This morning, we hope to get inside the mentality of these gangster rappers and come to some societal conclusions, and though we don't have the hilarious narrator from The History Channel's "Gangland" ("One day, he was leaving a Church's Chicken! when several Crips members surprised him") but we're doing the best with what we have.
Today's jump is real, naw'mean, after the jump. Ya feel me?
Join host Mel Allen as he takes a look back at the stories that mattered in the world of Major League Baseball this week on "This Week in Baseball," conveniently presented in the form of a chatroom transcript for those of you reading AOL Sports' "Fanhouse" blog, and presented in HD on certain cable systems you live nowhere even close to getting.
The Indians home opener in Milwaukee went well as they beat the Angels 7-6 on Tuesday night. C.C. Sabathia picked up right where left off going seven strong innings, while striking out seven.
A new question has arisen from this situation though. What if the weather in Cleveland still sucks? The Indians are supposed to start a three game series at home on Friday against the White Sox. I did some ultra-scientific research and I found that Cleveland isn't out of the woods yet. On Friday there isn't supposed to be any bad weather in Cleveland, but it will still be cold. However, on Saturday and Sunday in Cleveland, it's looking like it's going to snow again.
Looking at the Brewers schedule, they'll be spending their weekend in St. Louis. So now baseball has started to plan for a situation in which the Indians will have to remain in Milwaukee for their series against the White Sox.
Eric Wedge doesn't want to hear any of it, but he may have no choice.
"We're going back to Cleveland."
Yes, Eric, you are going back to Cleveland but it doesn't look like it's going to be this weekend.
This is bad news for Indians fans especially, because it looks like they're going to have to wait to get that free money of theirs.
The owner of Jimbo's lounge had hoped to win the right to stay open until the end of the current baseball season. But a judge sided with the tavern's landlords, who filed suit last year to evict their longtime tenants.
"It's going to be devastating," said owner Joseph "Jimbo" Levato. "I don't know what we're going to do. . . . After almost 23 years, I think we deserve better than that. If we could finish the season out, at least we could go out with dignity and pride."
Levato said he had hoped to at least get his case before a jury. But now he faces the prospect of disassembling the bar even as his customers come and go during the final week in April.
I don't know the specifics about why the landlords want Levato out, but it seems pretty tragic that something couldn't be worked out. I mean, at least let the bar stay open until the end of the baseball season, is that too much to ask?
Landlords certainly have the right to evict tenants as they see fit -- at least in my limited knowledge of real estate I believe they do -- but there's a fine line between booting the stoner that's four months behind on rent or the legendary bar that's been on this earth as long as I have. Previously at FanHouse: Cub Fans Are Dead Sexy, White Sox Fans Not So Much
It says a lot about a pitcher when he can go out and throw seven innings of scoreless baseball while giving up only one hit--and a cheap one at that--and nobody really seems impressed.
That's where Johan Santana is right now.
He's so good at what he does that when he does go out and pitch a beauty you don't even bat an eyelash. It's just what he does, and it's what you expect him to do. What shocks people is when he gives up four runs in six innings, like he did against the Orioles in his last start.
For the White Sox, it's nothing new. After Johan dominated them all afternoon in a 3-1 Twins victory in Chicago, it improved his career record against the Sox to 10-1 in his last 12 starts against them. He owns them.
"That's the way I am," Santana said. "I'll do it to any team. I don't have any preference for any teams. I don't disrespect any teams. ... That's the way I've been doing it. I'm always going to stay aggressive and do my job."
The White Sox are so lost against Santana that it seems Ozzie Guillen is going to have to resort to drastic measures. That's right.
He's going to call his mommy.
"I'm going to call my mom in Venezuela to come here and cook for him," Guillen joked. "We'll poison him. If he eats what my mom cooks, he will be in trouble to pitch the next day."
At this point it's the only option the White Sox, or anybody really, have left.
After receiving a contract extension from the White Sox this spring, White Sox starter Javier Vazquez is going to have to pitch with a lot of pressure on his shoulders, especially with the rough start Chicago starters have had this season. With a dominant performance on Saturday afternoon, he went a long way to relieve himself of that pressure against the Twins.
Pitching in blustery conditions--a wind chill of 15 degrees--Javier went 6.2 innings giving up only one hit and no runs while striking out five, as the White Sox beat the Minnesota Twins 3-0. He did run into some control issues early, walking four, but Minnesota helped him out of a few jams.
In the second inning Minnesota had the bases loaded with one out. Jason Tyner then hit a shallow fly ball into left centerfield that was caught by Juan Uribe. Then in the first instance of the Twins beating themselves in this game, Michael Cuddyer was doubled off of third when he forgot the number of outs and never tagged up.
From then on Vazquez cruised through the seventh until he hit Cuddyer with a pitch. He then walked Justin Morneau before inducing a double play by Torii Hunter. Andrew Sisco then came on and struck out Jeff Cirillo to end the threat.
Minnesota's bullpen didn't help matters in the eigth inning when Dennys Reyes gave up a lead off solo shot to Juan Uribe. The home run was then followed up with a bunt single by Scott Podsednik that was misplayed by Reyes. After Erstad bunted Podsednik over to second, Reyes hurried a pick off throw that ended up in centerfield, and Podsednik came all the way around from second to score.
The insurance was nice for Chicago, but unneccesary after Bobby Jenks came in and closed things out in the ninth inning, working through the heart of the Twins order.
The postponement of Friday night's White Sox/Twins game could end up a blessing for the White Sox. It gives the team an extra day to let Mark Buehrle recover from the line drive he took off of his left arm on Thursday afternoon. As of now the team is confident that he'll be able to make his next start on Wednesday in Oakland.
''He felt better today,'' pitching coach Don Cooper said. ''[White Sox trainer Herm Schneider] worked on him Thursday and again [Friday.] We'll see how he is [today], but I think it's 70-30 he'll be OK to pitch [his next start].''
Though honestly, the way White Sox starters have been pitching, this could be bad news. In three games White Sox starters have combined for 7.1 innings of work, and have allowed 13 earned runs for a lovely ERA of 15.95.
The White Sox were also considering shifting their rotation around so that Jose Contreras could go against Johan Santana on Sunday instead of John Danks, but they eventually decided against it.
''Danks was in the bullpen [Thursday] and threw and was ready to come in,'' Cooper said. ''We don't want him to wait too long [to start], so he's lined up for Sunday.''
Sidney Ponson was scheduled to start on Sunday, but with the day off Friday, the Twins decided to move Santana up a day to face a White Sox team he's dominated in his career. Of course, who doesn't Santana dominate?
Today's game is scheduled for 3:35PM Eastern on FOX, but that's only if they decide to play the game. The cold conditions that caused yesterday's game to be called haven't gone away as it's expected to be about 34 degrees at game time, with a wind chill in the mid-20's. Since this game is a national broadcast, it's most likely they'll play the game and avoid having to reschedule yet another game later this season.
Considering over half the teams in Major League Baseball play in warm weather climates, or have a roof over their stadium, you'd think that the schedule makers would be smart enough to plan accordingly. Listen up schedule maker person.
Next season let's not schedule any home games in Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinnati, New York, Boston, you get the point. It's just not that smart.
At least that game never started, the Indians meanwhile, got screwed. Cleveland had a 4-0 lead on the Mariners and were one strike away from an official game. That's when the "Human Rain Delay" Mike Hargrove did the smartest thing he's done in years.
He ran out onto the field and somehow managed to convince crew chief Rick Reed to delay the game a fourth time due to the conditions. Why Reed would call for a delay when the game's only a pitch away from being official, I'll never understand, but he did and a little over an hour later the game was called.
"We obviously ended up on the south side of things," said Cleveland manager Eric Wedge. "Everybody was fighting for what they wanted and what they believed was the right thing to do."
Lost in all the idiocy of the schedule makers, and Rick Reed is another factor that should be taken into consideration when playing games like these.
Injuries.
What happens if the strained left quad Cleveland catcher Victor Martinez suffered while running to first turns out to be a serious injury, and he has to miss a lot of time? The Indians could be without a big member of their team after he played in a game that didn't count, and never should have been played in the first place.
So, if you're a beat guy or columnist covering the White Sox this year, you may have noticed something upon arriving at U.S. Cellular for Chicago's opener on Monday -- they moved the press box on you.
The team opened its new press box Monday at U.S. Cellular Field, moving the location from the second level behind home plate to Level 4 down the right-field line.
"It has gone from one of the best press boxes to one of the worst," said the Tribune's Dave van Dyck, a member of the board of directors of the Baseball Writers Association of America. (Full disclosure: I'm also a BBWAA member.)
Van Dyck has discussed the issue with Commissioner Bud Selig and will write a formal letter of protest to the league office. He noted that Sox broadcasters and the official scorers retained their prized spots.
"I would hope Selig, a strong baseball writers' guy, would put an end to this," van Dyck said.
But the trend is likely to continue. The Sox replaced the old press box with 200 club seats at $250 a pop. That could generate more than $4 million a year for the club, which has baseball's fourth-highest payroll at $109.7 million.
"It's difficult to say no to that type of revenue," Sox spokesman Scott Reifert said.
I don't really know what side to take here. I understand Dave Van Dyck's frustration; it's certainly warranted. And I understand the Sox wanting to pull in some more revenue. Also, I've sat down the right field line at U.S. Cellular, it's not that bad.
If nothing else, we can now argue bloggers watching Sox games from their couch have a better view than the MSM-types. Hooray! Sidenote: The Sox-Twins tonight game is canceled due to some horribly inclement weather. Ah, Chicago in April. What a joy to behold.
The Fanhouse's look at the day's most intriguing matchups
San Francisco Giants (1-2) vs. Los Angeles Dodgers (1-2)-10:15PM Est.
You know how when two rivals meet, announcers tell you to "throw out the record books!" That's one of the dumbest things announcers say. First of all, if you throw out the record books then how in the hell is anyone supposed to know who's in first place? Second of all, who the hell keeps records in a book? Ever heard of the internet? Anyway, throw out the record books when the Giants and Dodgers meet, because all either of these teams care about is beating each other!
Chicago White Sox (1-2) vs. Minnesota Twins (3-0)-8:11PM Est.
Here's another series starting tonight between two division rivals. The White Sox and Twins have been fighting each other for the AL Central for years now, all the way back to when the Tigers were losing 100 games a season. It seems like every time these teams meet, something exciting happens. With Carlos Silva and Javier Vazquez on the mound, that excitement will probably come in the form of 600-foot home runs.
Houston Astros (0-3) vs. St. Louis Cardinals (0-3)-8:10PM Est.
Remember a few seasons ago when these two teams were fighting for a National League pennant against each other? Well tonight's game won't be anything like that. Nope, instead we're gonna get two teams that are yet to win a game this season. How exciting. If for nothing else, I suggest you watch just in case Brad Lidge has to face Albert Pujols in the 9th inning again. Have you ever seen a pitcher wet himself on the mound?
It's not quite Jonathan Papelbon in a Rastafarian wig doing "Blame it on the Rain," but the rap war between Ozzie Guillen's South Side Guys and Lou "Big Sweet" Piniella's North Side Guys has reached critical mass. Condescending insults have been the norm, but now the rivalry has lead to threats of physical violence. This has got to stop. Somebody needs to step in and regulate. Can't we all just get along?
THIS
The Indians home opener in Milwaukee went well as they 
Last week, 
It says a lot about a pitcher when he can go out and throw seven innings of scoreless baseball while giving up only one hit--and a cheap one at that--and nobody really seems impressed.
After 
The postponement of Friday night's White Sox/Twins game could end up a blessing for the White Sox. It gives the team an extra day to let Mark Buehrle recover from 
Considering over half the teams in Major League Baseball play in warm weather climates, or have a roof over their stadium, you'd think that the schedule makers would be smart enough to plan accordingly. Listen up schedule maker person. 
So, if you're a beat guy or columnist covering the White Sox this year, you may have noticed something upon arriving at U.S. Cellular for Chicago's opener on Monday -- 
