Greg Hibbard

The South Side is 3 times larger than the North Side, for one thing. I live in Oak Park, and Sox fans outnumber Cubs fans I know by like 3:1 Growing up (80s/90s) it was a more even split. Bear in mind I said BORN IN CHICAGO. How much of the 36k the Cubs draw every night do you think is comprised of tourists and transplants? Every transplant I know is a Cubs fan. I don't know a single transplant Sox fan.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Oct 2, 2012 -> 08:26 PM) I really believe the Sox are content with 25,000 and slightly more profit rather than 28-30,000 per game and posting any bottom-line numbers due to decreased prices for parking/tickets/concessions that are less than what they're currently getting at 25K per game. The problem with losing out on those 5,000 fans per game is that you're not developing the fanbase for the future...you're maximizing (or squeezing) the revenue in current terms, but probably "penny wise/pound foolish" long term IMO. This isn't the stone age, or even the Bill Wirtz-era Blackhawks. Fans at the game =/= fans of the team. The internet, HD television, and many other outlets allow people to follow the team just fine. IMO there are more fans born in Chicago that follow the White Sox than follow the Cubs. Cubs fans are largely boosted by tourists and transplants from Detroit, Minny, Cleveland.

Marty, you seem like a guy who understands internet forums pretty well. There's this thing about "credibility" that members of an Internet forum generate. Perhaps this point is lost on you. See, when certain people post on this forum, I read their content with great interest. What do you think your "credibility" on this forum is? From my point of view you have absolutely none, based on everything I have ever seen you post here. You, sir, are a vulture. The worst kind. You have waited all season to swoop in with the worst kind of hearsay possible. Your first thread, 8th in AL, slams the general manager baselessly, and when called out on your stupid s***, you feign ignorance and throw your hands in the air. Do you even realize what kind of jackass hypocrite that particular thread made you look like to 90% of Soxtalk? Probably not - or we wouldn't have gotten your Legacy thread. Your masterwork, if you will. See, here is the kind of thread I will heartily enjoy bumping for approximately the next 5 years. It completely sums up everything you need to know about Marty. It's filled with ridiculous nonsense only a gullible child could ever believe, and is so outrageously self servingly bitter. During a week when many Sox fans have had their hearts broken by this team, you just can't wait to pile on. You just cant help yourself. I think that speaks volumes of your intentions here. Congratulations on being a complete dick.

is this list filled with world-beaters/unavailable guys? I honestly don't know how many of these are available. http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/batting/_/sor.../qualified/true

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Sep 28, 2012 -> 09:29 AM) Are there really? I'm not certain of that. Please let me know who is available to provide that kind of OBP for less. Ok, lets say you're right for a second - couldn't you get two .340 OBP guys for 13 million combined? I mean, IIRC Juan Pierre still has an OBP around .340.

I like most of your post but, 13 million for a .354 OBP? No thank you. There are many ways to get a .354 OBP and they don't cost 13 mil.

Burnsauce? More like bansauce

Also, Marty, you are wrong if you think Viciedo is a bust. 22 homers is not a bust. What available outfielder would have been better? You must have someone in mind. Reed has been inconsistent, but how many games has he lost vs. saved? Is it proportionally more than any other closer? I think not. edit: Reed has pitched exactly one game that he has lost for this team since July 19th. So what the hell are you talking about?

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Sep 27, 2012 -> 04:36 PM) I don't understand your question. Lirano has hurt the team more than helped it. The gambles on Lirano, Viciedo, and Reed all went against the Sox. My question is - which pitcher on our staff would you have had starting the Liriano games that you claim he hurt us in. If Liriano hurt us more than he helped us it implies that there was someone on our staff you feel that could have started those games and had better results. Which pitcher is it?

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Sep 27, 2012 -> 04:28 PM) Since Mid-August it's been a struggle to get 5 innings from 3/5 of the rotation. Liriano has been a bust. So which guy on our staff would have been necessarily better?

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Sep 27, 2012 -> 04:16 PM) 86 wins, division contention. SP collapse last few weeks wasn't built in. So they did exactly what you thought they would. What did KW do wrong during the 2012 season again, exactly?

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Sep 27, 2012 -> 03:27 PM) Why are you attacking me? Given all the talk about attendance, I think people should remember this is the 8th best team in AL. Record-wise, did this team do better or worse than you predicted at the beginning of the season? Think carefully before you answer, because it will be easy enough to dig up all your old posts.

so Marty, why is this a new topic? Just curious. They'd be the 7th best team in the AL if they were winning the division, but I don't think you would have put this thread up here.

Even though it looks bad, and is a sore spot because of Cubs fans, I don't think the attendance drop is A) that financially impactful, given that we have maybe 10 percent less fans than the team could have reasonably expected B) much worse than the rest of baseball in this economy, and given the number of HD options / DVR options people have at home. Also, ticket prices are outrageous these days compared to what they should be, inflation adjusted, compared to the 90s. Look at Tampa, Oakland, Baltimore and Washington. All contenders - all not drawing.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Sep 25, 2012 -> 02:58 PM) Why is Quintana starting the 7th? So he can get the VULTURE WIN

QUOTE (Melissa1334 @ Sep 25, 2012 -> 02:59 PM) didnt we try this already? (besides yesterday) what a scary 3/4 we have Dunn hit 2 HR last night, including the game winner.

I'm one of the biggest optimists this season but this game is OVAH

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ Sep 25, 2012 -> 01:43 PM) Well we need to stop stealing for the sake of just trying to steal. Its running into outs early in the game. When did Robin start managing like Ozzie? We are a HR hitting team. RISP DOES NOT MATTER FOR HR. Stop trying to steal with 2 outs.

doesn't this take Sale out of a game 163 / playoff game 1 start though? hmmm.

QUOTE (rowand's rowdies @ Sep 24, 2012 -> 06:25 PM) We are basically in a 7 game series with the Cleveland indians. But we have to win 5 games instead of 4. And if we don't win 5, Detroit goes to the playoffs. Is anyone here really confident we will win more than 1 game against Tampa? If we win 5 of 7 vs the indians, we go 6-4 and make detroit go 7-3 to tie us. Then we are in the playoffs technically, and if we can't beat Detroit in a one game playoff, well they earned it. I don't think Detroit wins 7 of 10. I give them 6-4 at best. What I really think will happen is we will go 5-5, so will Detroit, and we will get in with the 1 game lead. It wouldn't be pretty, but history doesn't care about pretty. Ask the St. Louis Cardinals. Twice. there are only 6 games against the indians total. 4 against the rays.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Sep 24, 2012 -> 04:39 PM) That's fair...I can understand that....I'm not one of those people that thought the season would be a catastrophe, however. I expected Dunn and Rios to have big bounceback years. I expected us to compete. Did I expect us to do it with so many rookies? No. But I did expect that we would somewhere near this position at this time of the season. In baseball, at least if you're not the Braves of the 90's or the Yankees or the Red Sox, reaching the Postseason is a dicey proposition. To reach them now would not be "gravy" to me as a fan. We're in a position we have only been in five other times in my 35 years on this earth. I do expect them to play well down the stretch. I do expect them to win this division. s***ting the bed is not an option I relish in the final month of the season. Do I "demand" they win the division? Of course not. I am in no position to do so. Do I desperately desire them to win the division? Absof***inglutely. "This position" meaning having won 81 games, being in first, or both? What did you expect the Tigers to do? Would you be as angry if the Tigers were 10 games ahead and the Sox had exactly the same season otherwise?

QUOTE (JoshPR @ Sep 24, 2012 -> 03:56 PM) Correct me if I'm wrong here... If the sox go 5-5 in the last ten it forces the tigers to go 7-3 to win the division? So if the sox play .500 ball the rest of the way the win the central? If the Tigers go 6-4 in that scenario it forces a game 163.

QUOTE (SI1020 @ Sep 24, 2012 -> 01:54 PM) Well reality is they just lost 5 in a row and can't put a horses*** Tigers team away. Given the way the race has gone ALL YEAR, why would you expect them to put the Tigers away?

QUOTE (SI1020 @ Sep 24, 2012 -> 01:49 PM) Lastly, I never find realism hilarious. Nor do I. What I find hilarious is not realism.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Sep 24, 2012 -> 01:07 PM) What about the entire last month or so? What good teams have we played well against? I thought winning 5 divisional games in a row, including a 3 game sweep @ min, where we struggle, the last game of the year vs. Detroit, and one @KC, where we struggle, was a positive stretch. During the last 10 game homestand (I'm including the makeup) we won exactly 1 less game than you would have wanted going in. If we had won 2/3 vs min, 2/3 vs KC and 2/4 vs. detroit you would have taken that in a heartbeat. During the recent 9 game road trip, I think winning 2/3 in min, 2/3 in KC and 1/3 in LAA would have been acceptable to almost everyone. Again, we lost one more game than you would have wanted. So what we're all really pissed off about here is that we've won 2 less games out of the last 19 we've played than we would have liked. Instead of winning 11 of 19, we've won 9 of 19. Is that really THAT disappointing? No, it's a bit disappointing, and we're still in first. If we win 4 out of the last 10 detroit still has to win 6 to win outright. Do people realize how unlikely both of those things happening is?