Rex Hudler

Did you post said letter? Is it the same as your original post in this thread? If not, post for all to see.

I think what made the things Willie said worse is how they were presented. His comments, in and of themselves, weren't that big of a deal. But they were presented right next to football and basketball players talking about women coming to their hotel room door just for sex and how easy it is to score. Add in a woman who said she had slept with 20 or so athletes over the years and how easy it was and that some were married and it makes Willie's comments a little more potent based on the perception when combined with the other interviews.

I agree UNS.... I wasn't intending to exclude JM, I was just trying not to rehash exactly the same thing.

Too sensitive?? On here??? C'mon, Yas.......

Bobby Smith is an older vet who has spent time both in the big leagues and AAA in recent years. His time in AAA was with Tampa. Unfortunately, his best season in the bigs was back in 1998 which produced about half of his career numbers. Problem is, he played in the Mjors for parts of four seasons. My guess is he is a AAA player who could serve as short-term insurance should someone go down.

She probably scared him...... no wonder he blew up in Yankee Stadium.

The problem is the players failed in April and May, forcing KW to be in a position to make that trade. If the Sox get off to a better start, deadline deals may not have been necessary.

MLB GM's would be smart if they would just flat out refuse to make any trades with the Yankees. If teams don't feel like they are on an even playing field with the Yankees in terms of payroll and the ability to get talent, why make trades with them and help them become even better. They should take a stand on principle and make the Yankees do ALL of their work through buying players.

Sometimes things aren't always as they seem, and work the opposite you might think they would. For instance, most people would think that a lower ticket price would allow fans to spend more money at the ballpark, yet it is a fact that fans spend more money when the ticket price is higher. Now I am not saying that the Sox should double their ticket prices, but I can almost guarantee you that more money is spent per fan on their premium dates, such as the Cubs, Yankees, etc. Less money per fan is spent on the lesser nights, including half price nights. There may be exceptions, but they are just that, exceptions to the rule.

I won't get into an economics debate here, but I assure you, supply and demand are certainly related when supply is not infinite. The premise is, the lower the supply, the easier it is to work toward sellouts. I won't get too windy here, but a good read is John Spoelstra's book called "How to Sell the Last Seat in the House".

Might be the drugs....... might not be..... I wouldn't be surprised to see him in RF by the end of the season. Wow, that is not going to be popular... lol

cw, I submit to you that less seats will actually turn into more revenue for the Sox, not the opposite. It is somewhat of a backward theory, but in sports it works. The less supply, the more demand goes up. It may take time, and some crappy teams on the field will make it more difficult, but dynamics change when demand goes down.

That is likely the case, along with him probably being too hard on himself as well. I hope he gets it together, because he could be an impact player some day. You both have hit it on the head. His problems are between his ears. Or more specifically, he is unable to correct his problems and creates more because he is too hard on himself. He then thinks too much and puts too much pressure on himself. He just needs to relax and play and it will come.

Believe it or not, I wasn't intending to be as sarcastic as you thought. I was trying to tell it straight up. My initial response was the idea that the Sox were being dissed and had nothing to do with the Sox being underdogs or not. Nor were any of my comments directed at you, but at the general atmosphere of the message board. My point is/was simply, why worry about what everyone else does or says? Why try to create "bulletin board" material? Baseball is played out over 6 months and 162 games. While it is great to be excited about your team, life is too short to take everything everyone says so literally and get worked up over it. I can't argue with the Sox being underdogs. They haven't proven anything other than the fact they are worse (on paper) than last year and they underacheived last year. I believe the season for the Sox will be determined by May 15. I think they will be better than expected by that time and have a good season, or they will be much worse and on their way to imploding. I just don't see a lot of middle ground for this team.

It is okay that you care about being the underdog. In fact, I think it is something Sox fans should embrace. But to assume the Twins are "dissing" the Sox because they don't mention them screams of somebody trying to find something that is not there. The point is that the prevailing atmosphere on here is to b****. People want to b**** no matter what. Personally, I prefer substance rather than whining about what other people think. Sox fans on this and other message boards love to b**** about their team, their owner, their GM and even their players, yet as soon as someone in the media echoes those sentiments, they are attacked. If someone in the media echoes what Sox fans think, they should not be vilified for it. Looking at it as unbiased as possible, that attitude is a joke. It just shows that certain fans don't have a clue about reality and would have no idea what they are seeing if they looked themselves in the mirror. If you want to root for you team, great, go for it. But why waste your time and enery complaining about what everyone else says or even doesn't say? What good can be accomplished by doing so? Hopefully I have made my point. I will do you a favor and try not to comment on such things in the future. Go ahead, post away about things as pointless as what other teams are not saying.

Steff, perception can sometimes be worse than reality. In many people's minds, Bonds will be associated with steroids, fairly or not. Will there be any official repurcussions, no? Will that still be part of the discussion when talking about Barry Bonds 20 years from now? I believe it will.

Steff, I think you hit the nail on the head..... Here is the problem with this whole thing..... I can understand the players argument here. Whether it is truthful or not, who knows, but I don't see a way to prove it. The players are saying in so many words that they never knowingly took anything that was illegal. Considering that the substance in question wasn't known to exist. It couldn't have been illegal if no one knew it existed. Of course, it has since been discovered and found to be an illegal steroid, but can you go back and punish someone for taking something that they may or may not have known exactly what it was? They could have been told it was a new supplement and not given the details. If I am Barry Bonds and I am a long time friend of my trainer and he comes to me and says hey, I have this new supplement I want you to try, I'd trust him and do it. New supplement products become available daily. It would be like him asking me to change from Myoplex to MetRx. I trust him and wouldn't consider questioning him until all of this recently came out. Granted, Bonds and MLB players have the ultimate responsibility to know what is going into their bodies and they cannot be completely excused here. But I think you would have a hard time punishing them in this case. Baseball will have a tough road with this one. I do think the players legacy will be tainted somewhat. The bottom line is the players can be considered shady or stupid. Neither makes them look very good.

Whatever....... they talk, people b****. They don't talk, people b****. Who the hell cares!

Because he has earned the chance. He can play 1B and OF, which will complement Uribe and Bernard well. He hits LH. Because I have a feeling. And because I don't think there are any other viable options, unless they keep Borchard, but I don't think they will want him being a 5th OF. If Borchard makes the club, it will likely be in Bernard's place. That work?

Seal, with Alomar, Bernard, Gload and Uribe there are no other spots available on the bench if they go with 12 pitchers. No room for Hankins....

Gload will make the team.

You mean its not 70 degrees up there? Damn, I'm glad I am in the South. ;-)

Out of curiosity, are there "convenience charges" or any other fees above the face value of the ticket when you purchase them at the ballpark? I know you pay out the ying-yang through Ticketmaster.

Kent did a follow up interview where he explained what he was saying. He said he didn't really think Babe was on steroids, but was just trying to make a point that we don't know happened in the past and what advantages players were trying to find.

If you get time, go to the Minor League complex and check out some of the action there. It is real laid back and hardly anyone there, so you can really see it up close.