I really like Northern Ireland and Derry is one of my favorite places in the world. That said not all of it is clean and beautiful. There are parts of Belfast that give the slums of Chicago a run for urban decay and teenage pregnancy. Have a great trip and if you're in Derry have a pint for me at Paeder O'Donnell's.
I don't remember the exact date but it seems like the site looked so much different. My very 1st post as a guest was about the salary cap, I think it was regarding the Rockets signing Scottie Pippen. I think my comment was something like the Rockets could just sign Scottie Pippen and then use the Bird rights to re-sign Barkley for what ever they wanted to sign him for. What I remember for certain is that Heypartner was the very first poster to respond by correcting me and letting me know the Rockets had a cap hold that was more than his previous seasons salary so they had to sign him dirt cheap 1st before signing Pippen. Or something like that. I think I remember at some point after the server kept crashing Clutch went to a new server that some of us were able to test and post on for awhile prior to actually moving the whole site. Maybe I'm remembering that wrong, I don' know. I remember clutch explaining why the site was clutcity.net and not cluthcity.com. Seemed like it was a source of a sore spot. I think it was due to Bill Ingram but once again it's been a long time and I could be wrong. I also remember some of us being a little pissed that Clutch had to change the name of the website from Clutchcity to Clutchfans but Clutch explained that the Rockets really worked with him and other fan websites were being shut down by the league.
Dave2000 got me onto the site. I knew his since he was a Dave1982. I lurked for years, even broke news a few times regarding trades but never measured up to the ilk of the 99ers, although I fancy myself 'of that era' because of Dave. I went 'Dark' and never looked back. I check this site almost daily and I'm so glad to hear that the games should be back on for the city to see again. I think the site's going to get a major boost as a result. Everyone can talk about the Rockets again like we all used to be able to do. I'm also glad to hear that the old guard are popping up to share those old experiences. You guys were the reasons why I kept lurking, ya'll were harsh! But it was great!
Damn! And i thought the time the site went down that heypartner was mentioning was the post suggesting Addleman should wear a monocle. That was strong!
The JVG and early Adelman years were really the high point of the BBS for me. Epic breads. Ron Artest possibly posting in threads, jobs, friends, sexjobs, friendjobs, basketball, used PS3s. Good times man.
I remember when Clutch used to do post count threads with top 100 post counts. I remember heyp had like 45k posts. And then he disappeared, came back, and was penalized like 50k posts for hacking passwords or something like that. It would be cool to see a post count thread. It would be fun to sift through some of the meta data on the site. I should also mention guys like heyp (who I don't have many interactions with) really make and made this site what it is and what it can be. Great sense of community that even lurkers can appreciate and "feel".
That thread was EPIC. I think it was started by SamFisher. No one has yet mentioned R2K's torrents of Rockets games. Being out of town and before the streamed videos, that was the only way for me to watch Rockets games not on national TV.
one of the best things this site had was the april fools joke, especially the first ones, when you didnt expected clutch would make a fake news haha. I think a lot of people got fooled when mario elie left to the spurs, and clutch posted that the site moved with mario to be a spurs fan site. I visited the front page since 97, and then you had to be registered to enter the forum, and since I didnt know much english (Im from mexico), I didnt register until later. I still have the audio mix that Clutch made back in 98 or 99.
What happened to AnotherBrother? Is he still doing stand-up in Houston? I remember my brother SamuraiJack and a few other members got together and saw one of his shows.
That's what got me started on this site. My old college roommate showed me the article on signing Ryan Bowen to some ridiculous contract. I went ape ish before I realized it was a joke.
Here's some history. One day Clutch ran a poll on the site. Should the Rockets trade Dream. I voted No....15,000 times. Obviously the poll was taken down pretty quickly after that. Clutch forgave me for it a few years later when I confessed. If you're a pre 99er you remember the epic Kevin Johnson thread. Time flys when you're having fun.
The one time I get lazy to check this thread... yall got lucky this time! Edit: The monocle thread was started by SamFisher.
