EndLine

Great job you two!

O/T There are still WW1 veterans alive (about a dozen) and only two Titanic survivors.

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- They came, they saw, they considered. But after three-and-a-half days of Winter Meetings, baseball's executives departed without having set off any of the anticipated trade fireworks, instead leaving the pyrotechnics in the hands of the Disney World experts. However, plenty of money, but few players, exchanged hands. Seven deals were engineered -- three of them spun off Thursday morning's Rule 5 Draft -- without involving any bandied-about marquee names such as Manny Ramirez, Alex Rodriguez, Andruw Jones and Miguel Tejada. The biggest player under contract to change teams was Freddy Garcia, who went from the White Sox to the Phillies' rotation for a pair of prospects. The pen was mightier than the swap. Major contracts were signed, or were pending, with J.D. Drew and Julio Lugo (Red Sox), Jason Schmidt (Dodgers), Greg Maddux (Padres), Mike Piazza (A's), Ted Lilly (Cubs) and Vicente Padilla (Rangers). In all, 17 free agents signed for an aggregate bankroll of $417,200,000 -- excluding the two Barry big names who remained on the open market: Bonds and Zito. And several of the headline signings are still in "preliminary purgatory," pending physicals. Those include the two agreements that came down on Thursday. Gil Meche, 55-44 in six seasons with the Mariners, went above the radar with a five-year, $55 million deal from the Kansas City Royals, and former Arizona icon Luis Gonzalez stayed in the NL West with a $7.3 million contract with the Dodgers. Perhaps future Winter Meetings will operate like a military induction center, with players passing through three stations: From negotiating table to physical ward (plenty of doctors, no waiting) to press conference. In the reality of the 2006 Meetings, business wasn't quite as expedient. Bouncing between agents and potential trade partners like pinballs, many general managers went "Tilt!" "It's one of the more miserable Winter Meetings I've ever been to," said Seattle GM Bill Bavasi, alluding to the overall lack of trades. And Bavasi got more than most, certainly on the final morning, when he pulled off two deals. In only one of the Meetings' three deals to involve Major League talent on both sides, the Mariners sent right-handed reliever Rafael Soriano to Atlanta for lefty starter Horacio Ramirez. Bavasi also picked up right-hander Sean White for cash from the Pirates. The Bucs, who earlier in the morning had selected White off Atlanta's Triple-A roster, weren't the only ones to use the Rule 5 Draft as a stepping stone to subsequent deals. The most recognizable name in that shuffle was Josh Hamilton, drafted out of the Tampa Bay organization by the Cubs, who then dealt him to the Reds for cash. Hamilton is the trouble-beset 25-year-old who since the Devil Rays made him the overall No. 1 pick in the 1999 First-Year Player Draft has appeared in a total of 266 Minor League games -- and fewer than 100 in the past six years. Also, the Brewers chose lefty Edward Campusano from the Cubs, then dealt him to Detroit, also for cash considerations. And the A's and Devil Rays went all out, swapping their Rule 5 picks; Oakland dealt lefty Jay Marshall (whom it had drafted from the White Sox) for outfielder Ryan Goleski (Tampa Bay's pick from the Indians). With the paucity of bigger deals, these usually-agate transactions received more attention than usual. But baseball insiders have little doubt that the headliners will reclaim the stage in the four months remaining to Opening Day. Of course, the Winter Meetings present merely an artificial deadline for buying and bartering -- with the possible exception of the Boston Red Sox, whose GM, Theo Epstein, sounded serious when saying Ramirez would come off the market once the Dolphin Hotel cleared out. Plenty of action, and suspense, remains for the weeks ahead. Let's face it, in a market where the Gil Meche going rate is $11 million annually into the next decade, anything is possible and fans everywhere have a lot to anticipate and relish. Only maybe not as much as does Barry Zito. The six starting pitchers signing new contracts during the 84 hours of the Winter Meetings did so for a total of $256 million, leaving Zito, who entered the offseason as the consensus cream of the free-agent crop, in a nice cleanup position. His agent, Scott Boras, will receive ample face time, too, as he also negotiates with Boston on behalf of Daisuke Matsuzaka. Then, there is Andy Pettitte, fresh off his declaration that, yes, he will continue pitching in 2007, as a 34-year-old left-hander who hasn't had a losing season in his 12-year career (think about that one). Even more intriguing than Pettitte's possible return to the Yankees is the thought of pal Roger Clemens, the Goodbye Guy who himself hasn't decided about 2007, following him back to the Bronx. As for Manny ... it remains true that the only thing more inconceivable than him not being in Boston is, him being in Boston. Unless everyone in The Nation gets amnesia about his sit-down for the final month of the 2006 season. Those are the coming attractions. Looking best in the rearview mirror are the Cubs, who also furnished the only episode of these meetings certain to grow into legend. That, of course, would be general manager Jim Hendry winding up in the hospital in the middle of negotiating Ted Lilly's $40 million contract. A Cub spokesman passed along word Thursday morning that "Hendry is resting comfortably and is in good spirits." Why shouldn't he be? Reflecting the state of the market thus far, he has beefed up the Cubs' outfield (Alfonso Soriano), infield (Aramis Ramirez, Mark DeRosa) and rotation (Lilly), and it hasn't cost him any players -- only bucks, 262 million of them.

Thank you JT. Watching you get thrown out at the plate from RF Upper Deck is easily in my top 3 greatest sports moments. Luckily for Marlins fans, you run slower than John Madden pulling an 18 wheeler full of elephants. I laughed. :lol

Not knowing where you're going is the fun part.

I watched the last episode and I like it a lot. I love all the storylines. Although the Dillon Panther background players are pretty evil (destroy Riggins truck like that?).

I remember the Yankees' farm system a couple years back was considered one of the worst in the majors. They actually have something to offer to other teams these days.

Anyone still watching? It has turned out to be a quality show. It feels very real and its played wonderfully by all the actors. It's moving to Wednesdays at 8 starting in January.

I got to ride Everest twice on its official opening day in April. An absolute blast; 15 out of 10. That drop when you come out of the mountain and into the helix is awesome. It's now my favorite mountain in the Disney range. Everest, then Splash, and Big Thunder. Can't judge Space Mountain yet, since in all the times I've been to WDW I've never been on Space Mountain. That is shocking. You seem to know more about WDW than anyone else I know. I'll get my chance to ride Everest a lot from Jan - May.

One of the my favorite shows ever. Growing up, everyone said I looked like Fred Savage, and I guess I really did(i have pictures to prove it if anyone wants to see). Winnie was my alpha female growing up, good god was she hot. Loved that show. shows us, I'm curious now Winnie.. *dies* Oh great now I have to re-watch the last episode, it said they got married and had a kid, it never said winnie died, it said Kevin's father dies, that's the only person it mentions as dead. :| :lol I'm beginning to think you blocked out Winnie from all 115 episodes. As they say "You are smoking some good sh*t."

"Don't block the money shot Matt!"

Admin how do you the blacken the spoiler? » Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... « According to Kring, Milo had observed to many powers around and briefly goes into a coma.

claire's fathers ability is blocking out other abilities Could still be the Hatian... he's been around HRG the whole time. What confuses me is that Nathan was able to use his power even though both of them were right in front of them.

you read LOTR in elementary school? In 5th grade I made a diorama of the Two Towers. It is, to this day, my crowning scholastic achievment. In 5th grade I was reading about Anne Rice's sexual innuendos. Her sleeping beauty series? I wanna see the battle of the five armies Isildur? Didn't they show part of that in LOTR 2? Isildur doesn't have anything to do with the Battle of the Five Armies. And the footage in The Two Towers was of the battle in Mordor where Isildur took the ring from Sauron. The Battle of the Five Armies was fought on the Lonely Mountain much, much later. Wait...Damnit I'm getting confused. I thought the 5 armies fight and in that battle isildur steals the ring. Either way, I haven't read the book in like 6 years, so forgive my ignorance. If I remember correctly the battle of the five armies consisted of: (1) Thorin Oakenshield and the other Dwarfs in Bilbo's group, along with the Dwarf army brought by Thorin's cousin Dain (2) The Humans of Laketown (3) The Elves of Mirkwood (4) The Goblins and Wargs -- in the Hobbit, Orcs were called Goblins and Wargs were their wolf-steeds (5) The great Eagles. I haven't read the book in a long time, but when I was in elementary school I devoured everything Tolkien. Hopefully this is accurate. It would be interesting to note that before LOTR, Tolkien pluralized Dwarf as Dwarfs. Not until LOTR did the pluralization become Dwarves. According to one of the annotated versions of the Hobbit I have, he made the change because of a suggestion he got in a fan letter. (I just remembered that as I was writing, so I thought I'd share) EDIT: Is that as shamefully nerdy as it sounds? completely correct including the nerdy part must see smaug Man someone has to be slipping me something. I meant to say Anne Frank.

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - An actor on the US television show "Prison Break", Lane Garrison, was involved in a fatal car accident when a sports utility vehicle he owned slammed into a tree in nearby Beverly Hills, police said. ADVERTISEMENT A 17-year-old boy was killed and a 15-year-old girl was critically injured in the accident. Another girl, 15, was also injured although not as seriously. Garrison was uninjured. Police would not say who was driving the vehicle when the accident occurred late Saturday. The names of the minors were not released by police who are still investigating. Garrison, a Dallas native, plays "Tweener" on the show. As an actor, he has worked primarily in television, but is set to appear in the upcoming film "Shooter," which is due out next year.

you read LOTR in elementary school? In 5th grade I made a diorama of the Two Towers. It is, to this day, my crowning scholastic achievment. In 5th grade I was reading about Anne Rice's sexual innuendos.

I remember watching this animated special tons of times. I haven't seen it in years but I'll watch it because I was a big fan of the original. This is the live-action version and I've posted a video of the famous Heatmiser vs Snowmiser song from the new live-action version. It airs December 11 at 9 on NBC.

you need to put in a credit card... boooooo Forgot about that, I already have mines in there. My apology.

AOL Free Movies Offer ends December 3 at 6 A.M.

I was thinking it was Nikki's husband. They never did show what happened when she attempted to shoot him, did they? two straight episodes they end with that scene and don't tell us anything. I hate that. Welcome to television. :blink: I think you misunderstand (or something). Two weeks ago they ended with the cliffhanger of Nikki shooting at (apparently) DL Last week they ended with the same exact scene. Rarely, if ever, do shows leave the same exact cliffhanger for two straight weeks. /joke As a fellow watcher of Lost, I'd thought you'd 'get' it.

Whitney??? You just watched all 115 episodes and you didn't pick up on her name? It's Winnie Cooper.

Even if you are not a fan of Scrubs you will LOL at this "music" video.

I was thinking it was Nikki's husband. They never did show what happened when she attempted to shoot him, did they? two straight episodes they end with that scene and don't tell us anything. I hate that. Welcome to television. :blink:

Well, I finally saw the first 6 episodes on Sci-Fi. Wonderful show. I'm looking forward to episode 7 on Monday. Episode 11 airs on Monday... or are you watching it on Sci-Fi?

Who do you think bites the dust? My guess is » Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... « Isaac for obvious reasons. » Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... « The fact that they showed him meeting Hiro in next week's episode makes me very certain that its him.