whitesoxfan101

I was underwhelmed with Kennedy's speech. It was a nice touch to have him there, but he went to the Mario Cuomo democratic cliche book. On the other hand, I was VERY impressed with Michelle Obama's speech. I never really thought she was some sort of angry black woman or militant or whatever (she just seems like your typical lifelong Chicagoan with an attitude to me, and that's fine, I could be described as that), but last night was a job well done by her. She came across as very likeable, smart, goal oriented, and real, and it was honestly more impressive to me than any speech even her husband has done.

Thornton?

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Aug 25, 2008 -> 09:26 PM) The only problem with that is Alexei's .425 AVG and 1.080 OPS with RISP being wasted in the leadoff spot. Yeah that's true, but the on base percentage of our #1 and #2 guys right now is even worse than Lexi's. The best solution is probably get Swish into the #2 spot over A.J. since he can get on base at a higher rate and make use of A.J.'s high batting average and occasional pop down in the order. Then again, maybe we should leave it as is, the offense isn't exactly bad. I'm glad I'm not the manager. Probably is better to keep Lexi down in the order in a spot where more men are on base too.

QUOTE (SoxFan562004 @ Aug 25, 2008 -> 09:20 PM) Good win, took advantage of some mistakes. I love AJ, but I think Swish should be batting in the 2 spot How about Lexi leadoff and OC back in the 2nd spot he's batted at most of his career? We have some lineup options right now. We probably wouldn't do what I said though, need somebody that can hit lefty in there to split things up, so your idea is more realistic.

BIG BIG BIG props to Clayton Richard, making me look dumb and I love it. He pitched outstanding tonight, the numbers don't do it justice because even the runs he gave up were in part due to lack of defensive range in CF and at 3rd base. Offense did just enough and took advantage of mistakes, bullpen outstanding, defense was sound when they got to the ball, but Richard was the stopper tonight in a game we really needed to get. Very important win.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Aug 25, 2008 -> 06:47 PM) You've been around here long enough, and you've seen the stuff I'm talking about, I know you have. Also, concerning opening day, while the Crede tag was obviously a factor and missed, the OC play was not a bad ruling. But, if you want your even-out world, you got it for these 2 games. But correct me if I'm wrong, weren't you insinuating that if we missed out on the playoffs by a game, you'd point at opening day as the reason? I know you're better than that, so maybe I misinterpreted that part in some of your posts. You are one of about 3 people around here who can probably admit calls even out/there isn't a conspiracy against the white sox/calls do go our way sometimes and not always against us. Nope, somebody posted that in the catch all thread actually and I rebutted saying that if we miss the playoffs it'll be because of all the games we gave (and will continue to give) away. As for the even out world, realistically we didn't lose just because of the Crede call on opening day and we didn't win just because of the Eddings call yesterday. But both were big reasons as to the results of the games, so that is where I say it evens out.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Aug 25, 2008 -> 06:49 PM) Good point on the shootings, but I think you get what I was saying. I highly doubt most of the people at other schools have your mindset, however. Wallet I really felt less safe having it going to class, it's pretty safe in my apartment IMO, but that depends on your living situation. I used to never bring my phone with me to class unless I had something to do before/afterwards, so you are right on there. I guess by now it's 2nd nature to me to have it at all times now that the shooting was a little over 6 months ago. And realistically, my living situation is fine to leave the wallet in my room, but I'm just paranoid because of all the stuff in there. Just like I always lock doors even though you don't really need to do that in DeKalb. Just something I guess I got into the habit of growing up in the city.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Aug 25, 2008 -> 06:41 PM) No they don't. I never brought my phone with me to class unless it was to check a day-game score, and wallet I only brought with maybe 2% of the time. If you are getting up, walking to class, and walking back, what the hell is the point of having a phone and wallet? Unless it has a purpose, it's just more crap to lose. And the people who would get on their phone the instant they got out of class (these are the people who get hit by bikes, cars, buses) drove me nuts. You can't wait 10 minutes to get home and have this conversation. "Oh my god I just got out of class, matter of fact I'm still in the hallway, how was your 9am class?" I don't think that's you 101, but you know what I'm saying. I always like to have the phone in case something goes wrong, ESPECIALLY after the February 14th shootings here. And I don't feel comfortable having my wallet anywhere except with me at all times because of the stuff in there.

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 25, 2008 -> 06:34 PM) Wait, what happened to Richard starting? I like a lefty going against Baltimore much more than a righty. Richard is probably needed in the pen. Carrasco has been badly overused lately and needs a couple days off. I know they throw with different hands, but we don't have enough depth to worry about that.

QUOTE (stretchstretch @ Aug 25, 2008 -> 06:28 PM) no offense WSF, I agree with you, but all the "oh wells" on this board will eventually add up to a MN +4.5 games by Sept30th when this regular season ends in another disappointment, we all need look no further than the various bone headed mgr decisions, terrible baserunning, terrible execution that determines whether we're watching the a Cubs only post season vs. a Cubs & Sox post season if I'm a MN fan, or player, I'm sitting there licking my chops everytime we do something as collossally stupid as having our 300 hitting catcher bunt with one out Agreed 100 percent, and when the season ends I will look back and dread the boneheaded mistakes this team made that lost them games and kept them out of the playoffs IF that indeed happens. But for now, you can't cry over spilt milk, especially with another game about to start. Although this game is an exception to a certain degree, because it's hard to get over what Ozzie did this evening. But yeah, we just have to win tonight and get over what just happened.

I've been one of Ozzie's biggest defenders all year, as people like fathom among others would tell you because I've defended him in a lot of threads this season, but you can't defend what he did tonight. It was just atrocious.

QUOTE (knightni @ Aug 25, 2008 -> 06:12 PM) I blame Ozzie partially for this loss. Ramirez should have been pulled sooner. Carrasco/A.J. gets the other blame. Why pitch outside against a RHP with one out/bases loaded when you need a DP? The fact this game wasn't a win in April is on the players, and some of tonight's work is on them too. But Ozzie just was awful tonight, having A.J. bunt even though he never does and you had a bad right handed pitcher on the mound, leaving Ramirez in that long, just not good.

I've been one of Ozzie's biggest defenders this year, but his managing of that game is inexcuseable. He doesn't ask Jim Thome to steal bases because he can't. So why won't he stop asking all of our players (with only a couple exceptions) to stop bunting, because they cant? We deserved to lose this game though between that and the way we played it in April, let's get 'em tonight.

Ozzie managed that game like Jerry Manuel would. Wow.

A fitting end to this one. Maybe Ozzie will realize you can't give away an out with a bad bunter down one in your potential last at bat. We deserved that loss between that managerial gaffe and the way we played this game back in April. Oh well, gotta win tonight now.

They walk Griffey, who's been iffy, and put the GO AHEAD run on 2nd base for Uribe, who has been ok recently. Very strange move, even if it works. And now Dye is hitting for Uribe, so that makes this move even stranger.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Aug 25, 2008 -> 05:56 PM) Thats a toss up to me. I can see arguments for and against a bunt there. AJ just did a terrible job. You only have 3 outs remaining, you are down one, the runner is only on 1st, A.J. is a .300 hitter who never bunts, Q and Crede are behind him, and a righty is pitching. I see no possible way to excuse the bunt. We deserve the loss we're about to get. Oh well.

That might be the worst decision I've seen Ozzie make all season. I'm honestly stunned by that. Wow.

If you want to rip on Ozzie here, go ahead. There is certainly NO excuse to have A.J. bunting here.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Aug 25, 2008 -> 05:51 PM) Some real smart posts in this game thread so far. Yeah there has been some junk posted in here, even by game thread standards.

QUOTE (jphat007 @ Aug 25, 2008 -> 05:49 PM) What's bulls*** is that we have to finish this game in Baltimore. They should've made them fly to us on an off day. The 38 people in the stadium and stadium dimensions have had no affect on the proceedings so far. Horacio Ramirez just isn't very good, and then we had to bring the already overused D.J. Carrasco in which I'm sure isn't what we wanted to do at all, he's probably not going to be available for game 2 or tomorrow's game now. Not good.

Nice Cubs dive by the center fielder to make that catch look much harder than it was. Off to the 14th.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Aug 25, 2008 -> 05:30 PM) The O's announcers are really driving home the point that they think the Sox are looking only inside, swinging for homers. Are they also proclaiming that Michael Jordan was a good basketball player? I mean really, that's not even analysis, it's a lazy case of stating the obvious. It's what we do, it's how we win, home runs.

QUOTE (kyyle23 @ Aug 25, 2008 -> 03:07 PM) I wasnt referring to you. I was referring to the "Hollister is s***" crowd. Dressing up for a lecture was only required if you were speaking, IMO. Plus, being in Carbondale meant 95 degree days with 99 percent humidity on syllabus day. So going dressed to the nines was NOT HAPPENING Haha people get so mad if you joke about a certain kind of clothes. Relax, I can't dress for s*** and I don't really care. I'd rather be that than spending all kinds of extra money to wear the supposedly cool looking stuff.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Aug 25, 2008 -> 04:15 PM) Thank you, DA. That's the point here. Crede sticks his elbow out on an easy curve ball in 05, it's the right call, but everyone jumps on it. OC interferes at 2nd, it's called correctly, same thing. AJ gets to first on a the dropped 3rd...that happens to us and we lose the WS, people would say the WS was stolen from us. I mean people are still complaining about a missed call on opening day, and how that could cost us the season. Unbelievable. I'm sure we have never been the recipient of a missed call, all season. Oh wait. Now when we are the beneficiary of a wrong call, most try to defend the ruling, when if the opposite happened, this place would be up in arms, and we all know it. The bias is just retarded around here. What does everyone get out of it? Does it make you feel better as a fan? Everyone please stop being like Hawk. The umps aren't out to screw the white sox, and wrong calls are going to happen, on both sides of the equation. What's even better is what people 'think' the rule should be, instead of the actual rule and the interpretation of such rule. I'm as happy as anyone else that we won the game. You need breaks like that and some blown calls to go your way as well. But more objectivity around here would be great. Blah, I think you are reading too far into this. Was it a terrible call? Yes it was, and I'd be pissed if I were a Rays fan. It was a call that also helped us win a game. However, on opening day, a bad umpire ruling (actually more than one) was a big reason if not the main reason we lost the game. Yesterday was just a case of the baseball gods evening it out, so we should not feel bad at all. We realize we got a break, we'll take it, let's move on. No big deal.