jackie hayes

On the radio, they're talking about how incredible the turnout from Chicago fans is. After all, the Cubs kept drawing despite all the losing... :rolly

We should take some shots here w/ Gage. (He's still healthy, right?)

They both strike out a lot more than they walk, at least their ratio is worse than you'd like to get out of a #2 hitter. Willie's ratio is a little better, and he drew more pitches.

I'll take your word for it. I mean, I can read this as a satire on all the "curse" articles, as an exaggerated curse article. But he's satirizing a joke. How funny can that be? I don't know, I just didn't laugh when I was reading it. Maybe it's really, deeply funny. Ha?

His obp was good this year, no doubt, but I don't have much confidence that it'll continue (looking at the 3 years prior). But his fielding is overrated, his range has diminished quite a bit.

If you want to get your place egged, sure, go ahead.

Okay... Yeah, that's exactly how I imagine it would work (IF they sign Polanco, just speculation by one writer at this point). But they feel that Vizquel at $4 mil is a worse value than someone else (maybe Polanco) at market value. Why should the Sox know any better?

Also Brandon Phillips, if he's finally as good as he says he is. But there have been reports that 1) they are preparing to not have Ron Belliard and 2) don't want to rely on both Phillips and Peralta (sp? -- I'm pretty sure there's an h somewhere in there) for success. Actually, there was an article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer suggesting they may pursue Polanco. I don't understand why we wouldn't do the same instead of signing Vizquel.

If that's the price, let them have him. The Indians have had him forever now, and they don't think he's worth $4 mil. What info do we have that makes us so much smarter? EDIT: Btw, if they are willing to pay that much for him, they'll get him, since they'll make an offer before he's allowed to sign w/ the Sox on Nov 12th or thereabouts.

Well... Basically he "invents" the Black Sox curse again. What's inventive about that? I assume it's a joke, but it's not that funny when it's been talked about for the last 2 days. The difference is he mentions the gambler w/ the money. Ha ha.

This isn't a make-or-break signing either way (the pitching staff is make-or-break), but I still find it hard to believe Vizquel is good enough to merit $4 mil per year. We're talking about one good year in 4. It's a mistake.

Supposedly the Red Sox.

Usually I believe that more information can't really harm an election, or a decision more generally. But in this case, I think the electorate would have been much better off if this video had never been seen. A bin Ladin tape provides zero information, zero analysis, and zero insight. But people are still talking about it. It's just noise. I wish the candidates would have just this once got together, issued one joint statement about the tape's uselessness, including a request that the American press and people completely ignore it. Why waste time and thought on a useless message from a useless individual?

I take more than a little exception to this statement. I'm guessing that this is directed at all Kerry supporters, and I support Kerry in this election, but to call him "my guy" is laughable. In fact, I've never supported a Dem prez candidate before in my life. But I feel that Bush has already failed. On the weapons, it seems clear from the video that some weapons were left unguarded. If they had just been missed, that's one thing, but soldiers are shown going in and looking at the stuff. (The video is from Apr 18, the soldiers who claimed to destroy weapons removed them on Apr 13, so it apparently isn't the same stuff, anyway. Not to mention the IAEA seals.) On everything else, the only summary I can give is that I've never felt more disappointed in a prez -- I won't be happy if Kerry is elected, only relieved. And I don't want to see democracy and freedom fail, that's just f***ing gibberish nonsense rhetoric. It pisses me off when supporters of one candidate claim that 'We're just better Americans and better people' and that's all the f*** you're doing. Bulls***.

It's not just walks w/ Ortiz, I'm pretty sure he gets too many fly balls too, which is really bad news for our park. Please KW, look elsewhere.

Only in this context. Ugh.

Is this just a test to see if anyone actually reads your post w/ that av?

Everyone's biggest fear, now on tv. These 2 sentences should never be placed in the same paragraph, or page, or article, or broadcast, or whatever.

Wow, so all of Badnarik's supporters also happen to be Sox fans!

The human rights offenses in Iraq were awful in the past, but if they weren't bad in spring 2003, then there was little reason to invade at that time. Personally (and I know a lot of people will disagree), I wouldn't have been opposed to invading Iraq a year later, had all due diligence been completed, all diplomatic channels been pursued. I think a good case can be made that some sort of invasion would have eventually been required (on grounds of violating sanctions). But there was no evidence that Iraq was an "imminent threat". And mreye, I wasn't referring to you, just to the administration. I don't think anyone got the impression before the war that human rights was the main reason for invading.

Cite? Tex's point is that, since human rights violations are (all of a sudden) the reason for the war in Iraq, the US should pick the worst ongoing human rights abuses for invasion. What's invalid about that argument? We should at least be making plans to invade the Sudan, or making noise that other countries should do so. And was Iraq at the time the worst violator of human rights? I doubt it, but I don't know for certain.

I think you meant to agree w/ Purdue129. Although I do appreciate the support.

No, thank you. First of all, just the idea makes my skin crawl. The essential part of a "curse" is b****ing constantly about past losses, Dent or Buckner or the 1969 choke. Woo woo. The Sox have always lost and then moved on, the fans are grown up about the whole thing. Second, even if you could tolerate that atmosphere, it just wouldn't work. What curse would you manufacture? The Black Sox generates no pity, b/c it wasn't the team owner or a goat-wielding fan that did the misdeed -- it was the same players that the fans loved -- the most famous quote, even though it's apocryphal, is directed right at Shoeless Joe. (That's not to say Comiskey didn't have as great responsibility, probably more -- just that he didn't actually do the deed.) What else, the curse of the White Flag trade? The curse of the too-much-sloped upper deck? We're not cuddly, we're not cute. And we play in a big cement part that communicates that (which was, I should add, actually built for our team). Thank God.

Polanco at 2b, easily. I hope the Sox do not sign Vizquel at all unless his price is very low, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen.

Except the UN weapons inspectors who were actually in Iraq looking for them? Except them, you mean? Well, naturally, how would they know anything...