Thad Bosley

Nice, Jose.

Nice, Adam.

I know, and I hate that. I feel like I’m missing out on all the fun!

Or not. 1-0 Sox!

LOL! Reinsdorf has “cultivated” the fan base while Bill Veeck “almost destroyed it”? Are you nuts? Bill Veeck saved the franchise for the city of Chicago by buying the team and keeping it in the city when it looked like a move to Seattle was inevitable. Conversely, Reinsdorf blackmailed the state into building and paying for the “nice clean facility” by threatening to move the city to Florida if it did not. Add to that the myriad of other franchise-crushing decisions perpetrated by Reinsdorf over his 40+ years, nothing of which Veeck came even remotely close to making, and you can’t compare the two. From SportsVision to letting Harry Caray go to the Cubs to hiring Hawk as GM to the blackmail incident to building a horribly-designed ballpark to siding with hard line owners over the Sox in 1994 to the White Flag trade to Terry Bevington to the shabby treatment of Fisk at the end of his career to the hiring of Ventura to just six postseason appearances in 40 years to now the debacle of 2021 Tony LaRussa, you can surely say Reinsdorf has cultivated a fan base: one that can’t wait to see him go.

Well, FWIW, by the time everything with LaRussa plays itself out, at the very least Reinsdorf won’t have to say firing LaRussa 35 years ago was his “biggest mistake” as owner. The rehire of the guy may take its place.

“Foolhardy” or otherwise, it is a new rule, and by his own admission, the manager did not know it. And it was this unpreparedness that caused him to make the wrong baseball decision in the 10th inning of a tied ballgame today. UNACCEPTABLE! Stop making excuses for the guy already.

I still don’t understand why, if LaRussa was so interested in a second and third, one out situation, with Hamilton at bat, why he didn’t have Leury bunt with runners on first and second and nobody out. Instead, we get the weak fielder’s choice from Leury followed by the ill-fated steal attempt. All of the times when we bunt when we shouldn’t, and then the one time we probably should, we don’t.

That won’t happen. The whole reason we are saddled with LaRussa today is because the joke of an owner bemoans the firing of LaRussa on his watch nearly 40 years ago as the “worst mistake” he’s made as owner (it actually ranks somewhere in the 11-20 range of disastrous mistakes he’s made over the past 40 years, but I digress). Fact is I cannot see any scenario where Reinsdorf will have a second firing of LaRussa happen on his watch. We just have to hope LaRussa somehow pulls it together and is able to channel the younger version of himself that got him to the HOF.

It is this same combo of terrible in-game decision making AND his smug arrogance that infuriated Harry Caray and Jimmy Piersall 40 years ago, causing them to skewer him every day during the broadcasts back then.

I kinda sorta thought that was the whole point of having a bench coach.

A walk to Grandal. What new!

Probably all of the Reds fans out there.

Way to come back and avoid the dreaded lead-off walk!

Key at bat by Jose.

14 ground ball outs for Keuchel through six innings. Vintage.

Nicky Two Strikes!

Day baseball and a pitchers’s duel. Old school!

Beautiful stab by Jose for the second out.

Quality.

Sigh...and before I saw how long Robert will be out. Changes everything for this season. Still not a fan of trading our elite prospects, but this is a season we need to compete in, so now with the news on Robert and Engel, who knows what will need to be done.

So we’ve moved from an off-season of crazy trade ideas for Kopech, Vaughn, and Madrigal to ones now of Eloy and Crochet. Aye caromba! What’s wrong with you people! Always wanting to jettison our prime, elite young talent. Stop! just take a breath and look where we are at. Yes, we lost Eloy, but for the moment, Yermin is filling the void he left. Robert is out for however long he’ll be out, but you replace one elite part of his game, his defense, with the return of Engel. If Engel can continue showing he’s at least average offensively, then why the need to go and trade a top prospect either for a rental (like Bryant) or some tier two level outfielders like the many suggested in this thread. Whats more important than anything for our team (and it was true even before the Robert injury) is for Jose, Yasmani, and Yoan to provide the level of offense expected from each. If and when we get those three going, and combine that with what we are already seeing with TA, Mercedes, Nicky, and an improving Vaughn, we should have plenty of offense to win this division. Heck, we are already at the top of the league in offense even with those three scuffling so far. Imagine what happens when they start to return to their norms! So a big HARD PASS on knee-jerk reactions to Robert’s injury by trading away any of our premium prospects or talent. The challenges in front of the team can be solved internally with our own guys. Revisit it again at the trade deadline if need be, but for now, dance with the ones who brung you!

LaRussa had a chance to reward Vaughn for his progress of late, and took a pass on it. Not sure I see the wisdom in that.

They got us right where we want them!

So he’s through? No chance to come back and be the productive player they thought he’d be?