greg775

Can't beat 17 hits. Now that's entertainment.

QUOTE (MexSoxFan#1 @ Aug 15, 2014 -> 05:30 PM) Riots happen because communities are sick and tired of being f***ed with by those who are supposed be there to serve and protect. It ain't that hard to figure out, bros. I do feel your pain in getting stopped by cops for no reason. That must suck and happens a lot to blacks. Riots should never happen, though, unless the rioter wants to spend a lotta time in prison himself. QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Aug 15, 2014 -> 08:17 PM) Jobs that give people a lot of authority can attract authoritarian assholes and bullies. #notallcops, but enough. Yep. QUOTE (illinilaw08 @ Aug 15, 2014 -> 08:21 PM) I was a prosecutor in a pretty major city for a year. There are lots of good cops out there, but there are also some really, really bad officers. I'm not going to get into too much detail here, but "resisting arrest" is a very, very subjective term that officers sometimes use as a crutch to act in a way not befitting their uniform... This is a very interesting post. QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Aug 15, 2014 -> 08:24 PM) The Chicago police literally tortured people into false confessions for over a decade. The idea that a small but significant percentage of police are violent, authoritarian assholes shouldn't be that big of a leap. This is a very interesting post.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Aug 15, 2014 -> 06:51 PM) This point is just so hard for people to understand. You don't have to be outraged. But you can certainly disagree with what he said, and realize that he shouldn't be saying things like that when he's an announcer for a major league team, and a large part of the fan base is female. Simply saying "well it's always been this way and that's why it's OK" doesn't make it OK. Now you've got people comparing it to calling someone a "f**" etc. So if Hawk did that tonight, would that be OK too because that's how certain people talk? There are ways to disagree with a call and describe your feelings on air without saying what he said. That's all he has to learn how to do in that situation. Great post. I am not outraged, but I have watched college softball and volleyball and damn those girls (women) can play ball. Those softball infielders have quick reflexes and great arms. They can scoop anything. And volleyball? They'd beat the hell out of any fraternity team that might want to play 'em. I thought of the women studs I've seen compete at Kansas when Hawk said that. But I repeat, I am not outraged at all and generally I hate walking on eggshells PC outrage. But I agree with the above post a lot.

QUOTE (BaconOnAStick @ Aug 15, 2014 -> 01:37 AM) I am shocked nobody wants Dunn. Can other teams really see absolutely no value in a guy who does pretty good work against RHP? I'm honestly starting to think the price on him this offseason as an FA is going to be well below what he's worth. Combine that and our complete lack of options at DH going into 2015... I'm not opposed to a 2 year deal. This is what I mean about Dunn getting the benefit of the doubt in Internet-land (especially compared to my favorite, PK). Why oh why oh why would you want to continue the Adam era on the south side? I guess at 2 million a year you could keep anybody, but 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 million?

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 14, 2014 -> 10:50 PM) And Butler. Even Moustakas is hitting the ball better than earlier in the season. Yes, Butler is happy as Justin Verlander at bedtime now that he gets to play first base. He despises being a DH. Good for him.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 15, 2014 -> 02:11 PM) Baseball seems like it's in good shape with revenues, league size, growth rates, new TV contracts, and it has had 2 decades of labor peace. I'm not sure "taking a harder line in labor negotiations" is something I want to see from MLB's ownership. They've got a good thing going overall, especially now that they've got the draft-rigging figured out. About the only thing they'd genuinely fight over, as far as I can tell, is the size of each side's pie slice. Great post. Labor peace means owners giving player "almost" everything they want. Taking a harder line will not work, not in baseball. Baseball has one shot at the owners getting more of what they want: a multi-year stoppage. 3, 4, 5 years and they might be able to re-do the entire system. That's too long a period. Will never happen.

Reinsdorf is actually right in wanting a salary cap cause owners are such buffoons they never will stop paying players exorbitant salaries. Pretty soon the average cost of a ticket will be about 100 or more bucks a game which will continue to make baseball a dying sport. It never was designed to be such an elitist game. Say what you want about me being out of touch regarding costs of the fan, but it's true. The average Joe has truly written off going to baseball games. Too much other stuff to do in the summer and it's not worth the cost, especially with games becoming more boring than ever (pitching changes, no steroid induced monster home runs; except from Tyler Flowers....boom minus the steroids!) To get a salary cap, and a shot at sanity, however, they'd have to shut down baseball for 3-4 years then start over once players would be willing to cross the picket lines and play again. A work stoppage of 3-4 years wouldn't help this dying game, either. Only way to keep down salaries is owner collusion and the owners just won't stop paying. Owners are out of touch, ego-stricken buffoons, though, and I'm glad this writer called out Jerry and some others. Doesn't hurt to have their billionaire egos blasted a bit.

I love Hawk but announcers who go there deserve the short suspensions they often get. Why? Because the PC police is out there ready to nail any public figure that says anything like Hawk did. He just didn't need to go there. Just rail on and on, but don't defy the new PC laws if you are an announcer or public figure of any kind. So many examples of guys getting suspended for offending the PC police.

To the folks who voted no, like I did. ... If they moved to the suburbs you'd be OK though, right? I'd be OK with that because the new Cell isn't all that special and never will be. If they moved out of state, what would be the point? If they were the North Carolina White Sox? I'd be disgusted with the owners and frankly hope they lose every game.

If the team moved to a suburb or downtown or Champaign? Sure. I'd be a Sox fan. If the team moved out of state, no f***ing way.

QUOTE (farmteam @ Aug 14, 2014 -> 09:49 PM) That Rush stuff is awful even for him. Also seems like a bigger stretch than usual. That truly was weak. Great point. I'm done with Rush Limbaugh after this. What's he thinking about talking about Robin Williams the leftist. The man just died. WTF. Now today it's reported Williams had early stages of Parkinson. Rush is such an ass. It's like he didn't even consider the depression Robin Williams had. Moron.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Aug 14, 2014 -> 10:22 PM) One of the many reasons I think the biggest priority for the next commissioner, outside of the labor agreement, is speeding up the pace of baseball. Drop replay, put in some serious regulations to increase the action / speed. IIRC, the length of a baseball game today vs. 40 years ago is significantly longer. I'm sure part of that is commercial breaks (although those existed back in the day too). However, since 1970, the average baseball game has increased by approximately 30 minutes (from roughly 2.5 hr's to almost 3hr's). There are also more pitching changes now, I'm going to presume, then 30 or 40 years ago, however, I'd go to more extreme's to limit the amount of pitches and the total amount of time you can take during pitching changes and also potentially alter rules for mound visits in an inning. Maybe truly cap it at 1 per inning vs. current rules which can allow multiple in an inning (presuming the 2nd time you visit each pitcher you are pulling them). Great great post. The sixth inning on is often brutal in baseball! Also the superstitious hitters (yes, Paulie included) who have to go through the ritual where they unstrap the batting gloves then re-strap them, etc. I think the rule is you can't step out of the box once you are in it. If that's true, stay in the box! Also pitchers take way too long to deliver a pitch and that is against rules as well. Finally the umps won't call the strike zone correctly and haven't for 15 years.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 14, 2014 -> 08:51 PM) Royals might be a team of destiny. Jarrod Dyson lost a ball in the sun, which ended up allowing 2 runs to score for the A's...and lost the lead, 3-2. Escobar laid down a perfect bunt and Samardzija threw the ball down the line but he was inside the baseline and ruled out instead of ending up on 2nd base. Then Dyson has an 0-2 count in the bottom of the 7th against All-Star Ryan Cook and shot one through the hole to tie it....Aoki (11 RBI's this month) ripped a triple down the line, scoring two more runs. Note: Abad's also been amazing for the A's. Already stranded 21 baserunners this season, something not done since Randy Myers in 1984. He K'ed Gordon, but then Billy Butler hit a single to RCF and Escobar ended up scoring all the way from 1B on a two-out single. So the score is 7-3 in the top of the 8th. At least three 0-2 count RBI's in this series, 7 steals...have beaten the A's now two series in a row, and have won 7 consecutive series, including a couple of four gamers. 16-4 over the last twenty if they win today. The best part for KC. They go on a 9 game road trip to Minnesota (4 games), Colorado (2 games) and Texas (3 games). Three last place teams. Meanwhile, the Tigers have the Mariners and Scherzer just threw today. Wade Davis might be the best middle reliever in all of baseball right now, along with Cook/Abad. 5,300 walk up attendance on the first day of school in Kansas City area for many students. Aoki getting hot has saved them; also addition by subtraction with Hosmer out.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 14, 2014 -> 10:10 PM) If the conventional wisdom is that all of these guys suck and need to be dumped, why is it assumed that somehow someone else wants them? It definitely shouldn't be assumed. I was thinking the only possibility would be to pay almost all their remaining salaries.

QUOTE (bmags @ Aug 14, 2014 -> 09:37 PM) I'm not a broadcaster. Talk to people about baseball now, everyone thinks it's a boring old mans game. Stuff like this just confirms it. It's crazy how baseball's popularity has dipped so much. I'm thinking it has something to do with parents in the last 2 generations. They've protected little Johnny so much that parental fear has taken away the sandlot games some played in neighborhoods as youths. We used to play baseball, wiffleball and softball and fastpitch rubber ball against the wall (at Mt. Greenwood school), every single day during the summer on 103rd and Homan or Trumbull. The sewer caps were the bases. Like the cliche says, if the ball went in one old lady's yard it was tough to get back. But no parents were ever there when we played, and kids fell in love with baseball. Organized baseball was the icing on the cake when we hit Little League age. Now? I can see why kids would hate it with parents dragging them to organized games with uniforms at the age of 6. With lack of much practice time, and kids not developing skills on their own in the neighborhoods because of unreasonable fear of kidnappers/predators, I'm sure those organized games with parents are no fun at all and quite boring. So baseball is boring to many kids I'm sure. And guess what protective parents? One year some kid threw his bat when I was catcher it hit me in the head and I needed five stitches after running home bleeding everywhere and crying. It ended the games that day, but did parents make us stop playing? Hell no. Nowadays there'd be a neighborhood meeting decrying poor Johnny who got hit in the head and parents must supervise all games at all times!

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ Aug 14, 2014 -> 06:18 PM) Sept. will be overcrowded with all the guys we'll want to look at, on top of Paulie's farewell AB's. We're just not going to get the sufficient looks we should at guys like Wilkins, Semien and Sanchez particularly. ST basically provides bad data and tells little if anything. This is the chance to give guys looks at MLB pitchers who are actually competing - and we're blowing it. Beckham and Dunn needed to be gone already on Aug 1. Hell, Dunn has homered in back to back games and has a 828 OPS vs. righties, and is still, apparently, immovable. If it hasn't happened yet, why would it now? It would have been nice for us hardcore fans to get a look at possible pieces of the future, but no such luck. Patience is waning. This sucks. Next year needed to begin on July 31st. It didn't, and the fail continues... Great points. Don't know what Hahn can do except pay almost all their salaries for the rest of the season to the team that might take a flier on Dunn or Beckham.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Aug 14, 2014 -> 08:24 PM) I have gotten so tired of Hawk the last few years and like the writer, I too have a young daughter. That being said, I am having a really hard time finding any issue or getting upset with Hawk's comment. I'm not mad at it either or have no real issue with it. I think if he worked for ESPN, though, he'd have been suspended by now for a few days.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Aug 14, 2014 -> 08:13 PM) You know who else was a good closer for the White Sox? Sergio Santos. The Sox did the same exact thing, and the exact same thing has happened. Even still, I'd prefer to have Nestor Molina at this point in time, given the contract and prospect status, over Sergio Santos. He acquired guys with talent, and those guys with talent have either gotten injured or have underperformed their talent level. Write them off and move on. I have no problem with that whatsoever. Actual "consistent" middle relievers cost a lot of money and they do not win you a lot of games. If you have a bad team, you are paying guys $7-10 mill a year to come in to preserve 5-4 losses. That's not a smart business move. It's better to do that when you can at least have a good team for these bullpens to work for. Good post. I guess the question is ... when do you decide you have a "good" team and thus want to pay for some good relievers? There's also no guarantee paying a guy means he's good (Thornton in his later years). I hope one of these years the no name bullpen clicks and is reliable. It's insane to blow all these leads.

QUOTE (MEANS @ Aug 14, 2014 -> 08:08 PM) Seriously, he said nothing wrong. I do worship Hawk in all ways, but yes he did (in today's climate) say something wrong. He said the thing about skirts, which implies women can't get after it and compete hard in sports, certainly not near as hard as men.

In this particular day and age, he probably should be suspended a game. But I sincerely doubt Hawk has anything against women's sports and athletes. Isn't he generally regarded as a great guy? Not a prick by any means. But in this day and age you can't go there, you can't offend anybody by race, gender, sexual orientation, so he probably should have to sit a game.

QUOTE (bmags @ Aug 14, 2014 -> 08:52 PM) I think this was a great article from Vox speaking with the former Seattle chief of police (WTO protests era) http://www.vox.com/2014/8/14/6002451/fergu...ttle/in/5757650 Excellent interview. Thanks. It makes me think about here. Tax dollars will build the cops a huge new headquarters. We are supposed to be in this together. Then you see the incident in Ferguson and want to say, "f*** you and your headquarters."

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Aug 14, 2014 -> 08:47 PM) OK, then I agree the snipers and whatnot was overkill. Still though, with reports of shootings, not sure I'd be comfortable sending cops out with just riot shields and batons. Maybe something in between that and full-scale military get up. How do you feel about them rounding up and arresting aldermen and ministers and keeping them all night when they did nothing wrong? These cops were scary bad last night. I was thinking the other day about how minorities have the right to be upset about getting pulled over for no reason by cops (has nothing to do with this case). Sometimes I get pulled over because I leave work at 1 a.m. and it's a college town and they are looking for drunks. They'll say I was driving erratically or something. They are looking for drunks and have always let me go with no ticket since I don't drink and I tell them where I was, etc., and they realize I'm not drunk, but it is annoying. What do you guys think about cops pulling people over for no reason?

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 14, 2014 -> 01:28 PM) Nate Jones has horrible mechanics and no control... Lindstrom sucks too! Oh, forgot, Downs and Belisario suck as well. 85% of the team sucks. Why can't we be like the Royals, who always beat the White Sox with Chen and Guthrie. Oh, by the way, Adam Dunn sucks. Paulie and Ozzie rule. Any member of the 2005 White Sox....should have their own statue on the concourse. (Even Joe Borchard.) I'm not the only guy who rinses and repeats. The reason I reply is somebody makes a controversial point, usually for the 10th time as well. I also get sick of seeing Hahn get a free pass so I bring up Reed. I hate seeing Paulie get ripped when Dunn doesn't (by many) so I praise Paulie and blast Dunn mostly in response to others. I don't like the Royals BTW. Since they haven't won anything in 25 years and I live around here I wouldn't mind seeing them do the playoff thing this year. As far as whether I'd root for them if they make it, not actively. I'll observe it. I've never rooted for the Royals, not once. The Chen thing bothers me greatly. I'm not cheering it. Can't see how he can take the mound and dominate the White Sox 90 percent of the time when he can't get anybody else out. It amazes me one team has been responsible for his MLB paycheck.

The alderman, Antonio French, who was arrested for no reason and released today without bail and paperwork (cause he did nothing wrong and was simply let free), tweeted this: "Ferguson police chief promises a change in tactics tonight. Promises less aggressive, militaristic approach." Well, no s***. The police were way out of line and immediately promise to change. But without the president and governor and other people getting involved, they'd have kept acting the way they were acting. This on a small scale, shows the mob mentality can take over a police force as well as a community. I think it indeed shows what can happen when police run amok. It's kind of scary. Makes u wonder what this means in the big picture for the future regarding citizens vs. cops.

I like the response today from Obama and others. I know the media situation is a minor part of this issue, but just watching the video of the asshole cop arresting the media member in a McDonald's showed me a lot of what I needed to know of how the cops have been behaving. It was the middle of a sunny day, there was no threat and the cop was yelling at some media guy telling him to go out the door. The guy was unplugging his computer and phone and trying to get out as fast as he could. Cop kept yelling at him, which is ridiculous. So the media member goes the way he's supposed to get out and the cop throws him against a coke machine and the guy drops his s***. So the media member writes what happened. On the way to the police station, the reporter tells the cop, "You will be on the front page of the Washington Post tomorrow." The cop says, "You'll be in my jail cell tonight." Of course the media member was let free as soon as the police chief found out what happened. You can't make up the rules and throw teargas at media to get them to stop filming. You can't throw teargas at people behind a fence in their own yards when they are not armed or doing anything bad. I hope there are repercussions and mass firings. It shows you how people can be in mob mentality, yet so can police. They also need to speed it up and arrest that cop who killed the kid if it looks like the cop killed an unarmed person in cold blood. The cop can get his day in court. And I'm sick of incorrect things being reported on Twitter. Were there 3 black cops on that police force or 25 percent? Somebody is printing the wrong name of the cop who did the killing? That's insane and dangerous. More than EVER, we can't believe half of what is written or reported anywhere. P.S. My final point is: The cops have been totally in the wrong the past couple days regarding the protests and have been total bullies and everybody at the top MUST be fired soon for the behavior of their troops.