SB Nation User Blog: micdog2001

DLD 12/17/09 - If you don't like this movie trailer I hate you and find you stupid

micdog2001 — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 00:46:56 -0000

OK, OK I don't hate you or find you stupid if this doesn't make you want to see Iron Man 2. BUT I"M FREAKING OUT! Robert Downey Jr is back as Tony Stark and cooler than ever and WAR MACHINE IS HERE! Even Mickey Rourke as Whiplash and Scarlett Johansson as the black widow was pretty sweet. It also looks like Samuel L. Jackson will play his first "big" role as Nick Fury, which is nice. Here the wikipedia page on Iron Man 2.

And since I need at least a couple links to make a real DLD, here is a Fangraphs article on Trevor Cahill.

A Mario made of bacteria

And finally

A Gold, diamond studded Nintendo Wii.

Poll

Are you excited to see Iron Man 2?

DLD 12/11/09 - Fishing Bloopers and other vids

micdog2001 — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 20:01:49 -0000

It is funny how a DLD gets stale and people stop posting links or checking links posted late. So I guess we need another one (and when I say "we" I mean "I"). It is also weird that I feel this need to share everything I find funny or ammusing with AN. A lot of times I post things on Facebook but the fact that my Mother, Father, Sisters, Aunts, Church friends, and my Pastor's wife are all my friends makes me think twice about what I post there. Some people are more sensitive to salty language, bathroom humor, etc. and will call you out when posting something they find offensive (thanks Mom).

Speaking of Facebook.

via imgs.xkcd.com

If someone gets tired of me posting these Link Dumps, WELL POST YOUR OWN! I haven't got around to doing the DLD with the Nintendo Wii angle yet but considering how many people thought the Gamecube was lame I doubt many people are waiting in anticipation for it. Anyways, here are some of the things that I have been wasting time on instead of sleeping/working.

Fishing Bloopers - This guy is a little on the clumsy side (video)

I'm resisting the urge to embedd the video because it always messes with my c-x-z functions

Natalie Portman to slay zombies, flirt with Mr. Darcy

3 Awkward moments brought to you by E-Mail Auto Address

The Tetris God (video)

The Legend of Link's Distractions (I might have linked (HA!) this before but it is worth it) (video)

Diane Sawyer exits from `Good Morning America'

"We'll do a full suck-up here," Stephanopoulos said.

For a second there I thought that quote said something else

see more Sports Pictures

Poll

Do you feel the need to post links on AN to everything you find amusing online?

DLD 12/08/09 - Stallone, Willis & Schwarzenegger! Now with a xkcd comic

micdog2001 — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 21:15:28 -0000

I thought this xkcd comic would fit in nicely with the discussion

via imgs.xkcd.com

I had to make a DLD just for this. I was reading totalfilm.com's feature on the 49 films that will define 2010 and I saw this: The Expendables

The Talent: Directed by Sylvester Stallone, and starring every bicep in Hollywood.

The Pitch: Sylvester Stallone directs the ultimate ‘80s action flick 20 years too late: a crew of mean mercenaries head to South America to chew bubblegum, kick ass and overthrow a government.

The Hook: It’s a who’s-who of Hollywood hardmen: Stallone, Statham, Lundgren... Even Schwarzenegger and Willis. Expect muscle, fire, and brainless brilliance.

The film will feature a scene with Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, and Arnold Schwarzenegger together in a movie for the first time ever. Now that is all kinds of awesome, too bad Willis and the Governator couldn't have played bigger roles in the film. Also according to wikipedia:

Jean-Claude Van Damme was personally offered a role by Stallone, but turned it down

Steven Segal was asked to play a cameo role, but turned down the offer due to negative experiences with producer Avi Lerner.

The role of the man who hires the Expendables, Mr. Church, was very difficult to cast. Initially offered to Schwarzenegger, he declined in favor of a smaller cameo due to his political career. The role was then offered to Kurt Russel whose agent replied that he was not interested in "ensemble acting" at the moment.

Man! If they could have convinced those guys to be in it also I think the universe would have exploded. I'm surprised they didn't offer Kevin Costner a role ;-) (speaking of Costner, Russell Crowe is starring in another Robin Hood movie, it is on the list as well.)

Anyways, despite missing some cool 80's action stars the film will feature a bunch of butt kickers. Here are the names I recognized that actually WILL be in the movie.

Stallone
Jason Statham
Jet Li
Terry Crews (in a non-comedic role! that's a first for me)
Mickey Rourke
Willis
Schwarzenegger
Dolph Lundgren
Steve Austin

I'm sure it's going to be cheesy and I liked other 80's action stars more than Stallone but I'm glad he is doing this. Here is the trailer on youtube.com. I guess they are still trying to decide if it is going to be PG-13 or R. I think the cheesiness would be greatly increased if it goes PG-13. They compare the success of Live Free or Die Hard as a PG-13 cut as opposed to Stallone's rated R Rambo.

Daybreakers (Vampires as they should be, awesome and evil) with William DeFoe, Ethan Hawk, and Sam Neil
The Book of Eli (Denzel Washington in a post-apocalyptic Western, nuff said)
Clash of the Titans
Iron Man 2 (War Machine!!)
Predators (direct sequel to the 1987 action classic. with Topher Grace & Adrien Brody? odd casting IMO)
The A-Team
Toy Story 3 (just so you don't think I only like action movies)
Salt (a female Bourne Identity with Angelina Jolie)
Priest (Paul Bettany as a vampire-stomping Priest on a mission of revenge and rescue? Yes, please.)
Oobermind (Dreamworks animation with Will Ferral and Brad Pitt)
Tron Legacy
The Green Hornet (Seth Rogen)

The totalfilm list also has a few other flicks that look promising.

Poll

Does the Expendables make you smile in anticipation like I did when I heard about it? (actually, my mouth dropped open but now it's just a smile)

DLD 11/24/09 - Fine, I'll make another video game dump

micdog2001 — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 17:52:42 -0000

What is all this talk about baseball on this site? :-) I guess no one has the time to post a DLD. I would think someone who has mentally checked out for the short week at work would have posted one. Well, if I'm doing it then you get video games as a topic. I saw this on yahoo's video game blog.

Man marries video game character

**UPDATE** This link now has video of the "ceremony".

That is kind of pathetic IMO.

Continuing my thread of Nintendo consoles and my favorite games for them, I present the Gamecube! (GCN for short). I received the GCN as a birthday present and while I don't look back as fondly on it as the previous Nintendo consoles I still logged a lot of hours on it. I think that is mostly because I was older when I got it and it isn't really that old yet. I guess kids do have more fun. It was released November 2001, which sounds old but in the scheme of life isn't that long. (to save time, I will just copy some things straight from wikipedia. These take too long without doing that.)

The Nintendo GameCube Game Disc is the software storage medium for the Nintendo GameCube, created by Matsushita. Chosen to prevent unauthorized copying and to avoid licensing fees to the DVD Consortium, it is Nintendo's first non-cartridge storage method for consoles released outside of Japan

Those mini-discs were much easier to store and take with you to a friends house but that was about the only positive thing. Some games required 2 discs, like Medal of Honor: Rising Son.

The GameCube features two ports that accommodate memory cards for saving game data. The three official memory card sizes are: 59 blocks (4 Mbit/512 KB, grey card), 251 blocks (16 Mbit/2 MB, black), and 1019 blocks (64 Mbit/8 MB, white).

This was a nice feature, if you and your friend both had a game you could take your memory card with you and use it to load profiles and the like (excellent for MVP Baseball 2005's team rosters).

The MultiAV port is identical to the one used in Nintendo's earlier Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Nintendo 64 consoles, allowing most cables from these systems to be used interchangeably.

So if you were like me and you lost your AV cord for the SNES then you could use the GCN cord, sweet!

The regular gamecube controllers were great but during the GCN era Nintendo made one of the greatest controllers EVER. The Wavebird, a wireless remote that would work up to 20 ft away (some say 60-70 ft) even when not in direct line of sight. I think this was the first widely successful wireless remote and it has become an industry standard. It didn't have rumble but I didn't care.

The GameCube sold nearly 22 million units worldwide during its lifetime, lagging far behind the 140 million PlayStation 2 consoles sold. The GameCube finished its generation slightly behind the Xbox, which sold 24 million units before being discontinued. It also did not outsell its predecessor, the Nintendo 64, which sold almost 33 million units in its lifetime.

In September 2009, IGN named the GameCube the 16th best gaming console of all time.

I got a little worried near the end of the Gamecube's run that Nintendo was going to close or something. They were WAY behind Sony as you can see (although I'm surprised they were so close to the XBOX) and were kind of the laughing stock of the gaming community. I will get into the Nintendo Wii later but lets just say Nintendo is the one laughing now (even if the hardcore gaming community still hates them).

The number of games released for the console exceeds 600, with 208.56 million GameCube games sold as of June 30, 2008

That is 9.48 games per console sold. Not bad i guess. This will take a while but I will go through the 600 games and pick out my favorites. (note, my favorites, not the best overall games for the GCN) Oh, and before I get into the best I would just like to say the All-Star Baseball 2002 on the GCN was one of the worst baseball games ever. Ot was so unbalanced and I hated playing it, a disgrace to the franchise. On to my favs! In alphabetical order (well, except the games with sequels I put in chronological order once I got to their alphabetical spot)

Call of Duty 2: Big Red One (lack of multplayer sucked but good single player experience)
Dead to Rights (bullet time! and a canine companion)
Goldeneye: Rogue Agent (not even close to Goldeneye but I still enjoyed the powers of the cybernetic eye)
The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction(way better than the new Wii Hulk game)
James Bond 007: Nightfire (way better than Agent Under Fire and the World is Not Enough)
James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing (3rd person view game that featured a story made for the game only and Hollywood actors providing voices and their likeness to characters in the game. It also was the first Bond game with two-player cooperative mode, but not a true deathmatch mode.)
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (I never played Windwaker, not sure why)
Madden NFL (all the versions blend together, I only bought one GCN version)
Mario Kart: Double Dash
Mario Party 5 (more like a board game than a video game but I liked it because my girlfriend at the time and now wife actually played it with me. Just about the only GCN game we played together)
Mario Superstar Baseball (arcade type baseball but it combined my two favorite things, Nintendo and Baseball)
Medal of Honor: Front line (the first on many WWII FPSsfor Nintendo. It starts out with a huge bang, as you take part in the D-Day invasion. Great game, one of my all-time favorite games. It seemed a lot like the movie Saving Private Ryan)
Medal of Honor: Rising Sun (followed up with an equally awesome level of Pearl Harbor but the the game was poorly received by critics and gamers. A planned sequel were you play the brother of the main character in Rising Sun (you actually see your bro in a couple of the levels) was scrapped because of the negative reception)
Medal of Honor: European Assault (a nice recovery after Rising Sun. It featured an upgraded interface, HUD, and weapons)
Mega Man Anniversary Collection
Mega Man X Collection
Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes (a remake of the Playstation game but still great)
Metroid Prime (although I got sidetracked and never completed the game, it was still fun)
MLB Slugfest 03 or 04 (not as great as MVP but still kind of fun. Being on fire was cool)
MVP Baseball 2005 (greatest baseball game ever)
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (I barely played it but when I did it was good)
Resident Evil 4 (some say the best game overall on the GCN)
Robotech: Battlecry
Sonic Mega Collection
Soulcalibur II (The GCN version was the best because it had Link from Legend of Zelda as a playable character. Awesome game)
SSX Tricky
SSX 3
SSX On Tour
Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader
Super Mario Strikers (it got a little stale after a few games but ti was still fun)
Super Smash Bros. Melee (nice upgrade from the N64 version)
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2003 (great game, I never really played the next couple years installments)
TimeSplitters 2 (I LOVE this game. Great story, great characters with a ton to choose from in multiplayer, lots of unlockable content, great replay value, and it was funny)
TimeSplitters: Future Perfect (equally awesome, continued right where 2 left off)
True Crime: Streets of LA (some people complain this was a GTA clone but i can't say because I've never played a GTA game)

Wow, 34 games on this list. I don't remember spending that much time playing games and that doesn't count games I didn't list because I didn't really like them or the times I played other consoles at a friends house. Not surprising is that out of all 34 only 10 do not involve some type of violence (unless you count football and soccer, then there is only 8). I would like to say that I am not a violent person in real life. I have never even been in a real fight before. I have never shot a living thing (except with a paintball gun) although I do kill most common bugs without hesitation. I will admit to having some pent up aggression and anger, perhaps this is where I let some of that out.

Now to pull a top 5 from that list, oh boy this will be difficult. Edit - After making this list I had to change it to a top 10. After the top 3 I'm not sure if I keep this order, I just can't officially decide.

MVP Baseball 2005 (I played this a ton with my cousin and still bust it out when I feel the need for baseball in the off season. This is the last baseball game I purchased.)
Soul Caliber II (I unlocked every character, costume, and weapon)
Medal of Honor: Frontline (classic in my eyes)
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2003
James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing (co-op mode with my bro-in-law)
Timesplitters 2 (Future Perfect might have the edge in story, maybe, but I spent more time on multiplayer with 2)
Super Smash Bros. Melee
SSX 3
The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction
James Bond 007: Nightfire

OT: Does anyone know why the spellchecker thinks "with" is not a word?

Poll

Do you think I am a violent person because my favorite video games include so much violence?

Yes - You are a monster

5 votes

No - It's just a video game

19 votes

Debatable

2 votes

Perhaps you should try therapy?

0 votes

You kill bugs? Murderer!

4 votes

30 votes | Poll has closed

DLD 11/17/09 - Nintendo 64 and a Nerd's top 10 Epic Movie Fights

micdog2001 — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 05:46:40 -0000

Inspired by Sunday's release of the New Super Mario Bros. Wii, I will continue in my "series" of Nintendo console DLD's. If you didn't see in the last DLD, here was the "premiere" of the game in NYC. BUT I will save the Wii for another Daily Dump, keep your Wii discussions to "should I buy one" only. We can go in depth IF you want later.

Next up is the Nintendo 64. Ah 1996, such a good year :-)

I don't think I purchased my N64 until 1997 but I could be wrong. My older cousin owned it first and he would invite my friends and I over to play it and we would stay up all night playing. Obviously I wanted my own but I did want to sell my SNES for it. The N64 would be the first Nintendo system I actually paid for all by myself. My Dad owns a small construction company (he built a house for Rita Moreno in the Oakland hills a few years ago. That hill was steep and digging holes on it for planting trees and carrying the dirt up the hill in buckets SUCKED! I had a giant purple bruise on my bicep after that day but anyways) and I worked a couple weeks for him in the summer demoing the back of a house in San Francisco with my cousin. I used my nepotistic salary to purchase the new 3D Nintendo system, an extra controller, and Star Fox 64. Even though Super Mario 64 was a launch game and revolutionary, I never bought it. The N64 was the first Nintendo console to feature a analog control stick as the main way to control your character. In fact, I can barely remember using the directional pad (D-Pad) for anything except in fighting games? It also was the first Nintendo console to have 4 controller ports, come if different colors, feature controller extensions like the rumble pack and controller pack memory card, and it was the last home console to feature game cartridges instead of discs (to reduce piracy and give it faster load times). It sold well in North America but it wasn't as popular in Japan or other regions. It has been speculated the reason was the lack of role-playing games. The ability to have up to 4 people playing a the same time in some games was probably its biggest selling point IMO. I think it was the first home console ever to come standard with more than 2 controller ports. My greatest memories of playing the N64 were 4 player matches in Goldeneye and Mario Kart 64. Here is my list of the best Nintendo 64 games in alphabetical order;

**UPDATE** As JediLeroy pointed out, this isn't a best of N64 list but rather "My personal favorite N64 games"

All Star Baseball 2001 (the last good ASB game)
Army Men: Sarge's Heroes
BattleTanx:Global Assault
F-Zero X (not as good as the original but Death Match was a cool addition)
Forsaken (this only makes my list b/c of the multiplayer)
Goldeneye (one of my all time favorite games)
Jet Force Gemini (I always think of Huey Lewis and the News with this game because I listened to them while playing it)
Killer Instinct Gold (Ultimate Combo! I liked this way better than Mortal Kombat)
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (One of my all time favs and one of the best games ever made {after I finish the console DLDs I will do a best video game ever Link Dump})
Mario Kart 64 (only on the list because my cousin liked it and we had a lot of group races and battles.)
NBA Hangtime (basically an improved version of NBA Jam. Alley-oops and double dunks baby!)
NFL Blitz (now this is NOT the No Fun League)
Perfect Dark (basically goldeneye in a different universe. It had more multiplayer features like computers player with multiple personalities, and customizable weapon modes but somehow Goldeneye still holds an edge over it)
Rainbow Six (a port of a PC game but still cool. more "realistic" FPS)
Star Fox 64 (The rumblepack came bundled with the game)
Super Mario 64
Super Smash Bros. (classic nintendo characters fighting each other? SWEET!)
Turok: Dinosuar Hunter (There were some awesome weapons in this game but parts where you had to jump were difficult)
Worms Armageddon (technically I never played this on the N64 but the PC version was great)

In homage to the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, one of the game weapons is a Holy Hand Grenade, with a sound-effect reminiscent of the Hallelujah chorus from Handel's Messiah.

My personal top 5 Nintendo 64 games.

And finally, I promised a top ten list of epic movie fights. These are the rules set forth by the editor.

All of the movies on this list have fight scenes that last over five minutes, consist of thousands of dollars of collateral damage, break bones, bust skulls and make our eyes bleed from sheer awesomeness.

I have never seen or heard of John Carpenter's They Live before. I might have to add that to my blockbuster movie queue.

Poll

Should I rent "They Live"?

Yes - Good action/horror flick

8 votes

Yes - Guilty Pleasure - It's good because it's bad

11 votes

No - Lame movie

2 votes

Don't bother, you have seen the best scene

0 votes

I've never seen it either

15 votes

36 votes | Poll has closed

Lunch time DLD 11/13/09 - Lets all move to the moon!

micdog2001 — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:41:27 -0000

So apprently letting spacecrafts slam into the moon was a good idea. Nasa found water on the moon.

"It's very exciting, it is painting a new image of the moon," said Gregory Deloy, from the University of California hailing it as "an extraordinary discovery."

He theorized that "one of the possible source of water is a comet."

If you are hoping to join NASA and go to the moon anytime soon, I have some bad news.

But NASA's ambitious plans to put US astronauts back on the moon by 2020 to establish manned lunar bases for further exploration to Mars under the Constellation project are increasingly in doubt.

NASA's budget is currently too small to pay for Constellation's Orion capsule, a more advanced and spacious version of the Apollo lunar module, as well as the Ares I and Ares V launchers needed to put the craft in orbit.

mlbtraderumors.com has a Offseason Outlook series and this week they are examining the San Fransisco Giants.

I can't believe the Giants have $39.5 million tied up to Barry Zito, Aaron Rowand, and Edgar RentabadSS. Those are some sucky contracts. But at least they are getting some production out those players unlike the A's and their $12 million dollar veteran of the DL.

Lebron James called this "probably one of the top 10 dunks of all time".

Meh, it looked allright but I don't think I will be remembering it in a few years.

Anybody going to see 2012 today? My wife loves disaster movies so we will be there for the 7:10 showing. In honor of the premiere yahoo.com has this article/slideshow.

The Worst Places to Live (if you live in a disaster movie)

I liked this paragraph

The Big Apple has certainly seen its fair share of cinematic calamities, but they seem to only ever hit Manhattan. Tidal waves never engulf Queens, aliens never trash Staten Island, and 50-story marshmallow monsters never stroll through the Bronx. So if you're living in NYC and you find yourself in a disaster movie, our suggestion is move to the outer boroughs.

The last 3 cities only had 1 movie each, untapped potential don't you think? Writers need to start branch out to other cities. When is Boston going to be destroyed? A lot of commenters are mad about the article slamming Baltimore. They were just trying to be funny. Chill out!

Oh, don't forget to check out the last couple links post on the 11/11/09 DLD today and last night.

Poll

Are you goin to see 2012 this weekend?

Yes - I like disaster movies

6 votes

No - I don't want to spend $10 to see LA destroyed

28 votes

Too busy, maybe next weekend

7 votes

My signifigant other is making me go

1 votes

42 votes | Poll has closed

Vote For A's relievers!

micdog2001 — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:22:03 -0000

Vote For A's relievers!

Andrew Bailey is up for Best Rookie and Michael Wuertz is up for best set-up man. They are the only A's up for any of the votes.

DLD 10/28/09 - Nintendo continued + a few other links

micdog2001 — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:05:31 -0000

I was suprised at the amount of comments about video games in the last DLD (it's been 5 days and no one else has posted one?) and I only talked about the NES. I really wanted to go on to some of the other Nintendo systems, I guess if no one minds I will keep going. And for the people who are tired of video games I have a couple other links to provide.

I also wanted to congratulate myself on passing 3000 comments. Yay.

First the non-video game links.

Andre Agassi did crystal meth in the late 90's

He tested positve for the drug but claimed that he accidently drank my his assistants spiked soda and the ATP believed him.

Former Celtics star Antoine Walker is broke

Honestly I don't feel sorry for him. Sure he built his Mom a house, with a full size basketball court and 10 bathrooms. Who needs 10 bathrooms? Sure he gave money to friends but he also bought

Two Bentleys, two Mercedes, a Range Rover, a Cadillac Escalade, a bright red Hummer. Often, the vehicles were tricked out with custom paint jobs, rims, and sound systems at considerable added expense. He also collected top-line watches — Rolexes and diamond-encrusted Cartiers."

He might have been generous but he was also stupid.

America's safest cities (according to forbes)

FAA revokes licenses of wayward Northwest pilots

I wasted a lot of time on a laptop and lost track of time but this is ridiculous.

And now to my main topic. The second video game console released by Nintendo was the Super Nintendo Entertainment System or SNES. Released in late 1991 the new system was just as popular as the NES. The graphics were better, the controller was better, and you didn't have to blow into the cartridge to make the game work. I believe this was the time the console wars began between Nintendo and Sega. You were either a Mario fan or a Sonic the Hedgehog fan. Mario was definitly the winner, back then and now. The dial on my love for video games was turned to 11 with this system. Here are my favorite SNES games.

Actraiser
Breath Of Fire (you could become a dragon!)
Chrono Trigger (huge RPG)
Contra III: The Alien Wars
Cybernator
Donkey Kong Country (awesome graphics for its time) {I won't bother with the SNES sequels, same games new characters)
F-Zero (practically invented the "futuristic racing" sub-genre of video gaming)
Final Fight
Ken Griffey, Jr.'s Winning Run (name inspired by 1995 ALDS between Seattle and New York)
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (one of the greats)
Mega Man X
NBA Jam - Tournament Edition ( I didn't own the original)
Star Fox (it used the Super FX chip, oohh-ahhh)
Super Street Fighter II Turbo (This was the verison I owned)
Super Mario Kart (not as fast as F-Zero but this had items and battle mode)
Super Mario RPG (the last Mario game for the SNES)
Super Mario World
Super Metroid (this was a classic, one of the best SNES games)
Super Punch Out!! (way better than the original IMHO)
TMNT : Turtles in Time
TMNT : Tournament Fighters (Street Fighter rip-off but it had the turtles!)
Uniracers

There are a few popular games that I didn't list because I didn't really play them. I'm sure someone will bring them up. I have 6 games on the list that start with "Super", the title of the system made naming game sequels easy. In all I counted 71 games for the SNES that started with "Super". My top 5 SNES games would have to be. (mostly based on how much I played them)

Legend of Zelda:A Link to the Past
Super Metroid
Super Street Fighter II Turbo
F-Zero
Mega Man X

It was tough to make that list. I'm not sure if I wouldn't change a few names or switch them around. What's your top 5?

Anyways, I better get back to work before I get fired.

Braves: Tim Hudson discuss multi year deal

micdog2001 — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:06:37 -0000

Braves: Tim Hudson discuss multi year deal

Looks like Hudson will not become a free agent.

McGwire to Join St. Louis Cardinals as hitting Coach

micdog2001 — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:22:23 -0000

I saw Tony La Russa's press conference on MLB Network this morning and he is coming back as the manager of the Cardinals next season. But the bigger news is that he is going to have Mark McGwire be the hitting coach.

MLB.com article

McGwire did not attend the press conference but the media had a lot of questions about him. I wonder if this will be a distraction for the Cardinals? Maybe only in the begining of Spring Training. I also wonder if Holliday had anything to do with this or if this makes St. Louis a more interesting choice for Holliday to sign a multi-year deal with? LaRussa has always been a big supporter and fan of McGwire so it's unlikley Holliday had anything to do with it.

The A's will be in St. Louis June 18th - 20th in 2010 but they will not host the Cardinals in Oakland.

Rob Neyer Blogged about McGwire

ESPN article with video

Buster Olney has a suggestion for Mark but it's insider only

Poll

Will McGwire succed as a hitting coach in the major leagues?

Yes

17 votes

No

26 votes

He will only coach until LaRussa retires

15 votes

A's hitting coach 2012!

7 votes

He will be a manager some day

3 votes

68 votes | Poll has closed