ThirdGen

If I read it correctly, you are suggesting linking ticketing systems to a CDC vaccination database that doesn't exist, and somehow relinking to the non existent database any time the ticketholder changes (via stubhub or ticket transfer). If I purchase 4 tickets, how does the database know who is using the other three? How does it even know I'm actually using one of them. And the only way I could imagine linking identities across medical records and ticketing systems would be to require SS #'s, which is a nightmare. And, to complicate things, none of this exists or is in process. Vaccination data is held in thousands of disparate databases, not centralized. Ticket data is in numerous databases. And the person at the gate is lacking medical training. Opening day is three weeks away. It would take years to develop the systems you want. I agree it would be awesome if this could be done. Its totally impossible, and doing something half-assed like requiring people to flash their Covid vax cards to an 18 year old kid at the turnstile would just give a false sense of security. Better to concentrate resources on enforcing distancing and masks in the park itself

The vaccination cards are hand written on a piece of cardboard. In many cases people are writing the name and DOB themselves. With my limited photoshop skills I could create hundreds of them per day. And they can be transferred from person to person easily. There simply is no practical way to have people prove vaccination status reliably on entry. It would be pointless theatre designed to act as though it provides safety without having any actual impact.

Half the people at a Cubs game are tourists. They won't drink much as they think they are on a pilgrimage to a sacred shrine. So double the number to account for that, and the local Cub fans are right about where you would think they would be.

I think it is safe to say that for better or worse the Sox have never given a moment of thought to optics when making decisions during the JR era.

Agree with this completely. He has 250 very good innings, and a lot of garbage before that. The history books are full of pitchers who were dominant for that length of time, and mediocre otherwise. Hope that doesn't happen, but I wouldn't bet a nine digits in guaranteed money that it won't.

It should be pointed out that Sale played most of his Sox career under the most laid back non confrontational manager possible in Ventura. It would be interesting to know if the jersey incident, the LaRoche nonsense he was involved in, or his locker room break in with the Royals would have occurred with a LaRussa type personality in the clubhouse. If nothing else, I think its safe to say that Sale proves that even if there is a clubhouse incident this year, it is possible that it may not be 100% TLR's fault, although it will be painted that way by some no matter what.

According to newpaper reports he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor. He has never been convicted of a felony. La Russa: 'I regret' incident - Sun Sentinel (sun-sentinel.com) If you need to lie to make a point, the point is probably invalid.

I read this as Nancy applied to play the anthem for the Cubs, and was turned down as they didn't plan to play it regularly and had someone to do it when they do. Not sure how anyone asking to play the anthem during the Viet Nam War could be anti-anthem. Pointing out that teams haven't always played the National Anthem before games, even in fairly recent history, isn't anti-anthem. Its pro-historical truth. Fun fact: There was also a period of time in the mid 80's when the White Sox often played "America the Beautiful" instead of "The Star Spangled Banner" before home games at Comiskey Park,

Just a few random thoughts: If the Sox were in the East in 1972 there is a very good chance they make the playoffs. And they played very evenly against Oakland that year, so they could have possibly won a five game series and made it to the World Series. That would have had a major effect on popularity and attendance, which could have changed the possible move to Seattle, which may have eliminated the need for Veeck to swoop in, which may have eliminated the sale to Reinsdorf and Einhorn down the line. Lot's of maybe's here, but an interesting butterfly effect. The AL had a unbalanced schedule until the Sea/Tor expansion, so lots of Sox road games after 9 pm on a weak UHF channel while the Cubs were playing home day games and lots of road games on the East coast at 6 pm on WGN 9. The kids from that era became the adults that packed Wrigley starting in the late 80's. For some reason the '69 expansion completely protected the Cubs. Not only did they keep the Cardinals rivalry, but both teams were put in the East division , while the Braves and Reds, who play in the Eastern time zone were pushed to the West division for some reason. Yet the Sox were put in the West in the first place and kept there when the Senators moved west.

Completely inaccurate. The stadium offered was to be shared with the Bears. Reinsdorf agreed. The Bears refused and killed it. WHITE SOX NEAR ACCORD ON SOUTH LOOP STADIUM - Chicago Tribune

If I read this correctly, the owners are offering full pay even if they can't open the stadiums fully for a lot of the season, adding the DH to the NL, and only asking for another round of playoffs for this season as the trade off. The players would need to be nuts to pass on this. As far as setting precedent for the CBA, I doubt it matters if the extra round of playoffs is popular or not. I'd be willing to bet that what the fans do or don't want has never come up during a CBA negotiation.

If they would have invested $20 million based on the Nasdaq index and let it sit they would have approx $1.3 billion today. Do the same with the S&P 500 index and you are looking at $620 million. Both comparisons assume that the owners did not put any more of their money into the team after purchase, which may or may not be true. A damn nice return, but not insane when you look at the complete lack of liquidity of the investment and limited number of potential purchasers on the way out.

I think the character thing in the HOF description is being misused at this point. I think it is intended to block cheaters on the field and abusive players, not people who are general jagoffs. I suspect there are lots of those in the HOF already. Using the HOF as a judgement of someone's entire life isn't realistic. And could very well change after enshrinement.

Posnanski has been running a series on the top 100 players not in the Hall, and is ranking them in order he would add them. He lists Minnie Minoso #1. Great story on his career and HOF credentials: The Hall of Fame Outsiders: No. 1, Minnie Miñoso – The Athletic

And most of them worked for the Chicago Tribune, which happened to own the other baseball team in town, and literally spent the entire season trash talking a team that won 99 games and went wire to wire. There have only been a handful of wire to wire champs in baseball history, and none had to survive an insane hot streak like the Indians put up. And none of those other teams were called chokers by anyone, definitely not their own fans.

Massive choke job in 2005? WTF? They played Sept and the first days of October at a .610 clip, which is a 100 win pace. The Indians were playing like .750 ball the last couple of months. Holding them off was amazing. Only Jay Marrioti would call that a choke job.

That was the twitter name of the person who DM'd Passan with the scoop on TLR's DUI arrest. If it got out that he was the source, and said source had a sordid history of his own, vengeful types could leak that info as well. Just sayin.......

And Passan is connected to both. Is it possible that Porter is actually "Mr. SugarPenis". Seems like the type of guy who would name himself that. And he was in the right place at the right time to have the TLR info.

Wonder if this guy was behind the original concept for Clark the Cub

This guy is a stalker. And yes, like drunk drivers, stalkers sometimes kill their victims. Women know this. And unlike drunk driving, which is usually somewhere between a misjudgment and a complete lack of responsibility, stalking is a methodic, considered attack against a specific victim. Don't downplay stalking.

He apparently never scrolled down to the threads claiming no respectable free agent would sign with the Sox because the manager is allegedly an alcoholic racist. Or the thread where Sox fans were trying to financially destroy the team because they wanted Hinch instead of LaRussa.

The Chicago Wolves announced they will play their entire schedule in a community ice rink rather than the Allstate Arena.

I think the MLB teams may need to assist their affiliated teams financially to make a season happen but I think they will do it. I don't see how they can lose another year of development. The camp system for the best players is no where near the development quality of AAA and the younger players may just disappear off the grid if they can't play another year.

He had two DUI's and a history of misogynistic comments and behavior before the Cubs/Marquee hired him in the first place. He was afforded the exact same grace as TLR. He just sucked at his job.

IIRC, Toronto asked JR for permission to interview KW for Paul Beeston's job. Beeston and JR were buddies, and no one knew Beeston was on the way out. So JR was pissed and sat on the request. Later he found out Toronto reached out to KW without his permission, tampering. Also they were trying to recruit him during the winter meetings so the timing was impossible. Normally I believe permission is almost always granted if a promotion is part of the deal. Toronto just handled this one poorly and pissed off JR, and KW had no intention of doing it anyway. I also thought RH interviewed for a couple of GM jobs that he didn't get before he was promoted to GM with the Sox.