Dick Allen

QUOTE (ewokpelts @ Jan 19, 2015 -> 08:55 AM) Sox won a world series, and not much changed. And that was with cub teams that were horrible in 05-06 I agree. When the renovations are complete at Wrigley Field, it will be Brooks Boyer or whoever handles this type of question at Soxfest getting questioned about why Wrigley has something USCF does not. Sox fans need to go to the games, then pop off. I agree with staying away when the team is terrible, but for all the things White Sox fans say they are embarrassed by 2012 attendance should be at the top of the list.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Jan 19, 2015 -> 06:38 AM) Lol...talk about spinning. Not one person is arguing the validity of Tom's statement. We all know the Cubs draw better than the Sox. Again, the initial statement was regarding who offered the better fan experience for children. Until children start buying their own tickets, attendance numbers really don't matter in this discussion. At the end of the day, Ricketts clearly took a cheap shot at the Sox to cover up a weakness in the Wrigley experience. There really is no denying this. But go ahead and keep defending the Cubs owner who has literally accomplished nothing on the baseball field. What am I spinning? His quote was ,"Can't be that many kids having fun at USCF". I would think the attendance number would matter. If USCF is better for kids, and I would agree with that, (even though when I was of that age, I was totally into the game and not the other stuff, and am sure my dad wouldn't have brought me to a White Sox game after the first couple if I wasn't all that interested in what was happening on the field) why are more parents, in these days where everyone gets a trophy, and speaking to your children in a loud tone is considered abuse by some, really abusing their kids, and tsking them to Cubs games and not Sox games. Again, the one thing White Sox fans can do to stop these types of comments, is quit finding excuses not to go, and buy some tickets once in a while. The White Sox fanbase set themselves up for this type of comment with all of their apathy.

QUOTE (Brian @ Jan 19, 2015 -> 04:52 AM) I saw a lot of empty seats at Wrigley last year. Of course their attendance numbers are skewed because people bought tickets but just didn't show up. As bad as the Cubs have been, their attendance last year would have been a top 5 all time number for the White Sox. People paying much attention to the comment, and upset he is breaking out the attendance trophy again, need to come back with something better than the Sox have face painting and a fundamentals deck. The fact is more kids do go to Cubs games, and really that is all Ricketts said.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Jan 18, 2015 -> 07:22 PM) The question was on kids having more fun, not more of them attending games. There's clearly a lot more for kids to do at the Cell than at Wrigley. Not sure what you're arguing here. There are more kids at Wrigley Field than USCF. Ricketts said there weren't many kids at USCF. He is correct. We all laughed several years ago when there was a billboard around Wrigley that stated major league baseball was played 8.1 miles south. It was an off the cuff comment at a convention for the team. if people are upset he speaks the truth, change the truth

QUOTE (sammy esposito @ Jan 18, 2015 -> 07:18 PM) He should be happy with those figures. I just want to roughly quoting what Ichiro summed up Wrigley field with his first impression. ' it is like older Japanese stadiums kind of like rotting garbage" It is a dump, but it still doesn't make what Ricketts said untrue.

IMO, if White Sox fans don't want to be the butt of attendance jokes, they should go the the games. I don't understand the outrage here. The draw 1,000,000 more fans a year, and some guy questions him using a team that doesn't draw anything but tumbleweeds as his example.

QUOTE (Soxfest @ Jan 17, 2015 -> 03:21 PM) Rex Ryan hired Cromer as OL coach, I would not hire Cromer to mow my lawn. While the Bears had to fire him, no one would have known he was the source unless he said so. There are coaches and executives giving the same type of information every day. Players speak without giving their names. In fact several did the same thing they were pissed off at Cromer for doing when discussing the incident.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jan 17, 2015 -> 12:17 PM) Were these some of the ones that george lucas owned? Rumor has it that part of the concession for the lucas museum was the release of some of the legal battles involving the rooftops. I know he was not going to give up ownership of the cubby bear. Not the same guy, but 2 of them were owned by George Lukas.

In the why didn't you do this a couple of years ago department, According to public records, Ricketts has bought 3 rooftop buildings and businesses.

QUOTE (shipps @ Jan 15, 2015 -> 02:42 PM) B&B really annoy the hell out of me with their random "sources" that they claim to have. I cant remember the last time they actually broke real news via their sources. And their sources usually are claiming things that cant ever be verified as true or not so they have nothing to loose. Like how the Bears ownership feels or what Bulls management is thinking. Stuff they never have to really back up. Press conference Monday, the same day B&B sources said it wouldn't happen.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jan 16, 2015 -> 01:52 PM) This entire offseason has been atypical of the Bears. Nobody wants to acknowledge that. Yes, but like diets, usually people fall back into their typical ways. Hopefully this means a new way of business for the Bears.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jan 16, 2015 -> 01:44 PM) Same old cheap bears, right? they did the same thing they always do, right? You aren't giving anyone crap for being skeptical are you? If there was one team that could screw this up, it's the Bears. They are the only team I know that held a press conference to announce the signing of a coach when said coach had not yet agreed to terms.

That is almost $600k more than the MLBTR estimate, and they are usually pretty close.

If Glazer says Fox is excited, Fox is excited.

QUOTE (PlaySumFnJurny @ Jan 15, 2015 -> 05:27 PM) 1. Cut a hole in the box . . . thread/

Castro is obviously better than Flowers, but is he enough of an upgrade to give up what you would have to give up to get him? The Astros aren't going to trade him for Jordan Danks and the rights to Brian Anderson. I don't like Flowers, and I realize he hit a "lucky" .230 or whatever he hit last year, and it probably "should" have been .185. But it's not unreasonable to think he could hit .220-.230 without being lucky. It's not that much. Frankly, I think the Sox should have gone after Cervelli, now with Pittsburgh. He didn't cost much, and IMO he is better than either Flowers or Castro.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jan 15, 2015 -> 12:17 PM) Yep. Fox was making 5.5M / yr in Denver. He certainly isn't going to take less than that and Garrett just got 6M per year so I would think that deal is the starting point (and Fox has a better track record than JG). Bowles supposedly got 4yr 16M which means 16M guaranteed vs. 30+M guaranteed (so almost double the money). Based upon recent hires, 1st time coaches are between 3.5 - 4 M, however, I was surprised to see Trestman supposedly was making 4.25 (and he made more than Rex Ryan did last year). The one thing going for anyone who wants John Fox now would be the PR nightmare it would be for the Bears should it get out they lost out on Fox because they were being cheap. The other hire would have to be successful pretty quickly.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 15, 2015 -> 12:19 PM) I thought a DFA gave 10 days, then he can declare for FA or take an assignment if they outright him? It gives the White Sox 10 days to trade him, outright him or release him. I think since I do not believe he has been outrighted before, if he clears waivers, the White Sox can outright him, and there is nothing he can do about it but accept it or retire.

QUOTE (flavum @ Jan 15, 2015 -> 12:07 PM) Today is a week. Wonder if it's outright day to Charlotte. It doesn't take a week to get him through waivers, so either he didn't make it through or they delayed it for some reason.

Fox is going to be more expensive than Quinn. One reason Phillips and George for that matter, IMO shouldn't be asking football questions and interviewing these guys is because of money. Once they get it in their mind Fox will cost x more than Quinn or whoever, the non-football guys start getting involved in football decisions. Accorsi should interview them alone before Pace was around, and then Pace and Accorsi. If that's their guy, then bring the money guys in. I have no idea if this really is a factor now. George did say money wouldn't be an issue. I would just not be surprised if it is.

Anyone see this? The Brewers are selling 1000 "Timeless" tickets for $1000 each. It comes with some sort of placque, plus 9 tickets good for any regular season game besides opening day, plus a ticket to any game you want, which could be a Tuesday night battle with the Padres or the 7th game of the WS,with the opportunity to purchase 3 more at face value. Seems a little expensive to me, but if you think the Brewers are World Series bound for the rest of your lifetime, it may make some sense. I wonder how much time in advance you have to make your selection.

Obviously, Trestman was in over his head, but what is the Bears record this season if Fox and his entire Denver staff happened to be coaching them?

Does a successful 60 year old guy want to coach under a 37 year old first time GM and have no power regarding the roster? Does the 37 year old new GM want to give up some of his newly acquired power to a coach that, looking at it negatively, has been canned twice? From what I heard, Pace wants to talk to Quinn, which would indicate to me, Fox isn't his perfect candidate, and Quinn probably is a longshot to coach the Bears. Who really knows? Fox might be named the new coach in 5 minutes.

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ Jan 15, 2015 -> 08:38 AM) This is all leading to the Bears signing Doug Marrone. On the bright side, that is still an upgrade.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 14, 2015 -> 03:18 PM) I actually went and googled some background on the deal. It does look like you are right here. This is the first one I saw that did it without being an arbitration award. It appears that the fun part could be this generating a grievance as the release has to be performance based, and we all know who Dayan's agent is. If he hits well in Spring Training, he would probably be more attractive to other teams. If he doesn't, Boras' case doesn't look so great. It would be interesting to follow, but these don't seem to go public unfortunately. I am sure JR would get a kick out of winning a grievance vs. Boras. That alone might be worth the guaranteed portion of the contract to him.