southsider2k5

QUOTE (Ezio Auditore @ Oct 25, 2016 -> 10:45 AM) Why does everyone always say 35th and the Dan Ryan is a "terrible part of town?" Maybe this was true in the 90s. The projects over on Federal are all gone now, just empty lots. Bridgeport is still Bridgeport, it's not really that bad, just an ordinary neighborhood. Bronzeville on the other side of the expressway is halfway gentrified now, and the only way it's not fully gentrified is because the 2008 recession slowed everything down. Is the White Sox in a neighborhood like Wrigleyville? No, and it never will be, that ship sailed 20-something years ago. Really the only thing that irks me about the current stadium is that it faces southeast instead of northeast, so the skyline isn't visible in center field like it should be. One thing I have noticed is the difference between how the neighborhoods are sold. If anything bad happens around Wrigley Field, it happened in "Lakeview" or "Boystown" I even heard a report about the increase in robberies around Wrigley Field in Lakeview happening during the playoffs. But if something good happens, it is "Wrigleyville". When you drill down to the actual numbers, way more stuff happens around Wrigley Field than in Bridgeport.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Oct 25, 2016 -> 08:27 AM) Rates Rise Again For Obamacare Health Plans, But So Do Subsidies Steep rises for plans on the federal exchanges for next year. The underlying issue with both these premium increases and with some insurers pulling out of some markets seems to be that the population that is served by the exchanges need more healthcare than anticipated. So the cost estimates were too low? Get out.

QUOTE (CanOfCorn @ Oct 25, 2016 -> 10:10 AM) Their spacing is awful. Can't cycle when you've got two people nearly running into each other. There is zero comfort with each other, especially on the mixed lines.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Oct 25, 2016 -> 08:30 AM) You can tell the team is out of whack a bit, and I think alot of it is the new blood and lines. They just have a tough time getting into their groove anywhere on the ice. This is absolutely it. They will get it eventually. It might take a while, but they will get it.

QUOTE (Tony @ Oct 24, 2016 -> 08:34 PM) It's more than talent. This is at historically bad levels, and the talent level isn't that bad on this team. It's not what we are used to, but it's not this bad. Something is off. The talent IS there. It is just a whole lot of people doing a whole lot of new things to make this roster work.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Oct 24, 2016 -> 08:53 PM) Third video from O'Keefe implicated HRC. "It exposes prohibited communications between Hillary Clinton's campaign, the DNC and the non-profit organization Americans United for Change. And, it's all disguised as a duck. In this video, several Project Veritas Action undercover journalists catch Democracy Partners founder directly implicating Hillary Clinton in FEC violations. "In the end, it was the candidate, Hillary Clinton, the future president of the United States, who wanted ducks on the ground," says Creamer in one of several exchanges. "So, by God, we would get ducks on the ground." It is made clear that high-level DNC operative Creamer realized that this direct coordination between Democracy Partners and the campaign would be damning when he said: "Don't repeat that to anybody." Yeah, that would be the least surprising thing ever from a campaign that has always wanted to control everything.

QUOTE (Tony @ Oct 24, 2016 -> 07:51 PM) 5 minutes in, another goal against the Hawks PK. Something has got to change, and quickly. Yeah, we have got to get some PK guys step in and fill the holes for guys like Kruger and company who didn't come back this year.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Oct 24, 2016 -> 04:56 PM) It'll be interesting to see how long they have until Lester gets old. Hendricks will definitely regress a little bit next year as well. Their staff is solid going forward but it can definitely be better. A lot of that pitching staff is because of the defense behind it.

QUOTE (Lip Man 1 @ Oct 24, 2016 -> 04:40 PM) Nothing wrong with rooting for a team...but being open about it? When you are working?? There was a time when the Chicago newspaper baseball beat reporters would switch teams at the All-Star break EXACTLY to prevent the individuals from getting to close to a player or players and not be truthful in their work. Plus newspapers used to hire people who rooted for teams but not the teams they were covering. Reporters were hired for example from Cleveland or the Bay Area to cover Chicago teams. They grew up rooting for the Indians or the Giants...not the Sox or Cubs. To say "that's the way it is" doesn't make it "right" in my opinion. I want to vomit and am embarrassed when I see reports parading around in the gear of the team they are covering or openly rootingfor them on the job as the example Gonzo told me about. Here some respect for yourself and your position. And the fact that fans seem to "condone" such behavior is mind-blowing to me. Just my opinion. Mark Today "right" isn't morality, it is profit. It is about having respect for your paycheck to be honest. If those guys aren't selling the hottest ticket in town, they will find someone else who will.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Oct 24, 2016 -> 04:38 PM) I only added that graph because that Infowar article mentions how this will be just like Brexit again and as you can see, it's not really comparable. Cute edit. Should I call her Rodham or Blythe then?

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Oct 24, 2016 -> 04:36 PM) Right or wrong, I always look at the smaller Sox, Twins, and Brewers fan bases as being die hard with the Cubs fan base being more casual. And you cannot deny what Wrigleyville has become. It's a straight up party that everyone wants to be a part of. I have yet to meet anyone out west here who is dying to go see a game at . They all mention how they want to go to Wrigley field and how it's their favorite stadium even though most of them have never been. The problem with calling the Cubs fan base "casual" is that they drew huge numbers even at their worst for decades now. The Twins, Sox, and Brewers don't do that.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Oct 24, 2016 -> 04:23 PM) via The interesting thing about that is both candidates are trending down, Trump just more convincingly. I wonder if those are moving to undecided or 3rd party.

QUOTE (Ezio Auditore @ Oct 24, 2016 -> 04:20 PM) I don't think that's really possible anymore, I think she'll do roughly what Obama did - comfortable margin in electoral votes, about 330, plus or minus a couple bonus states, winning AZ or GA here, losing Iowa there. I'd bet she outdoes that pretty convincingly.

QUOTE (Ezio Auditore @ Oct 24, 2016 -> 02:04 PM) Kellyanne Conway actually admitted that Trump is down in the polls. I feel like she's probably blinking in morse code "please hire me when this is over." To use a poker analogy, Trump's trying to win the World Series of Poker with a green 3 from Uno, a 6 of spades, a Community Chest card from Monopoly, a Jack of Diamonds, and the Rules Card for Pinochle from the Bicycle card decks. I will say it today, despite all of the fear mongering about this election from the left, the final results will look like 1984 for Hillary.

QUOTE (Ezio Auditore @ Oct 24, 2016 -> 02:04 PM) I think everyone more or less agrees that Obama is a funny guy, but he delivers lines like that sometimes too and they fall flat. He grins, as if to say "I said that, so it's funny, right?" Usually it is, but sometimes it seems like he's trying too hard. Clinton's sense of humor is a lot more dry or sarcastic, she's not like those three at all. When it comes to people of the other party, I still have this base interest to see them and meet them. I love to see how they work a room, a crowd, or just an individual. If Obama were coming to my hometown, I would do whatever I needed to do to see him speak. I did the same for Bill Clinton when he was here in 2008, and damn can that dude still work a room. Even with knowing the guy is full of s*** most of the time when he speaks, I still had a reaction to watching him speak. I was blown away. I imagine Barack being the same way, except more visceral. I get the feeling that seeing Hillary would be more like meeting Mike Pence where everything came off as fake and forced. Both times I saw/met Pence it felt like he was trying to sell me a used car at above sticker price. My eyes hurt from rolling them so hard.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Oct 24, 2016 -> 02:19 PM) I think you guys overestimate how large the talent gap is. I think the results on the scoreboard make us look further away than we really are. They have no depth, and they lack star power at all of the most important positions. They might be close to being average, but they are miles away from being a GOOD football team.

QUOTE (Ezio Auditore @ Oct 24, 2016 -> 02:09 PM) I meant the nonsensical, mostly-imaginary Cutler takes. There will finally be something else to talk about, or complain about. Eh, the meatballs will just move on to the next guy/coach.

QUOTE (Ezio Auditore @ Oct 24, 2016 -> 01:59 PM) The Bears will get crushed, because the Vikings are really good, and the Bears are one of the worst teams in the league with or without Cutler, but we pretty much know what (or who) the media will be talking about next week. Fortunately, one more half a season, and we'll be done with this. Oh no, the Bears have years of this to come. They have a huge talent gap to make up to catch up to the good teams in the NFL.

QUOTE (Ezio Auditore @ Oct 24, 2016 -> 01:42 PM) She really thought that "Trumped up trickle down" line was gonna be a thing. lol. Trying to get a "horses and bayonets" or "the 80s called and wants its foreign policy back" line It is all about the person delivering it. Despite decades of Hillary doing everything under the sun to win people over, she has zero charisma. A decent amount of the country respects her work, but no one seems to actually *like* her. She doesn't energize people, she doesn't excite people. Donald Trump has done more to excite and energize Democrats than Hillary has. She is the Democrats version of John McCain. She's been around a really long time, been around some really important people and times, and there was nobody better, so she won the nomination. I promise you if Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, or Ronald Reagan had delivered that line, it would have gone viral. Hillary just doesn't inspire that kind of cult following. In fact Hillary is the kind that inspires people to find a cult for some excitement in their lives.

QUOTE (bmags @ Oct 24, 2016 -> 01:37 PM) I'm not sure I would trust a sports reporter that claims they don't root for a team. How on earth did you get into sports then? They can claim it all they want, but actions dictate otherwise.

QUOTE (Ezio Auditore @ Oct 24, 2016 -> 01:12 PM) I'm just pointing out that Fox is transparently full of s*** here. He is from the school of NFL coaching that believes actually copping to anything for any reason ever is a vulnerability, so they lie about nonsense for no reason. Yeah, this is pretty much how you have to look at it. Getting upset about it is a waste of energy.

QUOTE (Lip Man 1 @ Oct 24, 2016 -> 11:42 AM) BMAGS: A thoughtful discourse which brought up some very good points. I've only a few things to add: 1. And it pains me to say this since it is my profession, is that the media which is supposed to be "neutral" is far, far from it with Cub fans literally in the media, open about it. Mark Gonzales told me about covering a Sox/Cubs game and when a close call went against the Cubs, certain members of the media stood up in the press box and b****ed about it. Simply a Cardinal Sin in broadcasting or journalism. This is just one example. 2. The fact that the White Sox simply don't seem to have any coherent plan, everything is RE-acting instead of being PRO-active from a baseball and a marketing sense. Brooks is a friend and I know he works very hard at his job but really has anything come close to the "Win or Die Trying" or the "Us vs. Them" ad campaigns? 3. This town actually was a Sox-town (despite what JR has publicly stated) back in the 50's and 60's until Durocher came to town. Seriously, the Cubs had Ernie Banks...and that's it. The Sox got the lion's share of media attention because they usually were fighting for a pennant every season. At the very least they had a winning season 17 years in a row. (Think about that one for a minute). They also had the stars, nationally known guys who could play...Aparicio, Fox, Pirece, Wynn, Minoso, Peters, Horlen etc. 4. Maybe the most important to me is that the Sox HAVE NEVER EVEN TRIED to take on the Cubs directly. Almost from the moment the new owners took over it was "we're Chicago's American League team..." (direct quote) Ownership never understood (which was bizarre since both guys lived full time in Chicago since the late 50's), that Sox fans WILL NOT ROOT for the Cubs and visa versa. It's that simple. The Sox are directly competing with the Cubs in the same market...but they refused to acknowledge that or deal with it. And the Sox had their chances. As "recently" as 1983 the Cubs were closing the upper deck because nobody cared. That's just one opportunity. The Sox urinated everyone of those chances away. Again you see the result of that folly today. In short this is an ossified, inbred (as in only members of the "family" get hired), stuck in the mud organization. Making a lot of money and satisfied with the status quo. I'm lucky. I have a library full of audio / video / print material that I can turn to in bad times, like right now. Others aren't so lucky. Mark The idea of a neutral media is dead. With a profit motivation pushing reporting today, reporting is going to be tailored to where ever the most money is there to be made. I mean we have news channels that break along political lines now a days, why would sports be any different? Take the king of the mountain in sports of ESPN. Their reporting skews towards the sports in their parent companies sports package, and the teams that bring them the highest ratings. Small markets, and non-Disney sports are secondary to their profit centers. Neutrality in reporting is a unicorn. It just doesn't exist.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Oct 24, 2016 -> 10:15 AM) At least you know the PK can't get any worse. Currently at 42.9%. I looked it up, the worst season on record was the 79-80 Kings, who killed 67.70% of penalties, and that was a completely different era too. It is such a small sample size, but yes, you can almost promise it won't be worse than 20%.

Anyone expecting this to be burned the ground is wasting their own time and energy.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Oct 23, 2016 -> 06:51 PM) I'd be pissed if I were a Tribe fan. Even though they have one of the longest droughts in baseball history it's going to be Cubs this and Cubs that throughout the entire series. Straight up Cubs overload. It was going to be obviously unbalanced. How many Indian fans out there vs how many Cubs ones? Who will the media entertain for?