YASNY

Illiterate? Baggs, I'm not following you. As I read that Q&A session, I understood what was being said. I never had any question about what KW was saying. In fact, I was impressed that he didn't jump on the opportunity to blame the media, when that opportunity was presented. What you say makes no sense, makes perfect sense to me.

I thought this was a good article on the: Baby Bulls

i always get extra because you never know whos going to need some...........i would take advantage of it if you have alot of friends who are in need, or cant get to the park when they go on sale.. those and the flubby/new york tickets seem to go the fastest.............always take extra, you can dump them on here to someone if you have to..........someone is always lookin to get tickets.... i know that there are a few times in the seaosn when i have friends who decide to come into town and want to go to a game so i have to ask a few friends who have season tickets if they are going to the game that day or if i can buy thier tickets off them for my friends.....i guess what im trying to tell ya is that more is always better......... For the record, if I knew I could get my hands on some tickets for the Cubs series, I'd make sure I could be there that weekend.

I thought it was interesting, if not a bit frightening.... the one of the homers in the Perry stories was off of Colon, and another was off Koch!

ok ill be the b**** here and say that i think its a bit much for a guy whos never thrown a ball for us.........espically when we treat our ace like total s***..........but thats just me.... i would have taken care of the home business first then took care of the new comer............ :fyou kw and jr.... The reason Koch was a priority here, is that he was headed to arbitration. This was a good move. Avoid arbitration whenever possible. Buerhle is not arbitration eligble. Still, I really wish they'd do Mark right and make deal with him.

yeah im scared to even go down there this year....... its going to be a whole new team......... oh well i guess we gotta restart somewhere huh...........maybe i should follow all the guys to charolette........... I have a good friend in Huntsville. I'm thinking about checking out the Barons when they visit Huntsville, or going on down to B'ham and checking them out.

The reason Koch got this deal is that they were headed to arbitration. Regarding a few other points from this thread: 1. I think Foulke was due $6 Mil this year. 2. Koch signed a 2 year deal. He will still be arbitration eligible for 2005. We should still control his contract for 3 years. 3. I don't think JM will "tinker" in this case. Kock has "Closer" written all over him.

And that is why, no matter how angry I get at JR, when I actually met him last May, in a situation where we had all the time in the world to chat, all I could do was to thank him for keeping the Sox in Chicago. At heart, bottom line, is he kept my Sox in Chicago when we easily could have lost them. YASNY - someone is going to post that the AL would never have allowed the Sox to move because they would want to keep a franchise here in the 3rd largest media market. And all I can to say to that is, yeah sure, just like the NFL would never allow the 2nd largest media market, LA, to be without an NFL team. You can bet your ass they would have let them move. I have no doubts about that.

You know, I honestly forgot about all that. In fact, though I remember there was some scandal, I forget what it was all about. I'm going to have to defer to you on that one. Perhaps, it is best that Eddie DeBartolo did not get the club. And let me add one other point that rarely mentioned. If Reinsdorf would not have bought the team, they would be in Seattle or Florida right now. As much as we cuss him out, he did save the Sox for Chicago.

Thanks chisoxfn. I've known Mario for a couple years now going back to the ESPN board. I haven't been back here for quite some time now but the site looks great! According to the Royals hotstove report on ESPN, they would like to dump Beltran by the start of spring training. The only draw back is that Beltran's agent is Scott Borras but Beltran is under contract through the end of the 2004 season. In this day and age I think this offer is more than fair. Could you imagine an outfield of Lee, Beltran and Ordonez? CF Beltran SS Valentin DH Thomas RF Ordonez 1B Konerko LF Lee 3B Crede 2B Jimenez C Olivo Twinkies! That line up has my mouth watering!

Great Post on the whole issue of respect and how its led to the Cardinals players wanting to stay there. Hopefully the Sox can build something like the Cards have, but they can't do it unless they try and spend money every year. I'm not saying 80 million or anything like that, but every offseason JR has to run things more like he's doing it this year, doing all he can to improve the team. Now I understand if eventually the team needs a couple years rebuilding, but when the team is ready to compete, like this one is, you got to continually put forth your best possible effort so you can win it all. Jason, back when Bill Veeck put the club up for sale, when Reinsdorf and Einhorn eventually bought it, the DeBartolo family attempted to buy the team. The DeBartolos owned the SF 49'er's at the time. This was back in the days of Joe Montana, Dwight Clark, etc. The 49'er's were THE class organization of the NFL. Several star players took less money to play for the Niner's because the were committed to winning.. not being competitive, but winning, and the treated their players with dignity and respect. There was also a very well known, but unspoken understanding between the team and the players.... if you can't cut it, you will be gone. But, the Niners did it quietly, with grace, so the players who were "replaced" did not have to forsake their diginity. That is the type of owner we could, should have had for the Sox. However, MLB decided that it was a conflict of interest, or had some stupid ass rule against someone who owned a franchise in another sport from owning a MLB team. At least, that was what was reported at the time. Also, at that time, Danny Kaye, the actor, wanted to buy the team and move it to Seattle. He was working in conjunction with the Gene Autry, the Angels owner. While all this was going on, the city of Seattle was suing MLB for moving the Seattle Pilots to Milwaukee to become the Brewers.. and yes, it was Bud Selig that bought them when that move occured. Kaye and Autry thought they had a deal at point. They even walked out of an owners meeting, singing "We're Back in Seattle Again" ... to the tune of Autry's signature song, "We're Back in the Saddle Again". I've have always hated Kaye and Autry since that happened. But, the point is, that if Selig hadn't have moved the Pilots to Milwaukee to become the Brewers, and MLB wasn't being sued for abandoning Seattle after one season, then the Sox might have been bought by the DeBartolo's and the class organization in the American League could, would , should have been the Chicago White Sox.

You're forgetting that Dye and Damon were both traded to Oakland. We don't have Billy Beane as our GM.

Yes, he was certainly a guy to come through in the clutch when we had him. Getting rid of Perry when we did was one move I never understood.

Ken Berry is one of my favorites. I guess it's because he was making all those great catches when I was a kid. I probably glorify them a bit in my memory. That being said, Berry is one of the many players from the past that are directly responsible for me being a die hard Sox fan today. And that is despite the fact I moved from the Chicago area in 1976. Keeping up with the Sox back then wasn't easy. Cable was just getting started. No internet. The Sporting News was a Godsend to me. Then, eventually, I was able to buy the Tribune from an honor rack in a town 17 miles from my home. I'd get a Trib every time I went to that town and made countless trips there just for the Trib.

It's not just the Cubs vs. Brewers, though the Cubs were 11 games better than Milwaukee last year and if either team is going to improve in 2003 you'd have to figure it would be the Cubs. But the Dodgers were 19 games better than the Rockies. In my book, that says "Major advantage, Twins".

The rich DO NOT NEED 42,000 DOLLARS. Jesus f***ing Christ, how blind are you people? They probably use it as monopoly money for f***s sake. Top 1% making 80-100 k a year? My family makes roughly 135,000 a year combined, and we got a 600 dollar tax rebate. Top 1%? more like 50%. What is it about the people in this country that they feel that the successful should not be rewarded for being successful. That is what drives this country. We all strive for the almighty dollar. Some are better than others at achieving this. Why are they not entitled to reap the benefits of their success? When a "rich" man starts a new company that eventually employees 20,000 people while making a profit, why should he not benefit from that? Because he is "rich"? For the record, I am by no means rich, nor even close to it. I'm just your average working man. But, I know that if the rich man that started the company I work for could not benefit from his hard work and investment in this company, I would not have been working here for the past 20+ years. I don't begrudge him his wealth. And if he paid more taxes than me, then by rights, he is entitled to get more back. He should not be denied that money just because he "doesn't need $42000".

Just to give us all something to talk about, and to rekindle some good memories, if anyone has any particular good Herbert Perry stories or memories, let's hear them.

He would be a good one. He seems to like fans. He also has the good of the game at heart and not dollar bills like Bud I agree. That's a helluva choice, Jason.

There is no acceptable reason for the horrific baserunning we watched last year. Who's fault is it? Manager, Coaches, Players.... all three. I mean damn, have these people not been playing baseball, watching baseball, LIVING baseball since childhood?? It's real simple guys ... Know what the hell you are going to do before the ball is hit. If you're on 2nd base, if the ball is hit behind you on the ground, run. If it's hit in front of you, make it go through before you run. You think all these things through when the play is over and before the next pitch is thrown. Don't stand there basking in the glory of your bloop two-out double with nobody on base, thinking that's good for the old stats. Think about what the hell you are going to do when the damn ball is hit.

A World Series Championship, and I'll call it even.

Atlanta is vulnerable, right now. The only problem, is that all the other NL East teams are to weak to take advantage of it.

I agree that Jose can and should be an emotional leader for this team. I can never understand why everyone bashed him after 2000 for those 36 errors. Hell, they were meaningless errors. Yet, all year long he made the big clutch defensive play, got several big clutch hits, and was a field general. Defensively, the 2000 White Sox revolved around Jose Valentine. One other note, someone mentioned that if we had to play Harris at 2b due to an injury to Jose or Jiminez, that we would not have anyone to back CF. In a pinch, Maggs could do it. He has played it before and did a pretty decent job out there.

You CANNOT blame Mark Buerhle for this! He has been totally disrespected (just like every other decent pitcher we've had for the past 20 years) by the organization. Now people, just take a look at the Cardinals organization. First and foremost, they have a GREAT fan base, loyal almost to a fault. They are historically the winningest franchise in the National League and are never out of contention for extended periods of time. There is an awesome atmosphere at Busch, and I wish we could develope that at Comiskey. Finally, and this is important .... Players WANT to play there... examples: Big Mac and Scott Rolen. They both got traded to St. Lou during their free agent year, experienced what it was like to be a St. Louis Cardinal and both signed without ever "testing the free agent market". Now, taking into consideration that Mark grew up as a Cardinal fan, do you think he is not aware of all this? Here, KW and JR treat him like an indentured servant, and in St. Louis they'd treat him like a king. King or indentured servant... What would YOU choose? Loyalty? .... Screw that... let the Sox organization show some loyalty for a change. And this all goes right to that jerk Reinsdorf. He has been this way since day one.

As things stand right now, I agree with you. However, if the Phillies improve their bullpen, I think they'll give Atlanta a run for their money. The Phillies bullpen right now is their weakness. As for the Mets, Marlins and Expos.... Fugget about it!!!!

Bobby Knoop was a hell of a base coach for the Angels for a long time. Man...I forgot all about him. I think he was a base coach at least. My main memory of Bobby Knopp occured when he was still with the Angels... He hit a Home Run into the bullpen in centerfield at old Comiskey... Ken Berry jumped up and flipped over the fence as he caught the ball... but knocked himself out when he landed in the bullpen and the ball rolled out of his glove. But I'll tell ya ... Ken Berry could really go get 'em... He made a lot of great plays back in his day.