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Hello, there is not much going on in the world of Manchester United today.  It’s such a slow news day that there isn’t even a token Hargreaves story.  Yeah, it’s that slow.

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As both TO and Jose apologize on the same day. 

From SI.com

Owens, who was fined $35,000 by the NFL, kept trying to contact Hall, the Falcons’ star cornerback. Former Atlanta and Dallas player Deion Sanders finally convinced Hall to take a three-way telephone call on Monday.

Hall said Wednesday that the feud is over.

“We had a pretty good conversation,” Hall said. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s over. We got it all out, cleared it all out. It’s over.” (Link)

From the Guardian

During his two years in English football, sorry has usually been the hardest word for Jose Mourinho. Today, however, the Chelsea manager issued an unprecedented apology for insinuating that Andy Johnson was a diver following their 3-2 win against Everton on Sunday. (Link)

One has to wonder if George Karl will contact Isiah Thomas tonight as well.

Sorry about not posting on Monday, would you believe I was busy at work?  For today we have Sunday’s recap, Tim Howard, new edition, and of course, token Owen rumor.  It all about Man United, here we go.

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The Philadelphia Inquirer has the story of a trainer who after being head-butted by a horse notices his once lost vision has been restored. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Recently, Karkos was fiercely head-butted by a 4-year-old pacer named My Buddy Chimo while he was getting the horse ready to be jogged by trainer John Gilmour.

The force of the blow sent Karkos backward into the stall wall and left him woozy. He told people he had never been struck with such force - except for that explosion while in the Navy.

Later that day, while rubbing his left eye, Karkos realized he had regained some of his vision in his right eye. 

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Hello again, as you might have guessed the early update did not happen, sorry about that.  Today is going to be all about Champions League, smack talking, token, and everything else Manchester United. Here we go.

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Greetings, today is all about lists, contracts, token rumor mention, its all Man United, here we go.

TOP 5

Apart from being knighted, winning the treble, and being Scottish, Sir Alex and myself are a lot alike, we both love “top 5” lists.  Ferguson named his all time top 5 “world class” players today. Names include Peter Schmeichel, Wayne Rooney, Ryan Giggs, Roy Keane, and the great Eric Cantona.  It’s hard to argue with a list like that.  Think anyone got unfairly left out?  Post a comment on who and why you think they should be included. 

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With two teams, the Cubs and Red Sox, each spending around 200 million dollars this off-season there are many questions about Baseball’s finances.  The main one of course being: Where is all this money coming from?  After all television ratings have been declining for years and owners are constantly claiming their franchises loose money.  I’ve recently come across a few articles which attempt to explain why contracts are up despite the feeling that the sport is declining in popularity.

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Coming up the title chase heats up, lots of rumors and everything else Manchester United, here we go.

CHELSEA VS. NEWCASTLE

Chelsea keeps the title race tight with a win over Newcastle today.  Jose Mourinho really is an elite coach.  The move to bring Drogba and Makelele off the bench at halftime, utter brilliance.  Few coach’s have the foresight and timing to see world class players on the bench and decide to put them in, again, brilliant.  Anyway, Manchester United’s lead now stands at five points and they are even in games played.  All signs point to this race going down to the wire. 
 

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How do I say goodbye to what we had?
The good times that made us laugh
Outweigh the bad.

I don’t know where this road
Is going to lead
All I know is where we’ve been
And what we’ve been through.

If we get to see tomorrow
I hope it’s worth all the wait
It’s so hard to say goodbye to yesterday.

It’s a sad day in St. Louis as Rick Ankiel becomes a free agent.

Because there is no real news today, I’m going to keep it short and sweet.

TIME OFF

After a demanding last couple of weeks, the team has been given three days off for rest this week.  I have been jaded a little by the Bengals, so keep an ear out for the police scanner, and hope no one gets arrested.

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I’m trying to make a Ben Wallace image similar to the Kobe 24-8.   Currently this is what I have come up with. 

This week (12/11/06) we have several teams taking a dive this week in the rankings due to losses. Alabama, Texas A&M, Butler, and Nevada all dropped at least 5 spots this week. Maryland, Xavier, and Syracuse dropped out this week which made room for the newcomers, Oklahoma State, Notre Dame, and Clemson.

The rankings are comprised using the Coaches Poll, AP Poll, Sagarin Computer Rankings, Moore Computer Rankings, Pomeroy Computer Rankings, Colley Computer Rankings, and the RPI.

PROLOGUE

Welcome to the first installment of the of the Status Quo.  This blog will be a fan’s perspective of any and all things Manchester United.  This is my first such endeavor, so please bear with me.  Let’s get right into it…

DERBY DAY

Saturday marked the latest installment of the Manchester Derby with Manchester City visiting Old Trafford.  Wayne Rooney wasted no time and bagged a goal 6 minutes into the contest.  Louis Saha and Cristiano Ronaldo also joined in as United rolled to a 3-1 victory.  It’s always nice to get a win from a cross-town rival. 

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Top five musical crimes perpetuated by Stevie Wonder in the ’80s and ’90s. Go. Sub-question: is it in fact unfair to criticize a formerly great artist for his latter day sins, is it better to burn out or fade away?

For Stevie Wonder that question might not be so easily answered. When it comes to Dale Murphy’s Hall of Fame credentials it appears as though the answer to that age old pop culture question is much more obvious.

So why is it that Dale Murphy is the only HOF eligible player in history to win 2 NL MVP awards and not be in Cooperstown?

How is it that he was arguably the best player in the sport during the 80’s but isnt considered to be one of the best players of all time?

From 1980 to 1990 the Murph was named to the NL Allstar team 7 times, won 2 MVP’s, 5 Gold Gloves and 4 Silver Slugger awards. He led the league in homeruns, RBI and slugging twice. He also lead the league in base pct., total bases, walks and runs scored. He had 12 - 20 homerun seasons, 6 - 30 homerun seasons, 1- 40 homerun season, 5 - 100 RBI seasons and 4 - 100 runs scored seasons. From 1982-1985 he did not miss a single game. He finished his career with 398 career homeruns.

Many experts agree that the two homeruns he finished shy of 400 might be the only thing keeping him out of Cooperstown. Sure in this day and age of chemically inflated offensive numbers 400 homers is not the benchmark it once was. However, a sub 400 hr career didnt prevent Tony Perez, Orlando Cepeda, Ralph Kiner, Joe DiMaggio, Hank Greenberg, Johnny Bench and Carlton Fisk from being inducted.

Is it fair to punish the greatest player in baseball for nearly a decade because in his last six seasons he only hit as high as .252 once? Did Stevie Wonder get left out of the Rock and Roll hall of fame in ‘89 despite not having a top ten hit for 4 years? I’ll save you a Google..the answer is no.

Would Murphy be in the Hall of Fame if he had retired six years earlier, had he turned his back on the love of the sport and his competitive desire to continue playing? Would he be in the Hall if he could Mr. 3000 it back to the 80’s, catch a stiffer wind and send two more deep flies on out of the park? The answer to that is irrelevant, because what he did accomplish was good enough.

So, is it in fact better to burn out or fade away? I guess it all depends on whether you are holding a ballot for Cleveland or Cooperstown.

In reference to yesterday’s post. Here is a mock tee-shirt of the 24/8 concept.