The Positives thread

[Kate Upton]

This team will likely be playing at least one postseason game.

That's positive.

With this pitching, all it will take is a couple of weeks of good hitting to win it all.

That's positive.

The Cardinals suck ass, and Roidier Molina is on the DL

That's positive.

That's all I got at the moment.

 

[Kate Upton]

W/O Molina, the Birdos are in a pinch. A good catcher is a must. Parrots are good now because they got Martin. We need Hanigan or better, soon. Meso has been better than I expected. First day of August, and my 5th anniversary without a cigarette.

Congrats to you John.

Not an easy thing to give up and stay away from.

 

[chico ruiz]

getting russell martin is far from the only reason the pirates are good now.

 

[JohnU]

Congrats to you John.

Not an easy thing to give up and stay away from.

My mortality made the act necessary and everything that followed made it easy.
Honestly, I never had cravings after the first couple of days, used the patch for only 10 days ... and so far, the only thing I notice is the price of the damned things. $50 a carton here.

I have dreams about smoking, oddly, and I think that's the manifestation of the cravings. Dreams haven't hurt me much.

 

[JohnU]

getting russell martin is far from the only reason the pirates are good now.

Trying to not overstate this but Martin is the difference generally.
Nobody that tries to win can do it with Rod Barajas behind the plate.

 

[Kate Upton]

My mortality made the act necessary and everything that followed made it easy.
Honestly, I never had cravings after the first couple of days, used the patch for only 10 days ... and so far, the only thing I notice is the price of the damned things. $50 a carton here.

I have dreams about smoking, oddly, and I think that's the manifestation of the cravings. Dreams haven't hurt me much.

Yeah. Staring one's death in the face will make you do things you may otherwise never would have done.

But whatever the reason, still not an easy thing to do, what you did. Some people keep smoking with holes in their throats.

 

[Darth_Tom]

Red Sox are nowhere near the team that they were 365 days ago.

 

[JohnU]

Yeah. Staring one's death in the face will make you do things you may otherwise never would have done.

But whatever the reason, still not an easy thing to do, what you did. Some people keep smoking with holes in their throats.

Well, I have a lung disease and a shorter life than I want.

Like most abuse habits, they erode away at you a minute at a time and you don't ever think the time will come when it's too late to stop. In my case, I had always said I'd know the day I needed to quit ... really never identified that day, just assumed it would happen someday.

Finally, one night I was out of cigs and was in the grocery ... made the choice to buy the patch instead of the pack. I just seemed to *know* that was the time to do it. It worked.

I just tell people now to not start smoking. It's a whole lot easier from the front end.

 

[eburg5000]

Well the Pirates only have two more weeks of playing teams with 85 or more loses. Not counting the Cards who are falling fast, with the Reds.

 

[Redsfan1507]

Statistically, more people die from smoking than heroin each year, and heroin is easier to give up. It killed my mother and father, and I still smoke...so when I criticize Dusty for suicide by stupidity, Im speaking as a first person authority on the subject.

 

[bengaldoug]

W/O Molina, the Birdos are in a pinch. A good catcher is a must. Parrots are good now because they got Martin. We need Hanigan or better, soon. Meso has been better than I expected. First day of August, and my 5th anniversary without a cigarette.[/QUOTE]

Congrats, John. I quit 26 years ago in July, and I'm quite sure that's the only reason I'm still alive.

 

[WvuDieHard]

Its been 3.5 weeks since I last smoked a cigarette. I could pound a pack in 2 hours right now--but I won't. Like JohnU, I knew after the 4th of July, it was time to let them go. I get some incredible cravings but I don't give in. It is a very tough thing but if you want to live--you must quit the cancer sticks.

 

[bengaldoug]

I quit in July of 1987. I was smoking two cartons a week at that time, and quit cold turkey. I had cravings for a couple of months after that but never gave in. I got married in September of that year, and I remember that last craving like it was yesterday. We were on a plane just leaving Chicago for Honolulu for our honeymoon, and I had the most awful yen at that moment. Of course back then smoking on a plane was ok, and my then new wife was still smoking. I asked her for one, and she said "I'll give you one if you must have it, but why blow it after two months free of them?" She was right, of course, and I got through that craving and never really had another. To this day though, I know I would enjoy one if I lit up. Unfortunately that memory never really leaves you.

 

[JohnU]

Its been 3.5 weeks since I last smoked a cigarette. I could pound a pack in 2 hours right now--but I won't. Like JohnU, I knew after the 4th of July, it was time to let them go. I get some incredible cravings but I don't give in. It is a very tough thing but if you want to live--you must quit the cancer sticks.

I do know that you need to drink a lot of water and exercise, get your muscles and blood system flushing out the stuff. The patch worked great for me.

What's great for me is listening to everybody who is complaining about smokers rights in restaurants and public places. I just say ... hey, I don't care. I don't need a cigarette so pass a law on it if you want. Won't bother me one way or the other.

 

[Redsfan1507]

I don't think smokers have the right to kill non smokers so, I've never smoked indoors. The laws dont concern me much. It is hard for me to fathom though, that outside in a wide open designated spot at GABP, with 2 major freeways packed with running cars, and Proctor and Gamble, and a coal plant or two drifting in the air, that a cigarette or three would be the bigger danger.

It's a nasty habit with no redeeming benefits, other than giving about half a million people in the southeast U.S. that grow tobacco, a paycheck not from welfare. Some have given that up in favor of growing weed or making meth, so pick your poison...all of the above also kills many of them. Tobacco is the one curse my Native American ancestors made stick.

 

[JohnU]

I go to Gary for games within view of US Steel. The heavy metal is ... too heavy to reach us.
But the park is smoke-free. Again, I don't care either way.

 

[Redsfan1507]

The Reds looked pretty good last night against the A's- a pretty good team. That's a positive.

Ludwick is coming back soon, and regardless if how he performs, I don't think we could be worse with him. That's a potential positive. Ditto Broxton.

Although they've been quiet as mice about Cueto and Marshall, they haven't announced surgery yet, and that's a positive.

Cozart hasn't been a 2 hitter since the AS break. Votto is hitting .320, Bruce is on pace for 30HR again. Choo is still hitting. BP is still driving in runs and playing D. Mesoraco is starting to look like he always has in the second year at each level. Choo and Arroyo are still Reds.

It's the Pirates in the lead in the NLC. Their long shot suprize closer (Grilli) is on the DL. August and September have not exactly been great months for them the last couple of decades.

 

[JohnU]

For all the laughs he gets, I don't recall Corky Miller EVER actually hurting the Reds with his presence.

 

[Redsfan1507]

Everyone makes mistakes, and had limitations. The talent level determines ceiling, but no marginally skilled person stays constantly employed by getting the blame for failure too often. There is a level of safety in moderating unusual reward for unusual risk, but it lowers the potential too. Nothing worse than a swingaholic hitter with a hero complex trying to hit a grand slam with no one on...unless it's a guy that freezes on strike 3 because he fears a swinging strikeout worse than crying about a borderline call. Gotta try to work within your limitations, do the best you can with the situation your given. Corky obviously understands fundamentals, and that his job isn't to hit cleanup, it's to get the most out of his pitcher. He's lost some of the limited physical skills he had, but he's probably learned a few more that might come in handy as a coach or manager later. Been there, done that, at a lower level of course. Corky wasn't Crash Davis, but he might be Bill Plummer, Pat Corrales or Bruce Boche one day.

Beats pouring concrete and roofing for a living.

 

[JohnU]

Cardinals are still in a funk. They're just lucky they played the Reds.
Waiting for the Parrots to hit the wall. That has to happen soon.