Balta1701

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Sep 21, 2010 -> 10:00 AM) Unexpectedly high jump in new home starts reported. This is actually bad new, IMO. Still far too much inventory on the market, we need this number to continue declining. Real health will be seen if existing home sales rise (that report is due later this week, I believe). Although it's a big percentage increase...part of the reason it's a big percentage increase is that the number is currently so depressed that small changes produce large percentage increases. Take a look. It is certainly reasonable to think that there needs to be more decline beyond where we currently are, but it's not like we're sitting at a high point as it is. Real home sales are likely to do some sort of bounce-back, because they'd have been slightly depressed by people rushing to close in time for the Housing tax credit expiration. A small recovery would simply be things returning closer to the point they would have been without the government intervention.

Fractured Fibula, 4-6 weeks out for Reggie Bush.

QUOTE (pittshoganerkoff @ Sep 21, 2010 -> 09:36 AM) I don't. Do you really think that LaRussa is that big on an influence on his players (who are adults) that they drink and drive just because he does? I think that if there is such a thing as a "Clubhouse culture"...having 2 separate DUI incidents, including one involving the manager...points to some level of irresponsibility/willful turning a blind eye by the manager.

Link (don't endorse every opinion offered at page...just thought this was a provocative point)

QUOTE (J.Reedfan8 @ Sep 20, 2010 -> 11:56 PM) Holy s***, 49ers blocked the field goal kick and it still went in! Saints win, me and Sonix advance in the survivor pool. That is some leg on Hartley.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Sep 20, 2010 -> 11:36 PM) Jupiter is visible tonight, and probably tomorrownight, to the left of the moon. You can't miss it, it's really bright like Venus and there's nothing else in the vicinity that's as bright. It's been that visible for a couple months now and it'll probably be that way for at least 6 months...although I think it slowly is migrating later into the night.

Can I blame that on Notre Dame?

QUOTE (Rex Kicka** @ Sep 20, 2010 -> 08:23 PM) Democrat energy tends to peak later in the election season. But, if you wanna talk about a house effect. Pollster has a great tool that lets you look at aggregate polling numbers and filter out certain pollsters. Rasmussen has dominated the cycle with news, because it polls more often than anyone else. If you take a look at the numbers for this election, you can see why it suddenly seems like control of Congress might not be as much in question as currently advertised. Generic Congress Question (all phone based pollsters with Rasmussen included) Republicans 46.4, Democrats 41.7 (all phone based pollsters excluding Rasmussen) Democrats, 43.8, Republicans 43.8 The biggest problem with taking the numbers as you have here and saying that it's all just Ras is...what was the Democratic generic advantage in 2006/2008? It was huge.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Sep 20, 2010 -> 06:53 PM) Well, to be fair, the article doesn't detail how many of those small businesses actually have high revenues. Bechtel might be an extreme outliar in that sample. It cites less than 20,000 out of 750,000 being partnerships or s-corps with receipts above $50M. But it does note that only 3% of "Small businesses" hit the $250k mark, while 50% of the total income in the small business group is recorded from businesses that earn above 250k...suggesting that it's very highly concentrated. FWIW, Barack Hussein Obama is also considered a small business...as an author.

I probably would have known the Congressman because I met him and because everyone in NW Indiana seemed to be using his free blue pencils. I wouldn't have known either Senator. I probably would have known the mayor based on a combination of street signs and the fact that I had a friend who's father was the city engineer.

QUOTE (CrimsonWeltall @ Sep 21, 2010 -> 08:14 AM) What was the actual injury? A small puncture wound? Small but deep puncture wound a couple inches from the heart.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Sep 21, 2010 -> 08:37 AM) What did you point out? You made a backhanded comment, and then didnt say anything when I asked you about it. Hancock got blasted and decided to drive home, i still fail to see how this has anything to do with LaRussa coaching the team? Did he force Hancock to drink and drive? You don't think there's any connection between a player who drinks and drives and a manager who does the exact same thing?

QUOTE (Rex Kicka** @ Sep 20, 2010 -> 06:28 PM) The race is starting to tighten up. ? I don't see that. Then again...I'm not sure I see "The race" as opposed to "the hundreds of individual races".

QUOTE (lostfan @ Sep 20, 2010 -> 06:04 PM) Seriously though iamshack is totally right, is it going to take someone getting killed, literally, before anything is done about this? I feel amazed that this hasn't become a bigger story.

I found this piece thoroughly amusing. Of course...this will be the last time we hear anything about how the Republicans are calling the Tribune Company and Bechtel "Small Businesses" in the tax debate. I think there's a joke about the Cubs to be made here somewhere...

QUOTE (iamshack @ Sep 20, 2010 -> 03:04 PM) As AHB said, I've been waiting for this to happen, and knew it would take a player being impaled before they even bothered to look at the situation. They honestly need to ban maple bats. Pretty sad that this has been allowed to go on for so long. Rob Neyer's take

The $20-$25 price point would sound like something I'd jump at. I do have to wonder...how would you go about getting these tickets into the hands of the kind of rowdy die-hards you probably want there? If there's a significant discount on that section, wouldn't everyone purchasing tickets, whether they're a Twins fan or a Sox fan, want to get their hands on those tickets?

Colvin says he's ok, but they're going to keep him at the hospital for a couple days for observation. I'd guess that means they're worried about infection. He'll miss the remainder of the season.

QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ Sep 20, 2010 -> 02:37 PM) I never understood how sports fandom came to be in the US. NBA games seem to be held in libraries compared to what they do in Europe. I wish all pro sports had crazy sections like college sports. A big part of that is ticket prices. The average NBA fan just can't afford to get into the lower deck these days. Single game Bulls tickets in the lower section last year minimum $130 a ticket. There isn't a chance in Hell that you're going to get a crowd of anyone except high-income people in the areas that get on camrea.

The question is going to be how you get people in the section who are actually the rabid fans and not just taking whatever seats are available. The Milwaukee Bucks wound up, almost by accident, with a rabid fan section last year...because Andruw Bogut bought the tickets and distributed them to fans so that they could actually get in that area. I'd love to sit in a lower deck fan section somewhere near the action. The problem is...a premium game ticket for actual competitive games, like the Yankees or Cubs or during a pennant race...you're talking $68 a ticket for the lower-deck seats around the dugouts/home plate. Add in parking and a couple tickets and it's simply out of my price range. Unless there is something special done with ticket prices for that "Fan section", it's either going to wind up being in the Upper deck or the bleachers (and thus...impossible to hear) or it's going to be filled with the upper crust of White Sox fans who can afford it...just as those seats are now.

QUOTE (Jerksticks @ Sep 20, 2010 -> 01:36 PM) Is LaRussa sober? If not, then no way do I want him around any of our players. We don't need some manager sneaking flask rips around the team. You can't just brush that DUI incident aside. Anyone that feels the need to get s***faced is not a real man or any type of man I want around easily-influenced young men coming into riches and stardom for the first time. There's no reason to assume that our current manager is sober either. Ditto every other manager in the league. The difference with LaRussa, as I pointed out quite early in this thread...is that his team has had issues with alcohol that few other teams in the league have had to deal with.

QUOTE (Jenksy Cat @ Sep 20, 2010 -> 01:21 PM) You luck into an INT buy an all-pro receiver not securing a ball and by another one stupidly tipping a ball he had no change catching. I wouldn't call either of those INT's a result of our magnificent D but just random right-place right-time events. The fumble was all D/Tillman, the INTs weren't. It's like some of Cutlert's INT's last year. Would you call an INT made because an average receiver fell down or didn't know his route a masterful defensive play? I wouldn't. And that passing attack will diminish once teams realize you can rush with the Punter and still have a very high chance at a sack. I'd say that even the best QB with the best WR's in the league winds up throwing 5-10 Lucky INT's every year. There was a great example of that in the Jets/Patriots game yesterday...Brady put a ball where only Moss could get it, along the sidelines and Moss had to jump to get his hands on it, Moss only tipped it though, it then bounced off the CB's hands and then another DB managed to grab the ball and plant his feet before falling out of bounds. I think each D gets 5-10 of those per year, depending on how good they are at making tips, and each O probably gets 5-10 of them per year, with some exceptions for guys who's mechanics are such that they throw the ball a little low.

QUOTE (pittshoganerkoff @ Sep 20, 2010 -> 12:55 PM) I didn't think this was worthy of starting a new thread, but Andy Reid sounds like he's taking a page from Ozzie's book with his insistance of playing Kolb next week even though Vick played a great game yesterday. Bah, that's an old rule; you're not supposed to lose your job because of injury.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Sep 20, 2010 -> 12:57 PM) The Curse of Flutie Bah, if that's a curse then every team in the majors in every sport has a curse. That was just horrible decision making that led to a series of increasingly bad personnel decisions.

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ Sep 20, 2010 -> 12:48 PM) Wade Phillips is about done. Still made the single worst football decision I've ever seen. Starting Rob Johnson over Doug Flutie against the Titans. I will never stop holding that decision against him; literally broke a franchise for a decade.