I thought the other plausible explanation was the Dodgers had no place to play Dunn, had CIN stuck them with Dunn. They have three outfielders (two of them good, one of them useful) for two positions, plus Andruw Jones when he comes back in September. They weren't going to totally punt outfield defense for the stretch run.

I thought the other plausible explanation was the Dodgers had no place to play Dunn, had CIN stuck them with Dunn

Rosenthal's argument is that there's no way the Reds would simply have given Dunn to the Dodgers at no cost. Even the Reds aren't so niggardly that they'd just ditch Adam Dunn and two draft choices in order to get out from the last two months of his contract.

niggardly

racist.

niggardly

stingy

Believe it or not, most people are not motivated by racism.

Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.

That word needs to be permanently retired. It contributes nothing that related words don't cover just as well, and it's hard on the eyes. And ears. It's use naturally prompts discomfort.

Kinda like "homophone".

That word needs to be permanently retired. It contributes nothing that related words don't cover just as well

Perhaps we should mount an effort to remove all synonyms from the dictionary for the sake of convenience. Since doing so would pretty much create a new language, we could call it something like "Newspeak".

Whenever I hear arguments about this word, it always make me think about the political candidate who attacked his opponent on the grounds that his wife His wife was a thespian before their marriage and even performed the act in front of paying customers.

That word needs to be permanently retired.

you're being pretty niggardly in your praise for a perfectly acceptable word.

niggardly

racist.

Really, this Cooperstown dude needs to get out more.

The word niggardly is seriously retarding our progress toward a more tolerant society.

niggardly

racist.

The word niggardly is seriously retarding our progress toward a more literate society.

Fixed.

I can honestly say that I only used "niggardly" because it was the first word that came to mind in that context.

"niggardly"

racist.

Dunn just hit his first home run in a db uniform. A sight for sore eyes

As long as you don't spell it niggerdly...

any homo sapien that says "niggardly" must be a racist AND a homophobe

That's silly. Niggardly was a word and in common usage before the usage of the perjorative term.

The real problem isn't homophones and thespians. The real problem is women's suffrage.

That word needs to be permanently retired.

Nah; I'd feel gypped if it were.

Niggardly, please.

The real problem isn't homophones and thespians. The real problem is women's suffrage.

Haven't they suffered enough? Let's end women's suffrage now!

Thing is why didn't they just claim dunn but just offer juan pierre? I'm sure pierre would pass waivers and it has two outcomes:

1) The Reds pull Dunn back faster than the word racist follows the word niggardly.

or

2) The Dodgers get themselves out from under pierre's contract and gain a pinch-hitter deluxe.

"gypped"

Heh, well played.

"1) The Reds pull Dunn back faster than the word racist follows the word niggardly.

or

2) The Dodgers get themselves out from under pierre's contract and gain a pinch-hitter deluxe."

or

3) The Reds say, "Fine, he's yours, we never wanted him anyway", and Colletti gets fired for taking on $3M that he can't afford to pay.

If the Dodgers had claimed Dunn and the Reds' asking price was too high, Colletti could simply have ##### them down.

I think any decent club would trade $3 million for two high picks. I agree that there must be an artificial ceiling to the Dodgers payroll, but this is just dumb.

That word needs to be permanently retired. It contributes nothing that related words don't cover just as well, and it's hard on the eyes. And ears. It's use naturally prompts discomfort.

That's absurd. On another blog, I recently saw a heated discussion about the same thing because the blog poster used the word "shyster" and some buttmonkey confused it with the word "shylock", and thus thought it had antisemitic overtones.

If you don't know how to use the English language, it's your own fault. Almost as ridiculous as the African-American DC staffer who got fired for using the word in a presentation. The person who fired him should have been fired instead.

I think any decent club would trade $3 million for two high picks. I agree that there must be an artificial ceiling to the Dodgers payroll, but this is just dumb.

Then neither we or Robo understand the mindset of the Dodgers + Colletti. They clearly did not want to risk more than a 0% chance of taking on $3.5M for the likes of Dunn, whom they wouldn't use ("We already have a free Manny"). However, they are willing to take on a fraction of that for an extra starting pitcher like Maddux, whom they can use ("You can never have enough pitching").

"It's use naturally prompts discomfort."

You know what else naturally prompts discomfort? When people misuse "its"/"it's".

Seriously, it's like an ice pick right in my ####### eye.

That word needs to be permanently retired. It contributes nothing that related words don't cover just as well, and it's hard on the eyes. And ears. It's use naturally prompts discomfort.

Should we tell Niger and Nigeria they need to re-name themselves? Or just ignore their existence?

"Should we tell Niger..."

Just in case anyone else was wondering, people from Niger are properly referred-to as "Nigeriens" (as opposed to people from Nigeria, who are Nigerians).

The Dodgers are trying like made to not take on one penny because McCourt does not have the requisite finances to run a large market team in the hunt for a playoff appearance. I work at a real estate appraisal firm in Boston, and my boss is a huge Red Sox fan. So when the rumors were floating around about Manny to the Dodgers. When I told him the deal could not go through because of McCourt's insistence that they not take on any payroll, he gave me some history about McCourt. McCourt bought up a bunch of land in South Boston at a time when it was considered to be undesirable. As time passed, the land became more valuable, only the land was used as parking lots. Eventually McCourt gained control of all of this land. My boss did not go into detail, but he said that it was a rather acrimonious business transaction. After a failed bid for the Red Sox, McCourt headed west, and put up his land as collateral. In an unsurprising turn of events, Murdoch now owns this parking lot because McCourt could come up with the cash. Here is just one story on the McCourt "wealth", with some excerpts that I find interesting.

The South Boston parking lot king's new new thing is to buy the Los Angeles Dodgers, a storied baseball franchise. McCourt has offered $430 million for the team. The problem: It is not at all clear he has the dough.

Few in this town have talked the talk more and walked the walk less. McCourt is strong on vision. Doing is his problem. Cooperative is not a word often associated with the man. For years he has presented countless slide shows with his vision of the New Boston on the other side of the Fort Point Channel. No other plan was ever grand enough for McCourt. He was going to buy the Red Sox. He was going to build a new Fenway on the waterfront. Instead, 25 years after McCourt bought his South Boston land from a bankrupt Penn Central, what we have down there is acres of parking lots.

The last, best service McCourt could offer the city he loves is to sell his parking lots to someone who would do what he couldn't or wouldn't do -- build something.

Despite his questionable finances, the Dodger deal is going to get done because baseball commissioner Bud Selig wants it done. Just as Selig wired the Red Sox sale for John Henry & Co., he is wiring this deal not for McCourt but for Rupert Murdoch. Murdoch wants out of the money-losing Dodgers in the worst way, and Selig wants to accommodate him. Baseball's television contract comes up for renewal in a year, and with the major networks mostly out of baseball, Selig wants Murdoch's Fox Network in the game.

Just in case anyone else was wondering, people from Niger are properly referred-to as "Nigeriens" (as opposed to people from Nigeria, who are Nigerians).

Interesting tidbit. Must be confusing as hell.

That's just the French/English effect though?

Italians are Italiens in French. I assume this is the same thing.

In some more McCourt news, in 2005 he borrowed an additional $250 million dollars (this time using Dodger Stadium as collateral) to pay down $150 million in short-term loans from Bank of America, and additional $71 million stilled owed to News Corp. Taken from the LA Business Journal.

Italians are Italiens in French

even stranger, they're Italianos in Italy

Proper pronunciation of Niger is "knee-zhay" or "knee-zher" So Nigerien would be "knee-zher-e-en." That's close enough for government work.

It's a perfectly cromulent word.