greg775

QUOTE (Greg Hibbard @ Sep 29, 2014 -> 05:17 AM) Alexei gets an "A" for .273 with a .713 OPS? Yes, he knocked in 73 runs and played good defense.

Here are my grades for this season. I'll give the team a C-minus though I wouldn't argue with D. Abreu: A-plus. He had 36 HRS, 107 RBI. Everybody likey. Beckham: D. He stunk and his tenure was blah. (Sanchez in 27 games hit .247; Semien hit .233 in 63 games; both get Incompletes). The eye test tells me Semien will be a good player. Alexei: A. He hit .273 with 74 RBI. Gillaspie: B. I wouldn't argue B-plus. He hit .282 with 57 RBI in 130 games. Viciedo: D. He hit 21 homers and only drove in 58, barely hitting .230. He's an underachiever to date. Eaton: A. We all know he was great. A. Garcia: B to B-minus. Hit .250 in 45 games. Showed a lot of guts to come back so quickly. Flowers: C. Hit .240 with 15 homers. 50 RBIs. Paulie: I'd like to give him an incomplete as a favor to my idol. If I have to give a grade I'd give him a D. Dunn: 20 home runs in 360 at bats. That's not so horrendous. I'll give him a C this year. For his Sox career a big fat D. Moises Sierra, Danks and guys like that didn't play a lot. Not a big fan of that duo. Quintana: B. 3.32 ERA is fine. Sale: A-plus. He's good. Danks: C. He was 11-11? Not bad for an 89-loss team. I realize we don't care about wins and losses of pitchers anymore. Noesi: C. 8-11 record. Carroll: C-. Was 5-10 I love everything about him except his stuff. I'll give all the relievers a D except Petricka and Putnam who get Cs. And Bella of course gets an F. I can't bring myself to mention each guy. Robin: He gets a C. The team was a couple games over .500 at a fairly late date then sucked. I wouldn't argue C-. Hahn: C. He improved the team some but the team is still lousy and not a contender. Jerry Reinsdorf: D. No sense of urgency from the big guy. That's it for now. I think we have some good players. At this time, I'm really down on our bullpen and down on Viciedo. Soxtalk posters: C. I wouldn't argue B-. Still a reluctance to start new threads with people thinking a new thread is evil for some reason. People love the catchall threads more than new threads. Not a lot of activity on the baseball board. Lot of lurkers need to start posting more. The new posters were awesome this season. Of my own posting I'd give myself a B-. I put passion into my posts even if many of you despise me. Cheers to the White Sox.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Sep 28, 2014 -> 08:34 PM) Webb's definitely disappointed this season. Not one prospect in the entire bullpen except possibly and I say possibly Petricka.

End of an era. Pure utter class. Denny Matthews of the Royals crew praising Paulie for making a helluva career for himself when the Dodgers and Reds didn't want him and thought he was a stiff. Paul Konerko is f***ing amazing.

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Sep 28, 2014 -> 08:08 PM) That's a little much... he shouldn't be given a free hit no matter how meaningless the game is Montgomery said it was another unwritten rule. If the game doesn't matter and a legend is in his final at bats, throw him a cookie.

Royals announcers critiquing KC Coleman throwing sliders to Paulie instead of cookies. Jeff Montgomery said George Brett was fed cookies in his final at bat. Royals should be ashamed of themselves.

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Sep 28, 2014 -> 08:54 PM) Just an incredible year for him. Abreu got most of the headlines, but Eaton was the catalyst at the top when he was healthy As much as I despise Hahn for the Davidson trade, I commend him for finding Eaton. Nice.

OK, the Royals get the wildcard, can't win division. It's time to serve one up on a platter for Paulie. Put it up on a tee for him, Ventura. If that punk kid sets him up for the easy strikeout, that's a bushleague move. They let Jeter have it on a platter.

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 28, 2014 -> 07:31 PM) A win here could cost the Sox to fall two spots in the draft Good. I'd rather see Phegs and Semien have success and win than root for a phantom draft pick. Not judging you, you didn't express your position on the matter. GO SOX! p.s. Got a feeling KC will lose the wildcard game. They are going to be so happy 'just to be there' they are gonna get smoked at home by Oakland. At least the Sox took full advantage in 05, winning it all instead of just being happy to be there. That was fortunate considering we never got back.

Phegley and Semien proving young-uns can turn on Ventura fastballs. Wow Phegs looking like a superstar vs. KC lately.

Viciedo trying to stay over .230 for the season with the base hit. Now can Paulie make contact today vs. nasty Ventura?

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 28, 2014 -> 05:44 AM) Was at the game tonight, I thought it was awesome to see the place packed to honor Konerko. Did they ever say on the broadcast why Frank had no involvement at all? That's a great point. He wasn't on the video and Ozzie was.

That speech by Paulie was amazing. He was so composed. It looked like the Royals were enjoying the ceremony as well as it was such a cool ceremony. It's special when one player plays in a city for so long. Paulie said it a few times ... he could have gone elsewhere. He elected to stay and one of the big benefits is a night like tonight. WOW it was a great speech and great videos.

Wow. I just watched the whole pregame ceremony. Amazing amazing amazing. Paulie was class. Sox front office was class. Fans were class. Royals were class. This night will go down in Sox history as one of the greatest nights ever. Paul Konerko is a Sox and Chicago legend.

If the Royals were the Sox, would u be incensed at their behavior in celebrating the mere wildcard? KC had a real chance to tie Detroit tonight. I personally think they were dumb in celebrating so hard last night. I tell you there's a big difference in winning the division and playing in the suicidal wildcard game. I'd hope if the Sox are ever in that position again they pop a little bit of bubbly but tone down the celebrations IF the divisional title is still in balance. Stupid KC falling short tonight against our abysmal Sox.

QUOTE (scs787 @ Sep 27, 2014 -> 06:06 AM) Know who else had consecutive 90 loss seasons?? Ned Yost. Year before that he had a .433 W-L% but only coached 127 games. The White Sox cannot hit the Royals' pitchers. It's pretty sickening.

QUOTE (farmteam @ Sep 25, 2014 -> 11:23 PM) Right, I get it's going to affect views on some level, and it is an important to distinction. I thought SS stated it nicely with the abolitionist comment. In terms of talking to other people about your religion (what HH and Greg were talking about), a good general rule is to not bring it up until the other person does. I once had a delightful conversation with a Mormon at my school. I disagreed with some of what he said, but none of it bothered me or was off-putting, because the conversation arose organically. Great post. I can honestly say nobody has ever asked me about my feelings about religion or being Catholic. Some people at work know I go to Mass cause I don't hide it. If they ask me to go to dinner on Sunday night and I said I can't and they say why not? I say I'm going to Mass at 5 p.m., rather than make up some excuse. That's it, though. I don't force my beliefs on anybody.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 27, 2014 -> 02:52 AM) It's literally a Stephen Colbert "you should be embarrassed if you say this because you understand nothing" quote. What's to understand? I'm not racist, never have been. I'm colorblind, always have been. Growing up, people in my neighborhood were extremely racist. That didn't turn me into a racist so why can't I be proud of that?

What a horrible story.

Royals fans are already panicking on Twitter that Yost said Shields would start Monday on 3 days rest if there's a tiebreaker game with Detroit. They're always b****ing about something. That would be one to second guess if it doesn't work out obviously. If KC gets clobbered in Detroit, which it probably would, suddenly there'd be the shock of not having Shields available for the wildcard game. I think I'd pitch somebody else in Detroit just because it seems silly to panic and pitch Shields on 3 days rest. Like every move in sports, if it works, Ned's a genius. If it doesn't he's a moron. The fact Ned said he'd do that makes me wonder if managers have all the power. Does anybody know if managers ever consult the GMs before making those type of moves? Not being a smartass; I'm just curious with Ned making an assertion Shields would start Monday.

Royals fans on twitter are thanking the Sox for lighting up the scoreboard as they celebrated and for putting up a message congratulating the Royals.

Reading the comments on Erik Johnson made me wonder something else ... Is Felipe Paulino one of the top 20 worst acquisitions in modern team history? Is Keppinger? Off the top of my head I'd say some of the bad ones: Bobby Bonds, Dan Pasqua, Ron Blomberg, Felipe Paulino, Keppinger as well as Don Kessinger, Ron Santo. We've had some bad ones.

QUOTE (BFirebird @ Sep 26, 2014 -> 02:48 PM) The Game 2 Grand Slam is definitely what I will always remember Paulie for as a player, but I also got to know him a little bit as a person as well and that made watching his career even more special for me. As a kid, I caddied at Olympia Fields Country Club and we used to have a March of Dimes outing where every group played with a local celebrity. In 1999, Paulie's 1st year with the Sox, he came to play in the event. Based on our rank we got to select which group we wanted to caddy for in the event. I was only 17 at the time (3rd year caddy), so I was in the middle of the pack somewhere. Being a huge Sox fan, I definitely wanted a Sox player. I don't remember all the players that were there, but when it was my turn I of course knew Paulie was a Sox player, so I took him. Getting to meet a local celebrity was always a thrill, especially as a kid. I had of course seen Paulie on the field, now I get to actually meet him and spend a few hours with him. Most guys take a cart in outings, but Paulie decided he wanted to walk the course instead so I carried his bag....which actually turned out to be Greg Norton's clubs. Paulie didn't have his with him. None of the guests in the group really seemed to know who Paulie was, so they kind of just had their own fun while I got to walk 18 holes with PK. Couldn't have been a nicer guy. Asked questions about myself, school, where I was going to go to college, etc. He pretty much was exactly how we see PK every day talking to the media...same guy. He always engaged me in conversation, like he actually wanted to talk to this 17 year old kid carrying his bag. I will never forget how cool he was. After a few holes, he sees I am a decent caddy and he starts to ask for advice on clubs and reading greens. We get to a Par 3 and it is a hole you can win a prize. A trip to Ireland with a hole in one. I had been clubbing PK for a few holes now so he turned to me and said, 7 or 8 iron. I handed him the 8 and he hit a real good shot right at the hole. The green is a little elevated, so from our vantage point it was a little tough to see what happened to the ball, but it definitely disappeared and we see the people on the green screaming and celebrating. He hit a hole in one and won the trip...with someone else's clubs mind you. Nevertheless, everyone is excited and of course I get a huge high five from PK. Next hole was longest drive and still probably pumped up from the last hole, he rips one right down the middle of the fairway...longest of the day to that point. Not sure if he won that one though. The day was definitely the best selection I ever made on the March of Dimes picks. Got to spend 4 hours with a guy that would become one of my favorite players ever in a White Sox uniform and some great memories to go along with it. That's the greatest story in the history of Soxtalk. He got a hole in one after you gave him the 8 iron. Holy s***. What a story. Wild thing is if you ever run into Paulie again, he'd remember that day in a second. Nobody forgets their holes in one.

Royals fans took over the Cell tonight; tomorrow will be diffrent.

Q of the night: If KC wins tonight and they dogpile which they will, since they have a pretty young team, will our crowd politely cheer them? Sox have nothing to play for and no reason to begrudge the Royals younguns. I just wondered if Sox fans will applaud nicely for the visitors or boo them off the field.