smaller bowls could be kept around for the schools that didn't make the playoffs, and I guess the now-BCS bowls could be held as teams get eliminated (ex. the two teams knocked out in the semi-finals meet in the Rose Bowl in what is essentially a 3rd place game). I dunno. Probably never going to happen.

I feel absolutely terrible for the kicker. Sure he fucked up royally but it never should have come to that. He's already had to delete his Facebook due to receiving threats and insults every minute and there are a bunch of groups pretty much saying they want him dead. I'm not entirely sure he'll be able to finish off his degree at Boise State. The saddest part is, he's like the most accurate BSU kicker of all time. Yet this is how he will always be remembered. Kicking is a completely thankless job.

Gotta say, I wasn't overly happy when the Mets picked Terry Collins. But I'm very impressed by his press conference and subsequent interviews. Seems like he'll be a breath of fresh air compared to the laid-back personas of Art Howe, Willie Randolph, and Jerry Manuel.

I'm probably going to go on a TNA CAW downloading spree and turn SmackDown into TNA as others have done. I'll throw Shelton, Knox, Gallows, Archer, and other future endeavor'd people onto SmackDown also to make up the numbers.

Really wish they'd fix Championship Scramble. There's no reason why anybody other than the current champion should be trying to break up a pin. It's next to impossible for a fall to happen once you have all 5 in the match. Why would the non-champions care about breaking up the pins? A real shame since my game booked two really intriguing Scramble matches for Night of Champions (RAW - WWE champion Daniel Bryan vs. Sheamus vs. The Undertaker vs. Triple H vs. leader of the Nexus John Cena) and (SD - WHW champion Kaval vs. Randy Orton vs. Edge vs. Michael Tarver vs. Skip Sheffield) Had NO idea that The Assassins (Sheffield and Tarver) had gotten that high up in the rankings...and yet they are still dead last in the Tag Rankings no matter what I do. Also a bit miffed that Alberto Del Rio sank out of the Top 5 even though he lost the WHW title not even a month ago.

Got back into my Mets game that I had started a while back. After steamrolling through the 2010 WS, sweeping the Yanks in 4 thanks largely to contributions from guys who went above and beyond the call of duty, I simmed the bulk of the 2011 season. Won the NL East in the final weekend of the year and decided to use manager mode to go through the playoffs. Was surprisingly fun making the calls but not actually playing. Got to the WS again in 2011 and found myself down 3-1 but crawled back into it before dropping an extra-inning heartbreaker to the Rangers in Game 7. Jenrry Mejia was a fucking beast throughout the playoffs but I didn't hit enough. Had a ton of expiring contracts and as such, a lot of money to spend. I let an aging Beltran (who wanted 4 guaranteed years), Castillo, and Perez walk. Re-upped K-Rod for another 3 years while also bringing back Jon Rauch (who I had signed prior to 2011 and he ruled) for 2. Got Grady Sizemore for 3 years and Aaron Hill for 2, both were given mutual options for an extra year. I sniffed around for SP help but then on December 8th the Giants inexplicably non-tendered Tim Lincecum, guessing he was asking for too much. He had a better year than Santana (who won the Cy Young due mainly to wins) So I backed the truck up and gave Timmy a 6 year pact. My top 3 are Lincecum, Santana, and Mejia. Fucking nasty. Also signed a couple vets and threw them on the 40 man roster, ditto for a few prospects I wanted to check out (treated all of them as "spring training invites"...a feature I'd love to see in the future). Here's the 40 man roster I'm taking into Spring Training 2012 - Catchers: Omir Santos, Josh Thole, JR Towles Infielders: Ike Davis, Nick Evans, Reese Havens, Luis Hernandez, Aaron Hill, Chin Lung Hu, Daniel Murphy, Jose Reyes, Ruben Tejada, David Wright Outfielders: Jason Bay, Kosuke Fukudome, Brahiam Maldonado, Fernando Martinez, Kirk Nieuwenhuis, Angel Pagan, Grady Sizemore Starting Pitchers: Bruce Chen, Tim Lincecum, Jenrry Mejia, Pat Misch, Jon Niese, Mike Pelfrey, Johan Santana, Tobi Stoner Relief Pitchers: Manny Acosta, Pedro Feliciano, Sean Green, Ryota Igarashi, Bobby Parnell, Adam Pettyjohn, Jon Rauch, Francisco Rodriguez, Josh Stinson, Hisanori Takahashi, Raul Valdes, Ryan Webb

Sorry, had to do it. Anyway, I've never had that problem before. I'm assuming your tracks are all MP3s? If not, maybe it's not able to rip anything other than an MP3. Or it could be some wonky code-related thing on the disk itself.

I don't think you need an option on the XBox to do that...

Yeah, you need to make sure teams keep winning. And then if a team keeps losing consistently, they will break up. Kinda makes it impossible to keep a sustainable tag division. Ie: Realistic

I've found that whenever you create a new team on your own, they will break up after their first loss. Really annoying.

The Pro/Rookie pairings for NXT Season 4 have been decided. Brett DiBiase (Face) - Ted DiBiase (Raw, Heel) Brodus Clay (Heel) - Santino Marella (Raw, Face) Derrick Bateman (Heel) - Dolph Ziggler (Raw, Heel) Jinder Mahal (Heel) - Chavo Guerrero (SmackDown, Heel) Mason Ryan (Face) - Jack Swagger (SmackDown, Heel) Richie Steamboat (Face) - Evan Bourne (Raw, Face) Seth Rollins (Heel) - Big Show (SmackDown, Face) Xavier Woods (Face) - Finlay (SmackDown, Face) Main storylines will include: Ted trying to get Brett to be more like him, much to his chagrin. Seth Rollins being this season's "internet darling" but being a dick about it. Mason Ryan being a huge beat and Swagger taking credit for it. Derrick Bateman trying to be exactly like his "idol" Dolph Ziggler. Jinder Mahal and Chavo Guerrero accusing the fans of racism. Brodus Clay eating fried chicken. Okay, maybe some of those won't happen. But it should be fun. I set everybody to a 75 OVR to make it a "level" playing field. Winning matches gives them stat upgrades. Looking forward to this.

Finally getting around to starting an all-simmed version of NXT Season 4 to tie in with my Universe Game. The Rookies: -Brett DiBiase -Brodus Clay -Derrick Bateman -Jinder Mahal -Mason Ryan -Richie Steamboat -Seth Rollins -Xavier Woods The Pros: -Big Show (SD) -Chavo Guerrero (SD) -Dolph Ziggler ® -Evan Bourne ® -Finlay (SD) -Jack Swagger (SD) -Santino Marella ® -Ted DiBiase ® Not sure on any rookie/pro pairings yet outside of Ted/Brett and probably Dolph/Bateman solely because the Bateman CAW I d/led is a cocky heel pre-set with Ziggy's moveset. I envision them as the Miz/Riley of this season. Some of the CAWs are really good, some not so much. The majority came from the same source. The Tyler Black one sucks but there are only 2 Tyler Blacks and the really good one isn't available for download yet. I'll swap it when it becomes available.

On closer inspection, I realized that the theme starts before the cameras even show the arena......which leads me to believe themes haven't been added yet. Ditto for Bullsog and Luger's: