whitesoxfan101

QUOTE (Jimbo's Drinker @ Feb 18, 2009 -> 07:57 PM) Illinois is extremely subpar, a good small conference team could easily beat them in the first round. The Big 10 fixed it's depth problem, but it's just as bad as ever at the top, which will be exposed about a month from now. Michigan State and Purdue are the only teams in the league that look capable of winning in the NCAA Tournament, and even they have their noteable warts, such as being swept by this Illinois cast of characters in Purdue's case, and home losses to Northwestern and Penn State in Michigan State's.

QUOTE (fathom @ Feb 18, 2009 -> 07:50 PM) Way to go Penn State! While this loss does end Illinois' Big Ten Championship hopes (which proves that while the league depthwise is better this year, it's still awful at the top), Penn State did little tonight that deserves credit other than show up to the arena, which it's debateable if Illinois did. To be honest, BOTH teams should be ashamed of themselves after that game, it was the most pathetic "high level" college basketball game between two teams that will be in the NCAA Tournament I have ever seen. Illinois in particular should be ashamed of themselves, at least Penn State made some plays late and found a way to win on the road. Illinois, with a chance to make a Big Ten title run, against a team they had lost to twice in a row against at home, in a game where they needed to score 40 points in Assembly Hall to win, lost. As much as last years team (accurately so) was ripped on for being dogs who didn't care, they didn't even put up a performance that pathetic in Big 10 play last year. QUOTE (SoxFan101 @ Feb 18, 2009 -> 07:38 PM) Don't know what the illini are doing, but they are in dangerous position to lose this game. They should have pretty much done enough to already get in the tourney, but Im starting to think this might be a one and done team. They are in the NCAA Tournament because they have a pretty good resume and the at large candidate field this year is as bad as it's been in at least a decade due to the mid majors (and the Big 12 and SEC) being down. But they are definitely a one and done candidate. I wouldn't be surprised in the least if no Big 10 team survives the first weekend. Every team in the league that is a Tourney candidate is capable of losing in the 1st round, and I can only see two of them capable of winning in it.

Rene Bourque is having a fantastic season for Calgary (20 goals, 19 assists, +18). He had a pretty good rookie season IIRC and was ok when on the ice last year, but i'm a bit surprised he is staying healthy and playing so well up there. I'm not sure how much playing time there would have been for him down here anyways though.

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Feb 18, 2009 -> 10:28 AM) and the day Apple released the first iPhone.. Apples stock tanked. The stock market is a persnickety irrational beast. I totally agree with the bolded, but I just find it weird that anytime Obama seems to do something, the stock market reacts poorly. We shouldn't completely trust Wall Street though, their shenanigans (along with the housing crash and many others things) are reasons we are in this mess in the first place. On a side note, the more I think about this stimulus and the bailout bill and so on, the more I realize why it's having problems with Joe Public. When I have had financial problems in my life, the LAST thing I wanted to do was spend money I didn't have, and I'm sure that's true for most people too. Yet our government is dying to spend money they don't have (and considering the GWB administration passed the first bailout bill, both parties are guilty of this), thinking it will fix things. It's weird, and in my opinion, that's not a spending vs. tax cut debate (I don't think tax cuts would fix this at all), it's just a life experience statements we can all relate to realistically.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Feb 18, 2009 -> 10:13 AM) LMAO. Every time someone from his administration or the almighty himself speaks, Wall Street tanks. O-BAMA! O-BAMA! O-BAMA! I was just coming in here to post that honestly. It seems like anytime he says or does anything of relevance, the stock market takes a significant tumble.

QUOTE (daa84 @ Feb 17, 2009 -> 01:15 PM) not necessarily, sacramento and washington both have worse records right now.... That's why the NBA has a draft lottery. They delivered LeBron to Cleveland, Rose to Chicago, hell it was started with Ewing to New York. I would be shocked if OKC doesn't end up with the #1 pick, regardless of record. Blake Griffin staying close to home is too good a story for the league to pass up on.

QUOTE (MurcieOne @ Feb 16, 2009 -> 01:19 AM) f***, why does this happen every year? Id prefer that we just sucked dick, and stayed out of trade rumors... I have honestly thought about Amare in a Bulls everyday since the rumor broke. Tyrus better keep progressing. As long as John Paxson is the Bulls GM, nothing will happen. Hopefully the rumors of his resignation are true, because he is just so bad.

QUOTE (farmteam @ Feb 15, 2009 -> 10:50 PM) Yep. That's why my friends and I didn't join in, and just looked around sort of disappointed at that point. I actually find "shut up Weber" to be pretty damn funny, but the Eric Gordon chant had me laughing in a different way. IU has a GREAT fan base to be selling out a 17,000 seat arena with a horrible team (even with the future being bright), but to hear what sounded like on television to be the vast majority of the arena chanting that just shows lack of knowledge.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Feb 15, 2009 -> 12:37 PM) And I didnt get to post this before since the site was down. NW players and fans should have been ashamed of their performance against ILL. The Illini Fans brought the team back into the game and the team delivered the knockout blow. All the NW players did was make dumb decisions, timeouts, passes, and the fans just sat on their hands. Kudos to the Illini fans for that win. Nah. The reason Illinois even had an opportunity to win at the end (and did so with McCamey's shot) was the press. Northwestern looked like they had never seen a press before, and that along with a well time hot shooting streak, got Illinois the win. As for today, it was really pretty deplorable that Illinois fell asleep and let an awful team back into the game, but a win is a win. I especially enjoyed the "Eric Gordon" chant late in the game, even though the only current consequences of his decision are he was part of the Sampson collapse which led to Indiana's record season this year, and Illinois has Mike Davis as a result of Gordon not coming to town. I'm aware Indiana is going to be very good again in a few years, but the majority of the arena chanting "Eric Gordon" just makes you look stupid.

It was definitely either a stunt or he was on drugs. I lean towards stunt, but that was so bizare that I almost think it was too good to be an act and he must have been on something. Maybe it was a stunt AND he was on drugs.

Thanks everybody. It was a very good birthday.

That Illinois/Northwestern game was quite an event to be at, and what a great comeback/ending.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Feb 11, 2009 -> 11:23 AM) Ah, so their chemistry explains their fall from basketball greatness. Yeah it couldn't be that they started hot against one of the worst out of conference schedules in recent memory, then played well at times against the worst version talent and depthwise of the Missouri Valley Conference this decade. No, they were just a great team that eventually fell victim to poor chemistry. Stuff like that happens all the time.

QUOTE (RME JICO @ Feb 11, 2009 -> 09:43 AM) Probably just to name names. That's the only thing I can think of as well in terms of what the government gets out of him taking a plea deal.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 11, 2009 -> 11:05 AM) Brett Favre retirement #2 starts now. It will be interesting to see if this is for good, or if he's just a boxer type who plans to retire and unretire several times. As of now though, i'll be one of the first (and certainly not the last) to say that Brett Favre with the Jets=Willie Mays with the Mets, and it's a shame either of those short eras had to happen.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 10, 2009 -> 09:59 PM) Doesn't that work the other way? Why is the assumption that the Repubs should capitulate to Obama? I would guess that, fair or not, that assumption comes from the fact that the GOP did a lousy job the last several years, causing the people to vote a pretty large majority of democrats into the Congress, as well as voting one into the White House.

If Tyrus and/or Noah can help you get Amar'e, he or they was or were worth drafting after all in hinsight. I would prefer to see Noah part of the deal and Tyrus stay, and even keeping Noah and trading Tyrus is better than giving up both, but if you have to give up both to get Amar'e, you do so and don't look back. You do whatever it takes to get Amar'e outside of giving up Rose obviously, but I am starting to think Tyrus might be turning a corner. He had a nice stretch later in his rookie season if I recall correctly, but he's never had a stretch this long of playing this well. You better be SURE Amar'e will sign here long term and stick around before you make the trade though, and by sure I mean 100 percent sure.

I am surprised the statue of limitations didn't expire on this case. I wouldn't think you can pursue a case against a guy who took a hit off a bong several months ago at a party (I think it was several months ago.) I think the sheriff is wasting his time here, although I agree he's in a no win situation.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 10, 2009 -> 05:44 PM) On a slightly different topic, here's a Congressman describing something we probably didn't know about before...the entire financial system almost collapsed in a Money market account run last September. On the other hand, here's the Politico asking if that actually happened. If it did happen, then it's perhaps an incredible missed story by the media; a giant bank run that went unreported. If it didn't happen, then given how he described that, as information coming directly from the people proposing the bailout, then it's worth asking who exactly it was who told him that story. Wow. First off, if that did actually happen, and we were that close to economic and political collapse worldwide, that is terrifying to think about. Then again, maybe this is just the congressman using exaggerated scare tactics to try and help his political point of view (I assume he supports the stimulus), so who knows. Second, I love how the extreme people in the comments of that video say it's proof that the democrats wanted the economic collapse, took part in it, and are overseeing a coup in the country to turn us socialst/communist. Now obviously that is a VERY extreme viewpoint, but where the hell did that money market run account run come from and where did the money go? Regardless of what the truth is, that is a fascinating video, thanks for posting it, and i'm curious people's opinions of my comments/questions.

An increasingly tough sell

I think the win total and placement in the division are a big exaggerated in terms of how poor they are, but I would be stunned if this team wins the division. Minnesota is better on paper and we are worse on paper, and this coming off a season where in 162 game regulation, the teams tied. I expect a rebound from Cleveland as well, and Detroit and Kansas City won't be terrible. We had a very bad offseason in terms of immediate future. The trades and moves we made might help in the future, but not so much in 2009. Not sure how you can predict this team to win the AL Central. I had us as a .500 ish 3rd place type team last year, and that's probably about right this year as well. Hope I am wrong though. Baseball Prospectus' prediction has nothing to do with my thoughts either, they obviously have a bias against us because of how dumb we made them look in 2005 and that's their problem.

The question I have is what is the alternative to a stimulus bill? I'm not a big fan of the bill at all, but I don't think doing nothing is a good idea, and I highly doubt tax cuts are going to fix this.

I was encouraged by some of the cabinet ideas and decisions by Obama. I can't say the same for much he has done since then, although I don't blame him for calling out Hannity and Limbaugh because they are both idiots, and attempting to appease people like that is a quick way for the right to continue losing what little power it still has. Both sides have looked pretty dumb and awful throughout this most recent stimulus process though, I will say that. I really am not a fan of anybody's ideas to fix the economy right now.

How can they claim a violation of civil rights? They aren't even American citizens. That makes no sense to me at all.

QUOTE (fathom @ Feb 8, 2009 -> 07:33 PM) It's dangerous to start calling out people based on their physiques, unless it's something obvious (like Sosa). If you ask a non-Sox fan, Thome's probably one of the first guys they mention about a suspicious physique due to his just massive build. I thought he was on the stuff in his Cleveland days, so I guess it's hypocritical to say I don't think he is on it. However, I guess I am less suspecious of him now because at least as far as I can remember, he's always been that massive. Plus, I'm a sucker in that if somebody is as nice as him, i'm not as suspecious, even though that's bad logic.