The New Sudoku Players' Forum

by **Hud** » Sat Jun 16, 2007 11:09 pm

Yeah, I'm glad to be done with it. I'll try to keep my cool when the summer worlds start.

I was glad to see my present team beat my old team. The O's bullpen had blown many games so far this season, and it's probably invigorating to get the O's starter out of the game.

by **udosuk** » Sun Jun 17, 2007 4:54 am

The Yankees got one back on Mets today. They scored in 6 of 8 innings and the Mets scored in 6 of 9. On total contrary Dice-K pitched another gem as the BoSox won 1-0 against Bonds' Giants. My desire to see the BoSox losing grows bigger and bigger.

BTW the deleted posts of rep'nA start affecting the structure of this thread. Perhaps it's time to call it an end, or start a new one. What do you guys say?

by **Hud** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 3:59 pm

I haven't noticed a change but have no opinion on starting anew or not.

Tiger Woods showed he's a mer mortal last weekend. I found myself rooting for Tiger and Furyk at the end. I suppose it's national pride?

I've run into a putting problem like Cec was going through awhile back. I missed a 6 foot birdie putt on my first hole this morning and didn't even come close to making it.

by **udosuk** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 9:36 am

At the moment the page structure is intact, but it'll be broken again when we have about 12, 13 posts on this page.

Seems the D-backs can beat every MLB team except the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. :!:

by **Hud** » Sat Jun 23, 2007 5:16 am

We went to the D-backs/O's game tonight and should have stayed home. I haven't seen this bad fundamental baseball in a long time. The first 6 runs the O's scored were tainted, but only 4 of them were scored as unearned. I won't go into detail about the 2 errors charged to the so called third baseman, Chad Tracy, but the third one really gripped me. Webb picked a runner off second base and did his job perfectly. He ran right at the player and then threw the ball to Tracy the third baseman. Tracy then ran the runner back toward second as he should have done, but didn't make the runner commit totally to making it back to second. When Tracy threw to second, the runner simply ran right past Tracy and the second baseman threw to Webb who was covering third. Webb dropped the ball after making the tag and there were were runners on second and third. I'm not quite sure of the next sequence, but when the O's had runners on second and third (not sure if the same 2 runners), Webb got 2 quick strikes on a hitter. I said he'll waste a pitch and he grooved one and he hit it for a triple on an 0-2 count. That made it 4 zip. The next inning there were 2 O's on base with 2 outs, I believe, and a guy hit a drive toward the left center field alley. Young the center fielder made a nice run at it and had it caroom of his glove and 2 more runs scored. They didn't give him an error on the play, but c-mon, he's a major leaguer and the score was now 6 zip and basically game over. We left at my suggestion after 7 innings. I'm cursed with knowing what good baseball is, and didn't see any from the D-backs tonight. At least the beer tasted good and they had the roof open with the AC on high cool.

by **udosuk** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 2:10 am

The D-backs really had some loose fielding in that 2nd inning against the O's. Today the Yanks lost to the lowly Giants after a decent effort by Wang. At least he didn't take the loss.

by **Hud** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 5:49 pm

There were quite a few O's Fans at the ball game the other night. I wonder if any of them were from my old neighborhood in the city? People turn their noses up when I tell them where I lived lol.

Chauncey Billups just announced that he's going to test out unrestricted free agency. The Pistons claim that they'll resign him, but if someone proclaims their love for him strongly enough, who knows?

The US won some kind of World Cup Title in soccer. I have no idea if it meant anything though. I don't believe it included any of the elite teams.

by **Hud** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 1:48 am

Grant Hill is saying all the right things since joining the Suns. The folks in Orlando are furious and I have to empathise with them. We went through a similar thing with McDyess some yers back. The Suns might even start him if he seems ready this coming season. I just hope he doesn't start complaining about $.

by **udosuk** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 1:47 pm

Well, back for a little bit more sports talk.

Grant should be a good addition to the Suns. He's a more smart and experienced version of Boris Diaw, so it's not surprising if he ends up starting in some games. I couldn't believe the Magic threw that much money for Rashard Lewis and to resign Dwight Howard. They're probably trying to become another Knicks/Yankees.

The situation between Yi Jianlian and the Bucks is getting sickening by the date. Apparently Yi and his advisors have warned the Bucks not to draft him or he won't sign with them, but the Bucks were too keen to pick anybody else. Perhaps it's the Milwaukee weather, prehaps it's the lack of playing time with Bogut already on the team, but Yi's not too keen to play for them unfortunately.

Now the rumour has it that Yi asked the Bucks to either trade him to a more Chinese-based city (such as Sacramento or another Californian team) or he'll sit out the next year and re-enter the next draft. But the Bucks are not budging (or so it seems).

Given this saga I don't think Yi would be too hot among the Milwaukee fans even if he ends up playing for them. It could have been a lot better for him if the Hawks had drawn #4 or below in the lottery and passed the pick to the Suns, as I heard there was virtually a locked agreement for the Suns to pick him with that pick.

Today Australia lost to Iraq in the Asian Cup of soccer, and is almost set to bow out early in the group stage. I'm kind of glad that they get this reality check as there was so much fuss when they joined the Asian confederation that they'd bully the Asian teams with their English Premier League stars but turned out they're just as wimpy as the others. Another way to look at it is that it's karma payback time for our PM John Howard's actions in the Gulf War.

by **udosuk** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 3:04 am

I'm over cloud nine. Weeks ago I've speculated Steve Francis would return to Houston. And now the wish came true!

Now get another decent power forward and the Rockets will be a complete team, and a genuine contender next season. Is KG too wishful a possibility?

On the other side of the world, the situation between Yi Jianlian and the Milwaukee Bucks is disgusting.

I think both parties are at fault, the Bucks for insisting on picking YJ and also YJ for shutting the door too early without even trying.

The Bucks probably wants YJ as a backup big men with their already established front court and in case they suffer a series of injuries like last season they'd truly need YJ as an insurance. But if they stay healthy then YJ would probably be left rotten on the bench like Darko Milicic in Detroit. I think this is the main reason that scares YJ away from the Bucks (aside from the commercials reasons as speculated by the media).

That said, it makes YJ appear a little gutless that it tells that he won't be confident to take any court minutes from Andrew Bogut or Charlie Villanueva. Well that's expected from a rookie but it doesn't sound right when you're asking people not to pick you because you aren't good enough. Besides, if he's not good enough to get minutes playing for the Bucks I don't think he's good enough to get minutes in other teams.

Well, I guess we can only see how good he is when he eventually gets to play. And he better play impressively for all these fuss.

by **Hud** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 10:53 pm

I was sorry to see how the YJ situation has gone also. I know there's a large Chinese Population in Chicago which is only around 50 miles from Milwaukee. I was in the army with a guy named Jennings Chan who was brilliant (sorry about the unrelated story). In a perfect world somehow Houston would also get YJ, but it doesn't look like it could happen.

Phoenix just made a very questionable deal sending Thomas and 2 first round picks to Seattle for a 2d rounder and a trade exemption of $8m. It would be great if they could somehow use the trade exemption to somehow land YJ. There's also speculation of them landing Artest which would be great if they could handle him.

Big news here about Michael Vick running a dog fighting ring and an NBA Ref accused of influencing the point spreads on game he bet on. I hope some of that feces ends up on Stern's plate lol.

by **udosuk** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 2:26 am

I'd be glad if YJ could be traded to the Suns, Bulls or Rockets. Anyway I hope his fate could be decided before Bonds hit his 757 HR.

Speaking of which, the Yanks got a pretty bad drubbing today in the hands of... the Devil Rays.

This happens after yesterday they suffered a painful loss to the Blue Jays with Wang pitching.

I think they won't make the playoffs no matter how the BoSox is slumping. Speaking of slumps it seems the D-backs are in the middle of one too.

Added later:

More about the YJ saga. A few days ago a Chinese official is (wrongfully) quoted as saying YJ will "definitely not" go to Milwaukee. Then there was suddenly a flow of hate messages from the Bucks fans flowing on the net, and some of them are downright racial (I personally read a load of them). I don't know about the reputation of Milwaukee being a racist city, but I wonder if that has anything to do with YJ's decision.

As for the Kurt Thomas trade, I think one of the main reason is the owner want to stay below the luxury tax limit. Perhaps they're going to trade away Marion for another cheaper player. :?:

by **Hud** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 5:46 pm

I suppose there are some racists in Milwaukee. It's probably a backlash from thinking they were snubbed by YJ and it's their way of retaliating. Milwaukee is pretty much a "blue collar" town sorta like Pittsburgh, PA.

The D-backs are definitely on a cheap cycle. They don't want to pay Eric Byrnes more than $7m a year on a 3 year deal. O. Hudson will probably be the next to go. I'll never understand why they gave RJ so much money in view of his back condition. I wonder if it had something to do with money owed him?

by **udosuk** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 1:29 pm

Too bad, I thought the D-backs were trying to win the title this year by spending big.

For some reason I didn't feel depressed at all for yesterday, a black Saturday for Aussie/Sydney sports teams. (They lost all important matches in soccer, rugby, netball and the Sydney Swans also lost in AFL.) Probably the Steve Francis signing is still keeping me high.

On golf, it seems Tiger and other Americans will finally lose the British Open. I don't like Sergio Garcia that much but at least would prefer him to any Yank. A story which caught my attention was one of Tiger's wayward drive hitting an old lady in the head which require a few stitches. I now realise what you mentioned before about the potential danger on golf courses.

by **Hud** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 1:26 am

Harrington is a worthy champion for the British Open. I like the way he handles himself. Garcia is still on probation with me over the spitting in the cup incident awhile back. I was rooting for Steve Stricker but he must have faded drastically. Stricker is related to some people who used to live down the street from me. The people were from Minnesota, and I believe Stricker is from Wisconsin or maybe he just lives there now.

We bought all new windows (6) and patio doors (3) for the house and my son and I installed one window today. They should help keep the energy bills down since they have Low-E glass and are vinyl framed. They will involve extensive drywall repairs which I guess I'll have to learn or hire it out. I seldom hire work out so we'll see how the job goes.

The New Sudoku Players' Forum

Sports talk (formerly NBA talk)