Texsox

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Jan 31, 2015 -> 04:02 PM) No mention of the vast amount of illegal immigrants coming in who are bringing with them these diseases? That is an excellent point. We should offer vaccinations to anyone who wants them so that Americans can decide to not vaccinate their kids. Of course these parents are also assuming that their kids will never travel internationally.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 15, 2014 -> 07:17 AM) If twenty years from now, the average age of a baseball fan is closer to 33-43 and not 53-73, then the commissioner will have pulled off an amazing trick. Gammons said it this morning....about baseball being too focused on promoting the history of the game and ties to the past, while NBA and NFL is all about superstars and action figures. With Jeter leaving the game, guys like Trout, Stanton, Puig, Kershaw, Abreu, Sale, McCutchen, Cabrera, etc., have to be promoted much more effectively and strategically. A lot of the momentum from the World Baseball Classic has stopped....how are they going to continue to build up revenue streams from Mexico/Caribbean/Venezuela? Brazil? Colombia? Central America? With the distance to China, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan being a prohibitive hindrance, how to continue to expand in the Asian market, besides just simulcasting games over satellite? Will Million Dollar Arm move the meter AT ALL in India? Baseball still has the divide between the have and the have not teams. There are too many teams that leave sprig training without a chance in the world of making the playoffs. What are you going to the game to see? Superstars and the game itself.

Parody for a Super Bowl™ Big Game Sunday

May I suggest that pictures would be a very interesting addition to this thread?

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jan 27, 2015 -> 08:23 AM) how would you even do it? have "zones" marked on the field where the different position players have to be in? or what? automatic walk? Football players do not need zones marked on the field for them to line up correctly, why would baseball players?

Boras, I think the owners are making huge profits and should pay more to the employees. Plus, I represent some of the best players playing. If Boras signed up for an account on an internet message board then he can make suggestions on how the game should be played, but not until then. Baseball's history and traditions are both keeping it alive and killing it at the same time. I don't mind exploring each and every idea for merit. The DH was sacrilegious to many baseball purists. It improved the game in my opinion. OMG! They are proposing a wild card game in baseball?! Why play the regular season? That was a terrible idea we now have embraced. I'd like to hear a fully thrashed out conception of a neutral site World Series. The media currently sets up in two cities and moves back and forth. Corporations set up for 6 days at golf tournaments all the time. This would not quite double that. The bad news is the northern teams without a dome would be screwed . Which may actually be a benefit. Baseball games with fans dressing like they are snowmobiling to a football game are ridiculous. I assume the season is as long as it is because of revenue. But I could easily have the season start a week later and end a week or two earlier. I can't believe those games are much of a money maker. Baseball can't afford sacred cows. Only reject some of these ideas after a serious look.

I am such a purist I would like to see a platoon system like in football. Have a defense lineup and a offense lineup. DH everyone. I would also expand the rosters to 30 which would meet with a lot of objections from the accountants.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Jan 26, 2015 -> 12:04 PM) Who you work with is HUGE in terms of having a good time at work, wherever that may be. I don't care if you are one of those "ohhhhh, I just looooveeee my job" type of people, if those you work with are a bunch of asshats, that love won't last. I don't hate my job...but I wouldn't call it a love fest, either. There are a LOT of things I love more than being at work, such as my family, friends, road trips, good restaurants, a vodka martini, fishing, etc...I'd rather be doing those things than while working. But work isn't bad...I don't hate being here, either...but I do it because I'm pretty good at it and I get paid...not because I love it. Edited for why I spent 30 years in sales and sales management.

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Jan 26, 2015 -> 01:27 PM) Z-fixed. another fix

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Jan 26, 2015 -> 07:40 AM) "Don't love your job, love the money it pays ... and use that money to do what you love." -Y2HH, Crushing dreams since 1999. That is the exact advice a fellow educator gave his son who is considering being an archaeologist. Be Phil Collins instead and buy every Alamo artifact worth owning and fill the dream that way. I can't say I disagree.

So when is the media and politicians going to have us caring about immigration again? Will this just be another election cycle boondoggle again? They were able to spend billions on a wall making construction companies happy, now they are working for the drug testing companies getting their pocket lining bills passed. Once the money is spent the politicians and media pundits seem to go away and we forget.

I'm not a fan of the idea . . . but something to think about This is like telling pitchers they don't have to hit and hire someone to hit for them who doesn't have to play the field. Well now that we sound like a bunch of NL fans . . . I like a commissioner that will consider anything, it doesn't mean it will actually make the rules book. Parallels I see are we have off-sides in hockey and soccer. My guess the idea springs from a desire to see more scoring, the same tree that brought us the fruit of the DH. For the same reason we like the DH others would like the no shift rule. How about no intentional walks? Four consecutive pitches outside the strike zone results in a two base walk.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Jan 24, 2015 -> 09:43 PM) All I have to say is that list proves that all congresscritters have too much time on their hands. S.Res.720 — 110th Congress (2007-2008) A resolution supporting the goals and ideals of Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month? S.Con.Res.103 — 110th Congress (2007-2008) A concurrent resolution recognizing the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Minority AIDS Initiative.? S.3567 — 110th Congress (2007-2008) A bill to establish a Commission on the conflict between Russia and Georgia, and for other purposes.? S.Res.630 — 110th Congress (2007-2008) A resolution recognizing the importance of connecting foster youth to the workforce through internship programs, and encouraging employers to increase employment of former foster youth.? S.3317 — 110th Congress (2007-2008) A bill to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 101 West Main Street in Waterville, New York, as the "Corporal John P. Sigsbee Post Office".? S.Amdt.2823 — 110th Congress (2007-2008) Description: To require a report on plans to alleviate congestion and flight delays in the New York/New Jersey/Philadelphia Airspace? Very interesting selection of things. If everyone else's is just as wide, they just need to go home more often. Oh, and you guys keep bringing up Lincoln. Look it up yourself if you are interested. As a business owner weren't there a lot of minor details you were required to keep track of? These things are relegated to staffers in most cases. A lot of this is silly stuff that we require congress to do. Who else should name a post office? You know the s*** storm that happens when you pick the wrong person. Foster Care, Pancreatic Awareness, Animal Welfare, these are things that the public asks for, take little time, and may be worthwhile. This really goes back to teh days when people actually had input with their elected officials. Eliminate this and it places the elected officials one more step removed from their constituents.

Thesis writing is like a baseball season. You get on hot streaks and fly then nothing goes right.

Y'all keep buying Texas oil, even though it is more expensive today. No state income tax and property taxes are reasonable. With the coming bust cycle in oil I get to ride out a Texas recession.

Respectfully, MJ's off court issues were probably covered up to a great degree, but in a league of Rodmans, Kobes, and others, meh, he looks like a pretty good guy.

Not being A-Rod, Bonds, a dog fighter, a wife beater, a killer . . .

It's an interesting question. Based on immediate results, the trade is easy to make. I'm wondering ten years from now which person would have a greater positive affect on the overall results for the team. Based on that the trade requires a little more diligence.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 21, 2015 -> 12:38 PM) ESPN New York ‏@ESPNNewYork 26m26 minutes ago Alex Rodriguez of New York Yankees meets with Barry Bonds for hitting tips http://dlvr.it/8B8946 That is just too perfect.

Lots of great memories of Mr. Cub. Chicago has been blessed with sports heroes who were not total assholes, in fact they were pretty good guys. Ernie, Michael, Walter, Ryan, Frank, Harold . . .

QUOTE (bmags @ Jan 24, 2015 -> 06:47 AM) Although I do like the slate-pitchiness that alpha hit. Here we are thinking of ways to make college more affordable by tax breaks and public funding. But, boom, there it is: Why don't we just make college cheaper by making it less effective? Here is an insiders thought on what we have done to education. We have jammed the High Schools full of "other stuff" that wasn't present 50 years ago. Health classes, computer classes, career readiness, standardized test remedial classes, etc. that to receive the same core subject education as the grandparents of today's students received, the students now have to attend two years of college. We talk about an Associates Degree being the new HS Diploma. I can honestly say I am working much harder for my money as a HS English teacher than I did as a corporate VP. The stress is different and arguably less. I will have ten students next semester who if they do not pass their state test in English will not graduate with their class. These are English only speakers who just do not have the skills and confidence to pass the test. I am very worried about them. I can tell you heart wrenching stories that a few of my students are going through, eating disorders, parents making decisions that negatively impact their kids, students without food at home, one kid right before Christmas slept a night on the bench at a jail because his mom was arrested and he was afraid to go home alone. Some teachers can block that out, I can't. The disconnect as I see it is between employment and education. For the past decade or two our economy has been growing in lower paying service jobs while our expectations of education are increasing. We are demanding our children learn more and more then accept less and less in employment. We complain about immigrants taking our lowest paying jobs while accepting immigrants who take the highest paying jobs. Why? Because of the nature of the businesses who employ them. Huge tech companies bring in programmers from all over the world or ship the jobs there. They have political power through huge donations and access to politicians. The small farmer who needs a 100 seasonal employees or the restaurant who needs a couple dishwashers doesn't have that pull. Plus, the immigrants taking the minimum wage jobs do not speak English. They are easy targets. We are saving those minimum wage jobs for our children so they can go to work for the immigrant doctors and skilled labor we allow to immigrate.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Jan 23, 2015 -> 11:48 PM) Do you guys just read the words or sentences that really pop out at you or something? I pointed out that her political qualifications were being 'smart' enough to stay married to a cheating husband so she could ride his coattails with name recognition into a Senate job with zero previous legislative experience. She was a crappy lawyer who marrie right, then carpetbagged her way into a cushy Senate job just because of her name and husband, rode THAT to a Presidential race and cabinet job and now wants to be President. I guess she did hold office longer than Obama did. edit: And Newt was a pretty slimy guy. But once again, just because the 'other side did it too' doesn't make it right. Alpha as always has me typing away. Let's start with the bold. Here's a big rhetorical hug, hand shake, and high five. I really wish we could stop that. Now the stuff that I think you are repeating stuff the GOP press uses to attack her. What evidence do you have that she was a crappy lawyer? Name recognition has landed a lot of candidates into a lot of positions. In fact in major American politics today, everyone is expected to start there. Also, you really insult American voters. I understand for example that most of the strong hardcore GOP voters on this board are pretty damn smart. For me to say they elected someone based on name recognition is silly. I believe all of us here have similar hopes for America, we just differ in the path to get there. For example starving children, social safety net or let churches, drug testing, and hard work take care of it. Either way no one wants to starve children. Where to live after leaving the White House. Of course politics came into it. But remember Bill left office a young guy with business and humanitarian projects still on his plate. Settling in NY made sense. Try doing that from Arkansas or Wyoming. World figures tend to live in world cities. They left the White House with her favorable rating higher than his. I believe he was a determent to her campaign which was why, if you recall, he kept a really low profile. She also received accolades from Senators on both sides of the aisle for her hard work as a Senator representing her state. She then ran a Presidential campaign that had many, many, Americans voting for her. Again, that is an insult to a lot of the voters that they only saw the Clinton name and voted for her. I'm not a big Hillary fan, I was happy Obama received the nomination, but she is not as we say in Texas, all hat and no cattle.

Getting his autograph was one of the highlights of my childhood. Sunny day game at Wrigley, all the kids rushing down by the dugout railing. 83 Years young and never saw a Cubs World Series. I was looking at some of the pictures the media was using. Tears in my eyes. If he had stayed healthy and with the Sox I believe Harold Baines was the Sox player that had the best chance of being Mr. Sox in the same vein as Mr. Cub. It would be a magical season on the northside if they win something with #14 on their jerseys. My God how that would suck.

I'm with Jenks, punish the guilty to the fullest extent allowed, but not the innocent.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Jan 22, 2015 -> 11:03 AM) Worries with what? Rigged games. Paid off officials. Paid off players.