iamshack

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jun 4, 2014 -> 11:51 AM) Because he didn't http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/wh...-white-sox.html Well isn't Paddy basically Kenny's assistant?

Played my first nine by myself at the new place today...walked...how relaxing...just a man and his thoughts, and a little white ball This is going to be one of the best things I ever did...

I think there is something else at work in Oakland as well, and it is a positive symptom of their limited resources. As a result of Oakland's limited resources, they very rarely can afford to enter into large contracts. While this forces them to find players with some warts, it insulates them from two things: 1) disastrous long-term contracts, and 2) over-reliance on particular players due to those long-term contracts. Thus, Oakland always has contingency plans. They've always got another guy that can step in because they don't have prohibitive favorites at many positions. This allows for a more flexible roster, it probably creates better team chemistry, and it keeps them better prepared to address the unexpected or unknown. They aren't married to any particular method of doing things, because they can't afford to; their only chance of success demands being able to acclimate on the fly.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jun 3, 2014 -> 06:41 AM) At worst, the puck was contacted level with the cross bar. Do you know a board we can go to where people who've liked the sport longer than 4 years and tune in beyond the playoffs go? I can't stand it in this thread any longer. Oh my...

QUOTE (RockRaines @ May 31, 2014 -> 03:12 PM) Almost went sub 80 today. Fantastic Chicago golf weather. Awesome! I convinced the wife to join the Club after all...today was my first round as a member...what an amazing golf course. Shot 93, but a lot of it was just hitting the wrong club, or the wrong approach into the green...I can tell I'll be able to improve on that quite a bit. Really stoked to get to hit this place whenever the hell my little heart desires

QUOTE (RockRaines @ May 30, 2014 -> 09:35 PM) Oh and it looks like I'm already being pushed into the technology board due to my background and the fact I described how they should deploy wireless. How can I turn that down nicely? Say your employer frown on participating in things like that? Again, congrats on the membership! I was this close to joining today and playing my first round, and then the wife got cold feet. I had negotiated a bunch of stuff into the deal and everything. Think I'm going to have to tell the guy we've had a change of heart; he will not be pleased.

I sure thought Eaton was safe.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ May 29, 2014 -> 12:47 PM) Have my orientation today should be up and playing by the weekend. Also got a killer deal through the club on some new Ping irons as I wanted a set to keep there as well as a travel set. Congrats Rock! Which Pings did you go with?

QUOTE (Y2HH @ May 29, 2014 -> 04:39 PM) AGAIN, I reiterate, you are ignoring the complex societal differences of the US vs Australia. People do this with a ton of countries as there is none quite like this one. The sheer mix of races, religions and languages is un-f***ing-parallels when compared. So accounting for nothing BUT "like sized populations" is weak. It appears you have just laid out a case for less guns.

QUOTE (chw42 @ May 29, 2014 -> 08:11 AM) I think Quintana should be an A. He's been extremely consistent and currently ranked #18 in fWAR among all pitchers, ahead of both Justin Verlander and James Shields and just behind Max Scherzer. Anyway my rankings: A's: Sale, Abreu, Gillaspie, Ramirez, Quintana, Flowers (low) B's: Petricka, Putnam, Viciedo, Dunn, Rienzo, Beckham, Webb, Noesi (low) C's: Eaton, Semien, Belisario, Lindstrom, Carroll (low) D's: Danks, L. Garcia F's: Downs, Konerko, De Aza Incompletes: Johnson (low D), Guerra (B), Paulino (F), Danks (low D), A. Garcia (B), Sierra ©, Francisco (F). An A for Flowers but a C for Eaton?

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ May 28, 2014 -> 07:05 PM) Also apparently y2hh hasn't bothered to read the article or this thread, because I've said feeling white guilt is dumb and unproductive anyway. Especially considering the arguments they've posed to avoid it.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ May 28, 2014 -> 04:15 PM) I dunno Dunn has a wRC+ of 137 (good but hardly elite) and a fWAR of .4. Don't get me wrong I'm tickled to death the big donkey is actually producing like he's supposed to but he's essentially a one year rental and won't net much in return even if he is producing. If the Sox are 10 games under .500 in July they have nothing to lose by just getting some salary back. They'd have to play pretty s***ty to be 10 under .500 by the deadline.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ May 28, 2014 -> 06:12 PM) You absolutely do, and you absolutely personify it. Maybe you should donate all of your money and give your home/apartment away to a black person, perhaps that would make you feel better and absolve you of sins you never committed. I think it's reversed. Look at the ridiculous lengths you guys are going to in order to sleep at night.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ May 28, 2014 -> 10:18 AM) I've been benefited sure, by being male, by being white, by being born in the US, by being born in 1982 and not 1682, by being healthy, by having two loving parents, etc. So what? That doesn't diminish what i've done to get where i'm at, or what my parents and grandparents did to get me where i'm at. My family was a bunch of poor to middle class farmers from the midwest. They grew up in tiny ass towns of several hundred people. They didn't contribute to this existing problem just like I haven't. Come on now...how can you say this after you just listed all the advantages you have I'm not saying you're a bad guy or anything, and I have had the same benefits as you...but it certainly allowed for a greater margin of error to accomplish what you did compared to someone without those same advantages.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ May 28, 2014 -> 10:11 AM) I have never said the teams are fair, the teams are anything but fair. The problem is that the article doesnt really understand the teams. The teams are rich and poor, not black and white. White people dont have some sort of communal "lets screw black people", neither do black people. All poor people, black, white, whatever, deserve a better chance in this country. Not because of what happened in the past, but because bad things are happening today. Because the system is rigged today so that rich people get better advantages than poor people. So the deck is stacked, but the stacking is based on wealth. You cant compare Obama's child to a kid on the south side, it does not matter if they both came from slave families, if they both suffered racism, whatever. Those decks have been reshuffled a million times. But no one wants to actually really shuffle the deck. So I absolutely believe what I wrote. I think that all of this is completely missing the point and just creates the fallacy that allows the deck to continue to be stacked. Ok...I guess I will just agree to disagree.

Badger and Jenks...do you guys really believe what you're typing, or do you just have your lawyer hats on in here? I get that a solution isn't particularly easy to come by, but you both are pretending as if the teams are now fair and square, when they clearly are not. To use a sports analogy, this is akin to comparing the Yankees to the smallest revenue team in the league, and expecting them to both win the same number of titles. The deck is stacked, and you, me, SS and Badger have benefited and will continue to benefit from it. I'm not saying you should give up all those benefits and go live in the projects or anything, but you could at least have the decency to recognize that you have indeed benefited.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ May 28, 2014 -> 06:59 AM) Wealth isn't a zero sum game though, so i'm not sure this theory works. The rich can still get insanely rich without affecting the middle class IF the middle class acts appropriately. The problem we have as a society is that every major product we buy - and consumerism is obviously the bedrock of our economy - is made/sold by very few companies. We're not local at all anymore. We buy from national/global companies. And so of course the few at the top of those businesses make all the money. I don't buy this nonsense that the rich have rigged the game. Yes, they have been able to get out of paying some taxes here or there. They get favors more than your average person. But at the end of the day it comes down to consumer choice. Stop shopping at big box stores, stop buying mass produced goods, let the money fan out and we'll all be better off. Yeah, certainly the rise of your Wal-Marts and the demise of your main street small businesses has hurt local economies quite a bit. I posted this a few weeks ago in another thread, about us being in the "new" Gilded Age, where the top 1% just keeps getting more wealthy. I found it to be quite interesting.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ May 27, 2014 -> 02:32 PM) Nobody is proposing that individuals repay reparations. The focus is on what civil society can do via the same governments that have been used to exploit and oppress African Americans for centuries to pay off the debt of that exploitation. The idea that this sort of debt just goes away if its ignored long enough doesn't hold up. FWIW, Germany paid reparations to Israel for what it did to the Jews. To the tune of $7 billion in today's dollars.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ May 27, 2014 -> 02:26 PM) As the sub-headline of the article points out, it's about much more than just slavery. The whole first section of his article, as well as the link I posted way back at the start of this thread about about racial discrimination in public housing (along with white terrorism against blacks) within the last few decades. Well just think of it this way...do you think slavery might have reduced the population qualified to be accepted to law school or to practice law? Just the mere setting back of this portion of the population lessens competition in many occupations. Perhaps Badger and I and Jenks were able to attend better schools or get better jobs because there was less competition than there might have been without the oppression that has taken place over the last few hundred years.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 27, 2014 -> 02:22 PM) Just to note, you'll pay ~$100 a year in fees to maintain a checking account at most large banks in this country if you don't have a minimum balance/direct deposit setup. Usually the reason people don't have a bank account is because they haven't satisfied previous insufficient funds fees or negative balances. Until they do, the bank won't give you a checking account.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ May 27, 2014 -> 02:05 PM) Why should my family pay reparations? I can see why you would argue that those who benefited from slavery should have to pay, but what about those of us who received no benefit? What about non-African American minorities, who were also discriminated against. A lot of bad things happened in the past, but sometimes you just have to get over it. Instead of thousands of words, he could have written that sentence. You just basically said the same thing that others said 2 hours ago. Perhaps you have benefited from slavery. I am sure there are some pretty decent arguments that could be put together...

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ May 27, 2014 -> 12:55 PM) So you mean affirmative action policies? Hey, we have that already, and it's not working. I generally agree with this and your next post stating that just trying to throw money at the problem doesn't fix things...but that isn't an excuse to withhold any further funding because the previous methods didn't work as planned.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 27, 2014 -> 12:55 PM) Isn't that exactly what public education is supposed to be for? The only way you are going to break the multi-generational cycle of poverty is to make people appreciate that an education is step one to a better life. That isn't just a black/slave/African thing either. With the life experiences I have seen the same cycle from many different races. It is sad because you see that influence even in Kindergartners when they aren't doing homework or attending school at 5 years old. The key is to break the mindset, which is way easier said than done. No amount of reparations will change that, IMO. So what if reparations focused specifically on public schools in very poor areas?

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ May 27, 2014 -> 12:52 PM) To a group of people that specifically went through the experience (e.g. Japanese interred during WW2), not people who are descendants of people centuries ago. Where's the cut off? if you're black is that enough? Do you have to have ties to slavery in your family history? What if you were a slave in the north and were treated pretty well and then granted your freedom? What if you're a descendant of Sally Hemmings? Do they count? What should they get? So your response would be to complicate matters so much so as to excuse nothing being done at all?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 27, 2014 -> 12:41 PM) The thing I worry most about is where is the legal line here? We pretty much stole the country from the Indians, murdered and diseased them into an endangers species. Then the people that were left we forcibly gathered up, and moved into segregated camps. Heck we even had many "legal" agreements with them to give them this land and that land, not to mention other bribes to leave whatever land we wanted at the time. What are the appropriate remedies for the practical extermination of a race, decades and generations later? One could argue that they have as strong of a claim to remedies as African's do in this country. We put Japanese people into interment camps in WWII, what is appropriate there? We segregated and discriminated against the Chinese for much of our history. Same with the Irish. What do they deserve? Women have been a historical subspecies in this country for pretty much its entire history. Their claim status for reparations also has to rank up there. If you lay down a legal presence here, you open a pandora's box I am not sure where it ends. Where do we draw the line for saying that one group's claims are more valid than anothers? That they deserve reparations over another? I thought this was the best approach: