Texsox

I’ve been thinking about our economy especially about the rich, those people who have amassed the most wealth. When Andrew Carnegie was building his fortune, his companies employed hundreds of thousands of employees. To become wealthier, the technology of the day required that he hire more and more people. Compare that to current companies that have similar value, they employ tens of thousands of employees. We’ve moved from an economic system that required a huge output of labor and many employees to a system where you can become incredibly wealthy with a great idea and few employees. Yet, we keep cutting the tax rate on the wealthiest Americans because they are “the job creators”. In fact it seems that the path to incredible wealth is actually to use less employees, or at the minimum cheaper employees. It seems like we should have been increasing tax rates on the wealthy instead of decreasing. The rates should have been low a hundred years ago and have been rising while cutting rates on the working class.

So this country can not be successful based on the tax revenue that is collected. The only way to remain at this level is to borrow every year?

QUOTE (Lillian @ Oct 20, 2013 -> 11:55 AM) Abreu was the best hitter in Cuba At what level do you place Cuba ball? MLB? AAA+? AAA? AA? A? That will determine how confident someone should be about the likelihood of his success.

QUOTE (ewokpelts @ Oct 20, 2013 -> 12:06 PM) Bonerko replica jersey at the ballpark as an active sox player: $139. As an ex-sox player(ie on another team): $59.99 That's a lotta coin jerry loses if Bonerko leaves. If he retires, they can sell them at 89.99. Konerko is the #1 sox jersey/shirsey i see at games. Hell, pretty much anywhere in Chicago. I don't believe the $10,000 that the team may lose in jersey revenue is weighing too heavily on the team, especially after they make 5x that with the new sales.

Is it too late to guess?

I just do not see Konerko back. Despite the hometown discount he gave the team way back when, there is no hometown favorite roster spot available. Sentimentally I would rather see Dunn moved, but that is not realistic and not the soundest baseball move.

Yes you should be skeptical. He hasn't hit MLB pitching, hasn't subjected himself to the grind of a MLB season. There are enough question marks to be skeptical. The team's track record with FAs probably should not be one of them. As noted there are several signing, from bargain basement scrap heap finds, to mid level starters, to big money marquee names. I'm cautiously optimistic at this very expensive rookie prospect.

How much of the money that we pay in interest actually makes us secure? Feeds the poor? Fixes infrastructure? Sends a kid to college? Now imagine what we could do if we could use that for the above projects instead of paying interest. The interest payments mean a project that may have cost a million, costs many times more. Why do we pay taxes? Why not cut taxes for everyone and just borrow more if debt isn't an issue?

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Oct 19, 2013 -> 06:40 AM) We don't need to balance the budget, especially when we still have unemployment over 7%. Our debt is now over 100% of our GNP. How long are we going to continue borrowing to basically give it to Americans to maintain our lifestyles?

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 3, 2013 -> 03:21 PM) That.Is.Awesome. Did this really happen? 100% true.

We do need to talk about it. So I do reject they "we never talked about it before so we shouldn't talk about it now" argument. I would prefer a discussions about the debt and balancing the budget over the hysterics and grandstanding about the debt ceiling.

Just a couple questions I have. What do you call someone who has never played MLB? Rookie? Prospect? What will it take for him to adjust to the league? He's already ready! A spring training to adjust? A month of the regular season? Once around the league? A season? Are expectations too high? Is ROTY the minimum to meet expectations? I'm excited that the horizon the team is looking at to return to contention is 0-6 years. This sends a strong message.

Who cares we signed the Cuban . . .

File this also under "we need a move to sell tickets after 2013"

Local news guy here in Ranger's country is speculating that the Rangers have him all but wrapped up, didn't even mention the Sox What do they say in Kansas

QUOTE (Iwritecode @ Oct 17, 2013 -> 09:54 AM) Absolutely. Make the playoffs 4 out of 5 years or 5 out of 6 years and see what happens. Hell, just make them 2 years in a row even. I think it would make a huge difference. It's just too bad we've never been able to test this theory. But if Cub fans really care about winning why do they fill the park when they are losing? About the last thing I would accuse the Cubs "customers" of being is caring about winning. I think the Sox numbers would increase, but my guess is it would be new fans that are attracted to the winning, not an exodus of Cub customers deciding to move the party to the southside.

And #1 reason it is a Cubs town is TV. All the way back to the late 1960s when the Sox were on 32 and 44 UHF channels that had terrible reception everywhere. All the other factors are well behind losing the TV generation.

QUOTE (MAX @ Oct 16, 2013 -> 11:13 PM) They don't really come to watch baseball though. They come to get drunk, go hang out in wrigleyville and watch baseball. So I don't think they are better fans in any way. They just have a more attractive non-baseball experience overall when attending a game. What if I said better customers instead of fans? I was using the term fans to describe the folks that buy tickets and go to the game. They ring the cash registers. I can see how that doesn't accurately describe all fans. There are plenty of fans who never attend a home game. What is different with Sox fans? I've seen drunks at Sox games. We both watch baseball. The neighborhood? I will concede that more people would leave a Sox' game and party in Wriglyville than leave a Cubs' game and party around the Cell. Now that my daughter lives in the Lakeview neighborhood I have spent some time in Wriglyville on non Cub game nights and it was busy with people partying. I wonder if we confuse people who were at the game with non fans who are just there for a party?

BTW, is there a little irony that the most conservative leaders voted to keep people home and collecting (eventually) a government check without working and the liberals wanted people to actually work for their government check?

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Oct 16, 2013 -> 07:55 PM) They tried harder, and therefore played worse than when other pitchers were on the mound? The numbers actually disprove your point, unless playing harder and focusing more makes you worse at baseball. It doesn't add up. See ball, hit ball. Who your pitcher is doesn't make a difference, he's sitting in the dugout. The other things you are bringing up, aren't nearly the same as "who's my starting pitcher today." No batter makes a conscious decision to "try hard" based on a pitcher. I guess everyone hates Sale. Ok. Players always play with the same effort. Doesn't matter the situation. I guess I imagined guys says "we were trying to win one for X". Sorry.

For example, and it's the first one I see. In comparing two starters on Colorado with similar stats, Chacin (31 starts) goes 14-10 with a 3.47 and 1.26 WHiP DeLaRose (30 starts) goes 16-6 with a 3.49 and 1.38 WHiP Why? Luck? Who would you pitch in a must win game? Better stats or better W-L? Again, as I said earlier, W-L may be the least valuable stat on the back of a baseball card, but I don't think it should be totally dismissed.

So you don't buy that there can be any outside distractions when I guy is hitting? He totally locks in on that and doesn't bring any other factors up to the plate with him? Sick kid? Fight with the wife? The cute girl in the fourth row? A possible batting title? A 0-23 slump? He just gets up there like every other time at bat? he doesn't think man, Chris deserves some run support? I've read quotes from guys who at least claim otherwise. That they were pushing, trying to win one for X, Y, or Z. I think it would be an extraordinary athlete that totally blocks out everything. I mentioned it before, but let me repeat. I think they played harder for Sale, not less. His record could have been even worse.

Think about this for a second is it really true that consistently winning could switch Chicago to a Sox town? The Cubs haven't won s*** in over 100 years. Their fan base doesn't care about winning. They have done what I wish every baseball franchise could pull off, making it seem fun to go to a MLB baseball game no matter the outcome. As Sox fans we take pride often times in not supporting a terrible team. Cub fans, it could be argued, are better "baseball" fans because 2 million of them come out to watch baseball, not just watch their team when it is winning. The Sox should have made a better dent by having the newer modern ball park, but failed because of the too steep upper deck and ball-mall anti-marketing.

I saw the chance to make the 1,000 reply and took it. yeah, I'm bored.

Ok Dems and Reps in Washington, the game is over, shake hands . . .