Milkman delivers

QUOTE (Paint it Black @ Apr 20, 2011 -> 11:22 PM) Man I can't wait when all the people on the ledge say they believed in this team all year. Nobody ever does that, seriously. So many incorrect things are said about the pessimistic posters. It's like watching Fox News talk about Democrats.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Apr 20, 2011 -> 11:16 PM) The reasons for optimism right now are the division standings are backwards, and there are a lot of games left. I still feel our team is fatally flawed and is not going to make the playoffs. However, it appears very possible this divison sucks. So maybe we can get hot midseason, get to an upper 80's win total again, and that'll be enough to get in this time. It's just very frusterating when your bullpen blows, your defense blows, and you're getting off a horrible start to the season after emphasizing starting hot because a bad start basically cost you the playoffs last year. Another reason for optimism? I think heads will finally roll if this season doesn't work out. And as much as another failed season would suck the big one, at least the change that would be long overdue with another season ending after only 162 games would come. I'd much prefer this team just pick up the pace, though. I agree with every word of this.

QUOTE (FlaSoxxJim @ Apr 20, 2011 -> 09:57 PM) Be sure to tell me what you think of it. Will do, but I probably won't see it until the week after next.

QUOTE (FlaSoxxJim @ Apr 20, 2011 -> 08:37 PM) It's not strictly a gangster film, but there is a lot of the same grit and mannerisms and great vocal patter in Sweet Smell of Success. 1957, Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis, corrupt newsmen, dirty cops, drug plant setups, and forbidden romance - it has a bit of everything. As much as you are liking the classic gangster films right now, I bet you will really dig this one if you give it a shot. I added it. Netflix says I'll like it a lot.

QUOTE (SoxFanForever @ Apr 20, 2011 -> 07:29 PM) Casino Goodfellas Donnie Brasco Godfather 1&2 Scarface Heat Carlito's Way The Untouchables Reservoir Dogs White Heat Once Upon a Time in America You should have a pretty solid DeNiro fix by the end. I've seen all of those. I was actually referring to older "classic" gangster movies, such as White Heat, Little Caesar, Angels With Dirty Faces, The Public Enemy, etc. Of the ones you listed, the only one I didn't really like was Once Upon a Time in America. It was pretty boring to me and then way too long due to that. I also think Scarface is pretty overrated.

So I've been catching up on the classic gangster movies. Any recommendations for ones I should definitely see?

QUOTE (Brian @ Apr 20, 2011 -> 04:21 PM) Hope this final season of Rescue Me is better than last season. Saw Breaking Bad not returning til July. Ugh That's actually good for me, as it looks like the DVD of season 3 doesn't release until June. It allows me ample time to catch up.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 20, 2011 -> 02:58 PM) And even with the worst possible time frame...Ozzie winds up a .500 manager. So...his overall winning percentage averages out to about 85 wins a year and that puts him in "unfireable" territory? It's good to be Ozzie Guillen.

I did know that the Russians had a pact early on in the war with the Germans and that they basically only joined the Allies because the Germans eventually attacked them, but I guess I figured that his grandfather was captured towards the end of the war.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 20, 2011 -> 12:08 PM) And if you have one during the 3rd week of the season, who knows how many more you'll have the rest of the year. No, you moron. We're getting our rough patches out of the way early. You're an idiot if you can't see that. LOL that reminds me of the Family Guy skit with the jew in ancient Egypt saying basically the same thing.

So wait, there are people that are happy that he's feeling discomfort because it's in his lat?

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Apr 20, 2011 -> 11:06 AM) I went there when I was like 13, pretty bone chilling stuff, especially at that age. My grandpa was in the Polish army and luckily was captured by the Russians instead, so he survived, but basically all the females in his family died at Auschwitz. If he was in the Polish army, why was he captured by the Russians?

I don't think he'd send you away for that haha. I honestly believe he should've gotten an Oscar nod for Tombstone.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Apr 20, 2011 -> 08:31 AM) People have been b****ing about KW and Ozzie since at least the end of the 2006 season. It's an annual SoxTalk tradition, just like the FIRE WALKER!, BLOW THIS TEAM UP! and WE'RE NOT DEAD YET! threads Everybody seems to forget that. Any time someone's head is called for, it's a knee jerk reaction. It's never the culmination of years of disappointment due to the ineptitude and failings of the manager or general manager.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 20, 2011 -> 07:45 AM) But when a guy has been stable for 5 years, like Matty, or Ohman, there's every reason to conclude that this is a weird blip. I posted a stat last year where typically Matt Thornton retired somewhere around 77% of the batters that he got 2 strikes on, and this year, he's down around 50%. That's the kind of thing that will work itself out. Linebrink was pretty good before he signed here. You can say the same thing about other players, such as Swisher. Just because they used to be good and had a proven history of performing well does not mean they'll do so this season.

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Apr 20, 2011 -> 06:27 AM) It was amazing (and obviously disgusting) how efficient they became. And since they technically had 3 different Auschwitz camps, the Polish Red Cross saw only the "humane" one (Auschwitz 1). This one actually had brick barracks (used to be for soldiers) and was reserved for Polish and non Jewish POWs, the conditions were still terrible and they basically all worked to death, but from the accounts of the survivors Auschwitz 1 was looked at as a hotel comparatively. The shooting wall was located here though, along with the first test gas chamber (which you get to walk through, it was later changed into a bombshelter). Most of the history is kept here since the brick barracks have with held quite well over the years. You'll see piles of shoes, hair, personal belongings, luggage, etc that was left by the Nazi's in their haste to flee the camp. The saddest part was the thousands of pairs of children shoes they had in one pile, if the child was under 12 years old or unfit to work (and they all arrived on a 5-7 day train with no food) then they were sent immediately to Auschwitz 2 for the gas chambers. Auschwitz 2, where the mass murders occurred, was 1 km long, and very few of the wooden barracks are left. There is only about one row left, and that's because they were originally built as stables for 52 horses, but stored at least 400 people each. When you go past the first row of barracks here, all you see is just old chimneys, and rows of them, because that's all that is left of the old wooden barracks. It was just astonishing being there, knowing 1.4 million people lost their lives there. One last interesting tidbit, the USA actually received a few reports from Polish residents who risked their lives to report the camp to the government. But President Roosevelt (or some high ranking general, I can't remember) replied saying "Thanks for the report, but this is just to hard to believe." The USA actually had aerial recon shots of the 3 camp grounds, but only targeted Auschwitz 3 as a strategic point since there was a chemical plant there. What went on at the third site? In reference to the bold part, I can't fault whoever said that. It more than likely would have been too far fetched to believe at the time. Hell, there are still morons to this day that refute the possibility of the Holocaust.

It's pretty cool that Will Forte is such a nice guy. I guess it's not surprising, as he doesn't throw off the vibe of being a dick. Two questions: -Is Val Kilmer still heavy? -Did you quote Tombstone?

QUOTE (Paint it Black @ Apr 19, 2011 -> 10:45 PM) Cleveland and Kansas City will lose 90 games this year. Why do people take 15 games so seriously? Seriously, those teams are bad and everybody thought that opening day, why should you think otherwise? With the way they've each started and not knowing exactly what they'd have to do each month to achieve that goal, I'd guess that it's pretty unlikely that both finish with 90 losses.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Apr 19, 2011 -> 11:33 PM) It still included the extraordinary run, so you can't look past that. And there were a lot of reasons they missed the playoffs...I'd argue that, instead of looking at a 55 game stretch where they were 9 games under .500, to instead look at an 18 game period where they were 8 games under .500 - 5-13 against the team that won the division has a stronger correlation to them missing the playoffs than does a rough start to the season. A .513 winning percentage over a 5 year period is pretty damn remarkable. I would guess, over the same time frame, there are 6 teams that are better. My guesses are the Phillies, Cardinals, Red Sox, Yankees, Twins, and Angels. It's hard to have any type of sustained success over that period of time unless you have a clear advantage - whether singular or some combination of advantages - in some aspect over every other team. The Phillies have had great scouting and development and have become big time spenders, the Cardinals have had the best player of the generation, the Angels have had money and some player development, the Twins have relied pretty much solely upon scouting and development until recent years, and the Yankees and Red Sox have pretty much been #1 and #2 in spending throughout that time frame (and considering all salary contributions during that time frame, they are certainly #1 and #2). So you can't look at this from a single season point of view because you have to account for some variability and different levels of talent on the teams themselves. And, if it WERE the 5 years of frustration, people would have been b****ing about wanting a new GM and manager in the offseason. I can think of about 1 person on here who was advocating for a new GM and maybe 3 who were advocating for a new manager. This is ENTIRELY because of one 7-10 start. I have seen several, if not close to 100% of the board, who have said that if 2011 doesn't result in a playoff appearance (or at the very least, a great season with a ridiculous amount of bad luck, as in the Sox go 97-75 and lose the division and the Wild Card), then you clean house. I'm on board with that too because, at that point, something has to give. Such as having a top two payroll in the division since 2001? Or having the top payroll in 5 of those years?

It's never going to be acceptable to say enough is enough. People will always claim that you are reacting only to something very recent. If all things remain the same into next year and they start off badly again, people will ask for a change due to the failings of the 2012 team, the current team, and the teams of the recent past. Ignoring all of that, certain posters will say it's an overreaction due to the most recent stretch of games.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Apr 19, 2011 -> 09:24 PM) I don't have a problem talking about the problems of this team, because there are problems with this team, even some I didn't envision it having. Fact of the matter is, the board is seemingly split pretty equally into "it's too early to worry about this stuff" and "this team is toast, sell it off and cancel the season." There is absolutely no middle ground whatsoever. So, if you want to talk about problems this team is having, that's absolutely fine, because I'll talk about the problems this team is having. But if you are going to even bring up the thought of this team selling parts off at this point in the year, I'm going to call you ridiculous or stupid or overreactive and then we're going to get even less done than we normally do on this site. See, this is garbage. People have been saying it's too early to call it a season, but that a fire sale will happen if things continue this way. For some reason, a lot of people on this site can only see black or white. Nobody sees the grey of posts with two scenarios in it.

QUOTE (Knackattack @ Apr 19, 2011 -> 08:29 PM) I'm tired of our GM telling us that his expectations are to win the World Series every year and then have a s***ty baseball team. Well played, sir.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 19, 2011 -> 08:28 PM) And I am tired of the expectations of winning the world series every year Haha WHAT?! That is exactly what every fan's expectations should be every year, unless a team is obviously in a rebuilding phase.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 19, 2011 -> 07:20 PM) Hello Minnesota Twins? Oh God, am I tired of being compared to other losers. And despite them having short playoff appearances, they've had many more appearances in a much shorter span of time.

QUOTE (Jenksy Cat @ Apr 19, 2011 -> 06:56 PM) So...we trust the franchise to make the right selections, but only if those selections aren't KW or Oz. Got it. You are absolutely right. We should just stick with what isn't working.