Sir Clinksalot

^ But Baseball is the "American Pastime". I think we all have teams we root for that have bad streaks, and extended ones at that. I guess the only team that I kind of root for that hasn't had that issue is the Lakers. But since I don't like Kobe (at all) it doesn't impact me much if they do bad. I don't typically start watching Basketball until the playoffs anyway (unlike Baseball, Hockey and Football). So what did everybody think of last nights games? Yankees/Orioles - I love how everybody is suddenly back on the Yankees bandwagon. They had 2 good hits. If you watch the rest of the game the Yankees could do absolutely NOTHING against the Orioles pitching. Hopefully the O's can put together a full game today, I'd like to see Dave get to an ALCS game (and of course see the Yankees lose). A's/Tigers - Wow. Being out here on the Left Coast we've seen the A's totally defy odds this season and even though I like the Angels it's been very impressive to see. They are going to have a tough time with Verlander tonight but since the game is in Oakland and not Detroit they certainly have a chance. Cardinals/Nationals - Don't even know what to say about what they will be calling the "Borras Curse" in Washington for the next 80 years. I'm not going to go as far to say the Nationals would have won if Strasburg was pitching but I think we'd be looking at a much different series. Just sad for the other guys on the team to work their ass off all season and have an agent and GM have so much control over a particular player. Giants/Reds - I thought the Giants were done for. Wished the Giants were done for. Hope they are done for today. A home team has to win at least one game this series right? As a baseball fan I make it a priority to watch the World Series every year. But I'm going to say it now ... if it's Giants/Yankees in the WS I won't be watching. One last thing ... I work from home and I absolutely love it. But there is no better time to be working from home each year than during the baseball divisional series and the NCAA Tourney. So nice to have my TV positioned so I can see it from my office.

I'm glad you added "one of the few spots" because this insistence of people who say it's the only place you can do this strikes me as elitist and it's obviously wrong.

The Jets/Texans game beat the Yankees Game Monday night in EVERY market except for NYC, New Haven and Baltimore. Nobody outside of NY cares about the Yankees and most are sick of them (myself included).

I don't think the Pirates are going anywhere. Isn't their stadium only about a decade old? So let's get into the game going on right now. Nationals have their first home playoff game in a million years or something and are currently down 4-0 while a perfectly healthy Stephen Strasburg is sidelined. I simply don't understand this rationale. I understand sitting him for the end of the regular season when their playoff berth/division title was WELL in hand. But in the Playoffs, you need to bring him back. This type of thing doesn't happen every day as fans in Washington should know. I'm just surprised there isn't more talk about this. Also, what does everybody feel about the Nationals being relegated to a 1pm start on the east while the Yankees (as always) are in Primetime. I think this game should have been in primetime personally. Not because I can't watch (I have it on now) but for the fans in Washington who deserve to be able to see this.

^ If the lack of "Great" coasters was the only consideration in moving I would have done so a LONG time ago.

Honestly, I don't care for these "You aren't allowed to complain because you live among lots of parks" argument. Yes, it's true. SoCal has a lot of parks, some great parks, some great rides. If you like what SoCal has, then guess what ... MOVE HERE!!! In the meantime, we are free to complain all we want.

So what does everybody think of this whole "Cheering the injured QB" thing in KC. I've always considered KC fans to be some of the best in the league as far as commitment to their team is concerned. I see a lot of people trying to say they weren't cheering Cassell being injured but cheering Quinn coming in (why would you do that?). My thought is, the perception among the players was that they were cheering the injury, that's all that matters IMO. I also felt they were cheering him getting hurt, which is terrible. Some other talking heads have been trying to excuse the behavior because the team is terrible. Uhm, there are LOTS of terrible teams. Yes, you can boo the team, you can boo the coach, the owner, etc. But to cheer an injury, just sad.

EVERY team has bad times, bad seasons. Yes, 20 years is a long time but your team is your team is your team is your team. Period. My Dodgers haven't won a WS in 24 years. Even the one year they made the NLCS we all pretty much knew that team wasn't good enough or special enough. And because of what happened with Manny and McCourt afterwards we were all pretty happy they didn't win and have a tainted championship. My 49ers were TERRIBLE for more than a decade. TERRIBLE!!! I never once wavered in my support of the team. Each person has to approach these things in their own way, but I could never betray one of my top 3 teams (49ers, LA Kings, Dodgers). Sure, with the whole McCourt thing a lot of us refused to go to Dodger Stadium but that doesn't mean we ever stopped supporting the team.

For movies and things like Roller Coasters in the RAW it's definitely Blu Ray. I have been streaming a lot but not on the computer but via the PS3. If you can get these on Netflix or Hulu that'd be awesome!!!! If I had appleTV I'd probably go the streaming route as well.

Most schools are off that full week now. I know our local schools are.

^ I don't think it's possible due to that whole "center of gravity" thing.

Full Throttle technically has 3 (ish) inversions and Helix has what looks like 5 so it's not that many. However, If you look at the layout of Helix, it is NOT the same multi-inversion type ride as everything else at SFMM that is JUST inversions and no "ride" in between. If you look at the multi-inversion rides at SFMM (Viper, Batman, Scream) they are mostly JUST inversions. There really is only one multi-inversion ride at SFMM that contains "some" kind of layout other than Inversions (Riddlers) but the ride suffers from being a Stand-Up. I maintain that if Riddlers was a sit-down coaster instead of a stand-up it'd probably be one of the best coasters around. The issue at hand here is NOT that Full Throttle has inversions, it's just another example of (like Mechanic said), SFMM going for a "gimmick" instead of going for a complete ride. IF Full Throttle had some terrain moments (like those S Turns) after the loop/after the top hat I doubt anybody would be complaining.

All this complaining that teams don't spend enough $$ (Pirates fans, Twins fans, etc). All anybody needs to do is look at the A's, Reds or Orioles this year or the Rays over the past few years to see it shouldn't matter.

^^ Damnit Robb ... you mean a park can keep a family ride while adding a kick-ass coaster and making them blend in with the natural surroundings? Who would have thought it was possible!!!

Man, looking at the full layout like that, I'm just seeing that in the Log Jammer spot and it's getting me more pissed about Full Throttle. It seriously looks like they could just take this layout and put it in the same spot.

The Red Zone Channel is amazing. Not sure how we ever survived without it. Despite a set-back to the Vikings, my 49ers are looking great. Right now they and Houston look to be the best teams in the league (no offense to ATL). Quite a scare from the Redskins on Saturday. This week we get the Giants, looking to lay to boom down on them.

Gold Rusher and Scream also have a helix. Not sure why that would prevent any new coaster from having one.

Like others, when I heard of multi launches in the former log jammer spot, this is EXACTLY what I had pictured. Sucks that it's half a world away and we are getting Full Throttle.

^^ I had heard that one as not great. Likewise, I've heard nothing but good things about Coffin Creek. Definitely going to make it a priority to get there next year.

Exactly. So in this respect, FF gets kind of a "pass" in a lot of regards (IMO). The cost is relative to the experience. I don't think FF will ever be as popular or successful as HHN or Haunt and IMO it doesn't have to be. It's just another option and that's a good thing. You also have to consider that you really don't have to pay any extra, that's only for the mazes. Anybody can experience the shows, scare zones, etc.

^^ Nice. Yes, that is one of the Trolls. ^^^ They have maps where you get your maze bracelet.

^ I would do Blackout first then. They only allow 8 people in at a time, every 2 minutes or so.

From what we saw, pretty long. I'd say 45-60 minutes at least. Longest wait we had was about 2 minutes. Obviously if you go on a Friday or Sunday things may be different. But you have to figure, with gas prices the way they are, people won't be driving far and staying close to home and doing local events (like FF).

Went to Fright Fest last night and had a pretty fun time. If anybody is going this year I'd STRONGLY suggest getting the Express Pass, this was only the first weekend and it was PACKED. There are three stand-out mazes (Willoughby's, Aftermath and Blackout), three middle-of-the-road mazes (Chupacabra, Jokesters, Black Widow), one good-enough for what they have to work with (Cursed) and one absolute POS (Slaughterhouse). As for Blackout, we both loved it. Ended up doing it twice and Mr. X wanted to be in front the second time. The talent in there is great and is the right blend of creepy and in your face based on what the maze is. The only maze that the talent seemed like they didn't care was Slaughterhouse, which is the reason we didn't like it. Hopefully they will get better over the next few weeks. Cursed was ok, they don't have much to work with but the talent in there was actually trying which was nice. Black Widow was interesting. Some hold-over props from Bite II, the same layout, but we also noticed some props from the old Willoughby's. First time we went through the maze it was just "ok" but it was MUCH better the second time. This could turn into a really good one if the talent stays consistent. As for Willoughby's, it was good. The maze itself is great of course, the talent still seemed to be "finding their way" if I'm being honest. Hopefully as they get more familiar with the new layout, new effects, hiding places, etc they will get better. Aftermath was again great, first time we went through it was "ok", second time was really good. Scare Zones are ok, City Under Siege is as always the best one (sup' guys) and I really like the creepiness of Nightmares. Just wish they had more to work with. We'll be going back in a couple of weeks so will see if anything improves.

^ Yeah, with only 8 people going at a time for Blackout I can see how that line would get long. And woot for people sobbing in the maze!!!!