-You can't pick someone that's already been picked.

-The player has to be on a MLB active roster during the regular season (if they're in the minors or they get the surgery in ST it doesn't count.)

-Put your choice in bold.

I'll start:

Chris Sale

Also like last year I will take PayPal payments from members here. You can also send to dcinct@gmail.com. Just make sure to click thee money is for family/friends.

The entry fee is $10

Beyond that though, it's a pretty interesting list, and shows just how much time, thought, effort and creativity have gone into cheating and gamesmanship throughout baseball history. 

Some of my favorite entries:

Potato: "It wasn't a major league game, to be sure, but the bizarre potato story is worth recounting. The Double A Williamsport club was mired 27 games out of first place in an Aug. 31, 1987, game against the Reading Phillies. Rick Lundblade was the runner at third for the Phillies when the enterprising Williamsport backstop, Dave Bresnahan, called time out. He ambled over to the dugout, supposedly to replace his ripped catcher's glove, an act that raised no eyebrows. Then he walked back to his position with a new glove, and, it turned out, a nicely peeled potato hidden on his person.

After catching his pitcher's next offering, Bresnahan chucked the potato far over the third baseman's head out into left field, in what appeared to be a wild pickoff attempt. Lundblade scampered home, only to be tagged out with the game ball by Bresnahan. When the umpiring crew finally figured out what had happened, they ruled that Lundblade had, in fact, scored. They tossed Bresnahan out of the game and fined him $50. Bresnahan was then let go by the Williamsport club, which nonetheless held a special promotion on the last day of the season, admitting any fan with a potato for $1. It seemed all had been forgotten; Bresnahan was brought back to the park by the Williamsport team for the special day and assigned the task of autographing the potatoes."

Cut the corner: "In 1880s and 1890s, many runners would cut the corner from first to third, without touching second, if they thought the lone umpire wasn't looking. They tried to do the same between second and home. This prompted a new rule in 1897, namely that a runner had to touch every base in order.

Note this wonderful anecdote from the classic baseball book, The Glory of Their Times: In the days before the rule was enacted, Cincinnati first baseman Jake Beckley scored from second on a hit to the outfield, although it was unclear if he had stopped at third en route. Umpire Timothy Hurst, a rough-and-tumble brawler himself, ruled that Beckley was out. This was a surprising call, since there had been no play at the plate. Basically, Hurst made the call on general principles. "What do you mean, I'm out?" queried the surprised Beckley. "You big S.O.B. You got here too quick," responded Hurst."

There's quite a variety of others, ranging from horrifying to silly. I found it to be an interesting and thought-provoking list on its own, apart from the ethics project.

I can open another barcode document on my laptop from another vendor which appears on the screen as black text on a white background and it prints correctly.

Something is not working well with this specific PDF and my laptop. Any suggestions on which magical preference/setting I'm missing to get it to print this file correctly and continue to print the other documents correctly?

The CTRL shortcuts don't work, the right-click doesn't work.

Mine is easy.  I coached an 8th grade boys travel team this past season, it was a B team (top 10 players selected to A, next 10 to B).  A couple kids were very disappointed to be on the B team, but I could tell we would have a very successful season.  They were 4-12 the previous season, but  a couple kids dropped from A to B (including my son) and we had one new player.  We averaged 63 points/game, a ton for an 8th grade team around here and went 13-3 in the regular season, 16-4 overall, losing the championship game to a team from a town half our size, with only one team (i.e. really an A team) by 5 points.

None of the wins or even the season in whole, were my biggest triumph, that came with the Thank You card from the players.  There was a player who, going into the season, I knew would be my biggest challenge, attention issues, very emotional, parents divorced about year ago, argued with teammates, received several technical fouls the year before, was very concerned with his own points scored, with a father that was very concerned with his points scored etc.  I worked a lot with him, not just on basketball, but on controlling his emotions, not worrying about the things he couldn't control (officials, people in the stands etc), instead focusing on what he can control (effort, team work, etc).  He had an outstanding season.  On the thank you card, he wrote: "Coach, thank you for everything you did for us, you have helped me become a better basketball player and most importantly a better person."

I'll remember that for a long time.

Here is the NBA draft lottery process:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBA_draft_lottery#Process

It is worth noting that in 83% of all possible scenarios the 4th seed will get a pick in the top 5. Meanwhile 82% of the time the 7th seed will pick 7th or 8th.

Looking at this year's draft, that looks like a serious drop off in talent.

Draft is scheduled for Sunday, March 23rd at 730pm EST. 

Paul Pierce wouldn’t mind rejoining the Celtics.

“Yeah, why not? Maybe play for them, maybe work for them,” the forward said Friday after the Nets lost to his former team, 91-84, at TD Garden.

Pierce played 15 seasons with the Celtics, who drafted him in 1998. His contract expires after this season and he’ll be an unrestricted free agent.

He received a warm ovation from the crowd and finished with 10 points in 33 minutes, though emotions weren’t as high as in late January, when he returned to the Garden for the first time since he and Kevin Garnett were traded.

“It’s always emotional when you step into a gym you’ve spent your whole life playing in,” Pierce said. “The tribute last time made it so much more emotional and the cheers. But every time I come into this gym, because I’m always seeing friends and people who have been around all the years, it’s always going to be emotional, because you miss them from knowing them so long.”

http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2014/03/08/celtics-vitor-faverani-has-season-ending-surgery/FegcRMfs3N0IeaqYMQYZqI/story.html

I think this is threadworthy. Of course it would be a windfall for the Celtics and Ainge would look like a hero, but is it in the best interests of the Celtics to accept him back?. Of course the huge caveat is no one knows what the makeup of next year's team will actually be.  My feeling is I would be happy to have him back if the price is right and he is OK with coming off the bench. 

As a quick and dirty look, we can start with all players under contract for 2015, cut a couple obvious veterans (Sopoaga, A. Wilson) and disregard a bunch of marginal practice squad fodder who currently have non-guaranteed deals with little to no dead money and very little chance of making the team.  Then assume Solder's 2015 option is picked up for about $7M and factor in money to sign the 2014 and 2015 draft/UDFA classes (I'm assuming that seven guys from each class make the final roster for 2015).  This leaves us with:

The sports medicine field lost a giant today. Dr. Frank Jobe, pioneer of the "Tommy John" surgery passed away today! RIP #baseball

-Tommy John

So it may be premature to mention this, but hidden in the details of the league’s day-to-day business in recent months has been this fact: The groundwork is already being laid for another lockout.

 

That is the consensus among league executives and prominent agents. But it is articulated particularly well by Charles Grantham, who worked for the union from 1978-’95, serving as its executive director for the last seven of those years (he left a year before Billy Hunter, who was deposed last year amid scandal, took over). No replacement for Hunter has been named, and that’s just one element feeding lockout fears.

 

 

 if new NBA commissioner Adam Silver began working on the next CBA just after the last deal was signed, that puts the union more than two years behind. Chris Paul was only named union president in August of 2013, and the field of candidates for executive director was only narrowed to two last month.

 

 

But in order for the players to be working on these kinds of strategies, they need a director.

 

“There are a whole lot of reasons why this kind of planning should already be underway,” Grantham said. “Management clearly has started their planning—they are putting forth their manpower, their resources, into the next negotiations. For the union, it is a matter of catching up, and the problem is, even when they do catch up, there is the problem of not having as much stability or experience.”

 

Here’s how the agent puts it: “We know the storm is coming. It looks like we won’t get the raincoats until the day it arrives.”

 

link

 

Nothing much I can add to that.  I can't fathom the pain he's likely feeling.

Sending a few texts and starting to think about what I'll have for lunch.

ENTERTAIN ME, MONKEYS!

Flyers sending Andrej Meszaros to Boston. 3rd round pick in return.

What are some good recommendations for baseball (general) and Red Sox websites that are away from the mainstream mediots, but not just vacuous or fanboy hot air streams, there must be some good columns and websites, what would you recommend if you could indeed be arsed