Richie

Stop bunting then, dickhead.

Not even for the 9th? That's absurd. I remember I was in college, I had a double header of my own in the morning and I woke up from a nap in my dorm room around the 5th or 6th. Started watching the game in my boxers. He kept getting outs and I refused to move from my bed to put on clothes or even walk over to get my phone to text anyone. Despite the fact that my phone was vibrating constantly as the game got into the 8th and 9th. A few Sox fans on my college team. We talked about it constantly that night and the next day. Good times.

So, if you need a job more than a guy that is more qualified than you. You should be given it? Hmm... And you know that he's the only "student assistant" how? People here are just sore at RV. I didn't like him as a manager either. But this is pathetic. Literally, like sitting in a bar room, listening to a bunch of fat ass drunk fans. The guy is having fun with baseball again, I would imagine. What an outrage... Fuckin losers. Just a bunch of losers. What did you do in baseball? b**** about it on a message board? You stink, guy

Yeah, I'm sure one of the greatest college baseball players of all-time, a Major League All-Star 3B and a former major league manager is less qualified than a 5'6 190 pound liberal arts major. Good call. "OH MEE GOSH HE MANAGED MY FAVORITE TEAM IN A WAY I DIDN'T LIKE! SO HE CAN NEVER HAVE FUN WITH BASEBALL AGAIN!" Losers.... Losers.... Losers

If I had a dollar for every time I've heard a sh*t coach praised with that line in any of the three major sports. I would take all of SoxTalk out for dinner and drinks.

Why? Is someone there more deserving?

Not really. I'm in my mid 20's and I don't know anyone who watches that stuff. It's more of a niche thing. It doesn't compete with professional sports, in the least.

Part 2... Why is MLB viewership declining? First off, it's just the casual viewership that has declined a bit. And it's easy... You want casual viewership like the NFL and NBA? Do things that will ruin the game for the rest of us. Cut the season in half and make it the length of NBA/NHL. 82 games. This chops the rotation in half, gets rid of the fat and ensures quality on the mound every night. Your bullpen is ready and your positional guys never need rest. Then, you make the game 7 innings long. So, it's a 2 hour length. No mid-inning pitching changes either barring injury. You start it, you finish it. I f'ing guarantee that the above would increase viewership and interest in baseball. I'd bet my house AND my car on it. But none of us want that, do we? I sure as hell don't. I rather chop my d**k off than watch that brand of Major League Baseball. We on the same page? Nice. It's not rocket science. The game is slow, people. It's honestly f'ing boring if I just look at it from a neutral perspective. I love it. This game is my first love... but when you have smart phones, social media, video games that are more fun to people than real life, unlimited internet porn at the click of a mouse. Come on... you people really can't understand why the game of baseball is not generating the interest that it used to? 162 games, played nearly every day, your star pitcher only plays 1/5th of the games.... Hell, your star hitters only succeed 30% of the time at the plate. Think about that vs football/basketball and the rate that star QB's fire completions and star shooters make baskets. Your blinded by your love for this game if you can't see why it's losing favor to NFL, NCAAF and NBA. It's obvious. Not only that, it isn't fixable. Not unless you destroy the game as we know it.

Per #4 - I believe it's been quite a while since the economy has been declining. Anyway, I don't understand why people are making such a big deal out of the sign stealing stuff and acting like it's going to hurt anything. It's nothing new. There's been sign stealing scandals going back every decade for... like ever. Hell, the White Sox had a publicized sign steal scandal in the 80's using guys in the CF scoreboard with binoculars. Lighting up a lightbulb when a fastball was coming, etc... This is nothing new and it will be a distant memory in a year or two. Hell, the steroid stuff was 10x bigger than this. So was the animosity among the fans after the player's strike. Teams at every level steal signs and it's LEGAL. It's not legal to use technology. Technology advances, teams try to utilize it to steal signs, they get busted and we move on. The system! It's almost like it's working! It caught them! And they'll probably catch the next guys too. NFL has had their political stuff, the concussion crisis and the scandals with the Patriots. Their ratings are back as high as ever. NBA has had officials fixing games for cash. Some guys were banging on garbage cans, stealing signs. This is nothing, people. Nothing. Wrong? Yes... but this isn't some Earth shattering ordeal.

I played him on FanDuel a handful of times when he was in Detroit because he was always minimum priced and sometimes I needed a punt play. I also watch the Tigers on TV a lot since I live in Detroit. Man, is he hopeless at the plate. His career OPS is even lower than Engel.

I thought this thread might be messy... but I didn't expect it to get political. lol

This. x100

Personally, I would love it if he caught on with Detroit, KC, Cleveland or even Minnesota again. lol

It indisputably works. The ball is flying between 85-100 MPH, cutting, curving, diving, running, dropping, etc. Umps can only get such a good read on where exactly it crosses the plate. A catcher who absorbs a pitch effortlessly and with minimal movement can instantly shift it a couple inches over the corner? Let the ball travel a little further to fall into the zone? Go and get it as to not allow it to drop out of the zone? You won't even notice as an umpire. Also, as a guy who did catch in independent pro ball. I can tell you that umps will often literally tell you what they do and don't like with pitch presentation. "Don't turn the glove around, just catch it and stick it."... "Let those breaking balls come to you a bit more and they'll start turning into strikes."... etc. Think about a "get me over" kind of a curve ball that drops into the zone. If you reach and extend your elbow upward to go and get it? You're going to catch that ball high and it will look out of the zone. If you let it come down to your face/chest. That's going to get called a strike. Same with a low pitch. A ball crosses the middle of the plate, he sees that it's center cut... but the ump can't really tell EXACTLY how high it is off of the ground. If you get low and extend out/up with a stiff arm. Get slightly underneath it. You're going to catch it at a higher point. It's going to look like it is in the zone more than it would if you let it travel and you catch it nearly at the ground. Umps are only human. They're as susceptible to not seeing the difference of an inch or two on a 95 MPH pitch as a batter.

I sure hope he leaves Chicago. My girlfriend is in love with that guy and he's 50x better looking than I am. And soon he'll have 50x more money. With a 50x cooler job. He is 50x the man I am. My ability to drink beer and scream at the TV during sporting events does not make up for that.