77 Hitmen

Exactly. Eight playoff appearances in 11 years for Cle. 8 playoff appearances in 9 years for Milwaukee. 6 in 8 seasons for TB. That compared to the Sox 8 playoff appearances total over JR's entire 45-year reign. Thank God the Sox were able to catch lightning in a bottle in 2005, but that doesn't excuse how infrequently they've made the playoffs in the wild card era.

Colson's average now down to .199.

That's a good question. The local news outlets love covering public meetings like this where angry residents shout down a developer's presentation. But, I don't know if halting Amtrak's proposal to upgrade their Chicago operations (w/ $900M in federal and private funding) and blocking a privately-financed new Sox stadium would be popular with the public outside the NIMBY zone around the site. As you point out, if elected officials really do find a way to stop this, they risk losing the support of organized labor.

Put Luis Castillo on the banner!!!

I don't know about the County Board, but I suppose theoretically the City Council could threaten to withhold any infrastructure funding to redevelop the 14th St. site if Amtrak really came in and pissed everyone off by basically giving the middle finger to city officials with their federal exemption. But, as far as I can tell, Amtrak has been saying they want to be transparent and a good neighbor on this project, so I don't see them burning any bridges so far. In one of the Crain's article, Amtrak said they'd welcome an invitation to meet with City Council members to discuss their project and answer questions. I suspect that would be a lot more productive than just getting shouted down at a public hearing by angry residents who will never accept anything other than this site remaining an abandoned rail yard forever.

It's taking them some time to decide on the correct shot to use for Schriff on the banner.

Exactly. I'm pretty agnostic about McKnight, but when I heard him on TV yesterday it was a breath of fresh air. It's nice not to hear the PBP guy incessantly trying to sell me on how these are such a great bunch of guys and belting out forced taglines.

WTTW NewsAmtrak, Labor Leaders Seek to Address Residents’ Concerns...The $900 million project would move the Midwest Maintenance Facility to a dormant railyard along South Canal Street from 33rd to 35th streets, next to Rate Field. Amtrak officials have been met with p Labor backs Amtrak project near Rate Field as City Hall fights it https://www.chicagobusiness.com/real-estate/commercial/ccb-amtrak-bridgeport-labor-20260924/

Yes, no need to rub it in to us that the Sox chased away a good announcer and replaced him with a total hack.

I'll believe when I see the team coming down LaSalle St. for the parade.

Sheesh. Can't we just enjoy clinching the playoffs for a few minutes without jumping right to "Told Ya So!"?

Today was even better to watch without Schriff making people cringe.

Nothing really can ever match that. With today's expanded playoffs and 5-team divisions, making the playoffs just isn't the same milestone anymore. Also, it was a 24-year playoff drought.

Yeah buddy!

Opposition to the Amtrak Bridgeport facility is increasing in the city council. https://www.chicagobusiness.com/politics-policy/ccb-bridgeport-alderman-lee-ishbia-amtrak-20260923/ A resolution introduced today at City Council by Ald. Nicole Lee, 11th, and 36 of her 50 colleagues opposes the proposal “in its current form and location” and calls for a hearing in the Committee on Transportation & the Public Way. “It’s a resolution calling for more transparency, full environmental impact assessment, more meaningful community engagement to slow this down,” Lee said. “I think it’s important that the the entire city understand what’s happening here because what’s happening here can be happening anywhere.” Amtrak's response: “We have not yet received an invitation from the City Council, but as we have said to the city, we plan to be cooperative and share information about the project. We would be happy to schedule a meeting with the aldermen to discuss the project and answer their questions, as we have done for more than a year with Ald. Lee and others,” the statement said.

That's a pretty good - and fair - review of Rate Field. I don't think he's right that the Sox still have an organist, though. He doesn't hesitate to give praise the good things about it. But, in the end, it's still #26 - There's Nothing Wrong With It Field. The only ballparks not about to be replaced (A's, Rays) that are ranked lower are Chase Field and Angel Stadium (and Kroenke may very well decide to replace Angel Stadium). People aren't going to like which place he ranks as #1. The guy says he made his son's middle name "Addison" after Wrigley and his will stipulates that his ashes will be scattered there. He also blames some of the criticism of Wrigley on "angry White Sox fans". So, take that into consideration with his ranking it #1. That being said, I don't see anything in his Rate Field review that is unfair or taking pot shots at the ballpark or Sox fans.

Two references to Happy Days in this thread!

This is what happens when JR promotes loyalists from within for top jobs. This isn’t going to end until Ishbia takes over.

Lots of money being paid to Castillo for the rest of his contract for him to pitch mop up duty. Remember that this offseason when Getz passes on free agents because of budget constraints.

...maybe if the Sox are up by 10 again this season.

Great trade, Getz!

Yes, that was the major problem with it. Chicago was one of the last cities in the US to be wired for cable and as of 1982 and 1983, the city itself was not wired though some suburbs were starting to get wired at that time. This meant that SportsVision was provided through a scrambled image on a broadcast TV station (Channel 60), which is much more expensive to launch and operate than creating a new basic cable channel. Even when SportsVision moved to basic cable after a couple of years, they kept charging for it as a premium cable service. It wasn't until a few years later that it finally became a basic cable channel. As far as the upper deck, i believe the Sox finally did away with the upper deck restriction policy within the last couple of years. Even without the draconian policy, the 100 and 500 levels really feel far apart. In other newer ballparks i've been to, you can get to the next level of seats by either one quick escalator ride or a short flight of stars. At Rate Field, I'm not sure if they even have the escalators going downward during the game, so it's a long series of ramps to get down to the 100 level.

In other ballpark news: Goodbye Comerica Park, hello Fifth Third Park.

Especially when they're 30th in the league in revenue. That'll certainly bump up after this season, but it's not like they'll shoot up to the top half of the league in revenue generated.

When Jerry and Eddie bought the Sox, within a year, they moved a vast majority of Sox games to Pay TV with a monthly subscription fee of between $15-$21. That's in 1982 dollars - that would be between $50-$70/month in today's dollars. When Jerry got New Comiskey built, he saw to it that the design focused on premium/corporate customers as he had three levels of luxury seats/suites inserted between the lower and upper deck with the 500 level upper deck comprising of about 45% of the stadium's seats. As you said, the reason why Sox tickets have been a relative bargain in the last few years is because the team has been so bad that they couldn't get enough people to want to come to the games. The upper deck seats, with the exception of perhaps the upper deck box (which aren't that bad), are affordable because they're lousy seats and a tough sell.