Longhornmaniac8

I often wonder what bullshit @mop is thinking about these days. He had two brain cells and they were fighting over third place.

No way I'm commuting to ATL when I can drive to IAH. Also it'd take 15 years to reach top 50% seniority at DL and at my age I'd never crack top 10%. Probably would never hold widebody captain. Especially at the rate DL gives their long haul flying to their JV partners.

I have one trip left at Republic, then off to United next month. Had CJOs at AA, DL, and UA but decided on UA since it offers the best combination of bases and seniority. Always appreciated your help early on. Seems like a lifetime ago and also yesterday.

This isn't true. The outer taxilane is wingspan restricted and VS is too large for it. Narrowbodies may be able to do it but no chance for a heavy.

Anyone have 2 reserved tickets for our game tonight?

I don't have any animosity toward small-market teams or new teams (on the complete contrary). Tampa Bay, as an example, has done an excellent job of building that franchise up from basically nothing. They lean on their player development. So, too, did the Astros in 2017, with a couple of well-placed acquisitions. It's not about big vs. small. When Leicester won the PL, it was one of the greatest stories in sports history. The issue is when a team is just able to decide that they're a big team now simply because they can afford it. There was no growth. No perseverance. No overcoming long odds to win and earn their spot at the top. They literally just bought a championship contender out of thin air. None of City's titles are special because they had unlimited capital to invest in world-class players. Look at the other big clubs in England and see how many of their players are products of their academy. You can't remotely say the same thing for City. That's the distinction to me. At the end of the day, each of the successful clubs in England developed into a successful club. They didn't just become one overnight like City has.

It's kind of the chicken or the egg argument to me. Now, undeniably, Madrid had considerable advantages domestically because of their association to the Crown. But it's perfectly understandable that previous success begets more money/opportunity, and it's off that early success that Madrid (indeed, all the major clubs in the world) has become a staple at the top of the footballing world. At some point Madrid had to start winning or they'd be no different than any of the other Real teams in Spain. And that success has created La Fabrica and the entire identity of the Club, not just top side team. Real Madrid is a sporting club, much like Barcelona. They compete in multiple sports domestically and across Europe. City was a mid-table/bottom tier side until Abu Dhabi bought them. Then almost overnight, they became one of the best teams in the world. That's nothing to be proud of, and it should be chastized, IMO. Their only identity was being "Noisy Neighbors" to United prior to Abu Dhabi's money.

Asensio is doing work up top preventing City from locking it in the Madrid half. He's playing his heart out right now and has won Madrid the ball a couple of times in the second half of extra time when he was the only Blanco up there.

Madrid also has an enormous, established academy and a solid handful of current players also came up from their reserve squad, including Casemiro, Vini, Rodrygo, Valverde, in addition to academy products Carvajal, Nacho, and Lucas Vasquez. As I said, all the major clubs are spending money. But City is the notable standout from buying their way to prosperity. All the other big clubs were already big before this era of spend.

City has absolutely zero club identity outside of their money. They are trying to buy titles on a scale that sports has never seen before. Even if I weren't a Madrid fan, I could never support anything like that. I know all the major clubs everywhere are spending ridiculous amounts of money, but City were a literal nobody until Abu Dhabi came in. This isn't a team rising up through grit and hard work. They were bought. Fuck them. Hala Madrid!

This was my first exposure to John, and god damn was it a glorious one. I wasn't even hungry, and he slapped down an enormous beef rib on my plate and I just kinda walked around, not really knowing what to do with it. But holy shit was it something else. I made my way around to his 6th and Pedernales and Black Box spots. He's absolutely a BBQ legend, flaws and all. I've always said (and it seems like many here agree) that when he was on, he was the best in the business. He didn't have the consistency of some others in the area, but his highest was higher than theirs. Clearly he was a troubled man, and I hope he is finally at peace.

Lance Blanks

I mean hey. Whatever you're into dude.

I am 100% ok with Lowell doing a Timmeh every time Allen does something.

At what point can I start feeling bad for New Orleans?