whitesoxfan101

QUOTE (kyyle23 @ Jun 23, 2008 -> 09:30 AM) They never claim to be that Exactly. The Chicago Sun Times hasn't been a respected newspaper in years.

Haha that is definitely not real. Looks like a commercial in fact.

QUOTE (chisoxt @ Jun 22, 2008 -> 10:28 PM) PS. had it not been for a fly ball that Gardy Sizemore lost in the sun In KC, they might have blown the lead in 05. And if Graffnino doesn't boot the double play, we go to Boston tied 1-1. If A.J. isn't awarded 1st base, we might go to Anaheim down 2-0. If the Jermaine Dye 3-2 pitch in game 2 is properly called a foul ball, maybe PK never gets the chance to hit a grand slam. You need breaks sometimes.

We could be in 3rd or 4th place by now like a lot of the people on this board (*raises hand*) thought we'd be. But instead, we're in 1st. We could have blown that 15 game lead to Cleveland in 2005, and felt the pain of an all time collapse while not being able to enjoy what turned out to be the 2005 postseason. We could have a bad pitching stafff that always performs like they did this weekend, but we don't. We could suck at home, and not have a dominant advantage in front of baseball's best fans every time we play at U.S. Cellular Field. We could be fans of the Pittsburgh Pirates or Kansas City Royals. and last but not least: We could be Chicago Cubs fans. Fans of a team that hasn't won a championship in a full century, a clean 100 years. A team that will choke this October, no matter how good they look now. A team that plays in a giant urinal, dump, and s***hole of a stadium. A team whose fans are dumber than any in sports. A team that has embraced failure and losing for decades, rather than trying to fight it. The Chicago Cubs, rooting for them is like rooting for the trailer park in a tornado. Look, this weekend sucked, and i'm not even sure if this thread belongs in PHT. I know I'm not usually the guy that is optimisic and positive, but please keep in mind, it could be worse.

Obama going right back to the democratic playbook: Call the mean, old, out of touch republicans a bunch of racists. For a "new kind of politician", he spews an awful lot of old party cliches. In fact, just about every word he says is an old party cliche. Wish somebody would listen to the actual words instead of the way they are delivered and how the person who delivers them looks.

Italy played great defense, but you can't just sit back and wait for penalty kicks after a nil-nil game. That's bad strategy unless the opposing team is way better than you, and Spain isn't THAT much better than Italy. I know Italy's entire soccer history is based upon solid defense, but if you rely on the luck of the draw senario that is penalty kicks, you are going to get burned sometimes. It would be a major upset if anybody but Germany wins this tournament now IMO. Spain plays so similar to their neighbors in Portugal, so I wouldn't like their chances defending the Germans if they play in the finals, just as Portugal couldn't. And although Turkey and Russia have played very well, I just can't see them doing much more in this tournament. Germany should destroy Turkey in fact (can Turkey even field a full team between injuries/cards?), although Russia/Spain could actually be a very good game.

QUOTE (Vance Law @ Jun 21, 2008 -> 11:24 AM) In batting average, the Sox are #5 in the AL with runners on base. #2 with runners in scoring position. Batting average is always a misleading stat, and something only lazy, flat earth fans feel can determine anything. It works that way with the bases empty and it works that way with men in scoring position too. If you watch this team everyday, you know we are not a team that comes up with a lot of big hits.

Realistically, losing to the Cubs is indeed no different than losing to any another NL team, so Tony is correct. And if your friends are lame enough to legitimately make fun of you because the Cubs won, they shouldn't be your friends. If your family is getting on you for it, your family probably sucks. And finally, if random people are giving you s*** or bothering you because they are Cubs fan, ignore them because nobody really matters in life outside of family and friends anyways. I hate the Cubs as much as anybody, but if they actually have a direct impact on your life or how you feel, you are pretty lame. Worry about the Sox, that takes up enough time.

Well, Indiana IS going to suck, and has nobody to blame but themselves for it. They'll be awfully good in a couple years though, unless the infractions committee gives them a real punishment, but that would never happen to basketball royalty like IU, so that's not a real concern for them.

The Dutch/Russian match was great again. I have always watched Euro Cup and World Cup, but this tournament is unlike any other soccer tournament I've ever seen, just outstanding stuff. Hopefully my heritage does itself proud later today and the Italians advance. If Italy wins, all four group winners would be out in the quarterfinals, crazy stuff.

QUOTE (the People's Champ @ Jun 21, 2008 -> 11:32 AM) None of this matters!! All everyone is doing is making nitpicky excuses as to why the Sox lost this game. None of these plays caused them to lose the game. Their complete lack of fundamentals caused them to lose the game. Inability to advance runners BA not stretching the 2B into a 3B when he should have Thome failing to drive in an important run Crede GIDP with the leadoff man on multiple runners left on base these are LEGITIMATE reasons for losing the game, not a missed call down the line, or a phantom strike out. You want to talk about logic where's the logic in not owning up to the fact that the Sox plain threw up all over themselves in this game, like we've seen them do in plenty games this year. Well I agree with all this. We lost because of ourselves. Rough way to lose a game when it has nothing to do with what the other team did, but instead entirely because of your own lack of execution.

I wouldn't count out Italy yet. They had a terrible game in group stages at World Cup 2006 when they tied a horrible U.S.A. team, yet they still won the tournament. They might do it again here in Euro 2008.

Our lineup is getting better in terms of batting average and getting on base, but throughout the year our lineup has generally had at least 3 guys in it everyday hitting below .230. Hard to string together hits and score runs that way when you have a lot of guys not hitting. Combine that with all our power, and that's how we score runs, pretty simple. The problem is, our averages are all going way up and we still can't hit with men on base. At this point, it seems like a mental thing, this team is convinced it's home run or nothing. We're going to get killed on the road if this keeps up though, so somebody better get it going. Another problem could be we just don't have men in scoring position as often as many teams, but I'd need to look that one up before I said it.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jun 20, 2008 -> 11:25 PM) I like how everyone is shutting the door on the KW2 pick already. Pretty funny, seeing as how Dad was a good major league prospect. I'm not dismissing him, he could be a good player, nobody actually knows. My problem with it is they could have waited another 10 rounds (maybe more) and still easily gotten him.

QUOTE (the People's Champ @ Jun 21, 2008 -> 11:09 AM) Doesn't matter if he went or not the home plate ump blew the initial call. That was a good strike and AJ should have been rung up to begin with. This is incredibly wrong logic. The 3rd base umpires job there is to say whether or not A.J. swung, not whether the pitch was a strike. I almost think he called strike because he thought the home plate umpire missed the pitch, in which case he was completely wrong. The only job the 3rd base umpire has there is to say whether or not A.J. swung, and he clearly didn't, so that's a badly missed call.

My friend, who is a Cubs fan, just sent me a panicked text saying some guy on WGN sports said the Cubs are "a bit worried about Zambrano's rotator cuff", and thus he's having a more detailed MRI involving a dye injection tomorrow, which is why they put off his MRI today. We can only hope.

This series can create a lot of momentum if you do really well (ie sweep), but with the series on back to back weekends and not spread apart, the only way this series creates momemtum is if somebody goes 5-1 or 6-0, and neither team will. Other than momentum, the series means little because it's not even within the AL and each game still counts for only one. Other than that, the only meaning this has is not hearing stupid Cub fans s***, and it's nice to do well against good teams. Then again, this is as bi-polar a Sox team (well, offense I guess I should say) as I've ever seen, so momemtum is overrated in the case of this team anyways IMO, and it could be argued it's overrated in general. A wise man once said "momentum is tomorrow's starting pitcher".

I remember it, I was at the Caruso basket HR game. That was glorious, and worth the long rain delay before it happened. As for this series, whether or not we win 2 of 3 or lose 2 of 3 will come down to what John Danks does tomorrow IMO. The pitching matchups are pretty good for us, and we are built to hit in that pee wee ball park.

Lou's overuse of Marmol and Zambrano bites him in the ass all in one mid-June series. Lou is generally a very good manager, but his refusal to lose a couple battles to win the war (overusing several pitchers) is going to hurt them in the long run, and that process has already started. Nice to see them look that bad coming into a series with us, and the Rays are awfully good.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jun 19, 2008 -> 04:44 PM) Out of curiosity I see no mention anywhere really that indicates Rose is a lock to the Bulls. I think the Bulls are going to give a good hard look at Beasley and I wouldn't be at all shocked if he ends up being the guy. Everybody up here in Chicago says Rose to the Bulls is a lock, and by everybody I mean people in the know. Plus, Rose said today with the media he has yet to work out for, and doesn't have a workout scheduled with the Heat. That's a glaring hint if I've ever seen one with the draft just a week away.

Brewers moved to 39-33, 6 games behind the Cubs with their win today. They still have a long way to go, but they have made up a lot of ground lately after their awful start.

Germany defeated Portugal in the first quarterfinal, 3-2. Great game by what I saw of it.

I can see why the losers to the north enjoy playing Pittsburgh so much, they are AWFUL. To have a team spot you an immediate 6-0 lead on all unearned runs, yet still immediately give the lead up and lose by a wide margin takes being a special kind of pathetic. We should sweep those guys, and I'm glad we did.

I did not realize this, but entering tonight, Crede's splits: vs. left .100 (5 for 50), .211 OBP, .120 SLG, .331 OPS with 1 RBI, 6 walks, and 7 k's vs. right: .337/.401/.663/1.064 in 175 AB's. 15 HR, 34 RBI, 17 walks, 24 k's. Strange, as his career left/right splits are almost dead even.

Well two guys we needed to wake up in order to have a chance were Swish and Buehrle, and both are really starting to do so. We really need to sweep these guys tomorrow to make up for the Colorado series.