LVSoxFan

Not to pile on, but I agree with you about BA consistently blowing it in the clutch. I can't tell you how many times last year he was a rally-killer. We used to hit the head when he came up because we knew he was a guaranteed out. Not sure how you fix that.

THE David Wells? Former White Sox/Red Sox Wells?

I'll say this as somebody who worked in TV for a decade. Yes, obviously there is an East Coast bias to ESPN, perfectly demonstrated for all of history by the "Ohhh NOOOOO!" call during the ALDS when their second baseman booted the grounder by Uribe. Chris Behrman, yes? From a TV standpoint the reality is that some teams have national appeal and that's what they go with. Ratings are all that matters. Like them or not, the Red Sox have a national fan base (ever been at The Cell when we play them?) and so do teams like the Mets. The Yankees have an almost international appeal. Reality check: the White Sox do not. We love them, but the fact is that was one of the lowest-rated World Series in recent history. The Cubs--yes, puke--do have a national fan base, like it or not. So get used to Red Sox/Yankees dominating ESPN... forever. Unless one of the West Coast teams begins a dynasty.

Nice stories here, but no doubt: El Duque's Boston miracle. That was just mind-blowing. I still can't believe we got out of that. Amazing.

I'm a Rowand fan--no abuse, please!--BUT what happened to Brian looked serious. It was painfully reminiscent of that godawful injury that Garciaparra suffered when starting towards first base a few years ago. I hope it's not that severe, because he lost a whole season I think. I wish him the best and hope it's just a minor tweak. Somehow I think it's not. Man, injuries to the groin or those inner thigh muscles--been there, done that. They HURT and take forever to heal. I'd rather break a bone. At least that's only six weeks. I doubt we'll hear much until tomorrow at the earliest.

"When he has no control...bombs away." LOL!

And that's a White Sox loser. Oh well.

Crap I thought AAAnderson was done going for that low and inside stuff. That's a nice swing. A nice golf swing.

Geez I think I jinxed it... they just hit another one.

QUOTE(SoxFan1 @ Mar 17, 2007 -> 03:22 PM) I'm loving the spring training nicknames we got going. Grinderstad, AAAnderson...what's next? Gavin Pink Floyd? Carrasco simply shutting us down. AAAnderson? LMFAO! THAT is funny. BTW happy St. Paddy's day everybody! 9AM this morning people were at the bars where I live, no joke. Is it just me or is six innings a lot to leave in a starter for a ST game? Oops. Just as I finish that sentence literally LA hits a homer...

This is one boring-ass game!

Love the Irish music between innings, LOL. Like the green hats too.

I remember that Boone Logan game. Ouch. I feel bad for him; I hope he gets a second chance and makes the most of it.

QUOTE(zimne piwo @ Mar 16, 2007 -> 05:55 PM) Anyone else catch the replay of the 2005 post-season highlight video (with "We Are One Tonight" by Switchfoot) after Hawk and DJ's post-game show? Sure was nice seeing that again, and a perfect way to cap off another victory over the sCrUBS! Dude! My apologies: I started a thread on that montage alone. Yeah that was AWESOME. I bought the song on iTunes while I was watching it. BTW did anybody else notice our "smallball" win today? Shades of 2005... loved it. That's what I like to see: bunting, moving runners, one-run wins, bloop singles. This is the kind of ball I love to watch the Sox play.

Anybody see it? It was set to "We Are One Tonight" by Switchfoot. Excellent. Gave me goosebumps, even after watching the 2005 DVDs hundreds of times. I'm thinking this song could be our "Don't Stop Believin'" for '07--it worked. Sorry I mean WGN. It was WGN today, right? Whatever--it was right after Hawk & DJ wrapped it up.

No [bleep]! Could this be dragged out ANY FURTHER? What the hell...

If we could just merge Mack's hitting with Anderson's fielding... //Dr. Evil laugh...

Didn't somebody once post our record with him in the OF, and it was scary?

Hey I like that Herb Brooks quote!

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Mar 15, 2007 -> 09:46 AM) You should of saw the warning signs for last year issues a bit before the 2nd half. The difference between the two teams was a pitching staff that was all on in 05, and that sucked in 06. Our offense masked the pitching's shortcomings by posting just an amazing first half. My feeling is this, our offense decided to put the team on their back and started to press. I think this happens more often than not in the 2nd half of all whitesox seasons. They O tries to do too much. They get away from hitting to all fields, to letting the home runs come naturally. They become a lift and pull offense trying to hit everything out of the park, especially in game critical situations. AJ was the perfect example of this, look at his first half stats when he had little power and was just hitting the ball to all fields and had a high average and a lot of doubles. Then in the 2nd half his average plummetted and his power went up. You dont need to be a genius to figure out what he was trying to do. To me I would rather take AJ without a lot of power, and hitting a high average any year than have AJ with a lower average and a lot more power. We have enough power rapped up in the middle of our order that the rest of our guys should be concentrating on hitting line drives, getting on base and moving up into scoring position. This has nothing to do with bunting or what Ozzie calls smallball. Its about getting on, and getting them in via situational hitting. Well we've all been over this countless times and I think we can all agree that really what happened last year was the perfect storm of nothing being in synch: when the "O" was on the pitching wasn't, when the pitching was on the "O" disappeared, when the pitching and "O" were in synch then the bullpen would blow it. Having said that, these things were noticeably absent last year: 1) Oppposite field slap hitting 2) Bunting 3) Stealing bases I loudly complained about this about halfway through last season--what happened to the things that helped us win in 2005?!?! I've heard all the arguments about how we were never "really" smallball and that's fine, but TELL me these three things weren't AWOL last season. Now that we've had time to step back I'd say from an offensive standpoint the real problem was the top and bottom of the order leaning too heavily on the meat (Thome, Paulie, Dye) to do something. No wonder it seemed like only home runs would save us, and that's way too many eggs to put in the HR basket IMO. People also seem to forget that Thome was a non-factor 2nd half. While he was killing 1st half and bringing up everybody's game with him apparently, in the second half I can't tell you how many times I saw him get fanned on a low-and-in pitch. So that took him out, leaving Paulie and Dye (and I guess Crede). And there was our left-handed pitcher woes, being unable to hit them. We can talk all day about what went wrong. I guess what I'm saying is: if we're hitting for percentage, bunting and stealing--or at least trying--you won't hear complaining from me, win or lose. At least we're trying to execute. Last year it seemed we gave up and waited for somebody's Big Bat to bail us out. My totally un-scientific opinion, of course, but hey... even a blind squirrel finds an acorn now and then.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Mar 15, 2007 -> 08:52 AM) For a team that supposedly came into camp "hungry", with Cooper getting pissed and now KW, it seems peculiar. At least none of this counts yet. It appears the poor pitching is starting to grate on the organization though. Hopefully some of KW's acquisitions can help in 2007 or we may see a firesale at the trade deadline. Good call--that is kinda weird. How do we stack up vs. 2005 for ST record? That's what I'd like to know. Of course, I'm a masochist of sorts: even back in 2005 and definitely in 2006 I was saying I'd rather have Cleveland's 2005 season then another '05 slide at the last month (although it all worked out) or '06 kickass 1st half offset by a sub-.500 2nd half and slow death during September. In other words: I really don't care what happens (but of course I want to win) until 2nd half, as long as we're still in the race. If memory serves we were 26 games over .500 at the break last year and then went something like 13 games under for the second half. So what happens in spring training? Really not much concern to me. I'd rather get all the bad hitting, bad pitching and bad fielding out of the way now.

I think it's spot-on, though. I was b****ing about that all second half last year. That we got away from what won us 2005.

I'll jump in since this has been going on since the winter. I personally would like to see Rowand back. There, I said it. I don't mind BA and he has a lot of potential but as somebody said, with Rowand we know what we're getting. I think his presence would light a fire in the clubhouse. I don't understand why some label him a "mediocre" fielder. I can't recall many plays--and I'm always out in the field right behid him--where I thought "Oh crap! So-and-so would have had that!" (like I do with Mack). I'll be the first to admit that sentimentality is biasing me, but on the other hand, I didn't feel the kind of chemistry with last year's squad that I did when A-Row was around. In '06 there were more than a few games where I thought they just looked passionless. Is Rowand the solution? Maybe, maybe not. But I certainly don't think it would HURT us. But no, trading somebody like McDougal for him--that's crazy. We can get him for cheaper. Let's do it. Platoon the old guy, LOL...

I don't mind BA. I was rooting for him last year. I'm just not willing to wait another half season or season for him to figure out hitting. I'd like to win now. But as a fielder, I have total confidence in him.

Yes the current ones are the best, no doubt. I like the red one you have here too. What era is that from? Early 70s?