whitesoxfan101

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 3, 2009 -> 10:52 AM) With all those OF's they have it might be hard, but sticking in Crede as the DH in that lineup with the 2 big lefties isn't the worst idea I've ever heard. If you could keep him from throwing his back out, he'll probably give you 25+ home runs from the right hand side. Playing half of his games in that ballpark will hurt his offensive numbers, even if he stays healthy and even with consideration to the fact they have the fans blowing out when Minnesota bats.

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." -Benjamin Franklin I think of that quote anytime I see one of the many frightening steps taken/ideas thought of by the last administration following 9/11. Yikes.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Mar 3, 2009 -> 01:24 PM) Attacks also have a tendency to bring people together in times of great peril. Nothing gets people more motivated than having an "enemy." Agreed completely. I totally understand the point that people are making in this thread about how an attack now would be devasting for a handful of reasons, but I'm not sure I completely agree. I know things are probably going to (even now) get worse before they get better to a certain degree, but I honestly think a terrorist attack right now would take peoples minds off the financial mess, bring them together, and perhaps help things improve to a certain degree. Maybe that's just the optimistic side of me, but that's the first thing I thought when I read the original post in this thread.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 3, 2009 -> 08:03 AM) One of the reasons why I felt Obama was a better pick for President was that he had some understanding of the fact that it is in the best interests of the US to cooperate internationally whenever possible. The Bush administration showed us how much damage can be done to our country if we overplay the bully card. However, there is a BIG difference between cooperation, and subjection. The UN has showed us time and time again that they are not mature or effective or impartial enough to justify us giving up ANY of our sovereignty to them. I am not OK with any international body forcing themselves on us, and I am sure as hell not about to be OK with allowing an organization as ineffective and poorly managed as the UN to do so. Its not time for that, and the UN is certainly not the right body either. Someday in the far, far future, in a different world dynamic... it may be time to start down that road. I agree with this, if I am reading it right. Basically, America needs to do a better job of international cooperation than it did the last 8 years for many reasons. But at the same time, we can't let the rest of the world, ESPECIALLY an organization as s***ty as the UN, push us around. (Editorial) We are America after all, and there is a reason that we're better than everybody else and have been for a long time, even if some people think we should just do whatever the rest of the world tells us to and fall in line.(/Editorial)

Talk about great news, and in the case of Contreras, amazing news. Between this and the OC signing with Oakland, today is a good day for the franchise. As for the new Contreras love, he's made a shockingly fast comeback (especially for his age), and we REALLY need him, so I'm not surprised by it.

I'm worried about him a bit because he's aging and he fell apart late last season, but that has nothing to do with what he does this spring. I want to see what Dotel's fastball is registering on the radar gun at in April and see a few outings in the regular season before I panic. He was fantastic for the first few months of last season, and we can only hope he finds that rhythm again this season. That arm has a lot of innings on it obviously, and that's the biggest concern, but we won't be able to find out if he has it again or not based on what he does this spring. I love the title of this thread though, it's very punny.

About as good of an outcome as we could have expected to this situation in my opinion. Happy to hear the news.

I'll be there, probably for 2 games like I was when we visited in 2006. Hopefully the White Sox fanbase turnout will be even close to 2006. We basically took over the place that year, I was in Cincinnati for Red Sox/Reds last year and there were more White Sox fans in the ballpark in 2006 than the Red Sox even had there last year.

Good to see Slayer taking one deep, he has a nice swing. It's a shame he's not ready to play everyday at the major league level yet, can't wait to see him at The Cell.

Very important win for the Hawks today, 4-2 over the Los Angeles Kings. Niemi played pretty well, and it was nice to see the Hawks beat one of those teams that has given them problems this year and get a win at home to boot.

QUOTE (danman31 @ Mar 1, 2009 -> 02:56 PM) Watch Aldrich and tell me an offensive move he possesses. He gets open away from the ball when Collins or his teammates penetrate and find him. Also, Kansas' student section chanting overrated to a team that beat them earlier this season. Hilarious. Cole Aldrich is an incredibly improved player, bitterness over an ass kicking from a Mizzou fan be damned. I can't speak for his specific offensive moves, but he's a lot better this year. And, well.....Missouri IS overrated. You may have had an incredible home comeback against Kansas earlier this season because they fell asleep with a huge lead, but they are still the better team and Missouri is still overrated right now. As for Illinois today, it is clear that they lost to a better team. Illinois is incredibly improved this year and well coached, but they just don't have the players to beat a Michigan State right now unless the Spartans are having an off day or dealing with injuries, and neither was the case today. Hopefully they can get a revenge win and a good win at Penn State, and the Spartans do their part and beat Purdue so the Illini will be the #2 seed in the Big Ten Tournament.

QUOTE (nitetrain8601 @ Feb 28, 2009 -> 01:46 PM) Bears should rather just draft Brett Rhomar who if he hadn't gotten kicked off Oklahoma would've let them to the national championship game. This is a bit of a stretch. Yes Bomar is talented and accuracy is something that can be worked on as he's in the NFL (maybe his release point is the problem for instance), but throughout Bomar's college career, he had the accuracy of a blindfolded, drunk guy throwing darts. He would have never been as good as Sam Bradford was the last 2 years either.

Even last night's game frusterated me. It was an incredible comeback and an important win, but the Bulls play defense they should be ashamed by for the first 3 quarters, then the 4th comes along and all of a sudden they are all over the place and Houston can barely even get shots off. I wasn't a big Scott Skiles fan, but if this team tried as much on defense as Skiles' teams did, they might actually be somewhat good, certainly good enough to where they wouldn't be fighting their ass off just to try and get the 8th seed.

QUOTE (Brian @ Feb 28, 2009 -> 08:51 PM) I saw that highlights. Hilarious stuff. Scheyer was getting mugged the entire time, so to me that's a foul before it was ever a travel. The fact the refs called nothing for several seconds is awful either way, call SOMETHING.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Feb 28, 2009 -> 05:56 PM) How Big 10 teams do will more depend on the match ups than on how the refs call the game. So the tournament isnt really going to prove anything, unless a bunch of Big 10 teams get in foul trouble. So if the Big 10 does poorly or well in the NCAA Tournament, it won't prove anything? I couldn't disagree more, the power or lack thereof of conferences in college basketball depends on what happens in the NCAA Tournament in my opinion, similar to what happens in bowl games in football. Yes it's all about the matchups in individual games, but overall as a league, you better peform in the postseason.

Vinny Del Negro is one of the worst professional head coaches I have ever seen. As bad a GM as Paxson is and as far as this team has to go talentwise before it can be good, it's even more obvious than Vinny had never coached at any level for a reason.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Feb 28, 2009 -> 03:27 PM) Or when they get in a game which is called tighter they score way more points, aka OSU during 2006-7, when they scored 85 and 92 points against Tenn and Memphis respectively. In a Big 10 game that year OSU only scored 49 points in a winning effort against Wisconsin. Its a lot easier to score when you arent playing some of the better defensive teams in the league. It just depends on the individual match ups, if Wisconsin gets a team who likes a high pace but plays out of control, their system gives them a great chance for an upset. Shooters can go hot and cold, but defense is just hustle and discipline. There isn't a team in the Big 10 this year that is anywhere near as talented as Ohio State was 2 years ago, so I can't go with that comparison. Plus, I'm going to assume based on the way you referenced it that OSU shot a lot of free throws in the Memphis and Tennessee games, but I'm sure the pace of the game was also far faster than Ohio State played in Big 10 games, which is the main reason those games were so high scoring. The Big 10 is as good top to bottom as it's been in a while, but it simply isn't a very good league at the top in my opinion and I think the way league games are played (and called by refs) is going to hurt the league and it's teams in the NCAA Tournament. We'll know 3 or 4 weeks from now if I am right or not though, which is the beauty of the tournament.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Feb 27, 2009 -> 11:47 AM) It really depends on the refs they get for each game. The Big Ten plays a very physical style of ball defensively and if the refs let some contact go, they can give teams trouble. If they call touch fouls for any reason, the team will be in foul trouble and will be done most likely. That's what will happen and why the Big 10 will struggle in my opinion, because that is what usually happens. One of the Big 10's biggest problems is it has a TERRIBLE set of refs who won't call fouls. Until the Big 10 comes up with refs who call the game like most 21st century refs do (aka the refs in every other conference), then out of conference play and tournament play will be a culture shock.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 27, 2009 -> 07:40 PM) Because everyone knows the best way to teach rookies the game of basketball is to bench them. Del Negro is a shockingly bad coach. IF Paxson somehow isn't gone after this year (which would be a crying shame), Del Negro better at least be.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Feb 27, 2009 -> 07:28 PM) Thanks for stealing my thread, asshole I posted it so you wouldn't have to.

http://www.tmz.com/2009/02/27/lil-wayne-li...-stupid-people/ http://thegrip.wordpress.com/2009/02/26/sa...-you-listen-to/ Not surprising.

@ the Redskins. Daniel Synder will never learn.

I am going to be fascinated to see how the Big 10 does in the NCAA Tournament. It's hard to argue with the numbers that say the Big 10 is a very good league this year, but it's hard to rip on anybody who says Big 10 basketball is ugly and difficult to watch because it really is. Thank God NCAA basketball has a tournament that helps settle things and we get to find out just how good the Big 10 is in March.

QUOTE (CanOfCorn @ Feb 27, 2009 -> 10:45 AM) I heard a great thing on ESPN 1000 this morning. Norm Van Lier was Charles Barkley on TNT before Charles Barkley on TNT. RIP Stormin' Norman...all of Chicago will miss you. I thought of that same thing last night, Norm was really the original Charles Barkley in terms of basketball commentary, and as much as I love what Sir Charles does on TNT, it's not an original thing because Norm started it. As I mentioned in the Red thread and as somebody mentioned in this thread earlier, I just can't imagine Chicago basketball without Red and Stormin', it will never be the same.

The writing was on the wall for this when they moved Johnny's ceremony up a couple of months, but to lose him is still a very sad day. Combine that with the far too soon (and to a lot of people, very surprising) loss of Norm Van Lier, and the events of yesterday are hard to handle. They both lived great lives, and by all accounts were great people, which just makes yesterday even sadder. It was an all time sad day for Chicago sports yesterday, and I don't think basketball here will ever be quite the same without those guys. RIP.