Jim Fainter

If some team offers us a real shortstop, like Freddie Sanchez, we have to listen. I don't know what the Phillies have to offer us.

I always liked McCarver. He has a tendency to babble and repeat himself, but he still tells it like it is. I will never forget that time on national LIVE TV when he was conducting interviews in the Braves locker room right after an NLCS win, when the village idiot, also known as Dionn Sanders, did his jerk imitation, and McCarver called him out, challenged him to a fight, and called him a "coward." Great TV, but you had to see it live. I always wondered why it was censured after the fact. Anyway, I'm glad McCarver said lhie piece about Sammy.

The game was fun to watch. A pitching clinic by Bart. Crede HAS to make better throws. Konerko flat bailed him out twice in a row. It's not arm strength that is lacking. He's just holding on to the ball too long, and it goes in the dirt about eight feet in front of the bag. If I see a third baseman do that a lot, it looks to me as if he lacks confidence in this throws. He needs to straighten that s*** out.

I think they already have money budgeted for these signings. It's not like they have to go find it.

Bobby V. just said on BBTN that Sammy should not be suspended, just fined, with his salary going to charity. Just Sammy, no other suspensions, apparently. Pardon me while I go throw up.

Early in the game Lee was b****ing about two called strikes. They both looked good to me.

Did Ryno have a big time divorce that made all the papers? Seems like he did. I never heard that another player was in that cookie jar.

Did we turn that one down? What year? Gagne is human, though. Todd Helton took him deep 9 days ago.

Bart took JM right out of the game.

Those were two GREAT pickups he made in the eighth inning. They were followed by Lee's error in left. If PK doesn't make those two tough plays, anything could have happened.

It looked to me as if Joe B was playing too deep.

I never understood why they traded Sheffield to begin with.

Acevedo did his best Rick White imitation.

I just saw where Boston recalled Sanchez from AAA, where he hit .384.

Big Hurt and Rockin Robin got into it??? Never heard that. Have any details?

I remember that team very well. Chico Carrasquel was at short. Lots of talent, but the team really did not know how to win against the Yanks. In 1955 they were probably the best team in the league -- I think they finished two games out-going by memory here. f***ing Yogi kicked our ass in the clutch. In 1956 Aparicio came up and you could see the team was getting better. Then Landis came up. Terrific center fielder. Nellie kept getting better. You young guys on this board have no idea the advantage the Yanks had over the rest of the league in those days. Do you even know about the phony, illegal relationship they had with the old KC A's back then? Crooked as Hell. The revenue arrangement with national TV? Shameful. If you want to know the story, let me know. Anyway, they kept improving, peaking in 1959. In those days the Yanks would come to town and Comiskey was PACKED. They were literally standing in all the aisles. Literally. We're talking sardines. We're talking LOUD. Someday that attitude will come back.

Hitless non-wonders.

At least no one is no longer talking about all the "talent" we have. Offensively, this is a very low-talent team. But I am always looking for something positive, and Joe Crede had two hits.

Elrockinmt: Tell your father-in-law "Thanks."

If anyone doubts what a properly corked bat can do for a hitter, just review the stats of Norm Cash. E = MC squared plus 'roids and cork.

If anyone in baseball can make a hitter out of Jeff Leifer, it is Sweet Lou Piniella. Even lthough he is a manager, he is one of the best, if not THE best, hitting coaches in the game.

Mr. Bullard, et al: Lighten up, please. There were no character assassinations in those reports. They were simply subjective evaluations of players who play for one of the 4-5 Sox affiliates. Were they based partly on raw statistics? Of course they were. That's the way it's been in baseball forever. Stats translate to ability and skill in baseball better than any other sport. Are there deviations from reality? Of course there are, and any intelligent fan (and that is not an oxymoron) recognizes that. Maybe West had a few tough calls that adversely affected his stats, and maybe Jason didn't know about them. So what? He just said that his hits and walks per innings pitched were a little high to merit promotion to AAA (IN HIS OPINION). The fact that Jason, or me, for that matter, never played professional baseball is irrelevant. Anybody who does play sports professionally is vulnerable to criticism from fans, media and the press, most of whom are a lot more unfair and capricious that Jason was. Criticism is part of American life. Just ask Sammy and Slick Rick Neuheisel. I'm quite certain that you and West have criticsized others in your lifetimes, too. Sometimes even people who are in another profession. And lastly, these ratings were put together by people who are pulling for you, and they are read by people who are pulling for you. We are all starving for information about guys like you and West, and I think you know why. No one was trying to ruffle the feathers of our future White Sox players. Jason and his associates were just trying to pass on some arbitrary ratings of players in the system so that we might know a little more. As we read this stuff, we make our own evaluations anyway, which is something that we are entitled to do, even if we never played the game.

Sierra might have been the first well known player who HURT his career by excessive weight lifting.

There is considerable debate going on in Colorado about who is the dumbest, Shammie or Slick Rick, who is not well thought of here. My vote went to Slick Rick. Even though his transgression occured well before the recent Iowa State and Alabama coaching scandals, he still should have known better than to jeapordize his gig.

He's exactly 6 at bats away from reaching the Mendoza Line.