SI1020

I had a long post prepared but figured why bother? On the one hand people are so polarized these days you'll only get an "amen brother" from those that agree with you and "you're full of s*** you asshole" from those that don't. Let me just say that the debate in this country has degenerated to this point. Liberal= gutless, godless, immoral commie creep. Conservative= racist, sexist, homophobic knuckle dragging neanderthal Both stereotypes prevent any kind of real debate. By the way, I wish they would teach debate in high school and college again. Anyway, before I sign off and go back to my beloved Sumo Wrestling I hope everyone takes a deep breath. The economy is in the tank and it looks like war is inevitable. People are jittery.

Take real good care of yourself and thanks.

More on Lollar. They started giving the Golden Glove awards in 1957. In that year they did not give two sets of awards, one for each league. Lollar was baseball's first Golden Glove catcher. He also won the AL award in 1958 and 1959. If they had given the award earlier in his career he surely would have won several more. At the time he retired Lollar had the highest lifetime fielding average for a catcher. As of 1995 he was still ranked 1st on the all time list, behind Bill Freehan, Elston Howard and Jim Sundberg.

i never seen those guys play but my understanding on lollar was he was a below average defensive player..is that true??? Sorry for the delay. In answer to your question IMO NO NO a thousand times NO! Lollar was excellent defensively. I know we have all argued the relative merits and demerits of fielding average, but for catchers I think it is more important than for most other positions. Lollar retired with a .992 fielding percentage. which at the time was one of the highest ever. In 1954 he threw out 18 straight runners trying to steal. He was an excellent handler of pitchers. In a 1957 article authored by Bill Furlong who used to write for the old Chicago American, Billy Pierce said that Lollar helped him get out of many jams. Lollar did have one major weakness. He was probably the slowest man on the basepaths I ever saw. You think Paul Konerko is slow? He's Ricky Henderson compared to Lollar. Lollar was involved in the key play of the 1959 World Series. The Sox were rallying from a two run deficit late in the game ( can't remember the exact inning) when Lollar was thrown out at the plate by at least 15 or twenty feet. End of rally. Dodgers win game 2 and go on to take the Series in 6 games. Good old Sherm was a 7 time all star and a very important part of the 59 team.

Really top notch analysis, Soxnet should be real proud of this piece. This is my own opinion. What if 7 or more of the questions are answered in a positive way? The Sox should have a really great year. If the opposite is true, well I don't want to think about that. The Sox to me are a very iffy team, more so than most other big league teams.

Lollar, Aparacio, Fox and Landis. Few teams in the history of the game were as strong up the middle defensively.

HSC- I'm not rich or handsome but I do have a pretty good memory. Lots of people were applauding the Lofton signing last year but you had him correctly pegged. Good riddance!

You're very welcome.

I've been having trouble with links today. Let's see if this one works. Click on the story headlined "CMU prof leaning to tiles as cause of Columbia's disintegration." It's the best I've read or heard so far.

I'm not an engineer but it seems that something caused the ship to lose it's heat shielding ability upon reentry into the earth's atmosphere. Degraded or missing heat shielding tiles is the current theory among the "experts."

I don't know, I think we'll be speedy and decent this year, don't you? As for the Indians, I think their fans will be feeling like this long before the all star break. The days of contending teams and perennial sell outs at the Jake are long gone. Makes me so sad.

Having been in the 4th grade the last time the White Sox made it to the WS, I guess I qualify as an old timer or an ancient old fart depending on your perspective. I always get misty eyed and nostalgic when thinking about the old Comiskey where I saw countless ball games. After thinking this whole thing over I can't criticize this move. The Sox have to spend the dough on the park. US Cellular is a Chicago company isn't it? Jobs are especially important in this lousy economy. The CEO grew up in the Little Flower parish on the South Side and says he's a life long Sox fan. Times change, sometimes for the better, sometimes not but you can't be totally locked in to the past. I'm looking forward to seeing the park improvements and this has to be looked at as a positive venture for all concerned.

I also saw Allen hit a titanic shot. It was Aug 22, 1972 against the Yanks. IIRC it was the fifth inning when he hit a monster homerun that carried to the back wall of the center field bullpen. It's not the same one Yasny described, this one was a towering arc. I do remember the one Yasny saw, can't remember who the Sox were playing. Allen almost always hit the ball hard, even when making an out. The longest home run ever at old Comiskey was probably by Dave Nicholson, I want to say in the spring of 1963. It cleared the left field roof and landed on the playing field of Armour Square park, interrupting a softball game. Nicholson never panned out in the ML, he struck out far too often and had a fairly short career. Man could he hit the ball when he connected though. If only the Sox could have had a Charley Lau or Walt Hriniak to work with him, he had McGwire like potential, was built like him too.

I hope LeBron has a long and successful NBA career but right now he looks to me like an accident waiting to happen.

Me either.

Good job in bringing up this issue. I'm known as a non liberal here I suppose, but I am definitely not a reflexive knee jerk Republican. I am greatly in favor of technological advances that will 1. Make us independent of Mideast oil and 2. Burn fuel cleanly. On August 12, 2001 Rick Popely wrote an article in the Transportation section of the Sunday Tribune about the future of fuel cell technology in automobiles. I was so impressed that I kept the article. I don't think it is linkable at this time.

If he really is on KW's s*** list then it ain't gonna happen unless JR goes over his head as in the FT signing.

One of the worst on the basepaths the Sox have ever had. Can make even the most routine fly ball a real adventure, but I really love the way he hits those cubbies!!

Bobby Knoop was a hell of a base coach for the Angels for a long time. Man...I forgot all about him. I think he was a base coach at least. My main memory of Bobby Knopp occured when he was still with the Angels... He hit a Home Run into the bullpen in centerfield at old Comiskey... Ken Berry jumped up and flipped over the fence as he caught the ball... but knocked himself out when he landed in the bullpen and the ball rolled out of his glove. But I'll tell ya ... Ken Berry could really go get 'em... He made a lot of great plays back in his day. Berry is one of a long line of great fielding CFers that played for the White Sox.

Everybody at WSI seems to think that Mark turned down a "sweet" offer from KW. You know this whole thing makes me sick to my stomach. I really enjoy watching your bro pitch. That's exactly what he is a "pitcher" a real rarity these days where everybody is so in love with the radar gun. Keep Mark healthy and tell him he has one fan here whereever he pitches. If I owned the team I'd do my level best to get him signed for the long term.

There are good, decent, intelligent people who oppose the policies of George Bush and are emphatically against war with Iraq. I don't vilify these people. What incenses me is the mindless criticism that baggio described the young man making on Fox. As far as our educational institutions go, in addition to raising three kids I have first hand knowledge. I was a college dropout as a young man and decided to try and make up for my mistakes as an adult. I got one then a second undergraduate degree. I passed my teachers certificate tests (Praxis) with above average to excellent scores. There are four seperate tests. Then I did some subbing and was horrified at what I saw. The standards have been greatly lowered, even in the supposedly better suburban schools. There are many intelligent hard working teachers, but too many are barely literate themselves and greatly influenced by the NEA/local union mentality. I remember one social studies teacher (that's my area of certification) who didn't even know who Benjamin Netanyahu was. That school district would let me sub but wouldn't even CONSIDER me for an interview. Undeterred I went and got a Masters, not in education, but in a real subject. Maybe I could teach at the junior college or college level, I reasoned. Wrong! I was tied for first place with three others in a group of 29. The other three got special mention on their diplomas and transcripts. I got nothing. I was not invited to be a part of the PHD program. Why? I guess because I was outspoken, a discussion leader and definitely not a liberal. Hell, my politics are more quirky than anything else, although I have given up on othodox liberalism and the Democratic party for about 30 years now. Anyway, all you parents and kids out there are safe from me. I will probably never teach at any level anywhere. This concludes my rant for the day.

George Wallace was a lifelong Democrat. He was also a complicated, multi-facted human being and politician. No I am not a segragationist, I live in the inner city and my kids were raised in the inner city. Wallace actually started out in politics as somewhat of a "liberal" by southern standards of the time. When he campaigned against the Klan in the 1958 primary for Alabama governor he was soundly defeated. Then he turned nasty. After he was shot, he reverted back to his original stance, that of being liberal on racial matters. If anyone is interested then you can check out this web site on George Wallace This was done by PBS so I hope I will not be called any nasty names.

I DO, AND IT f***ING SUCKS!! THERE WILL PROBABLY BE A STRIKE OR LOCKOUT IN THE NEXT 2 YEARS OR SO & THEN THERE WON'T BE MUCH LEFT OF PRO HOCKEY. DAMN SHAME IF YOU ASK ME. I agree. The problems in Ottawa and Buffalo are just the tip of the iceberg. Baseball talked about contraction, in hockey it's really going to happen. By the way, hope all is well with you where ever you are.

Does anyone notice or care?

The AOL board is a lot of fun I think. I moderate there so I'm partial to it A lot of good guys. We're a pretty tight group. Many of them have come to mine and Jim's summer BBQ's. Can't swear there though. Other than that, anything goes. Thanks for the info. I'll check it out sometime. You and Jim sound like great hosts to fellow Sox fans. I'n 470 miles away so I don't know if or when I'll make it for a BBQ. I won't swear either. Whenever I slip up at home my wife threatens me with the lifebuoy like Ralphie in the movie.