Harry Chappas

In 2004 he bought the team for $400M now it is worth $1B....something does not add up there. Did he buy up the land and the park or something in the last 7 years?

holy crap the coverage of this thing is not slowing down The SCORE covered it for an hour and a half this morning

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Oct 28, 2011 -> 01:40 PM) That would make for some s***ty basketball games. Not much worse then it already is I kid.....kind of

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 28, 2011 -> 09:34 AM) They'll have way more luck playing into the summer than compressing the schedule. Play doubleheaders

In all seriousness if you are a good team in the AL the manager does nothing until the playoffs and in 2005 Guillen had to do virtually nothing. In the AL your pitcher pitches until he is tired, your 9 best hitters are in the line-up so other than the LHP/LHH v RHP/RHH what does the manager do.

ISFA is in shambles I think everyone with any say has turned over. The restaurant was stupid. Nobody will go there unless there is a game and then there are plenty of other options.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Oct 26, 2011 -> 10:53 AM) Were you at the game? I didnt see it that way at all. I saw Carcillo hit him and then Selanne whack him with his stick while chriping at Carcillo. They then got towards the bench that was already yelling at Car Bomb and he sat right int he first seat and game it right back to them. It was a great hit on a guy that was killing us all game and nobody on the ice did s***. That was how it sounded it went on tv as well.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Oct 25, 2011 -> 04:51 PM) So apparently this is the SS2k5 copies and pastes every tweet he sees thread. Which is cool because I am incredibly lazy and rely on Soxtalk for every single aspect of the news. It is all jaded with a white Sox tilt, just he way I like my news. No other outlet reported about Theo and his flaming chariot. Thank you SS2k5

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Oct 25, 2011 -> 01:01 PM) Not sure how the bolded makes any sense. The interest is a tax deduction, not a credit, so it reduces your tax liability by that amount against the % you are already paying. So for example, if you are paying roughly 20% on your income tax, then you save 20% of your total interest payments. It is 20% of 5%, or of 4%, or whatever. There is no level of interest that allows the tax deduction to make it a "wash". My point wasn't that it was a one-for one credit. What I meant was more that at 4% I am in no hurry to pay it down. My payment has dropped almost 20% over the last 5 years due to the interest rate dropping. If rates get to the point that you can actually get a return on you money then I will take the extra amount that I put into my house via excess payments and get a return over 4%. The tax deductability is a bonus.

John Danks is a prime candidate for Boston. Knowing how Theo gets his way he will trade them Zambrano for Bard and Bucholz

Didn't the Packers play he Rams and the Brewers play the Cardinals a couple of weeks ago in Wisconsin?

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Oct 25, 2011 -> 01:44 PM) There is no way Ricketts can support a 100+ million dollar contract for a free agent like that. I think people forget that the cubs are paying about $35M in debt servicing. The attendance took a big hit last year. They are going to try and sell he fans on the wonder twins (Theo and Jed) and Starlin....the rest of the cast, who knows. Also if Sandberg is told the Phillie job his his when Manuel leaves you do not think he will take it?

Three years ago I took out all of the equity in my house and refinanced into an FHA loan for 95% of the home's value at a 30 year fixed at 5%. I used all of the equity money to improve my financial situation (no cars, trips, etc.) The downside I have to pay PMI, which is tax deductible. I am now in the process of a streamlined FHA refinance. The fees are minimal and there is no appraisal as I have made all of my payments on time. My rate is 4% which when you look at the tax benefit it is almost a wash. When the market recovered last year I also took a loan against my 403B at 5.3% to payoff some debt. The market is not returning 5.3% any time soon so I figured I would pay myself some interest instead of the bank. The FHA program has done me right. I make three extra house payments a year and should have my home paid off well under the 30 year limit but I paid what I want when I want at the nice rate of 4%.

Until government figures out how to deal with pensions the way the private sector did 30 years ago any cost saving conversation is complete bulls*** and there is no debate

If the Hawks win again this year Dale Tallon should get another ring.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Oct 24, 2011 -> 11:00 AM) You sound like the Cubs marketing dept. They are also hoping this restores faith on the northside, and also sales. I have panned this move as I think the cubs have a long way to go and Theo and Jed are good but that they are not a guarantee to win the WS, unlike the KC farm system. The thing is, it has restored faith and is exactly what they need to draw the minion back for a couple of years and the new mayor may even get them some tax money.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 24, 2011 -> 07:58 AM) Mike Maddux is flying up the lists. He is right there with Duncan at this point IMHO.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Oct 21, 2011 -> 04:04 PM) How is it a lesser position? He is the GM, otherwise he couldnt leave. It is a lateral move. Jed is EVP & GM reports to Moorad who is not a baseball talent evaluator with the cubs Jed will be GM and probably have the same title. The difference is he will be answering to Theo who is a baseball evaluator. He will always be in Theo's shadow now and have him looking over his shoulder. At the first site of the cubs being the cubs, who goes the two time World Series GM or the guy that took a 90 win Padres team to a 70 win team with one move? This is a good move for the cubs but I just do not see it as the cubs raping everyone. I see it as Boston liking Cherington and SD liking Byrnes. There is nothing wrong with that. If the cubs waited a couple of weeks they could have potentially gotten both guys for nothing as I think they would have been out of jobs as the Angels and Baltimore are lookign for guys.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 21, 2011 -> 03:27 PM) After what, 1 year on the job? I think he has been there for two years and turned a 90 win team into a 70 win team....I understand there were payroll issues. Why would he leave for a lesser position under Theo? If Moorad likes Josh Byrnes more than Jed which is not that far fetched this is an easy way to move Jed out. Hinch & Byrnes v. McLeod & Hoyer.......

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 21, 2011 -> 03:07 PM) 1. Because Theo is currently under contract with the Red Sox. The Red Sox have a right to demand compensation for releasing him from his contract. 2. PResumably bringing in Hoyer along with Theo is Theo and Hoyer's call and the Cubs are going along with it. I get the feeling Hoyer was going to be canned.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 21, 2011 -> 12:57 PM) I think he'd be a better fit in San Diego. Josh Byrnes was named GM yesterday

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Oct 21, 2011 -> 10:52 AM) So Epstein benefits from 1 year worth of Agon? I don't buy this tampering argument. All I am saying is that it does not seem right. Hoyer traded the best chip SD had to rebuild and 10 months later he is working with the guy he traded with I know in a different city. I know there is no tampering or anything there and obviously SD was not real high on ole Jed any longer. The whole thing has an odd feel to it in my mind. I do not recall something of this magnitude ever happening so maybe that is just the gist I am getting. San Diego obviously would rather have Byrnes running the show than Jed. Byrnes seems to have a good idea about what he is doing.

These are nice solid moves but if Theo and Jed were the be all end all that the cubs are portraying and paying them to be, why are their teams willing to let them go? I did not realize that Josh Byrnes was the asst. GM for the Padres and AJ Hinch is involved there. While those guys on the surface do not look that great, didn't they build the D'Backs organization to this point. San Diego replaces Hoyer with Byrnes. Again maybe San Diego is not that high on ole Jed any longer. Theo will not have the baseball minds around him in Chicago that he had in Boston, that is what would temper my enthusiasm if I were a minion.

it would be great to see ricketetts and the cubs get dick slapped by the Red Sox and Padres

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Oct 20, 2011 -> 02:08 PM) As if the branch breaking and Juice being alive were in question (I know we're all in agreement that he's a-ok aside from still being royally f***ed)... I snapped this from the scenes for next week when the clubhouse is getting shot up. Just a head's up. Unless we've got a "Weekend at Bernie's" situation going on, I reckon he's fine. It will be interesting to see how that one works out. Tara and the sheriff's fertility issue needs to come to the surface here one of these days.