Wong & Owens

Who's that girl in your avatar, Kong? That dance is hypnotizing. Watch the undulating hottie....watch the undulating hottie....you are now a chicken....

Missing the playoffs completely would be most damaging IMO. If we miss the playoffs, there's ZERO chance of retaining our big free agents, and there will likely be some bleak years ahead of us. If we can at least get there, we have a shot at making some noise. I don't know, I think the only player of note we lose is Colon, and we would probably lose him either way, unless we win the WS. And to be honest, I won't be all that sad to see him go. Not for the money he'll be asking. I think the Sox resign Robbie--he won't need big bucks, and he'll want to stay with big brother. Who else is a real free agent after this year anyways? Not arbitration eligible, not club options, etc.

Right off the north side of 290, just west of Ye Olde Hillside Mall. You can smell the methane for miles. Isn't that Hillside? Anyways, I shoot straight down Rt. 83 to Roosevelt on my way home, if you are anywhere near there.

Losing Game 7 of the WS. If you lose in the first round, or don't make the playoffs, you don't have that maddening feeling of--"JUST ONE MORE GAME, AND THE SOX WOULD BE WORLD CHAMPS. JUST ONE GODDAMN GAME!!!" Plus, if you lose in the earlier rounds, or don't make it, there's also not that sense of wondering if they'll ever get that far or that close again.

Where in Hillside are you? You don't work in the landfill do you?

If he could get to my work in Bensenville I could give him a street parking pass.

I think this is the lineup the Cubs are shooting for: 1B: Doug Mientkiewicz 2B: Tony Womack SS: Rey Ordonez 3B: Jeff Cirillo LF: Terrence Long CF: Doug Glanville RF: Sammy Sosa C: Mark Johnson 2003--Year of The North Side Hitmen

Bears have many, many problems this year--mostly on the offensive side of the ball. 1) Their OT's are average at best, and that's IF Aaron Gibson can play 4 quarters without needing an IV and oxygen. 2) Their running backs scare nobody. None of them are big/strong enough to maul people, none of them can run away from you either. 3) No receiver has stepped up to take the starting role opposite Booker. One more report about how good Dez White has looked in camp(the 2000's version of Fabien Bownes), or how good Ahmad Merritt has looked(I went to high school with him and still can't muster enough hope that he is anything more than a 4th receiver) and I will drown myself in a Gatorade cooler. 4) Kordell. He might win a game or two by himself, due to the fact that the Bears were something like 1-for-467 in 3rd and 1 situations last year, but as soon as that running game goes south, and teams find him locking on Booker or Des Clark, he's in big trouble and will probably start crying. Again. I think their defense can be top-5 however, especially if Ro Williams or C. Tillman can take a starting job away from incompetent Jerry Azumah. I think Alex Brown has a big season coming.

For columns, I vote Jason. But for Italian food, I'll take Chicken Marsala over Chicken...er..Gage? Chicken Jason? Chisoxchicken?

Steff-- You might want to check and see if you are using a proxy server. If you click on "tools", then Internet Options, then LAN settings, you can see if you are using a proxy server, and if it is checked to bypass it for local addresses. Sometimes, when I get blocked from sites like that at work, I click them off, try the site, then click them back on if it didn't work. Just an idea.

I don't understand what being a fan for x number of years has to do with anything. Are you more qualified to be pissed off? Does your 20 years of fandom lend you any insight over how this year's team will ultimately finish this season? Should we have more sympathy for your tale of woe because you've been a fan for 20 years? The answer to all 3 questions is no. You've expressed your disappointment, and you can come back and tell us all you told us so in October. And nobody will care. I, like the majority of Sox fans, are less than thrilled with the performance of a team that should be up 25 games and playing for home field advantage at this point. I too don't think the Sox are playoff-bound. But there is no point in blathering on pointlessly with knee-jerk pessimism when the reality of the situation is that the Sox aren't out of it by a lonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnngshot. At least you could come up with an original thought as to why they're already out of it--the "no heart, dumb team" angle has been played about 5000 times since April. I understand your frustration, but stop boring everyone with posts like that. And get a hobby, fast. It will cheer you up.

I kind of think that the Sox start winning when they forget about always trying to do the "little things" that they aren't best suited for. Trying to hit to the opposite field when a pitcher is only throwing inside, sac bunting when the defense knows it's coming, etc. When the hitter are just going up there with nothing on their minds but hitting the ball hard anywhere, I really think they perform better. Obviously a trait of a less-than-genius-level team upstairs, however....

I really don't see how you can judge whether a team has heart or not unless you see a ton of blatant examples, or have frequent clubhouse access. I don't think not hitting for a 2-3 game stretch qualifies. As big a no-name as Shields is, he did have really good stuff yesterday. I don't understand what people are referring to when they say no heart. Rowand's plays on Wed= no heart? Everett's HR theft = no heart? Buehrle's outing vs Oakland = no heart? Frank's 8-hour at-bat before hr-ing to beat Twins= no heart? Konerko somehow turning around a lost season = no heart? Lee catching fly ball after falling on his ass= no heart? Granted, I'm still not getting the playoff vibe from these guys, and I agree they're a pretty stupid team. But no heart? I don't agree with that.

damn, too slow!

Bobby Bonilla

I agree that he doesn't "get it" yet, but he is what 23? Many pitchers don't get it for many years, whether the "it" is a mental thing, control, another pitch, etc. The league is filled with very good pitchers that didn't have "it" when they were 23 either. Here's some numbers for currently good pitchers when they were 23: Colon--Not in MLB. When he was 24, he went 4-7 with a 5.65 ERA Pettitte--Not in MLB. At 24, he was 12-9 with 4.17 ERA D. Wells--Not in MLB. His first 2 years combined produced a 7-8 record and a 4.30 ERA Big Unit: Not in MLB, and only pitched 4 games at 24. But at 25 he was 7-13 with a 4.82 ERA Glavine--14-8 with a 3.68 ERA, but slipped to 10-12 with a 4.28 ERA the next season Al Leiter--1-2 with a 5.67 ERA, wasn't a full-time starter until 28. Russ Ortiz--4-4 with a 4.99 ERA Enough stat spewing, my only point is that he's still a kid, and there are a lot of baseball people that surely gave up on the above-mentioned players at 23 or 24, and are kicking themselves for it.

I will now hang myself with a length of barbed wire.

Any "50 Worst Bands of All Time" List that doesn't contain Roxette cannot be trusted.

OK, this is for a car ride, right? Here is a solid 12-song classic rock CD of driving tunes: 1) Hot For Teacher, Van Halen(20 years ago counts as classic IMHO) 2) Summertime Blues, Blue Cheer 3) Mississippi Queen, Mountain 4) Keep Playin' that Rock and Roll, White Trash 5) Radar Love, Golden Earring(Even the 1989 White Lion cover version isn't bad) 6) Crossroads, Cream 7) Can't Turn You Loose, Otis Redding(Often recognized as "The Blues Brothers Theme") 8) More Than A Feeling, Boston 9) Rip This Joint, Rolling Stones 10) 20th Century Boy, T. Rex 11) Badlands, Bruce Springsteen & E Street Band 12) No Feelings, Sex Pistols

That's a good post, Dogger, and I'm really not the panicking type. I'm rationally and calmly not excited about our chances. It's not solely based on last night's game, and I don't think it's a big let down if they split with anaheim(though losing 3 of 4 is not good). --I don't think they'll continue to annhiliate KC --I think Minnesota is gunning for payback --The Yankees are actually playing for something this late in the year I'm scared. Hold me.

I disagree. In past years, Ordonez was better, but this year I think Lee passed him up. He gets to WAY more balls than Ordonez does, and his arm appears better than Mags now as well.

Lee as DH? As unbelieveable as this sounds, I think Lee is the best defensive outfielder we have between him, Everett and Ordonez.

Last night's game is just another reason why I am short of confident that our beloved pale hose will be playing more than 162 games this year. The easy part of their schedule is over, and you now have KC beating the few tough teams they have left to play. Sure, KC could just as easily lose 3 straight to Cleveland or somebody, but I don't find that likely. The Sox had their chance, they could/should be up 7-8 games right now. Unfortunately I see them playing slightly better than .500 the rest of the way, which I don't think will be good enough. Sure hope I'm wrong though.

Isn't Konerko hitting around .350 over the last month? And you want to bench him in favor of a guy who was never hit above .290-25-90 at any level? I could be off here, but I recall looking up his minor league stats once, and they weren't anything special. His defense is very good, and I love the way he plays, but you can't bench a career .300-30-90 guy on a hot streak for sentimental reasons.

I'm hoping Scott Ruffcorn gets called up.