NorthSideSox72

Its become an interesting new feature of politics, and now with our Presidential campaigns underway, its coming more to the forefront there as well: bloggers as "personalities". A couple of Edwards' campaign bloggers resigned this week, after being called bigots by conservatives for some of their remarks. I wonder how this part of campaigning, likely to take hold this cycle, will effect the race.

I'll be in the PHX area the first weekend of March. We are going to the game Monday, at the Brewers' facility. I'll try to take some decent pictures and share them on here like I did last year.

QUOTE(Jimbo @ Feb 13, 2007 -> 01:33 PM) I would love to split up a weekend plan....im so lazy god If you can get a weekend LD 27 game plan for 4 seats, I'd split with ya.

QUOTE(Steff @ Feb 13, 2007 -> 01:16 PM) The deadline was November to renew or lose. Sorry, I meant the net count, not specific holders. There are still some 81 game plans left, but I bet they all sell out, and with the added season seats, the net number of holders will likely be higher than last year.

QUOTE(Steff @ Feb 13, 2007 -> 11:39 AM) There was NOT 100% retention for full season holders yet.

Oh the dugouts this will create...

QUOTE(Hangar18 @ Feb 13, 2007 -> 08:52 AM) HAHAHHHAHAA. Yup Hangar predicted this on another site a few months ago, was told he was a heretic, that Zambozo would not ask for more money, how could he/not worth it, I said he will want at LEAST $100 Million Plus People laughed said no, Hangar said with Jim Spendry spending like he is, Big 'bozo will want to GET PAID, and I couldnt wait for him to come out and say it ..... Big Bozo ............."PAY ME!" And you know what? He most definitely DESERVES $150 Million easily. Hangar and Big Z, bringing the 3rd person references - are you holding out for a Cubs contract too? Seriously though, what a jackass. Yeah, of course in this market he can get HUGE money, and will. But I can think of very few people in baseball who I like less.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Feb 12, 2007 -> 09:26 PM) Evil American pigs, I will get them all. I cant wait till I hear how the tests went. So Cornell Yi, how many megaton was it. Well how many kilotons was it, you mean it was 7 tons. Oh s***, back to the negotiating table. You forgot the part where Colonel Yi gets decapitated for his ineptitude.

QUOTE(Hideaway Lights @ Feb 12, 2007 -> 12:39 PM) Yes, well most fans of a team generally think their team can compete any year. They will be in the race, surely, but as it stands now, with no leadoff hitter and three dead spots in the lineup card, with a shaky 4th and totally unknown 5th starter position I see this team as significantly worse than last year's team in every area except the bullpen. So, you agree they will be in the race, which is what we were saying. And you think that somehow this team is significantly worse than last year outside of the bullpen, even though we have the exact same starting lineup and 4 of the same 5 starting pitchers? In other words, you think the team got significantly worse, purely because of the 5th starter slot?

QUOTE(Controlled Chaos @ Feb 12, 2007 -> 10:34 AM) You still haven't answered this question? So what are the specific, valid reasons that some of these kids aren't standing? Was it becuase they are Jehovah's Witnesses? I know you said that could be a reason, but you didn't say if it was THE reason some of your students didn't stand Oh and what grade is this? I think you are missing the point. They don't need a reason NOT to - they can stand or not stand as they desire. They can stay seated because they feel like it. That is maybe not what some of us would like to see, but, that is the point LCR is making. He cannot force them to stand.

Opening Day and Cubs all gone by 10am, except scattered singles. Heck, even trying to get seats for 8/11 vs Mariners of all games, the best available for 4 was Row 25 in 108, RF corner, with an obstruction warning. I don't get this. If the season base is roughly 22k, and a few thousand go to promos... where did the other 15k seats go? Did the premium holders get all of them in the first HOUR??? Not happy.

QUOTE(Hideaway Lights @ Feb 12, 2007 -> 09:48 AM) I don't see what evidence there is that this headcase can keep it together for an entire season. So you don't see that he's got a 4.35 career ERA? Or that he's pitched 200+ innings for 7 straight years, and had an ERA during those years in the low 4's? Again, he's no ace, but evidence is clear that he can contribute for a full season.

QUOTE(J-MAN @ Feb 12, 2007 -> 09:28 AM) Can't get through on ticketmaster - I though the password was your acount # - Help? Only if you are a premium ticket holder. Are you? If not, and you are a season or split holder, you have to wait until 10am. For Ozzie plans, its tomorrow.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Feb 12, 2007 -> 09:20 AM) Vazquez's ERA was higher than league average and he was below .500 on a team that won 90 games, pretty much the story of his career with a couple of years of exception. To expect any more than this in 2007 is dreaming. He's struck out a lot of people before. I don't think he's a CY candidate or anything, but I think he's able to have a year much like his second half last year. Mid-4 ERA, good peripherals, and getting past the 5th inning more often than not. But to say he can't pitch in the AL is laughable. And I think we will in fact compete for a playoff spot this year, as long as we don't have serious injury problems.

QUOTE(Hideaway Lights @ Feb 12, 2007 -> 08:29 AM) A guy who cannot pitch in the AL is our fourth starter, and we have unproven guys competing for a fifth starter. In that division, I don't see how anyone could think a team chock full of question marks not only at SP but at at least three (maybe more with injuries) lineup slots can do anything realistically but compete for second or third. Regarding Garcia, I would've been a lot more comfortable with Garcia than Vazquez as a 4th starter. It you're asking me if I'd rather have Garcia, who has the better mental makeup but worse physical makeup or Vazquez, who has everything physically but is a headcase, I will take Garcia every time. Gavin Floyd has been rocked at every point in his major league career thus far. Garcia is a World Champion who has pitched complete games deep in the playoffs. And yet we essentially traded them for each other? Is that a joke? As for McCarthy, I would have rather gone in with McCarthy as a starter, like everyone else wanted him to be, than the role he was extremely uncomfortable in last year. If you think that any starter can become a reliever and vice versa without there being at least an adjustment period, you're high. Also, there are no guarantees they ever even adjust. Most pitchers cannot do both well. What was everyone's opinion of McCarthy before he got traded? Seems like everyone was saying "can't wait to see BMac starting...like he always should have been." Now that he's been traded, it's like "so long, bum". I just don't see why very many folks on this board are suddenly KW apologists for every single move he makes. The club will not be in a position to compete for a division title this year, IMHO. By "guy who cannot pitch in the AL", do you mean the guy who was our second best starter in the second half of last year? The one whose ERA dropped half a run in the second half and whose numbers all improved as the year went on? The same one whose K/BB and other peripheral numbers all indicate a stronger pitcher than his W/L record reflects? For a guy who supposedly can't pitch in the league, why did he get better as the year went on, even when players started seeing him more often? You can argue that McCarthy should have been starting, and there are certainly some reasons that would have been good. And Javy definitely had some problems, which he started to correct as the year went on (where as B-Mac was never able to adjust). But your statement that JV cannot pitch in the AL is ridiculous.

QUOTE(Hideaway Lights @ Feb 12, 2007 -> 01:50 AM) Absolutely. If you told me I would win another pennant or world series in 2007, I would've taken a 120 loss season in 2008. I would rather have won two world titles as the Marlins an than won one as the White Sox, which is all we're likely going to have for right now. Sustaining 80+ win seasons is not good enough. The team is good enough to win 83-87 in 2007 (not nearly good enough to win the toughest division in baseball), and MAY be good enough to win 83-87 in 2008, but 2008 is contigent on a s***load of things. GM's don't win pennants, the players and coaches (mostly the players) do. GM's have a different job - they keep the club competitive with the right talent. The GM sets the table, and its up to the guys on the field to execute. KW, this offseason, set the table so that we'd be competitive for the next 3 or 4 years. That means we get 3 or 4 good shots at a title. That is a LOT better than 1 shot.

QUOTE(Soxfest @ Feb 12, 2007 -> 12:54 AM) Sox raise ticket prices $3.00 and b**** about FA salaries, with the fire sale for cheap pitching and players they are not gonna try to resign they have a TON of money to spend starting next winter! JR will keep it in his pocket instead of putting back into product is my prediction. Fire sale???

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Feb 10, 2007 -> 08:41 PM) Just put Kalapse's in mine. That's what people meant anyways Oh, that's why you finished 4th. It was one of those difficult-to-understand ballot things. Yeeaaaaaaahhhhh...

QUOTE(MinnesotaSoxFan @ Feb 10, 2007 -> 06:45 PM) I support Obama. The question is what does Obama support?

QUOTE(Chisoxrd5 @ Feb 10, 2007 -> 11:22 AM) I feel better now that I ONLY paid $16 p/ game for Parking Passes. However, I'm still stuck with green passes AGAIN because the red pass holders are supposedly 'grandfathered' in. That really pissed me off because we have to park in the right field corner, but have to walk every game to the left field corner to our season tickets. Think they could make an exception for a group with 4 season tickets? Nope...horrible ticket reps. Although, at least my new rep returns phone calls unlike the one I had last season. Rant Over Go Sox! The left field corner has only one parking lot - the players/managers lot. I don't think you're ever going to get parking passes for that area.

Since Nuke's war diary thread is a closed thread, I am opening up a seperate, unpinned thread for general discussion. You can ask Nuke questions, reply to his entries, etc.

Of all the various conspiracy theories and edge stories, about ghosts, aliens, asassinations, etc., the one that is most intriguing to me is the whole thing in Roswell in the 40's. On the surface, it looks pretty obvious - that area was (and still probably is) the place where some of the most experimental military toys are tested. Something went wrong with something in the sky, crash happens, military claims its a weather balloon. Clearly it wasn't, but, that could be the military covering up one technology with another. What sticks in my craw though, are the rancher and the colonel. The rancher who owned the land where these aliens supposedly crash-landed, and the general who was first to get there, both swear by the same thing they saw. I've seen the interviews, and I have a hard time not believing them. I mean, the colonel pretty much ruined his military career saying this stuff. Why? The rancher probably could care less, so why would he then spout the same exact story? I don't know. Maybe I just don't know enough about it, but, I can't dismiss it entirely either.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Feb 9, 2007 -> 12:38 PM) Buy fan. Turn on fan. Get in front of fan. You live in Cali, where the humidity is generally low. Dry air and a fan cause evaporation, which cools your skin. Here in the midwest in summer its friggin' humid (usually), so that fan doesn't do a damn thing. I can't believe I am saying this to Mr. Science. I have a feeling I'm about to get science-slapped.

QUOTE(Steff @ Feb 9, 2007 -> 03:42 PM) In the morning I turn on channel 2 and listen while I get ready for work. I don't have time to run back and forth or actually sit and watch it so whatever is said is whatever I hear. I don't watch much news other than that - my nights are filled with Tivo. I don't think Channel 2 is a part of some conspiracy, but this morning there were many comments made about her, and bet that 100% of the other news stations out there did as well. The only option to NOT hear the smut is to NOT watch or listen. Her smut is news because people bought into her a long time ago. You always have choice. You may not be able to avoid something like this entirely, but, you can engage it a lot less if you want to. And if more people did that, they it would go away. Honestly though, there is still a large swath of the country that loves this stuff, so there will be some of it around until that changes. But that isn't media hype, its business. All you can do is choose the alternatives that avoid it more than others. QUOTE(SleepyWhiteSox @ Feb 9, 2007 -> 03:40 PM) Ass. poo-poo head.

QUOTE(Steff @ Feb 9, 2007 -> 03:30 PM) If it's not in the media... you wouldn't know about it, correct? While I decide to watch the news.. I don't decide on what comes out of their mouths. I don't have the ability to know that tey are going to talk about some stars personal life. In order to watch the news, and get real news (traffic, weather, etc) we all have to endure some of the smut. It's not a choice not to hear it unless you're Miss Cleo, or don't watch any tv or listen to the radio at all. There are hundreds of TV channels, thousands of newpapers, and millions of websites. All spewing information, news, etc. And none of them are exactly the same. So unless they are all in some conspiracy to provide the same content, then you always have choice. Those choices will mold what media companies present. For example, if you choose to watch a channel that has less (or none) of something you don't like, and the masses do the same, then you and the masses will have successfully molded the media. The channel people avoid losses viewship, then advertising dollars, and they either have to adapt or die. Is Anna going to flash across my face a few times in the next few weeks, yeah. And then I'm going to find something else to look at. QUOTE(SleepyWhiteSox @ Feb 9, 2007 -> 03:31 PM) I'm reading my previous posts and still searching for where I said I only know what is hyped by the media... My point still stands that the media deserves some blame for going overboard with unimportant crap. I understand your point. I just think that the media deserves very little of it.