TheBigHurt35

QUOTE(SleepyWhiteSox @ Apr 7, 2005 -> 01:21 PM) "You cheered in the stands, I laughed in the press box." Now we're laughing at his dumb ass.

QUOTE(shakes @ Apr 7, 2005 -> 01:21 PM) Pardon my ignorance, but what does that mean? Not sure, but it's a low card, just like Jay has a lower IQ than most of us.

QUOTE(Y2HH @ Apr 7, 2005 -> 01:19 PM) If this isn't a fluke and this is the best offense in baseball and we've held them in check, perhaps our pitching DID improve! The Indians are NOT the best offense in baseball.

QUOTE(MoreCowbell @ Apr 7, 2005 -> 01:10 PM) CORPSEBALL! No kidding. Moronotti's eating that column right now.

Looks like Jacko's in deep s*** now... LINK

The Sox's payroll increased by over $10 million this year, so I'm not buying into Moronotti's financial argument. Agreed that going from a '98 Indians-type team to a '98 Yankees-type team isn't easy and this might be a transition year of sorts. We'll probably score less runs, but our starting pitching and long relief is significantly better than last year. Maggs was probably going to leave without or without the injury and the secrecy regarding his surgery and his comments after being released made the decision that much easier. I'm still not happy about us trading Carlos, but I'm happier having the sum of Dye, Pods, Tad and A.J. I'm also happier with the latter two in the lineup in place of perrenial rally-killers like Ben Davis and Willie Harris.

QUOTE(Y2HH @ Apr 7, 2005 -> 11:38 AM) I only go to one game per season, the park is just too dang far. I live 200 miles away and that will increase to 1,100 miles later this month. That's my excuse.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Apr 7, 2005 -> 11:18 AM) I can agree with most of that, but the point is the Sox have been trying to bring back the season ticketholder for 10 years, and it hasn't worked. Now they are trying to make new fans, which is the first step towards season tickets. Brooks talked about this at Soxfest. First you have to get fans into the ballpark, and those are the casual fans. Then you sell those fans more and more games, eventually turning them into small ticket plans, eventually you end up with your season ticketholders. Those fans that left 10 years ago were not casual fans if they have no come back by now. Casual fans don't hold grudges for 10 years. And if they have held a grudge for 10 years, they aren't going to comeback. There is no point in wasting the teams resources trying to bring them back, when they will do much better in competing for entertainment dollars from new fans. And I think we are seeing the results early with the jump in ticket sales, even before the first pitch was thrown. Agreed that Brooks targeting the casual fan is a good place to start, as long as they eventually target season ticket holders again. IMO, age has a lot to do with the former season ticket holders not going back. For example, I was 19 during The Strike and 22 during the White Flag Trade. I was obviously pissed both times but, even after moving to Indiana in '97, I still watched the games on TV, went to 3-4 games per year, and bought Sox merchandise. In contrast, my ex-girlfriend's father and his buddy were both season ticket holders and refused to go to another game after The Strike (they were in their 50s at the time). It seems to me that, for some reason, the older fans are much more difficult to get back once they're alienated. That might also explain why baseball has been a complete dud in Florida. The Marlins won a WS a year and a half ago with a young, exciting team and only drew 1.7 million (26th in the league) the following year, with most of the previous year's team intact.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Apr 7, 2005 -> 10:41 AM) Of course that also supports one of Mariotti's complaints, that of the role of money in all this. I we consider that the Sox's payroll is $10 million higher than last year, Moronotti's claim that these deals were financially-motivated is nothing but a reach.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Apr 7, 2005 -> 11:02 AM) They are in today's Trib is where I saw them. USA today has a great database that has historical figures. Thanks. I also found that USA Today and ESPN have differing figures on the Sox this year ($75,178,000 vs. $77,903,000, respectively).

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Apr 7, 2005 -> 10:24 AM) Casual fans don't remember what happened 10 minutes ago, let alone 10 years. JR alienated the diehard fan, which is why the season ticket base has taken this long to begin to recover. Casual fans streamed to Wrigley dispite perpetual 90 loss teams. Casual fans continued to sell out the UC for 3 years after Jordan, Pippen, and Jackson got run out of town. Casual fans are just looking for the cool thing to do. That's why I think Brooks Boyer was a great hire for the Sox. Even if the diehards won't come back to Comiskey, make it cool for the casual fans to come out, and you won't need the diehards nearly as much. Look at Wrigley, even with the horror stories of how s***ty their fans get treated, they still get 40K a day, and still have people begging for tickets. Casual fans run that engine. The Sox are smart to try to tap that market. The Cubs aren't drawing 40,000 "casual fans" per game. I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I'd estimate that their season ticket holder base is over 25,000 (the Sox's is down near 10,000). There are diehards on the North Side as well. No way they're getting 15,000 walk-ups per day. Relying on the casual team is a bad strategy, as teams that only rely on the casual fans are never going to average more than 30,000/game. Ultimately, the Sox are going to have to bring back the season ticket holder. And any fan is going to be more pissed off at a front office pulling the plug on competitive teams twice in a three-year span than one responsible for the 90-loss Cubs teams of the '90s. I'm not trying to justify the "boycotting on account of JR" mentality. Just pointing out the difference with regard to the Cubs.

Where were these figures obtained?

QUOTE(NUKE_CLEVELAND @ Apr 6, 2005 -> 11:28 PM) He was really good as the crooked lawyer in "Carlito's Way" aside from that I'm not really that big on his work. You should rent Dead Man Walking. He was fantastic in that one as well.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Apr 7, 2005 -> 08:57 AM) I put sarcasm in green. For twenty years voters in his district have been sending him to Washington. Shouldn't they be the ones to send him home? As long as what he did was legal, I agree.

Excellent news.

QUOTE(NUKE_CLEVELAND @ Apr 6, 2005 -> 06:56 PM) 6 innings and only 2 earned runs seemed pretty good to me. Not as good as MB but seems like he held it down pretty well. Anyone who actually saw the game.......howd he look? He didn't pitch as well as his numbers suggest. Was constantly falling behind hitters for the first three innings and even balked in a run (inexcusable for a veteran pitcher). Despite the fact that his command was way off, he did a very good job of pitching out of jams and did only allow two to cross the plate in six innings. I'd give his performance a B-.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Apr 7, 2005 -> 09:09 AM) Ownership is not the problem, winning is. Actually, I'd argue that it's both. In MLB, teams that can't bring in enough revenue to pay for a talented team are at a serious disadvantage when going up against the big spenders (Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs, Cards, Dodgers, Giants, etc.). Reinsdorf and his crew pulled the plug on TWO competitive teams down the stretch ('94 and '97) and alienated A LOT of casual fans.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Apr 7, 2005 -> 09:12 AM) There is some criticism of the change in style and how well that style change was carried out that would be interesting and informative. Dropping someone like Jose for a higher average would fit a get on base, move runners, approach. But Lee has a higher average than Pods and Maggs had a higher average than Dye. Dropping average and power doesn't seem to fit. Good analysis. I feel that they will score less runs this year and that is a legitimate concern. Then again, Moronotti completely ignores the fact that the Sox offset those offensive losses with better pitching and a guy that stole 70 bases last season. QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Apr 7, 2005 -> 08:43 AM) Read Marriotti's column about Illinois' amazing comeback against Arizona, how they didn't panic, how much heart they had. Then read how the Sox amazing comeback is just luck. His personal vendetta against JR and now Hawk is making his columns even sillier than they were before. Could you imagine the negative spin he would put on it if the Sox ever won anything? The Sun-Times, if they had any credibility, would remove this joke immediately. Couldn't have sait it better myself. Jay is on the verge of becoming a pariah in this town.

QUOTE(Soxfan78 @ Apr 7, 2005 -> 06:09 AM) For all of these people that are b****ing because nobody was at the park on a Wednesday afternoon...were you there? Did it ever occur to you that some of us live hundreds of miles from the ballpark? QUOTE(Punch and Judy Garland @ Apr 6, 2005 -> 03:48 PM) People on this board were generally excited for the team after the offseason but I wouldn't say the fanbase in general was. They all think that we lost our best players. Time will tell whose right Agreed, although the Sox only drew something like 1.8 milllion after winning 95 games in 2000 and acquiring David Wells in the offseason. Winning (as they have been) is always the best way to put butts in the seats, but I'm thinking that, at this point, it's going to take an AL pennant to get the season-ticket-holder base back up to the pre-strike levels.

'03 Limited Edition Nissan Sentra - Basically a fully-loaded Sentra with an Altima's engine. Great pickup for a four cylinder and gets good mileage as well (IIRC, 25/32).

QUOTE(Texsox @ Apr 7, 2005 -> 07:44 AM) It's just one thing after another and nothing is sticking and the stuff is getting weaker and weaker, older and older. I'm not a big fan of his, but this is ridiculous. Let the voters in his district decide if he needs to go. With the mid decade redistricting he added a half dozen house seats for the GOP. I know that has ticked some people off, me included, but bouncing him from office doesn't seem fair. Let his constituents do that. Answer to part 1, it makes for better theater. With Delay, they want him out. So it is kind of all or nothing. Let the voters decide, not some 8 year old campaign payments. Defending the President on Schiavo? Yes Defending the President on Immigration? Yes Defending Delay? Yes I am turning into such a great Republican I thought that Tex was being sarcastic on this issue yesterday, but I guess not. From what I understand about this, what Delay did is perfectly legal. One can argue that it's unethical (I think it is), but I agree that tossing him out of office for legally handling PAC money may not be a fair course of action. It shouldn't be a surprise that the (mostly) liberal media is anti-Texas. I'd take that as a compliment. Lastly, O'Reilly's comments show beyond the shadow of a doubt that he is ceratinly not a tool of the G.O.P., as many have claimed.

They're just frustrated because, despite three straight division titles, they've done absolutely nothing in the playoffs during that time and, more importantly, nobody outside of the Twin Cities gives a s*** about them.

QUOTE(winodj @ Apr 6, 2005 -> 03:20 PM) They're outdrawing in Detroit I bet because Redwings season ticket holders probably got a bunch of free Tigers tickets. And probably some free Little Caesar's Pizza as well.

QUOTE(Queen Prawn @ Apr 6, 2005 -> 11:43 AM) LOL! I actually feel bad for President Viktor Yushchenko. Is there any chance that his face will go back to normal (and any othe systems affected by the poison)? Even with the Communist regime gone, the Russians still engage in underhanded, evil behavior. :headshake

QUOTE(Gene Honda Civic @ Apr 6, 2005 -> 02:28 PM) Last year's second home game attendance: 11,765 nothing new. Still, I'm not exactly feeling good about the freaking Tigers and Pirates out-drawing us on a 75-degree afternoon in April... KC @ DET: 14,168 MIL @ PIT: 12.077 CLE @ SOX: 10,520 Fortunately, we don't play like them.