LVSoxFan

I won't miss Owens. He just strikes me as mentally soft. We don't need any more corpseballers, ever.

The only way ticket prices are coming down is if the park is sitting half-empty this season. Otherwise forget it. Once things go up, they never come back down. I was surprised, however, at them raising prices in this economy. $47 for a premium game bleacher seat? Ridiculous. I most definitely think you're going to see a lot of empty seats at non-premium games this year. With everybody struggling, that minimum $150-$200 for a family with two kids is going to seem like an awful lot.

Definitely top 3. 1) 2005 playoffs/World Series (I can't pick just one moment, too many) 2) The Buehrle no-hitter 3) Game 163 4) AJ's walkoff homer against the Dodgers in 2005 I can't think of a fifth right now.

Looks like that 5th place prediction is contagious... the guy from NBC sports did a team-by-team analysis and places us dead last, behind even the Royals. http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/6841778/?pg=..._Spring_preview Fine with me...

Anybody catch it in today's Sun-Times? There's a nice spread all about the Sox and Ramirez. Buy it if you see it. Here's a link that covers part of it: http://www.suntimes.com/sports/deluca/1426...eluca12.article But in a section called "Best in Chicago" (as far as who do you want in that position), the Sox took like four out of five categories from the Cubs. So who exactly is at 2nd this year?

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 15, 2009 -> 11:15 AM) Speed is not job #1. Its a nice-to-have, all else equal. Pitching, pitching, pitching, OBP, power and defense are all more important. And what do you mean by "percentage with the rest of the team"? I mean: OBP, speed, baserunning threats. Obviously pitching and defense are #1, but no more one-dimensional offenses.

I concur that I'm willing to gamble with the pitching lineup--youth and experience--as long as we don't forget job #1, which is speed and percentage with the rest of the team. While last year ultimately ended better than I thought it would, please don't ever make me have to watch another big-bopper dependent lineup with no speed and prone to streakiness. That was uber-painful.

I was really hoping for Swish at 1B in '09 where I really liked him. Not sure what the point of this was, but it's early. One half of me says KW has a master plan. The other half remembers his big move last year was... Griffey.

My mom just called, breathless, saying she heard on the Score that Dye, Swisher and Javy are shipping out. Anybody hear this?

QUOTE (LosMediasBlancas @ Oct 31, 2008 -> 04:46 PM) I've never really understood buying division champ or even league champ merchandise. Sure it's an accomplishment and all, but it just seems kinda silly to me. If we would have lost the WS in 05 to the Stros, I wouldn't be walking around with a '2005 AL champs' cap on my head. Are all the Cub fans walking around with '2008 NL Central champs' caps? Because that would be laughable. Normally I would agree with you--what's the point of having that hat if we didn't go all the way? BUT... that last week was so kickass, that game was the most intense I've been to since '05 playoffs, it was such a great win, and really: even though we didn't go past Tampa Bay... that division championship game made the season pretty satisfying, didn't it? I never thought we'd even get that far. That whole week rocked: the Sunday win against Cleveland, the Monday win against Detroit, then Black Tuesday. So yeah, I don't mind a memento of that. Plus, those hats just look... really cool.

I'm talking about the ones they all put on after we won on Black Tuesday. With the big scoreboard-looking front (not unlike the Cubs' same hats, actually). You couldn't get one walking out of the park that night--forget it--so I've been waiting. Now I'm told that was a limited edition hat and no more will be made. I can get one if I get into a sniping war with somebody on Ebay for $60 at minimum. Huh? Why would you make a great hat like that and then deny it to I'm sure thousands of fans who want it? The one offered on whitesox.com is ho-hum. Anybody know any different? BTW hello to all of you; been gone a few weeks. So-so season but that last week was a BLAST! I feel good about next year.

I agree; my smoking friends were amazed that not only you couldn't smoke on the ramps, ther was only ONE place in the whole park that you could go. So if you sat in the outfield or UD, you were screwed, having to walk so far. As for the restaurant/bar, yeah, I guess we need a replacement for Jimbo's don't we? I have a feeling the prices won't be Jimbo's-like, though. God, it's gonna be weird not going up that ramp; that's where I usually enter. Seems cool though.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Oct 7, 2008 -> 12:19 PM) We won over 90 games in 2006. I've purged the 2007 team from my memory. You missed the point. We had record attendance in 2006 due to '05. And all that extra money bought us... 2007?

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Oct 7, 2008 -> 03:33 PM) To be honest, I didn't read this thread. I probably never will. And I mean no offense to joe in saying this, but I want to put this out there. This is easily the worst part of the season (and not just because the Sox just lost). It's terrible because there are 14 new threads a day about everyone's opinion on what should be done to the team. It's every bit as bad as Trade Winds, excluding the actual trade rumors. I am never interested in reading the vast majority of threads created at this time of the year. Keep your chin up Milkman! I don't think this is your usual, goddammit-we-lost-now-HERE'S-what-I-would do thread. Some of us have been saying for months that we should do this, that. And I still feel the same way, although I was totally, pleasantly surprised by how far we got. Last week was unforgettable. But now that it's all said and done--and I'm not upset--let's get to fixin things. Can you imagine how good we could be in '09 if we got this far with THIS TEAM? I see nothing but optimism to hold, as long as we don't try to trot out another station-to-station slow team next year. Keep a couple, but let's remodel. The other good news: Danks, Floyd--KEEPERS. I'd say we're in good shape. And Swish will come around.

Like in 2006? And 2007 was... um...

I didn't like OC and I tend to like everybody on the Sox one way or the other. So long. Won't miss him.

Forget it. First off, you have to remember that the Cubs have "fans" whether they absolutely suck or not. Just because they blew it--again--only adds to the mystique of the "Curse" and the "loveable losers." Something they've marketed for years. I highly doubt people who go to those games are going to say "Enough!" and become Sox fans. Ronnie Woo Woo notwithstanding. And BTW take that jersey off, asshole. Second, maybe a couple of casual fans leaning towards the Cubs but liking the Sox might come over, but again: we're talking Wrigley field here, where often people go just to GO, who cares about the game? Third, die-hard fans aren't quitting on the team. They're bitter right now but when opening day rolls around they'll be back into it, albeit with lowered expectations. Which, actually, is probably what everybody needs over there--even the team. How many of you here would ditch the Sox for the Cubs if we were still WS-free after 100 and had blown playoffs endlessly? Because we've done that since I've been a fan, for decades... until 2005, and I never considered switching. Never even occured to me. Lastly, I don't want them. I don't like them and their binge drinking and their idiocy and I think we all remember all the bandwagon jumpers in 2006 who suddenly appeared at the park. No thanks.

Even though we didn't go far, the 1-2-3 combination of the final Cleveland game (I was there), the Detroit game (Alexi!!!) and finally Black Tuesday (simply awesome, I was there too) made it one I'll remember. Last night wasn't really a bummer so much as the inevitable finally happening. And we got to see baseball in October, which was sweeeeet. All in all, not bad. I can't wait though to retool this team; don't want to see this same lineup in '09.

Swish isn't the problem. IMO he had a bad year but I hardly would give up on him just yet. The problem is we're stuffed with sluggers that we can't necessarily or won't trade: Konerko Griffey Thome Dye Swish made most sense to me at 1B but we can't move him 'cause Konerko's there. We can't DH Konerko because Thome's there. Dye to me seems like a DH ready to happen but we've got... Thome and Konerko. Griffey is the obvious choice to dump because I never knew what we got him for in the first place; we have three sluggers already and he sure ain't Brian Anderson in CF. But that core group: Dye, Konerko, Thome... it's pretty hard to figure out how to work around that if none of them are going anywhere. And don't forget: you could call Quentin a slugger too. So that's four sluggers, even with Griffey gone. No speed (maybe Quentin), no bunting. I don't know how you work around this.

That was the most fun I've had since '05 and may even surpass those two Boston games. The sea of black in the stands was amazing. And sorry, but the Griffey-to-AJ gundown to me was the play of the game that got everybody totally amped. Unbelievable. Perfect ending. And I am officially .500 for 2008 season!!!!

I can't wait to see what the all-black thing looks like. That's gonna look awesome on TV! I'm along the 3B line somewhere, but as long as I'm there!!!

I love this!!! I've got my black jersey locked n loaded. Is the team wearing the black too? 'Cause superstition says wear the pinstripes again.

QUOTE (LosMediasBlancas @ Sep 28, 2008 -> 11:44 AM) So what happened exactly? What was the situation? AJ came out to the mound? Or was Javy yelling from the mound? Details please. LMB, Saturday night after Javy had given up yet another multi-run double, completing his 5th inning meltdown. As AJ's walking up to the mound you could see them having a very heated exchange (well Javy at least) and as AJ turned to walk back, you could clearly see Javy say the words "F*** YOU" to him. I was shocked. Never seen that before. Anyway, the update: in today's Sun-Times a "witness" claims that it was about AJ telling Javy to man-up and not show the body language he allegedly showed when he didn't get a called strike... that his body language was showing defeat. Can't argue with that. Apparently Javy didn't want to hear it, though.

Boo hoo Santo. Nice straw man. No, I don't say that--I say that in 2005 they could do BOTH. Instead of homers or nothing. Which is what we have now. 2004 all over again. And as I've said here before, repeatedly, I forgot about Rowand when we got Swisher. But don't let that stop you from your knee jerk defense of Thome and our feast or famine 2004 offense. BTW this thread isn't about 2005; that was an aside. Its about Aj and Javy openly going at it on the mound. Stay on the freakin topic please. Thanks!

I don't think I've ever seen that happen with the Sox, ever. What the hell were they fighting about? I swear the last thing Javy said was f-you. Wow. Shows how much Javy's head is a mess and how the team's turning on each other. Man 2005 seems like 20 years ago. I may have to watch the dvds tonite just to forget this. And I'm not one for nostalgia.