LVSoxFan

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/white...ent?oid=5478286 The reason I'm posting this is because some of it is LOL funny, when it's not so depressing. His remarks about plenty of seats being available (just like last year!) are spot-on, as is his have-you-ever-been-less-excited-for-a-season sentiments that are popular here (yours truly included). What he points out that I hadn't really thought about is that while we shipped out Buehrle, Santos and Quentin... we really sort of replaced them "with air." Understandable, since Jerry's closed the purse due to "All In" becoming "All... What, Again?" and when you're saddled with the contracts of A.D., Peavy and Rios just what big acquisitions are you going to make? Answer: zero. Add to that the fact that KW brought in a never-managed-before Ventura and the Sox season should... begin in April. Oh well. Hey at least I love the 1972 jersey idea (damn I guess I'll just have to buy yet ANOTHER Sox jersey... sniff).

Dunn without a doubt. Rios only when people are literally exhausted from booing Dunn. But later go back to Dunn.

Why on Earth would we give him another chance? Thornton was a DISASTER as closer last year.

Did anybody catch the Adam Dunn piece in the Sun-Times today? Now, I am the last person to ever defend... Adam Dunn... but he made some thinly-veiled references to Ozzie that were hardly complimentary. I'm glad this piece came out. I loved Ozzie too, for the reasons given in the article. But face it: for at least the past two years he's acted like a freakin idiot.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 28, 2011 -> 08:39 AM) It is amazing to know that Ozzie has Cowardly in his pocket, and he can't even use him right. Here he is leaking information that damages him majorly. Two of the biggest detractions to Williams record have been Dunn and Swisher. Here we have Joe accidentally spilling that the move of Swisher after one year could very well have been to the fact that Ozzie hated him, not because Kenny wanted to get rid of him. Damn are Ozzie and company stupid for this stuff to be getting out. This is only going to make him look worse, not better. This is showing Ozzie seems to be only able to manage the guys he likes at the very least. Can somebody explain what the whole beef was between Ozzie and Swish? And C. Lee? I never got the impression there was a beef, though, with Dunn. Once again, though, there's Oney, shooting his mouth off, showing zero class. Won't miss that.

I vote for "Bring Your Fat Kids to the Park" day. Here's why: every time there's a dance-off between innings, the fat guy/kid wins. Always. The only time the outcome is ever in question is when they can't find a fat kid, and then the whole thing is up for grabs. The best you can guess in that scenario is that the first d-bag to whip out "the worm" (and you know how to do that how again, loser?) will probably win. So, how to build suspense? You make all the kids in the dance-off fat kids. Not such a slam-dunk NOW, is it, Sox fans, so used to impressing your non-Sox fan friends who don't know any better by predicting "the fat kid will win! Mark my words!" Oh, and none of them are allowed to do "the worm", or else they get tazed. So right there it's like Dancing with the Stars meets Biggest Loser crossed with The Hunger Games. Me likey. Now, f*** me if that isn't the definition of entertainment. Here's my prediction: it will be ten times more entertaining than what's going to be on the field all season...

Five years? Jeebus. I'm Buehrle fan #1 but even I couldn't see that.

Um, I added an opinion to get this going. All three articles have the same theme: KW's hands are basically tied--tied to Dunn and Rios. Amirite?

OK I'll add an opinion: Wow, what a FUBAR position the Sox are in. Basically, it appears to come down to: a) Hoping that Dunn/Rios/Gordo don't suck like they did last year, i.e., keep things intact more or less b) Assume they're going to suck like they did last and start selling off everything that's not nailed down. Note to fans: except Rios and Dunn are NAILED DOWN. So basically the entire team sinks or swims with Dunn and Rios--just like last year. Feelin' good about that? Me too. I am Mark Buehrle fan #1 in the World, but even I can't entertain the thought that he'll be back next season. Everybody's going to be throwing money at him and what do the Sox have to offer? Oh yeah: less money, and that team whose fate is tied to... Dunn and Rios. But hey, you get to retire as a White Sock! :/

Hasn't this been the case for years? KW seems to think that some big FA acquisition will compensate for our total lack of a farm system. Well, how's that been workin' out for ya? Question: when was the last homegrown player we brought up who turned into an every day kind of guy? I asked my co-worker this and the only ones we could think of recently were Buehrle and Crede. We're counting Gordo as a question mark right now. Outside of that, who?

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Nov 10, 2011 -> 12:57 PM) Mark doesn't owe us a hometown discount. I hope he's back, because he's fun, but I will root for him anywhere. I second this. Well put.

I don't understand how Beckham went from being potential Rookie of the Year to Brian Anderson II. WTF happened?

This does suck. I so don't want Buehrle gone. But honestly if he goes to Miami or St. Louis that wouldn't bother me as much as an AL rival.

All right then. Let's head over... er, oh wait we have to wait until the season starts... #fail

You have to love this: taxpayers foot the bill and yet share none of the profits. And spare me the convoluted reasoning that restaurant = more attendance = bigger rent payment by JR. People don't go to The Cell because of a restaurant. They go when the team actually WINS GAMES. This sounds just like our setup with Wall St. So, who wants to start an Occupy Bacardi at the Park rally? Who's in?

Anyway... Do we all agree that it was pretty classless of Ozzie to smear Coop like that in the press? People are always like: oh, that Ozzie! Saying whatever's on his mind! You know, that's great but let's be honest: that doesn't mean he has any class. Like in this instance.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 18, 2011 -> 07:59 AM) I'm entirely in agreement with this statement. Me too.

Noooooooooooooo! Are you kidding me? Make it Frank Thomas if you want the sentimental favorite. How the hell do you make a one-dimensional hitter your hitting coach? Jesus even Baines would be a better idea than this.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 7, 2011 -> 04:44 PM) My interpretation of this whole set of boondoggles is that it tells me KW really doesn't have decision making authority beyond a certain point. I think that the Chairman is basically running most everything. KW gives him 2 outlines last offseason, one "All in" and one "Cutting back" and the Chairman realizes that cutting back means Ozzie is gone...so he accepts KW's "All in" outline to try to save Ozzie. That's the only rational reason why I wouldn't have fired KW...if he hadn't made the decisions. And this managerial hiring screams of "you have contracted VDN" to me. The Chairman picked his manager in 04, gave him every opportunity to succeed with his own money, replaced him with another of his guys. Interesting! That actually makes a ton of sense.

Balta: And that seems to be the problem yes? I mean, look how long it took to fire Walker? And hell, that only came when Ozzie was fired/quit. My frustration is that I don't see this in other organizations: hell even the CUBS have finally seen the light that losing = not marketable. Put another way: how long do you think Bears fans would put up with this? Wasn't it a given that Lovie was toast had the Bears not gone to the playoffs last year? And the time frame was similar, in that he took them to the Super Bowl relatively recently, a year after the Sox won the WS. But what I most don't get is how the crippling attendance figures haven't shaken some sense into the organization. I've been to some empty games before but that last Sunday home game this year was a ghost town. In fact, most of the season the games were pretty empty. I felt bad for the vendors. Who knows? Maybe he's making so much cash off the Bulls that there's no urgency.

So the slogan should have been "All In... Unless That Means Next Year." Ugh. I am so not looking forward to 2012 if nobody's ass is on the line.

Hey did KW really make the comment that Ventura's going to learn on the job? I'm trying to confirm that.

I don't think it's any secret that many on the board wanted to see both of them go after this year, and instead we got one. Now, you can argue, and we have, about some of KW's dubious signings over the past few years--no need to rehash them here but we'll hold up Rios/Dunn as the poster children. Ozzie supporters have said that hey: the GM picks the team and if the team doesn't perform, that falls on the GM, not the manager. So now we have unquestionably the team AND the manager picked by KW. And what a pick. As the 50+ pages above confirm, to say that this pick is a gamble is an understatement. Most dreamed of Francona, figured it would be Martinez, would accept but grouse about Alomar. Instead KW surprised everybody on the planet by making his "splashy" move: hiring somebody with no managing experience whatsoever. Even those in the media who don't necessarily hate the idea say it is a huge gamble. Thus, after three years of futility, KW's big move has been... to roll the dice. That said, assuming the worst and 2012 is a disaster (let's hope not), would it be unfair to say that that should be the end of KW? He put together the team, he's rolling the dice on how to fix it... how much time should this "experiment"--and it is an experiment--be allowed to last? I know Ventura's a fan favorite but I also know the only thing fans care about in the end is winning. So if that's not happening, does KW take the fall? Or do you think Jerry has given him a couple of years or more to let everything "settle in"? Because frankly I don't know if I have the patience for that.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Oct 7, 2011 -> 03:54 PM) As far as I'm concerned, the dramatic aspect of this story is entirely Jerry's fault. In 2010, when Kenny wanted to fire Ozzie, Jerry had a choice. Either let Kenny do his job and fire Ozzie, or say Ozzie is the man in charge and fire Kenny. He went with option 3: try to make a relationship that can't be fixed work. And it's been all downhill ever since then, with all of the drama taking off, and Joe Cowley being chosen by the Guillen family as their publicist. If the choice is made when it should have been, most of this drama does not happen. Instead, our organization looks idiotic right now. I like this take.

Errr okay dude. Anyway, THIS. I have been saying this for years! So what we end up is a crappy mix of the two, only it's worse because we don't have the farm system/organization that the Twins do.