BainesHOF

In case anyone is interested, I'll be appearing on WGN radio at just past 11:30 p.m. on Monday, July 27 to talk about the site. Also, a new Top 5 list just came in. It'll be posted Monday afternoon.

Hi everyone - I'm pleased to announce the launching of my site: http://www.ChicagoConcertgoers.com It's designed to be an online community for fans of live music. Among its features: - A message board for all things music. - The most comprehensive Chicago-area concert calendar you'll find anywhere. - A schedule of late-night TV music guests. - Links to venues and other music sites. - All kinds of cool stuff on the Home page. (Vote for your favorite venue now!) I hope you enjoy the site. Feel free to forward the link to your friends who are music fans. I could use the help in getting the word out about the site. Also could use some action on the message board if you like your music. Thanks! Dave

I think I have a good idea for a website that I want to loosely look like this one. (FYI, my idea has nothing to do with the Sox, baseball or sports.) I know a lot about visiting and posting on sites, but I don't know much about what it takes to run one so I have a few general questions: - How much does it cost a month to run this site? - Is there a particular software program that I can buy to create a site like this that looks this good? - What's the best stategy to edit posts to keep them free from spam, profanity, racists comments, etc.? - What's the best way to handle legal issues associated with running a site when you're on a budget? - What's the best way to keep a site securely protected from hackers, viruses, etc.? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Come out, come out wherever you are, Carlton Fisk.

QUOTE (santo=dorf @ Jan 6, 2009 -> 05:12 AM) If we were to post the "clutch" stats I'm sure those would just be dismissed as well, so I'll just ask the pro-Baines crowd, does Jim Rice deserve to be in the HOF? Yes, Rice should be in the Hall. I'm of the belief that the Baseball Hall of Fame shouldn't be super exclusive, nor as easy to get into as the Football Hall of Fame, which lets everyone in. I'd put Blyleven in, too. Absolutely no to Grace, a Punch-and-Judy hitter in a home-run ballpark. You mean he led the decade in hits? I'm happy for him. Dawson was much better than Grace, but I wouldn't put him in either. He excelled in too few years to be a Hall of Famer. Less you think I'm anti-Cubs (which I am), I'd put in Lee Smith. While doing so, I'd kick out overrated Sandburg, whose excellence fell at least a couple seasons short, in my opinion, to be worthy.

Not sure why there's so much negativity toward the thought of Baines as a Hall of Famer. While a decent debate could be made for either case, I'm wondering if some of you saw Baines play much. For starters, Baines was not your typical good-hit, no-field DH. He was an excellent right fielder before knee injuries and surgeries related him to the DH role. His head was always in the game and he got great jumps on the ball, often tracking down balls in the gap or down the line that you would have thought a faster player would be needed to get to. He had a great arm. While a few players had stronger arms, Baines was particularly accurate with his. Teams seldom ran on him, yet he still finished with double digit assists in a few years early in his career. Did you know that he also played some center field early in his major-league career? Now how many DHs can say that? Baines' offensive stats can be looked up, but anyone who saw him play will tell you they only tell part of the story. He was a tremendous clutch hitter. Hawks puts Baines in the top three of the best clutch hitters he ever saw with Yaz and Brett. He was that good. I'm not saying Baines belongs in the same breath as Ruth, Gehrig, Mays, Mantle, DiMaggio and Williams. But I believe he was better than some others already in the Hall of Fame. He was one of the best clutch hitters ever to play the game. That combined with his impressive career totals make him a Hall of Famer in my book. If you need a tiebreaker in a close call, Baines has always been a class act.

I've been impressed by what little I've heard from Cora, and he was a pretty smart player. However, he's a little runt. I do think it's important for a professional manager or head coach to be somewhat of a physical threat to his players. It rarely comes to that, but the threat should be present in my opinion. I think there's a good chance that players would take advantage of little Joey. Whatever the case, Cora needs to be more fan friendly. I've got a single-signed W.S. ball of everyone who was in uniform for us even for one game in 2005...everyone that is except Cora. I've talked with other collectors who have had the same problem with him. It's not like the guy is hounded for autographs. Yet he's completely ignored me a couple times after I asked him politely when he walked right in front of me after batting practice. Weird.

QUOTE (rangercal @ Oct 5, 2008 -> 02:19 PM) I'm done responding to you. If you can't read the article on the other end of the link, then I'm afraid I can't help you. Listen up so you can help yourself. StubHub sells tickets on the secondary market at a premium. The Sox released tickets, perhaps turned in by MLB in this case, on the primary market for face value. Let me know if you need further explanation.

QUOTE (rangercal @ Oct 4, 2008 -> 07:54 PM) When will you understand that this is MLB? Do I need to direct you to the stubhub links on every mlb teams page? Show me where Stubhub is in cahoots with MLB as far as selling tickets that aren't in the secondary market. Of course MLB receives blocks of tickets for every postseason game for a variety of reasons. There's no doubt MLB and the Sox eventually release tickets that they don't need.

QUOTE (rangercal @ Oct 4, 2008 -> 06:10 PM) That's Bulls***. You obviously have no idea how their (MLB) partnership works with stubhub. http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/18074 I got f***ed and so did anyone else who bought tickets on stubhub before last night. Nobody forced you to buy tickets on Stubhub. You obviously felt it was worth it or you wouldn't have done it. It's not bull. The Sox held back tickets in order to sell season tickets for next year. They waited as long as possible, then put the relatively small amount of tickets that they had leftover on sale. They did so in a manner where the diehards who were shutout could buy them if they were paying attention. There's not enough tickets to go around. Be glad that you have some, and be glad the organization did its best to look out for the die-hard fans.

People need to stop complaining. Here's why: If the Sox announced that additional tickets have been put on sale, they'd be gobbled up immediately. Your chances of being able to buy any would be remote. By quietly releasing the last tickets that have suddenly become available, the Sox are rewarding the die-hards who continue to check Ticketmaster and those who visit sites like this one. The Sox know exactly what they're doing. Be thankful.

QUOTE(spiderman @ Nov 22, 2007 -> 09:53 PM) Chicago Tribune Link Hunter never seemed like a fit in Chicago. He hadn't heard real good things from his two Minnesota friends with Chicago experience, Jacque Jones and LaTroy Hawkins. As usual, lazy and inaccurate reporting by Phil Rogers. Here's Hunter quotes by MLB.com reporter Scott Merkin on a story that was on the Sox official site Tuesday: "As for the problems endured in Chicago by Jacque Jones and LaTroy Hawkins, Hunter's friends and one-time teammates in Minnesota, those past issues won't remotely factor into his final decision. "Two reasons: I'm a different person than those guys, and my game is different than those guys," Hunter said. "And I'm not with the Cubs. It's the White Sox. That's totally different.'"

Dave Kaplan is a major-league hack.

Cora's a weasel. A team would have to be crazy to hire him to manage.

While I've never been a big fan of LaRussa's, the one thing you can say is his teams always play hard. That would be a huge improvement, so I'd be in favor of hiring him. It's looking like it's time for Ozzie to be fired, and he practically seems to be begging for it. One of the big reasons teams find it so hard to repeat is they remain too loyal to the people who helped them win the title, even when it's obvious changes need to be made. While such feeling is admirable from a personal perspective, it's deadly to the goal of remaining a winner.