Octopus of Odstock

Note the

But you criticised all three, when I listed them, as being "too sexy".

BBC Report of his passing Very, very sad news.

According to this site, 52

...if someone dies at the end of the year, but it is not announced until the following year? Examples include Sir Anthony Meyer, who died on Christmas Eve 2004, but was not announced by the family until the 8th January 2005, or to use a New Year's Eve/Day example, Elliot Richardson, whose death, IIRC, was announced about the 2nd Jan 2000, but he died on the 31st December. Eileen Heckart was another one recently. Do deathpools & the DL credit them as a death in the current year or do they amend their previous years results?? I.E. if someone carks it tomorrow (NYE) & it's announced 1st Jan, what is the decision? A fresh hit or a last hit for the old year?? This has puzzled me for years, as there hasn't been, so far, an example of it actually happening in a DP.

Hal Lynch, frequent charactor actor in TV westerns in the US, has committed suicide.

Oh c'mon MIB! Shoko Asahara, Allen Carr, Fidel Castro, Lansana Conte, Charlie Drake, Freddie Fender, Mark Felt, Alan Freeman, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Estelle Getty, Lee Hazlewood, Jesse Helms, Jack Kevorkian, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Maurice Papon, Ferenc Puskas, Bobby Robson, Yitzhak Shamir, Ariel Sharon, Jeremy Thorpe All exciting candidates in terms of health or execution. Then we have: Brooke Astor, Harold Pinter, Suharto, Lady Bird Johnson, Gerald Ford, Kurt Waldheim, Billy Graham, Muhammad Ali, Charlton Heston & George Melly already. Hey presto, 30 exciting candidates, all with as good a chance as boring boring Upward.

Right, here I go 1 Babe Ruth (cos my sister is called Ruth) 2 Lou Gehrig (cos of the disease) 3 Monty Stratton (cos of Jimmy Stewart) 4 Bill Dickey (likewise) 5 Joe di Maggio (cos of Marilyn Monroe) 6 Hank Aaron (cos of Atlanta based family) 7 Ron Santo (cos of CP) 8 Mickey Mantle (cos of a song by Billy Joel) 9 Mark McGwire (drugs & lots of runs) 10 Sammy Sosa (Olympics, I think) 11 Ted Williams 12 Jackie Robinson (black) 13 Ted Radcliffe (DDP) 14 Yogi Berra (cos of the cartoon) 15 Roger Clemens (don't know why, think he has a similar name to someone I know) Err.. that's it. I could not tell you who they played for, though, apart from Aaron (Atlanta Braves). I think Ruth & Gehrig were NY Yankees? and that, my friends (and enemies), is my entire baseball knowledge. I am not sure if I have missed out on a lot, or not. Who can tell? I shall now leave this thread & its baseball & religious chat & pursue interests elsewhere on this fora. Godspeed

Well said that man. Edward Upward is even more boring than Ingmar Bergman and that's saying something. We have tons of good exciting candidates for next year, it's up to DL if they choose any or if they choose people more boring than Welsh Assembly - LIVE - 24 hour rolling coverage.

Told you I didn't know much. That made the news over here. As did his drugs scandal. Okay, Lou Gehrig and Bill Dickey. Think I've got the names right. CP keeps mentioning Ron Santo - is he basebally? I am seeing if I can name 20 baseballers. If I can, I will feel a sense of accomplishment.

When Dennis Hopper gets decapitated in Speed. (or Speed 2, I can never remember) Or when Alec Guiness dies in Bridge of the River Kwai & in doing so, blows the bridge up. Or John Wayne's glorious death in the Shootist, his last film. Or Alec Guiness again in Star Wars, as is Yoda's. Pure Jedi to the last. These are just five I remember. I'm sure there are many more if I put my mind to it.

I think 32 would impress me more, for a global point of view. But the rest of your argument is concise and fair. Don't get me wrong, I don't dislike baseball at all, it's just the claim that it's globally more popular than soccer. I have no idea who your favourite team is but I wish them well. Oh I realised I have also heard of Mickey Mantle & Mick McGuire.

Well, lets look at the global viewing figures for sporting events shall we? About as close to a poll as we can get. The following table is cited from an article in the Media Guardian on Dec 23, 2004, titled "Euro final tops TV sports league": 1. Football: Euro 2004 final Portugal v Greece 153 million 2. Olympic Games: opening ceremony 127 million 3. Olympic Games: closing ceremony 96 million 4. American football: Super Bowl 95 million 5. Olympic Games: men's 100m metres 87 million 6. Olympic Games: men's 200m freestyle swimming 66 million 7. Formula one: Monaco grand prix 59 million 8. Football: Champions League final Porto v Monaco 56 million 9. Basketball: NBA finals 25 million 10.= Tennis: Wimbledon women's singles final 21 million 10.= Tennis: Wimbledon men's singles final 21 million 12. Cycling: Tour de France final stage 16 million 13.= Football: FA Cup final Millwall v Man Utd 9 million 13.= Horseracing: Grand National 9 million 15. Rowing: University Boat Race 5 million Initiative collected data from 57 major TV markets, accounting for over 90% of TV households globally. I would say a mix of both. Maybe more American-ish when not an Olympic year, perhaps, but not dominating - definitely not. Baseball not in the top 15, by the way.

Baseball is everywhere, but the UK. Pretty much. How come only the US & Canada are represented in the World Series then? That I've never understood. If something is a "World" series, it should involve the World. I don't think baseball IS played EVERYWHERE. It has been dropped by the International Olympic Committee for being too American. Also, only 8 countries played Olympic baseball in 2004. Yep, 8. So, not quite pretty much everywhere. But it seems jolly enough on TV. I think I can see why Americans would like it. But I watched a game once in St. Petersburg, Florida, when on holiday. Think it was Pittsburgh Pirates(??) on a pre-season tour? I found it terribly long & boring. Too many stops, not enough action or pace. I enjoyed (and still do) gridiron & ice hockey, however so I'm not anti-american sports. I don't like cricket either, so maybe it's just the whole set-up. Tempus, apologies for extending this discussion, but hopefully, even if BS won't start a thread, someone will & this will all get moved.

Tempus, I just told you don't take any offense. I enjoy talking about baseball and so does a few others, I get good humor out of some members, there silence since they haven't got a clue what were talking about. Then start a generic baseball thread, like MPFC was forced to start a football thread because his mentioning of Carlisle in every post pissed everyone off. That also wouldn't be such a bad idea from a DL point of view because then you can all talk about old or ill baseballers for future DP selection. All I know about baseball is the following - Babe Ruth, Joe di Maggio, Monty Stratton, Hank Aaron and the World Series is a complete misnomer as there's only two nations represented.

Oh, it's baseball they're talking about? Didn't have a F*****g clue what all the above meant. Who the F**k is Torre or Randy? A-Rod? I thought Subway Series was a special sandwich offer. Can't see what all the fuss is about anyway. It's just rounders tarted up.

Celtic-American, I guess, if such a thing exists...

So f****ng what, I'm Welsh. Try putting spin on a 5-1 home defeat. (In other news - England dire. Scotland & N. Ireland magnificent. Rep. Ireland, Spain & Belgium shite.) Thank goodness my club side keep me happy, 'cos that's another 4 years (at least) I have to wait to see my nation in a finals tournament.

Yeah, spot on. But you bloody Yanks haven't heard of Ferenc Puskas, or have even heard of the sport was a legend in, so methinks the scores are tied.

I think Moss is one of those that falls into a generation gap awareness. I'd imagine between 1961-1974, she was extremely well known, but as she fell out (rather spectactulary too) of the limelight, she became forgotten. I've never heard of her, for the simple reason that by the time I started watching television (1980 onwards), she'd already disappeared off our TV screens.

I couldn't think of anywhere else I could put this information, so here goes. Pessotto is out of hospital, has quit his Juve job, moved out of Turin and is living in the countryside with his brother, running a local pizzeria. Health back to normal, mind back to normal as well, it seems. Even if you had Pessotto down as an outside bet, it's worth deleting that of the lists - it looks as if he'll be fine.

Grandprix.com is good, but not perfect. Vittorio Jano also committed suicide, and Maurice Phillippe & someone else whose name I can't recall (and maybe Colin Chapman too????? That's one for the conspiracy theorists). So, if you're going to choose a motor racing suicide, choose a team boss or car designer, rather than a driver. Both Wiki and two very highly regarded research web sites, Stats F1 & Old Racing Cars - WATN? say it's suicide. My Argentine friend said it was in the obituaries that followed his death that business pressures had been very "intense" shortly before his death and he looked "like a ghost" the last time old friend Menditeguy saw him but was in perfect health. My money's on the suicide theory.

No he wasn't, Jorge Daponte did too. Others further down the ladder have also done so (de Vinuesa), as well as a fair few Indianapolis 500 drivers. My great-grandmother also committed suicide, but she wasn't a sportsman. She, was, however at the end of tether with a drunken husband who beat her, nine kids (one of whom was disabled) and the stigma of not being a "perfect" wife (by not standing by her husband 100%) in small, narrow-minded Welsh village. Quite frankly, though it must have utterly devastated my Gran, I admire her for having the courage to go through with it. Great-Grandad got his just desserts 8 yrs later. Walking home one night, thoroughly pissed, he walked in front of a car & was squished. So, I descended from a serial wife beating boozer & a mentally unstable lady. Says it all really....

Earlier the discussion veered to Cuban leader's wives. However, there was one we missed, probably as we had no idea she was still alive - President Batista's widow. Anyway, she is no more.

Coffee, Cigars & Sex "key to long life"