hogan873

At this point I wouldn't be surprised if Trump refuses to go to the inauguration and may have to be forcefully removed from the White House. And I also wouldn't be surprised if he just disappears sometime before January 20th and refuses to say anything. Regardless, I don't think this will be like any other transfer of power. As Trump would say, "unlike anything the world has never seen before."

Trump is getting exactly what he wants: attention. The election is over, and Biden will be sworn in on January 20. All this nonsense with the lawsuits and dumbass electors refusing to certify the election is just that - nonsense. But all of the news agencies are talking about Trump, still. And they're not talking about Biden and Harris and what they are working on. Every 60 minute show on MSNBC and CNN is 35 minutes of Trump talk, 15 minutes of commercials, 5 minutes of COVID talk, and 5 minutes of talk about the next president.

I can see both sides of the Madrigal debate. Personally, I think the errors are less of an indicator of the type of baseball player he'll be than his abilities at the plate. However, I think his spot would be the easiest to fill if he were traded. There are plenty of decent to good stop gap players available, and if trading Madrigal gets you the SP you need, you pull the trigger.

I've seen several people comment that he played for LaRussa. I don't put a lot of stock into that being a factor in his hiring. He played for quite a few managers in his career, including Cito Gaston, Dusty Baker, Larry Rothschild, Don Baylor, Joe Torre, Charlie Manuel, and Jim Riggleman (twice). The pitching and bench coach hires have been encouraging. If the Sox go out and have a productive off season and fill the necessary holes, LaRussa will be a minor concern moving forward.

Three Floyd's Gumballhead is one of my favorites, especially on tap.

I definitely feel better about it now that two companies have developed apparent very effective and safe vaccines. And one, Pfizer, is not associated with Operation Warp Speed. If everything goes as expected (approval, ramped up production, etc.), I would feel fine about getting the vaccine. And I'll encourage my family to do the same.

I like the idea of a Darvish trade, although I'm not sure of the likelihood of a Cubs/Sox trade. I saw someone else mention a package of Darvish and Heyward. That would take a lot of money off the Cubs' books and essentially fill two holes for the Sox. While Darvish is a steal with his remaining contract, Heyward is not so much. I think any deal like that would require some money to change hands.

Is the Sox's interest in Springer anything more than speculation at this point, or have any insiders actually heard anything? I think he'd be a great fit for the team, and we'd have a really solid outfield, especially offensively.

Good point. I guess looking at it from the other side, I can't see why mainstream Republicans follow Trump. I know he has his base, but there's another 25% to 30% of the population that has latched onto him because he is/was the Republican president. Very few people, voters and other politicians alike, pushed back and said, "This isn't what we stand for." Is this the future of politics in a two-party system? Do the Democrats need a wildly liberal candidate to match what Trump is? Would a person like that get the same buy-in that Trump has?

If the GOP was smart, they would cut ties with Trump. But, that's not going to happen. He's going to be tweeting and holding rallies for the next four years, and barring health issues he'll be one of the favorites for the GOP nomination in 2024. The party is unrecognizable compared to when John McCain ran against Obama.

Not to belittle the seriousness of this, but with it being dealt with, we know the Sox are moving forward with LaRussa. The team made a good move with a pitching coach, and there are hints they could be active this winter. Now we can (and should) focus on the team and what it will look like come spring.

Great hire, and it's even better news after all the LaRussa nonsense this week. Maybe this signifies that Hahn is actually being allowed to fill some coach roles.

The Sox have to see that this is nothing but a disaster that can only be remedied by parting ways with LaRussa. It's likely that there's not one fan that is okay with him leading this team at this point. There were those who were okay with the signing, or at a minimum were indifferent. Not now, though. By allowing this to happen and then go radio silent, the team is saying, "We really don't give a shit what the fans think and don't give a shit about them."

Ticketmaster is working on a plan to verify those going to events have had the vaccine or have tested negative in the 72 hours before the event. This is probably the only way we get live sports and concerts by next spring/summer. And that's planning on the vaccine being approved and available to the general public. This will keep the anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists out of stadiums and concert venues anyway.

What is really terrible about that is even after Biden is sworn in and issues a national mask mandate, this population will still refuse to wear masks. The virus became a political issue because of Trump. Now we're in a situation where only a vaccine will help us get out of this. And what do you want to bet that there will be those who would have followed Trump blindly if a vaccine had been rushed to the public during his tenure will refuse to get the vaccine when it's released in the spring because it'll be under Biden's leadership?

It's more than likely that most people on this board, and most Sox fans in general, have been affected by someone driving drunk. This is not something that we should be shrugging our shoulders about and saying, "Hey, people make mistakes", or trying to normalize it by saying he's old and alcohol affects the elderly differently. Especially when it involves someone who is supposed to leading a team. All that being said, I think most of the anger is being directed at the team, and rightfully so. They purportedly knew about the arrest before hiring him, and now that the story has gotten away from them they aren't saying a word. The fact that we haven't heard much of anything since he was hired leads me to believe that they knew this shitstorm was coming. Not a peep about coaches, no players being contacted. Now this nonsense. There's not much the team can do to save face here, but the right thing to do (by far) is to part ways.

This is my thinking, too. No coaches being hired was really surprising until this came out. Now it makes sense. The amount of negative press this is getting plus the 100% fan outrage has got to resonate with the club. There's no silver lining to this, there's no saving face, there's nothing they can do to make the fans feel better except let him go. If he does go, he'll resign and say he needs to "work on himself" or some nonsense.

Not enough facepalm emojis. Christ.

And the silence from the Sox gets more deafening by the hour. What a shit show.

The problem is that Trump and his clown show are wasting the time of the courts and of the American people that voted his ass out of office. Biden is going to end up with 306 electoral votes and close to 5 million more votes than Trump. It was not a close race, and these lawsuits are beyond frivolous.

And still crickets from the Sox and LaRussa. Someone is going to have to say something pretty soon.

Did the Sox seriously think this would not become a PR nightmare? That's what really blows my mind. It's not like he was hired and then got the DUI (that would have been bad, but not this bad).

With the hiring first, and then this nonsense, the Sox are losing the one thing they've had through this rebuild - the fans. It's a shame.

Yes. Apparently he was on the short list.

I still think the fact that he hasn't hired any coaches and hasn't reached out to any players could be an indication that he will resign. Maybe...