Dick Allen

Coming into yesterday's game, LaRoche had a .443 OBP his last 18 games. Why is the target on him just getting bigger here?

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 22, 2015 -> 03:19 PM) Did the White Sox begin the season in a fashion that demonstrated to anyone they were prepared to play...or even competitive? No, they got blown out by the Twins and Royals. And, as we ALL know, 1983 is the only season we've improved in the second half of a season and sustained it into the playoffs. And actually, those numbers were still a 25% improvement on similar dates last April and May. Progress! You do realize you were responding to your own quote I hope.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 23, 2015 -> 09:51 AM) Really? Tell me which of those numbers is incorrect? I didn't check the numbers, they mught be correct. But Wild Card? When?

As soon as the shadows hit the scoring came to a new end. Hopefully some clouds move in for the bottom of the 9th

As soon as the shadows hit the scoring came to a new end. Hopefully some clouds move in for the bottom of the 9th

QUOTE (Heads22 @ May 23, 2015 -> 05:29 PM) Hicks robs Eaton of at least a double. At least a triple.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 23, 2015 -> 11:33 AM) And of course, he's 1/11 at the plate since he was pulled from the game Monday with 5 K's. And of course that is all because of his knee, yet he hurt his knee in Oakland and did fine on Sunday.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 23, 2015 -> 09:50 AM) If your leg is so sore you need to ask out of a game you shouldn't be playing in another 18 hours later. He didn't ask out but facts shouldn't come into play, as I am sure the front office and training staff told Robin he needed to sit, and he just ignored them.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 23, 2015 -> 09:54 AM) FWIW, this stadium is approaching 25 years old. That puts it in the 10 oldest ballparks in the league, plus a lot of the older ones (Fenway, Wrigley, Angels, Kaufmann) have undergone major makeovers. If you drop those out since they kind of became new-ish stadiums, only really Dodgers Stadium, the Oakland Coliseum, Rogers Center, and Tropicana field are genuinely older. It has also been almost totally renovated in the last 12 years. The Sox also have a lease they would be foolish to try to break, and the are making money. So they really aren't goimg anywhere for a while.

QUOTE (glangon @ May 23, 2015 -> 10:22 AM) Retiral is a word, it's in the Oxford English Dictionary and its roots are Scottish, which is where I'm from. If you guys can miss out the U in colour, then I can use retiral. Do you wear a kilt? I ran into some Scottish guys at a bar a few years ago and they were in kilts. We asked them a lot of questions. They were hysterical.

QUOTE (Thad Bosley @ May 23, 2015 -> 07:16 AM) HA! Oh, I have, and with very good reason. The results of Jerry Reinsdorf's 35 years at the helm of this franchise have been a disaster. He has only one season during his tenure as owner that he can point to and really claim to be an exciting and successful one - '05. During the other 34 years, the team only won the division a measly four times, and the playoff appearances those four years were anything but memorable. And then we wonder why the fan base is dormant. Why we have to operate like a small market team because the team Reinsdorf routinely runs out there is not postseason caliber. That is really a horrible record of futility, no matter how you look at it. No sustainable success for three and a half decades now. Meanwhile, over the years he's publicly fought with the likes of Harry Caray, Carlton Fisk and Larry Himes while remaining unapologetically loyal to people like Kenny Williams, Buddy Bell, Robin Ventura, etc. He dumps Harry Caray and WGN in the '80s in favor of SportsVision. He hires Hawk Harrelson to be GM and ends up losing Tony LaRussa in the process. He blackmails the state of Illinois to build him a new stadium while also providing him with a sweetheart lease deal, and then turns around and directs the construction of an abysmally designed ballpark. He fires Himes who drafted Frank Thomas, Ventura, Jack McDowell, Alex Fernandez, Jason Bere, and who traded for Lance Johnson and Wilson Alvarez, claiming Himes got the team from "point A to point B", but he didn't think he could get the team to "point C", i.e., the World Series. In his judgement, Ron Schueler was the guy who could do that. How'd that work out for us! It could have happened in '94, except the Chairman chose his burning desire to break the players' union over the World Series aspirations of his team and fans that year. Terry Freaking Bevington! White flag trade. The list goes on and on and on with this failure. This franchise is in desperate need of new leadership, strategy and vision from the very top. That is very clear. Jerry Reinsdorf has been the owner now for 35 years, and he holds claim to a very unimpressive record of achievement. Yes, the WS championship in '05 was amazing, but that does and cannot mask the other 34 years. The White Sox need new ownership. It's that simple. LMAO.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 22, 2015 -> 07:15 PM) From 2006-2015 the White Sox are 736-760 with 1 wild card birth. You are wrong again.

QUOTE (Soxfest @ May 22, 2015 -> 07:29 PM) Sox just do not answer when teams score first. I think by the time Sox return from road trip this could get very ugly. Yeah only 13 comeback wins so far.

From 2005-2010 White Sox won at least 88 games 4 times. After 2006, attendance went down every season.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 22, 2015 -> 03:16 PM) Even before that, fans were going to games in Boston. Long before they made three straight playoff appearances, fans were going to games. It was only a year before the White Sox won that the Red Sox ended their drought.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ May 22, 2015 -> 03:14 PM) And as the stadium ages year after year, I feel like that argument can get a bit more compelling over time. The stadium is fine. The seats are a few years old. They do concrete work every year, sometimes even during the season. They are due a couple new boards soon, but they are going to be there for a while. JR's deal is too sweet.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 22, 2015 -> 03:08 PM) We keep hearing two lousy examples. 2008 had a huge falloff in attendance for two obvious reasons. The complete debacle that was 2007 paired with the total demise that was the second half of 2006. Every study has shown the positive effects of winning a World Series wear off in 4-5 years. Exactly what happened. Not to mention the fact that sales are usually 80% a reflection of the previous season...not "in season" walk ups. That's also a huge reason 2012 was disappointing....what happened in 2011? Another complete meltdown of historic proportions where Dunn was regularly earning column space in the NY Times. Other than that, we have some evidence (but not definitive proof because of a one-team market and the Illitch ownersip anomaly that Tigers fans are "better" somehow). Meanwhile, we can point to teams like Colorado, Arizona, Seattle, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Cincy, KC, the Mets until this season despite a new stadium, Toronto, Baltimore and Minnesota (look at their attendance this year after four losing seasons despite being a "winner" so far). And Braves fans were notorious for not showing up in the regular season or even during the playoffs because they didn't truly believe their teams could win it all. The main outliers are TB (stadium), Cubs, Cardinals, Brewers, A's, Marlins and Tigers. (There's also zero relevance comparing us to the Yankees, Red Sox, Giants, Dodgers or even the Angels). So i just named 13 franchises that are very similar to us in responding to winners. On the other side of the ledger is the Brewers, Cubs, Cards and Tigers. Maybe we should hire the Brewers' entire staff, steal their stadium and move it to a more optimal location...that seems to be the only conclusion to draw. There's certainly no debating we got the very worst of all the new stadiums built in the last 25 years, unless younwant to argue Citi Field in NY. QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 18, 2015 -> 10:09 PM) * Finally, how can the White Sox, after winning five in a row on the road, and having Kluber AND Sale on the mound, only draw 17,712 fans? What was wrong with the weather? Blackhawks again?

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ May 22, 2015 -> 02:48 PM) 2010 Cubs attendance: 3,062,973 2010 Sox attendance: 2,194,378 Difference: 868,595 Difference divided by Sox attendance = 39.5% Not sure where your 25% came from? The other thing to keep in mind is if the Sox played as many weekday day games as the Cubs played back then, their attendance would even be lower.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 22, 2015 -> 02:41 PM) Then how do you explain the White Soc and Cubs having the exact same number of local Chicago m.s.a./local fans attending games in the 2010 season....with the only difference the 25% uptick for tourism/regional/historic site traffic that no other team other than maybe the Red Sox can count on? There is a finite number of tickets available. If you really think if no one from any other state were allowed to attend a Cubs or Sox game that their attendance figures would be close, let's just say Roger Daltry wouldn't appreciate your presence at one of his concerts.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 22, 2015 -> 02:25 PM) No, my point is that a fanbase which fills a park constantly every single game can still be pretty down on its team. Especially when they're rotten, and it's been a while since Boston has endured multiple losing years in a row like we have. Maybe, just maybe, the problem isn't people like us overreacting to this team being rotten. Maybe the problem is them being rotten. But why do they show up in Boston, but not the south side of Chicago? If you think the team is so rotten, why do you and anyone else who constantly rips anything they see, continue to spend so many hours with it? I would think there would be something more productive in your life than spending so much time with something that does nothing but bother you. Unless it makes you feel superior thinking you have all of the answers after the White Sox fail. I do notice there are several posters here that during games the Sox are winning are usually too busy to be posting, but the minute something goes wrong....they can throw up multiple posts and stay on for hours. Maybe some people just like being miserable.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 22, 2015 -> 02:18 PM) For comparison I had to go over to a Red Sox message board just to see what they were up to. At this one, the top 2 threads are "Is the actual rotation the worst in the last 10 Y? Is the actual lineup the worst in the last 10Y?" I also went through to some of these and yup, sounds familiar. The page I hit randomly had them ripping on Middlebrooks early in a game for striking out. There's also plenty of "tear it down" talk, etc. So your point is it is OK to whine and moan about anything and everything because Boston fans do. Good for you, but it would be nice if there was some common sense used at least once in a while.

Plus, if the Bulls don't want Thibs, they can't bluff for very long.

QUOTE (Jake @ May 22, 2015 -> 02:13 PM) If you had a single team who absolutely knew they wanted Thibs over anybody else, all you have to do to get leverage is just get them to believe you will trade him elsewhere The problem is, you could only "trade" Thibs to somewhere he wants to go. There is tampering going on here as well. You aren't going to be able to fool anyone.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ May 22, 2015 -> 01:02 PM) You're right, for example, not many teams have moles like you that are on the payroll and blow the sunshine on the fan message boards. I'm only half kidding. Is there anything about how the Sox go about their business you'd change? There's a lot of things I would change. There are players I would rather not be on the roster, but I'm a White Sox fan and want them to do well, so they are on the team, I'm not going to go on a message board and moan about every little thing. As I stated, game threads here are comical. The White Sox can never trail or the world is coming to an end. They can never make an error. The pitcher can never give up a run. There was a 1-1 game after 4 where there was b****ing about the Sox offense AND b****ing about the pitching. Just the Sox usual line up: Eaton, there's a thread he's so bad he shouldn't lead off, Melky, there are posts he's a waste of money, Abreu, I've read a couple of posts he's basically just a tick above average, LaRoche, they need to get rid of him, he a huge problem, Avi, all he can do is crash, and crash hard. Gillaspie, he supposedly is not a major league starter, Flowers, he is brutal, and Micah/Sanchez although not a ton of complaining about Sanchez, Micah got some. So with a line up that bad, when they lose, you then have to blame the manager, oh and while your at it, fire Brooks because the crowds suck, although you say it's because the team doesn't win enough and he makes zero decisions about that. And I'm the irrational one. As I stated, I will have tickets to 40 games, with 3 parties and a bunch of other bonuses for less than it would cost me to see the Schaumburg Boomers. They have put in great effort. It's too bad people don't notice.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ May 22, 2015 -> 12:46 PM) If the fanbase is small, how about trying to grow it bigger? Winning helps, but there is much more marketing that can be done.The Sox marketing is awful, I'll say it again. When is the last time the Sox made national headlines for any sort of marketing ploy, failed or otherwise? We don't need a "disco demolition night" but how about a social media account that actually stirs the drink a little? How about they market more to the hispanic audience in Chicago? They have quite a few Spanish speaking players. In fact, they should have an entire division of the marketing department dedicated to spanish language promos. The Sox are a stale brand with stale ownership imo. JR has been slowly losing influence in MLB and his club hasn't been consistently entertaining for almost 30 years. I am lucky to have grown up in the "good guys wear black" years with Robin, Frank, Blackjack, Alvarez and the rest of the crew. Those teams didn't win a ton, but they were competitive and exciting and young. Kids younger than 15 don't know s*** about the Sox except that they are usually filled with declining vets and don't win much more than 85 games. Team needs a reboot from the top down. No team tries harder to sell tickets than the White Sox.