Controlled Chaos

I'm in for probably 4:00ish....just need you guys to settle on a place.

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Oct 3, 2005 -> 09:01 AM) The time of day, the start of the work week, and like you said in your 1st post, You didnt see it posted. I really dont think they have gotten the word out to alot of people. Like I said, I could be way off, I just dont think many people are going to show. The word has been out. I saw it on the news and read it in the paper. I think a lot of people will go. I might venture over there...but I'm not too eager to celebrate with a bunch of people that just became sox fans in the last week or so.

QUOTE(chisoxfan79 @ Sep 30, 2005 -> 03:27 PM) Does anybody know a Red Sox message board? We should break the news to them about the lineup. Don't we have a poster here "redandwhite" He's probably getting his ass kicked right now........by himself.

It's the day after we clinched we deserve to give the guys a day off. I gurantee this will not be the lineup all three games....

I went to Sports Authority last night just in case they had some stuff. Not only did they not have anything, I spent 15 minutes arguing with their sales guy that the sox clinched the Division. He's like our supplier doesn't print up stuff for ties....they haven't clinched anything, but a tie....blah blah blah..we went back and forth...he was clearly a cub fan or a tribe fan cause he had attitude as soon as I asked him for any AL championship wear. I thought we were gonna go to fisticuffs right there in the store....hahaha....

If sox take one from tribe and the red sox take two from the yanks then there will be two playoff games on Mon & Tue and first ALDS game will be Wednesday. Is this correct??

I wish Frank was in that clubhouse. Plenty of joy, but where was the Hurt? Plenty of joy, but where was the Hurt? September 30, 2005 BY CHRIS DE LUCA STAFF REPORTER Advertisement DETROIT -- Where was Frank Thomas? The White Sox slugger always has enjoyed a party, and this was one of the biggest. Harold Baines ducked his head in the doorway and peered into a Sox locker room that looked more ''Animal House'' than clubhouse. Champagne was spraying as if it were shot out of a fire hose. The reserved Baines shook his head, then retreated. Less than a minute later, he was dragged inside and soaked, laughing like a child the whole time. Ozzie Guillen stopped at the same double doors, glanced at the party and walked away. Ten seconds later, he entered the room, and it erupted like a volcano. Guillen was buried in champagne, beer and ice cubes. His effort to remain stoic was foiled as the manager frolicked with all of his giddy players. When you wear a Sox uniform, these kinds of celebrations are rare. When they do happen, they should be cherished. ''There are not that many of them,'' chairman Jerry Reinsdorf said between puffs of his cigar. ''It doesn't happen that often.'' So where was Thomas? Though he joined the celebration Thursday night in Cleveland at the team hotel, the player who has worn a Sox uniform longer than anyone else on the current roster -- the last remaining baseball icon in Chicago -- should have been in that chaotic clubhouse, spraying champagne and soaking up every minute of the celebration. ''It's a shame that he wasn't here because he is definitely a part of this team and he helped us win quite a few ballgames this year,'' said center fielder Aaron Rowand, one of Thomas' closest friends on the team. ''I haven't talked to Frank in a couple of weeks. I know he wanted to be here.'' If ever there was a sign Thomas' 15-year career with the Sox is nearing its last chapter, this was it. The Sox are certain to spend $3.5 million this offseason and buy out a $10 million option on Thomas for 2006. After that, it's anyone's guess where Thomas, 37, will sign his next contract. Since going on the disabled list July 21, Thomas has been excused from being around the team. Guillen prefers his injured players to keep their distance when the team is on the road. But that rule was relaxed this week with a clinching on the line. ''Frank's not here because he chose not to be here,'' Guillen said. ''The reason he's not here ... you've got to ask him because nobody told him not to be here.'' Members of the front office and the ownership group flew in from Chicago to be with the team before the game, knowing a victory Thursday would clinch the Sox' first American League Central title since 2000. Even third baseman Joe Crede, who was tracking the Sox' games via his cell phone while attending the birth of his second child in Missouri, rearranged his schedule. Crede, who had planned to join the Sox today in Cleveland, rushed to catch a flight Thursday morning. He arrived about 90 minutes before the game. No one knew where Thomas spent his day Thursday. ''To be honest, I didn't think about it,'' Guillen said. ''I didn't know Crede was here.'' Even Magglio Ordonez, the former Sox All-Star right fielder who not-so-secretly wishes he were still in Chicago, was at Comerica Park. Down a hallway choked with smoke from the Sox' victory cigars, Ordonez sat in the Tigers' clubhouse. ''I'm happy for a few players, but I'm not really happy that they are going to the playoffs,'' Ordonez said. ''I wish it was us.'' Ordonez was right in the middle of the party when the Sox clinched the Central title in 2000. On that day, Thomas stood in a corner of the cramped visitors' clubhouse at the Metrodome hugging a bottle of Korbel and beaming as his teammates celebrated what was the first ticket to the postseason for many of them. ''I'm going to cherish this moment, believe me, because you never know,'' said Thomas, whose only other playoff trip came in 1993. ''I really thought I would never get back to this point.'' The Sox got back, and they did so with Thomas' help. His season boiled down to 34 games -- a stretch from May 30 to July 20 that was wedged between problems with his left ankle. But he contributed 12 home runs and 26 RBI that belied his .226 average. The sticky situation of whether Thomas would be voted a full postseason share was avoided by the rule that any players on the DL get full shares. Not that there would have been any debate on the issue. ''Oh, he deserves a full share,'' Rowand said. ''He is a big part of this team. He is the face of the White Sox. He helped us win ballgames to get us where we are now. And it's a shame he's not here to enjoy it with us.''

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Sep 29, 2005 -> 03:22 PM) well I hae game three at home available. I sold game 1 and 2 for 150 a piece. Why would I take less? Just grabbed 4 on ebay for $295.00. Game 2. I'll have to do the swap and get my friends to get me down to lower bowl.

It's a little easier to not get raped from a fellow soxtalker. If they had tickets to a game they couldn't go to.

Yeah Carl...get hot NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

QUOTE(kyyle23 @ Sep 29, 2005 -> 11:11 AM) Best moment of the year for me is a toss-up between Crede's walk-off against the Indians, AJs walk-off against the Dodgers to complete the sweep, Garcia's almost No-No against the Santana, and Contreras' complete game against the Twins last weekend. I cannot choose one that I like more, I had the same emotions running for every game. Has to be AJ - Dodgers for me. I know I'm biased cause I was there and it was unbelievable. I think every sox hit came with 2 outs and 2 strikes. Just when you thought it was over BAM

That is one crazy factoid that I would have never known. I've never been to New Orleans and I knew nothing about it. All I knew was what I saw on tv/movies and heard from friends about mardi gras. I thought that the cops had their most difficult jobs during mardi gras. Turns out dealing with drunken idiots was the least of their problems.

New Orleans Didn’t Just Go Nuts -- It’s Been Nuts by Mac Johnson Where to even begin in being one more idiot talking about Hurricane Katrina? I hate the subject. It should be a news item and a humanitarian cause --a huge recovery and reconstruction effort joined in by all. It should not be a political issue fit for "commentary." But the Hurricane tore at more than just the weaknesses in New Orleans' inadequate levees. The shortcomings of the levee system were known to all who ever lived on the Gulf Coast, and in the end, all the levees really did was encourage expanded development in a huge geologic bowl sitting between a large lake, North America's mightiest river, and the immense green waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The whole booby-trap was simply yet another triumph of government subsidized and directed development. And its failure was long anticipated. What was not anticipated was the way the Hurricane tore at our human divisions. First out of the gate were the Holy Men of the Cult of Global Warming, who couldn't wait for the first dead to wash up before they declared the Hurricane irrefutable proof of Global Warming and a direct responsibility of George W. Bush. Next up were the racial ambulance chasers, always looking for another grievous injury to add to their political caseload. Looking at the Sea of Black faces abandoned without transportation, food, water or protection, they somehow managed to look past the City's Black Mayor, Black Police Chief, Black City Council members and all the other Black office holders that run the 67% Black city, and found that the whole thing was: white folks' fault. Yet another example of racism at its worst. This opened up a torrent of Bush-bashing, since he was the closest Republican that had any responsibility for the City. The Democratic Governor of Louisiana -- though white -- was merely a victim of the whole thing it seems, just like the Mayor of New Orleans! Nobody has any power in this world other than George Bush. Nobody has any responsibility. George Bush is now the navel of the world for his enemies. If a butterfly flaps its wings in Central Park, it's George Bush's fault. And the butterfly is racist. And it was blown there by Global Warming. And at some point during the disaster, the most disturbing of all the infighting began. The thugs of New Orleans turned on their neighbors like a Mongol horde. Looting erupted, as did arson and robberies, shootings and beatings. Rape became an organized crime as gangs preyed on the defenseless stranded girls of New Orleans. Pharmacies were looted and hospitals were surrounded and invaded in a manic hunt for drugs. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin couldn't stop such junkie armies from destroying much of what was left of the City's medical infrastructure, but he could excuse them, explaining that it was all just people "looking for something to take the edge off their jones, if you will." Actually, no, I won't. (The mayor added a few minutes later in the same interview: "You know, I'm not one of those drug addicts. I am thinking very clearly." And nobody said different, Mayor.) Barbarians with an edgy jones shot a cop in the head, shot a national guardsman, halted life-saving evacuations by firing on helicopters and humvees. Police had to mow down a gang of six shooting at contractors who came to repair the levee breaches. A group of white civilians that came into the city in private boats to save as many refugees as they could -- giving lie to the racism howls of the media -- gave up and turned back because people began shooting at them, trying to take their boats. Soldiers who should be concentrating on rescue operations are carrying full battle gear through the streets of an American City, opening doors with rifles at the ready. Overnight, it seems, The Big Easy had become Thunderdome, and Mad Max was nowhere to be found. In the middle of the worst American natural disaster in over a century, gang warfare, anti-authority psychosis and individual malevolence finished off the hope of tens of thousands that had survived the flood. It did more to demoralize the nation than the storm had done. What happened? The storm may have triggered the violence, but it did not cause it. What we saw in New Orleans was what happens in America's most murderous city when the criminals realize that all the cops have left. It wasn't desperation, or insanity, or protest. It was New Orleans, without police. Many people believe that Washington, D.C., is the "murder capital of America." And indeed it often is, but that is only because such rankings are limited to "major cities" -those with a population of 500,000 or more, and New Orleans has (or had) a population of 485,000. Were it not for this actuarial accident, Washington, D.C.. wouldn't even have a shot at the murder title. The per capita murder rate in New Orleans is 16% higher than in "Murder Capital" Washington, D.C.; and nearly 10 times the national average. To have a murder rate equal to that of New York City, New Orleans would need to reduce its murders by 86%. No, that's not a typo. At a time when crime is plummeting in most of America, it has been steadily increasing in New Orleans. And one cause is simple: The New Orleans City Government has run its law enforcement apparatus into the ground. On a per capita basis, New Orleans has less than half as many cops as Washington, D.C.: just 3.1 police officers per 1,000 citizens. Turnover has become a huge issue, as young cops leave at the first opportunity. A report conducted for the city two years ago said that New Orleans was "bleeding police officers." The strain shows. Fewer than one in four murder cases in New Orleans results in a conviction. 42% of violent offenders have their charges dropped by prosecutors because the cases are "not suitable for court." Many in New Orleans will not now testify against the thugs that they know -- more likely than not -- are going to be released Scot-free. People don't even bother calling the police in New Orleans anymore. In 2004, academic Researchers conducted an experiment in which they had police fire 700 blank rounds into the air, in a single afternoon, in one neighborhood. No one -- not one person -- called to report the gunfire. It was background noise. The report on police levels mentioned above stated that New Orleans needs 2,000 cops just to maintain order in normal times. When Katrina struck, the city had only 1,700. No more than 1,500 are on duty now, after dislocation, desertions, resignations, and two suicides. There is no wonder the place went chaotic. There should be no mystery. It is barely under control on a good day. Why are the cops leaving? They are utterly demoralized. They face low pay to fight a losing war against crime in a city that will not commit resources to the battle. "We have to use our own shotguns," one patrolman was quoted in the New York Times. "This isn't theirs; this is my personal gun." They are demoralized because they have to bear the reputation of working in what is widely acknowledged as the most corrupt police department in the country. More than fifty NOPD officers were sent to prison in the 1990's, two of them to death row. They are demoralized because they have to live in New Orleans, due to a strict residency requirement for police. And unless you are wealthy enough to live in the perpetual party of the Vieux Carre, New Orleans is not a nice place to live -- especially for those with children. 84% of officers with children reported sending them to private or parochial schools, at their own expense. That's quite an endorsement of Mayor Nagin's schools. So they leave, and are not replaced. It is not just "white flight" either, for those that want to see the world through racial lenses. Most of those leaving are black officers. All this is not to say that New Orleans has had no plan to reduce its high crime statistics. For a while, one police district tried lying about the statistics. It meant letting some violent thugs go (and with an edge on their joneses, I'm told), but it was cheaper than fighting real crime; and it kept the! tourists coming. Asked if such lying meant that perhaps the NOPD should have its stats audited by an outside agency, Police Chief Eddie Compass stated, "I don't need an outside agency coming in. I think we have proven that we are capable of taking care of our own house." This is the same Chief that now screams on camera for outside agencies to just take over. As soon as order is restored, you can bet the New Orleans City Government will rediscover its need for independence -- and privacy. The overnight crisis we saw in New Orleans this week has been a long time coming. It was just the bursting of a purulent boil that has been festering for years. Perhaps this Global Warming has been putting an edge on criminal's joneses, unbeknownst to the City Government.

Some quotes I found regarding Cindy. I think she is as radical as they come and this is hardly about her son anymore. Kopel: Sheehan's radical views little noted Despite heavy coverage, nation's press strangely reluctant to report all she says August 27, 2005 Cindy Sheehan claims the media are "a propaganda tool for the government." A New York Post editorial (Aug. 16) argued that Sheehan's statement was self-evidently false, given the overwhelming and almost exclusively positive media attention paid to her in the last several weeks. But in a broader sense, Sheehan has a point: Almost all the news stories and columns in Denver dailies, like the vast majority of the rest of the mainstream media, have failed to inform their readers about what Sheehan really thinks. The night before Sheehan began her Crawford, Texas, vigil, she spoke at the convention of Veterans for Peace (transcript at www.veteransforpeace.org).She told the crowd about a sympathetic e-mailer who warned that her profanity offended "people on the fence." In reply, she argued that anyone who supports the war should "get your a-- over to Iraq." Everyone against the war should "stand up and speak out. But whatever side you fall on, quit being on the fence . . . we have to get this country off their butts." In other words, Sheehan's use of inflammatory rhetoric is an important part of her communication strategy. Yet even as the mainstream media has fawned over her campout, it has neutered her message, refusing to print her statements which are intended to get people off the fence. For example, on Aug. 16, Sheehan held a media conference call during which she declared "The person who killed my son, I have no animosity for that person at all." Yet her statement was reported only in the National Review Online weblog. In an interview with Mark Knoller of CBS News, she explained that the foreigners who have to come to Iraq to battle the U.S. military are "freedom fighters." (Video at the anti-war Web site dc.indymedia. org/usermedia/video/2/cindyon bus.mov). Conversely, she described last January's vote in Iraq as a "sham election," in her Tuesday entry on her weblog on Michael Moore's Web site (http:// michaelmoore.com/mustread/ index.php?id=465). Sheehan hopes that her strong words will get people off the fence, yet the mainstream media fails to report them. And until Friday's profile in the Rocky Mountain News, the only Denver daily articles to quote Sheehan's provocative words at even modest length were editorial page columns in the News - two by Mike Rosen and one by George Will, for a grand total of four paragraphs' worth of quotes. The Denver Post continues to shield its readers almost completely from Sheehan's fiery language and radical policy beliefs, as did a 25-paragraph profile of Sheehan in Friday's News. In an Aug. 16 interview with Chris Matthews on Hardball, Sheehan explained that the invasion of Afghanistan was just as wrong as the invasion of Iraq, and she would be equally angry if her son had died in Afghanistan: "Why do we send in invading armies to march into Afghanistan when we're looking for a select group of people in that country?" Yet the news stories in the Denver papers never mention her belief about the immorality of the Afghanistan war. Sheehan has explained that the real global terrorist problem is the United States. Speaking at San Francisco State University on April 27, she announced, "The biggest terrorist in the world is George W. Bush." Rebuking people (such as the Post editors who created the "Portraits of Valor" series) who claim that serving in the military is patriotic, she stated: "I'm going all over this country telling moms: 'This country is not worth dying for.' " She denounced the idea that soldiers should "defend this morally repugnant system we have." (Transcript at www.discoverthenet work.org/Articles/Stewartrally. htm.) At the Veterans for Peace rally, Sheehan called George Bush a "lying bastard" and a "maniac." She showed her path to peace: "You get America out of Iraq and Israel out of Palestine and you'll stop the terrorism." (The Crawford "Peace" House, which Sheehan has used to coordinate her protest, has a photo on its Web site depicting "Palestine" as including the entire state of Israel. That Sheehan urges the extermination of the Jewish state does not necessarily mean that she is anti-Semitic; there are some extreme-left Jews who agree with her position.) In an Aug. 11 blog conference call, Sheehan stated, "Thank God for the Internet, or we wouldn't know anything, and we would already be a fascist state." Even if one does not entirely agree, the last several weeks do show that that the mainstream media sometimes mislead the public by refusing to print statements that sharply challenge the status quo.

Man that number seems way low and if I'm reading it right, it kinda suggests that the intercourse numbers are lower.

Great Post Tex!!!!!!!

QUOTE(Steff @ Sep 15, 2005 -> 12:23 PM) Jim got 4 extras for all 3 for my dad. Whatever he can't use I'll post. Congrats to those of you that got 'em. please have extras

I got nothing...and my friend who I told to try and didn't even know about them goin on sale, got 2 for the third game. I'm like why would you only get 2 dude... uggh nucking futs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Sep 15, 2005 -> 10:47 AM) Bah, I knew someone would say that. But at Cleveland, possibly the division on the line, that's pretty much a playoff series right there. Exactly....and IMO there's something to be said about playing in a tight race. In the last 3 years, 4 out of the 6 teams in the world series were wild card teams and in all 3 the wild card team won it. Now the Sox don't have to be a wild card team, but if they have the same kind of intensity that a wild card team has at the end, it can be beneficial.

The point of my post is that yeah we need to work on some things, but it's good to have this challenge in front of us. Cause if they face this challenge head on and overcome it, they will be in a good postion to roll. Now yes I understand to overcome it, our starting pitching has to get back to where they were and our defense has to pick it up. But these are not unreasonable expectations. It's not like I'm expecting them to do something that have never done...They can do it and they need to do it. I don't believe we need a strikeout starting pitcher. With a guy on first and one out..I'd much rather have a ground ball pitcher on the mound then a pitcher that feels he needs to blow guys away to get out of the jam.

QUOTE(The Critic @ Sep 15, 2005 -> 08:53 AM) I understand your point, and the only thing that prevents me from agreeing is my lack of confidence in this team's ability to "turn it on". They have looked less-than-great since the All-Star break. YES, they've had some winning streaks since then, but on whole they haven't looked like a sure-fire playoff team. As an aside, do you know who is the best team in the AL since April 22nd? The Cleveland Indians. YES, I know the Sox still hold the AL's best W-L record, but the momentum is squarely in Cleveland's favor. And please spare me the "if I'd have told you in March...." rhetoric, unless you'd also have told me in March that the 5-game lead on September 15th was a 15-game lead in August, AND you also told me in March that the Sox would have the worst August batting average in all of MLB, AND you also told me in March that their closer has a bad back, AND you also told me in March that their late-inning lefty reliever would have a meltdown, etc etc etc. If you're not going to tell me the whole story, don't tell me only the parts you like. The feeling I get is that the Indians might run out of time. But I'm less than excited about the Sox' postseason chances. Call me a "dark cloud", or "not a fan", or whatever else you want to call me, but what I see hasn't been all that impressive for quite some time. I WANT them to turn it around, I'd LOVE to be all wrong about the way I'm feeling, but I can only go by what I've seen lately. I'm not calling you a 'dark cloud' or 'not a fan' and I'm not talking about anything from March. I'm talking about battling at the end of the season to get prepared for the playoffs and how it can benefit the Sox. If the Sox take 4 or 5 from the best team in the AL since April 22nd....then that will be a huge lift mentally. That's my point. The fact that it is this close now...makes them mentally prepared. Do you really believe the Sox can't beat Cleveland?? Do you think Cleveland is that superior to the Sox? I believe the Sox can beat Cleveland and I believe they will. Then the momentum will be with us....right when we need it to be. Not in July....Not in August, but in October!! Who gives a s*** about the 15 game lead...you don't get points for winning the division by a sizeable margin. Will your confidence rise if they take the series with Cleveland? If they stop a team that has been the best in baseball since the allstar break, will you then be excited about their postseason chances? I hope so, cause it's gonna be a helluva ride and I'd hate for any Sox fan to miss it cause they were worried about how we played in August. f*** August...it's over. Screw the 15 game lead...it's gone. We have a battle in front of us. I don't know about you, but I never though it was gonna be easy anyway. Lets win this f***in battle now and take the momentum right to the world series!!

Losing a few games here can be a blessing in disguise. For us fans...NO...we want it done and over with....But for the players....well a little extra competition can't hurt. If this goes down to the wire, the battle with Cleveland will be very similar to a playoff series. I prefer that for the players, over clinching and taking it easy for the last 10 games. I want the team fired up and playing games knowing they are all must win. I want that 'Win or Die Trying' not to just be some marketing ploy, but an attitude for the Sox to emulate. Mentally that is where they need to be. Every game will count here towards the end...and I think it's good for them. I'm not worried about them being well rested for the playoffs. Adrenaline will pull these guys through. I'm worried about the mind set it takes for a team to win it all. If they can get in that mindset before the playoffs instead of trying to turn it on right after they start...it can be a huge advantage. Teams that are there every year know how to turn it up a notch....Yankees, Braves etc...Teams like the Sox need the competition. I think that's why wild card teams have been pretty successful. Bottom line...yeah this is stressful for us, but it could be worth it in the end.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Sep 15, 2005 -> 01:37 AM) See, that's the conclusion I don't get. I understand everyone here pointing out, correctly, that the Indians are playing great ball. Fine. I personally think their pitchers aren't as good as that in the long run, but that's just my opinion. But honestly, I don't see how we're not playing good ball. Again, we're 8-5 this month. The Angels series worries me a bit, but not that much. Maybe I'm too optimistic. Maybe I am seeing things that aren't there, when I say Ozzie and the leaders of that team will get the fire back. Maybe the pitching won't recover. But my bet is, given the history of this team this year, that they will. And what I'm really saying here is, I don't think we're nearly as bad off as you are all saying. Have some long term perspective. Someone said we've lost 2 of 3 to the Royals. OK, except we've won like 10 of 12 overall, right? And yeah, August sucked. And yeah, it made things worse. But we've gained some of that ground back, and we're still a 30+ over team. I hope we beat up Cleveland. I hope we show that the Angels series wasn't a sign of abilities. But even if we split with Cleveland, a very tough team right now, and do well against others, I think we'll be fine come playoff time. Welcome to Soxtalk!! Great first post. Don't let the pessimists get ya down.

Something else good came out if that site... Babe of the day Thong of the day