Balta1701

This might be the worst defensive lineup I've seen the Sox put out since 2006 when we had the Pods/Mack/Dye "all things flying hit the ground" OF and Crede's back was so bad he coulnd't throw the ball straight.

QUOTE (MattZakrowski @ Jun 19, 2011 -> 10:50 AM) I feel gross defending this, but Q does need time off sometimes. Carlos has looked awful at the plate the last few days and clearly needs a day off.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Jun 19, 2011 -> 12:20 PM) The mention of Hawks comment is well taken. That might be the end of September lament by the Tigers and Indians. They should have put us away when they had the chance, but they didn't and they paid for it If this team can't dig itself up to .500 within the next 2 or 3 weeks, that'll have been good enough to put the Sox away.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jun 18, 2011 -> 10:50 PM) Don't forget the atrocious deals for Juan Pierre, Andruw Jones and Manny Ramirez...they've impacted the Dodgers as much as anything else. None of those would matter if he didn't immediately have to come up with several hundred million. The problem for these guys is liquid assets. They don't just have hundreds of millions sitting there in the bank, most of it comes in and moves out.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jun 18, 2011 -> 10:48 PM) Hawk said "here comes Ryan Roberts" and I thought I heard "Brian Roberts" and I was thinking "when did he leave the Orioles?" Been driving me nuts all night.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jun 18, 2011 -> 10:42 PM) Minimal from watching on TV compared with going to a game especially considering my days as a Neilson family are ova. They really don't need neilsen boxes any more to get accurate data. The real new money these days in MLB is these cable networks.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jun 18, 2011 -> 10:40 PM) What did they do with the profit Forbes said they made previous seasons? This is a private ownership group so it's impossible for us to know how much each owner put in the bank from a year like that. But it's safe to say that the teams owners aren't hurting. the franchises that actually get in trouble have major issues. The Mets might owe the Madoff prosecutor a billion dollars. McCourt had to lose a couple hundred million to his wife to get in hot water. Texas had to owe arod $250 million.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jun 18, 2011 -> 10:38 PM) That's a good point. The article I read about the Knicks was exactly about that. A lot of those people know just about everyone in their section because they have all had tickets for so long. I would venture to guess someone who goes to 50 baseball games a year then gives up their tickets because of cost probably finds something else to do with their time, and finds going to 4 or 5 games a year satisfying. We have full season tickets but probably go to less than half the games now. It used to be at least 65-70. With HDTV, slow zones on the red line, $7.25 beers plus tip, sometimes its nice to get the grill going, a case of beer and have my buddy come over or I go over to his place and imitate Hawk all game long. Our wives are always amazed we say what Hawk will say just before he says it. Remember, they're making money from you at each of those steps. Even if you just go to a couple games a year and watch others.

Good pitch to hit for the Elf just couldn't square it up. Numbers evening out.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jun 18, 2011 -> 10:36 PM) It's all relative, though. What about John Bon Jovi making over $125 million last year??...Lady Gaga, etc. Is he 10X more valuable to society than Alex Rios, lol? Then you get into very esoteric arguments about music/culture having more creativity and intrinsic entertainment value than sports....it can go on and on. As a teacher, it's a common argument about how much is enough. Teachers are greedy bastards destroying the country. No teachers anywhere should have health care!!!!!

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jun 18, 2011 -> 10:32 PM) I'm a season ticketholder so I get a lot of letters from the White Sox. When they raise ticket prices, according to them its not about trying to squeeze more out of me or maximizing their profit, its about trying to cover their costs. If you noticed, there have been a lot of empty seats at USCF this year, and attendance has dropped every year since 2006 or 2007. And yet, AAccording to Forbes the white sox took home $25 million in profit last year. Then, when they went all in, they conveniently raised salary by exactly the amount Forbes said they earned in profit last year.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jun 18, 2011 -> 10:30 PM) Did the Knicks just have a few thousand people call and say they were willing to pay $700 a seat to watch them next year? They did it because they thought many of the people who have been around for 30 years won't cancel no matter what. Ask the Yankees how the ridiculous pricing worked when they moved into their new park. They lowered the prices the next season. After they won the WS. I will say that the NBA is in trouble, but it's not the Knicks. It's the small franchises. There are lots of ways to determine your market for higher price tickets. demand amongst current ticket holders for Bette seats. Word of mouth. Actual local polling data. Test sales. Ticket broker prices. You realize that if they cut prices in half the people who would make a killing are the middlemen.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jun 18, 2011 -> 10:24 PM) Many of the people they sent invoices to are cancelling, some have had their seats over 30 years. Salaries cannot continue to go up if you expect the paying customers to foot the bill. I don't think televison ratings have been particularly stellar with Fox. Rios with a homer. Oh, and Fox revenues pale in comparison to the local cable tv and radio revenues these days.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jun 18, 2011 -> 10:24 PM) Many of the people they sent invoices to are cancelling, some have had their seats over 30 years. Salaries cannot continue to go up if you expect the paying customers to foot the bill. I don't think televison ratings have been particularly stellar with Fox. Rios with a homer. Why does it matter if long term seat holders cancel their rivets if they have replacements for most? That's a huge revenue increase.

I thought he forgot how to do that.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jun 18, 2011 -> 10:21 PM) Because they wouldn't be able to justify it to their customers so their customers wouldn't pay the price. Its one thing to say to your fanbase, we raised payroll $25 million so we need to raise ticket prices. It wouldn't go over too well with the customers to clear $80 million in ticket sales alone and have a payroll of $30 million. Its probably the biggest reason JR has had his lackies say the Sox break even every year. The owners would say they broke even even if they pulled in $90 million a year. If the ballpark is sold out for some fraction of my games, then ticket prices for those games aren't high enough. Supply and demand. MLB is also doing a stellar job of developing new revenue streams, like the extra innings package I'm watching.

Wow Heilman is still in the league. Remember him bein a mets spect before the Humber generation.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jun 18, 2011 -> 10:15 PM) Just like the stock market went up every year and real estate value went up every year. Eventually the bubble will burst. Just around me, there are a lot more people talking about dumping their tickets not just because the Sox haven't been very good, but because justifying the cost is getting harder and harder. There was an article yesterday or Thursday about brokers stuck with Cubs tickets. Winning is always at least a temporary cure, but I think its starting to get close to the point teams have to start freezing prices. The Yankees had to lower them after they priced some ridiculously. The Knicks are screwing some long time ticketholders by upping their costs over 100 percent. The Knicks are screwing ticketholders because there is demand for those tickets Comparing this to wall street is just nuts. No one is using baseball tickets to hide losses or betting 100x on the future price of tickets.

Big time D1!

QUOTE (Brian @ Jun 18, 2011 -> 10:12 PM) Oz sure loves leaving starters in too long The sox bullpen hasn't exactly covered itself in glory this year. More than one inning for Crain bad

Come on Johnny one more!

Come on Johnny!

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jun 18, 2011 -> 10:07 PM) If the average payroll was $30-40 million, it wouldn't cost as much to go to a game. They charge what they think they can get away with. Beers wouldn't be $7.25. People stopped filling the bleachers at Wrigley so the Cubs started dropping prices for beer and hot dogs. If the average payroll was that low, then the owners would take home a lot more money. Prices are set by supply and demand, basic economics, you maximize revenue over a period of time by selling some fraction of your available seats.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jun 18, 2011 -> 10:04 PM) And those corporations that used to buy box ticket packages or suites are hoarding their cash...it's definitely a different economic landscape for most American families, and sooner or later the NBA and MLB will have to acknowledge that and readjust accordingly. No they won't. Revenue is going up every year. That's what matters.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jun 18, 2011 -> 10:02 PM) I'm not convinced De Aza would make much of a difference, but Viciedo in LF/RF and having Hudson back and we'd be a lot more competitive. Of course, we can't just take Hudson's stats and project them to the White Sox. It seems part of the problem in Chicago is that he wasn't listening to the coaching staff and was trying to do things his way because he'd been so successful at the minor league level doing just that. For basically 4 starts he was nibbling the corners. It was obvious enough that even I was saying exactly that and that he'd come around with time and confidence in his stuff, like a lot of rookies. We were just demanding an ace off the bat when he was barely 2 years out of the draft.