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ThirdGen

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Posts posted by ThirdGen

  1. On 5/20/2024 at 12:39 PM, 77 Hitmen said:

    ^THIS

    Fans needs to stop deluding themselves into the idea that having the Sox move won't be that bad because MLB will quickly give Chicago an expansion team.  If the Sox did move, this is NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!

    The fact that Chicago has 2 teams is a relic of a bygone era where a) several cities had 2 teams (Boston, Philly, St. Louis) and b) Chicago was the 2nd largest city in the US - larger than L.A.   Chicago is no longer a 2-team city for any of the major sports leagues.  The only 2-teams cities left are NY and LA which each have a metro area population something like double the size of Chicago's .

    And for anyone clinging to the idea that MLB will want an "American League" team in Chicago, that distinction has become basically meaningless.   The AL and NL are no longer unique.  Everyone has the DH and every team plays every other team every year.  Don't be surprised if MLB pushes radical realignment at some point that will totally kill off the AL and NL for all intents and purposes.  This is much, much, much, much more likely to happen than Chicago being awarded a 2nd MLB team via expansion to maintain an "AL" presence here.  

    And to further the point- MLB relies on the ability to extort hundreds of millions of dollars from government whenever they want a new stadium. Not just the Sox, almost every team in MLB has played this game and will play it again. If they reward the cities that don't give in to the extortion with an expansion team and retaining the name as if nothing ever happened they lose their most powerful leverage in future negotiations with other teams and cities.  If the Sox are gone, they are gone, and Chicago is a one team town.

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  2. On 5/3/2024 at 9:24 AM, Milkman delivers said:

    There’s a very recent example in Bud Light to refute that. Not starting a political argument or making a statement on the reason for the boycott, but it definitely made a difference for that company.

    The Bud Light boycott is a different animal.

    I like beer, and it's as simple as grabbing a pack of Miller Lite or Coors Light instead if I choose to boycott Bud Light. Still get to drink beer. No additional cost or effort involved.

    I like to go to baseball games.  If I boycott the Sox I would need to go to Cubs or Brewers games, both much more inconvenient and expensive.

    As annoyed as I am at JR I am not going to let him take away something I really enjoy.

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  3. 1 hour ago, Sleepy Harold said:

    They have to mean location and built-up "78" bars/restaurants because yeah that math ain't mathin for baseball alone. 

    Navy Pier draws 9 million visitors, so its not out of the question that a well done entertainment district could draw 5 with a guaranteed 2 million at least for baseball.

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  4. 26 minutes ago, southsider2k5 said:

    If only there was another professional franchise located within the same metro area to which we could run a comparison to see if people from the same population would be willing to use public transit...

    A major reason I have always preferred the Sox to the Cubs is the fact that Wrigley Field is a pain in the ass to get to.  Different people have different preferences.

  5. 3 hours ago, Lip Man 1 said:

    TLR told me one time an idea he had and discussed. I don't think he ever told me why he didn't implement it.

    He said he was going to go into the season with 12 pitchers ranked 1 - 12.

    He would use three pitchers for every game in order so for the first game pitchers 1-3 would work, for the second game pitchers 4-6 would appear and so on.

    The pitchers would not be ranked from "best" to "worst" different factors would play in as in left or right handed, what type pitches they threw, how much experience they had. And the pitchers wouldn't be limited to three innings, just that he'd only use three pitchers. If the game went into extra innings then the next set of pitrchers would come into play.

    It would have been a novel idea.

    I wonder if pitcher objections may have blocked this idea. Wins and saves would be more evenly distributed (kind of randomly) among the pitchers. If this was back in the 80's or 90's those stats were more important in free agent and arbitration negotiations. The top starters and best reliever would see those numbers drop compared to the league.  No single pitcher is getting 15-20 wins in that scenario.

  6. 16 minutes ago, greg775 said:

    Beckham seems like a nice guy but his voice ain't there yet. For me, it's kind of annoying.

    What did Brennaman do? I forget. If it's too bad don't put specifics. Is it forgivable?

    Gay slur on air. Depends on your definition of forgiveable. I think most things less than murder are forgivable and second chances are awesome. But the Sox are not in a position to be the team to give him a second chance at this momemt IMO.

    • Like 1
  7. Let's quit talking about Oakland getting an expansion team as if they got screwed by the move.  Of the 56 years they played in Oakland they were in the top half of AL attendance only 11 times. And most of the other 45 years they weren't even close. 25 of those years they were in the bottom 3. They won 3 consecutive World Series, one of the greatest teams in history in the early 70's.  The year they won the third WS they were 11 out of 12 AL teams in attendance. Say what you will about John Fisher, the problem existed long before he arrived. Its kind of a miracle they have lasted as long as they have.

  8. If the Sox move, I doubt there is even a chance of them being replaced by an expansion team. In old days it made sense to have multiple teams in a single market because ticket sales were the main revenue stream. Not the case anymore as baseball is better off financially by having a larger number of MLB markets for its current revenue generators. Historically only one dual team city market that lost a team got an expansion team, NY, and even that one didn't restore it to three teams it had for the previous 58 seasons.

    I don't believe Nashville is his first choice, but I believe he is making it a strong candidate just to be able to strong arm Illinois. And I don't believe Illinois will cave this time. Illinois is not the same state it was in the late 1980's. No chance that meeting was intended to be a "secret".

    Also Nashville is going to take any team they can get. It won't matter if the Sox are 90 game losers or 90 game winners at that point. Them holding out for an expansion team over the Sox isn't going to happen, as getting an expansion team when only two are likely is a complete crap shoot.

  9. 21 minutes ago, nitetrain8601 said:

    Feel sorry for the city of Oakland. In the last 5 years, they've lost the Raiders, Warriors and As. 

    As much as I feel sorry for A's fans, maybe its time for Oakland to accept that it is not a major league sports town and try to develop a thriving minor league sports scene. Build a nice 10,000 seat ballpark and try to get a AAA or AA team.

    I see a lot of people complaining about MLB on this, but the reality is Oakland has had teams in all four major sports and couldn't make it work for any. Its not just baseball and the A's have been talking about moving from there for 40 years.

    • Like 3
  10. 9 minutes ago, Balta1701 said:

    Letting a guy do national TV games and football games is not accommodating him, its the opposite, it is building your own brand stronger by having a well known broadcaster.

    Then why did the Dodgers dump Vin Scully when he wanted to do national games and the NFL?

    Oh wait.......never mind.

  11. While I will miss him the bigger deal to me is that this is yet another manifestation of a Sox organization that is truly terrible in all of its facets.

    I do have some hope, however, that the Sox can identify a talented minor league PBP guy, just as they did with Benetti, and give him a chance on the MLB level.

    Unfortunately, the way this team is currently operating, they seem likely to f*** this up in the same manner that they have virtually every decision in recent years.

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  12. 2 hours ago, South Side Hit Men said:

    Most star players have a social media person put together posts with graphics / videos. 

    What's your point? You don't think he agrees with what was posted or didn't sign off on it?

    There are a good number of fans who don't hate Tim Anderson that are interested.

    His tweets, which I assume he writes himself, are usually cryptic and appear to often have hidden meanings. If I hated him, I wouldn't be following him on twitter for years to know this. His tweets have been far and few between this year, however. I follow his tweets in an effort to understand him. He has never said anything remotely like this in his tweets, which often appear hostile/angry.

    I have no idea if he signed off on this as based on the writing style it was clearly written by an agent who has financial interest in making a free agent look good. In other words, this statement is generic meaningless BS.

  13. 7 minutes ago, JoeC said:

    ...but then if he was sitting in those similar meetings that led to the hiring of Getz?

    Just seems to me there had to be some kind of outside influence to cause him to fire RH and KW.  The hiring of Getz to replace him is classic, predictable JR.

  14. I've heard the rumor that there was a higher bidder and that info was withheld from JR. But the rumor that a company was willing to spend tens of millions for naming rights and wouldn't even use their name is so ridiculous that it shouldn't even be repeated. Any exec making that deal would be fired on the spot.

  15. 1 hour ago, Lip Man 1 said:

    It's all about making money and JR claims you can't do that in baseball (LOL) which is why he wants his family to keep the Bulls and sell the Sox. 

    I suspect that statement was made just to keep the BS narrative that baseball owners don't make money. The investment in the team grew from $20 million (which included the team, ballpark and lots of land) to $1.5 billion maybe (team only) in the time he has been around. Doubt he is actually telling his family to dump this investment, particularly since his son seems to enjoy this type of investment.

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  16. 7 hours ago, South Side Hit Men said:

    This has been reported and these purchases have been going on for years.

    https://www.chicagobusiness.com/consumer-products/more-reinsdorfs-want-stake-sox

    Not sure how you missed this, or why you think it’s ironclad the Reinsdorf’s will liquidate after Jerry’s death. Jerry will be dead, the heirs will sell only if it makes sense financially, not because of some public statement from years / decades ago.

    If you look at Michael Reinsdorf career history, which includes minor league ownership and stadium construction projects, along with running the Bulls, it is impossible to not consider the possibility he would want to run the Sox.Its almost as if his entire career is an internship to prepare for this.

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  17. 29 minutes ago, Lip Man 1 said:

    Let's test your theory.

    Forbes says the Sox are worth 1.75 billion, let's assume a sale would go for a round figure of two billion.

    Deliberately trying to devalue the franchise means JR might "only" get 1.6 billion.

    You don't think JR wants every dime he can get in your scenario? There is a big difference between two billion and 1.6 billion.

    If money doesn't matter why hasn't he sold the team already? Because as I wrote in a story in August 2022, the tax hit from capital gains would be roughly 200 million dollars and that's not even counting the Illinois state tax hit.

    To answer your question it is because JR is soon to be 88, his franchise continues to make loads of money despite poor results on the field and mediocre attendance due to the almost unlimited revenue streams both domestically and internationally and simply because he honestly feels HE knows best. Full stop. 

    He tells people what to do and if they want to keep working in the organization and drawing a handsome salary they go along with things.

    It is simply unbelievable to think he is deliberately wrecking the franchise, He's not that insane. He genuinely thinks he is doing things the right way and that the fans, the media, certain agents simply do not matter in the least. And he isn't going to change now as he gets older. He's had this attitude of arrogance for decades, it is simply getting worse as he ages. 

    So again, with respect...please stop. 

    You are contradicting yourself. In one instance you are saying he will never sell the team while alive, which is likely accurate. On the other hand you say he wouldn't lower the value because he won't get as much when he sells.

    He may be 88, but if I didn't know that I would swear he is in his seventies.  Unless he has something going on we don't know about its possible he could pull a Virginia McCaskey.

    And there is definitely a ballpark battle coming up. He is not getting more money from Illinois. If Nashville, or anyone else offers a new park with a ballpark village and all the cash flows that come with it the Sox are gone.And probably worth a billion more instantly. And MLB didn't protect us during possible moves to St Pete, Denver, Seattle or Milwaukee. Why would they now, especially if attendance and tv ratings are low?

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