Texsox

I thought the ride alongs were over. I am thinking of the quotes about him always calling over every little thing he saw. I guess my impressions are off from the facts. Damn liberal media.

I guess I was confused, I thought it had been established that he was well known to the police force and a pain in the ass to them.

QUOTE (gatnom @ May 26, 2012 -> 11:36 PM) If somebody doesn't tip within 2 drinks, I treat them as if they won't be tipping me. And they won't.

QUOTE (gatnom @ May 26, 2012 -> 04:39 PM) As a bartender myself, I know I always serve the people who tip well first. On a busier night, I might not actually get around to serving you after your first few if you don't tip because it's a financially stupid decision for me to do so. I get paid minimum serving wage. If you don't tip me, I don't make minimum wage. Obviously, I'm not going to perfectly remember who tipped what, but I definitely remember who tips well. And, I always serve them first and hook them up when I can. I agree that it's a stupid system, and it's your right to tip as you see fit. But, all you're really doing is screwing the bartender, and some take it a little more personally than others. Just curious, does the owner also feel this way? I can see it both ways. I guess some owners are more interested in their own profits and making money than who is paying their employees for them. I usually wait and see what the bartender is worth and tip accordingly.

Facebook has replaced my personal web page portal that I previously built and maintained. Much easier. I do miss the almost complete control I had from my old "start page", but FB works fine for that.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ May 25, 2012 -> 10:49 AM) Facebook is so vastly overrated. It's useful to share pictures and news about yourself, but who honestly goes onto facebook to view a product or business? I mean, I hate facebook and the entire idea behind it ("Look at me! Look! Look! Over here!") so perhaps i'm a little biased in thinking this way. I have "liked" several bars and restaurants and use it to see what specials they have going on. It is convenient for me and has increased their business by helping to create regulars. The local news organizations who I have "liked" make it convenient for me to see their top stories, and I have clicked on their links. I also have discovered new places from seeing where my friends check in on FourSquare and in the past four months or so have used foodspotting and have been to a couple new restaurants that I would not have otherwise. Yeah, all of those could have happened through other channels, but Facebook has made some of it easier.

QUOTE (TaylorStSox @ May 25, 2012 -> 03:50 PM) If people don't want to tip, fine. Just double the prices so the staff is paid accordingly. Wouldn't that be a 50% tip? Why should some jobs be tips and others not?

QUOTE (knightni @ May 25, 2012 -> 06:09 PM) I try to tip as close to 20% as possible. I've been in jobs where tips made up part of my money and people are notoriously cheap. Any idea who first came up with a percentage guideline for tipping?

QUOTE (fathom @ May 25, 2012 -> 02:06 PM) You have absolutely no proof of this. Maybe Sox fans gave up their season tickets because they didn't bring back Ramon Castro? Letting Mark go was a great business decision, especially if the Sox want to give extensions in a few years to Sale and Viciedo, etc. You are correct that we don't have proof, but the club may have some if they bothered to ask why tickets were not renewed. Would you guess more people would drop because of Mark not being signed or Castro? My guess would be Mark, but I'd love to hear how Castro may have had a greater impact. And btw, I would place economic factors #1 on the list of dropped season tickets followed by life style changes.

http://eatocracy.cnn.com/2012/05/10/tippin...?iref=obnetwork

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 25, 2012 -> 10:29 AM) If the team is going to avoid losing money and be in contention, then it should not sign players to bad contracts they are unlikely to live up to. Having players signed to bad contracts is why we're rebuilding this year. Part 1. Teams have lost money and been in contention. So we wouldn't be rebuilding if those guys were signed to league minimum contracts? We're rebuilding because a couple players are playing poorly who were counted on for mayor contributions. It doesn't matter if they are making league minimum or heavier. They need to be replaced.

We could have been front row for an almost Braves like stretch if the Cubs could have kept those guys healthy. Thank God they didn't.

Sat: Moving some stuff to our summer place on South Padre Sun: More packing for South Padre and getting gear ready for a trip to Yellowstone in July and sailing in August. Mon: Work. Three days until summer vacation

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ May 25, 2012 -> 11:03 AM) Most of those qualities would be taken into consideration among many others. Except for a history with a team, that really means little in predicting a player's future performance. If the player has had frequent run-ins with the manager, key players, or others within the organization, I think that would be a good reason to not sign them. Likewise, if they are happy in the city, have represented the organization well, that could factor in.

One area I see FB leveraging better are business customers. More and more businesses are seeing FB as basic a necessity as the yellow pages were to our grandparents. Also, our grandparents all have FB accounts. Having siad that, I could also see them closed in ten years as something better comes along.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 25, 2012 -> 10:29 AM) If the team is going to avoid losing money and be in contention, then it should not sign players to bad contracts they are unlikely to live up to. Having players signed to bad contracts is why we're rebuilding this year. There are not too many guarantees that players will live up to their contracts. What qualities would you look for in someone that would? Injury history? Consistency of seasons? Age? Conditioning? Attitude? History with a team / town / organization?

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ May 25, 2012 -> 10:20 AM) Not a single person has said that, but I see it makes you feel better to keep making that point. Really, no one here believes strongly that the team should not have signed MB because they need to turn a profit this season to be contenders? Then I apologize. I thought that was exactly what some people were saying.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 25, 2012 -> 10:22 AM) You also can't buy a Gold Coast penthouse on your salary, which is the point. No I can't. Or a guest house.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 24, 2012 -> 01:43 PM) Wasn't one of the main reasons KW could sign a lot of free agents (Dye, Hermanson, Iguchi, AJ) due to not being handcuffed by Carlos Lee's contract anymore? But they signed someone. They spent the money. They weren't holding it looking to make a profit.

One area that has started to intrugue me about FB is how often I contact people through their FB accounts. I know probably six or seven people in the real world, who I have phone numbers, emails, etc and I will message them through FB first because I know they will see it almost instantly. I'm not certain how that can translate to bigger profits, but it is interesting.

For 2010, according to Forbes, the team showed a $26million profit. In 2011 they again showed a profit according to Forbes. In fact only three teams showed loses in 2011. Tigers (won division), Mets (sucked), and Red Sox (90 wins). I'd rather be the Tiger's fan winning a division than losing the division but knowing the owners made a few million bucks profit. So what's that done for our Sox? Flexibility to land an aging out of position fill-in 3rd baseman while MB is pitching in Florida? That's something the fans will come out to see. I understand looking for something to feel good about this season. If it's performance to the balance sheet that gets you excited, cool. But I'm just not that excited about returns in someone else's portfolio. I haven't seen years of profits directly leading to years of winning.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ May 24, 2012 -> 01:48 PM) 100 percent yes and you know that. Tex for whatever reason refuses to acknowledge that and instead tries to make witty comments that have absolutely nothing to do with the point all of us are making. I would rather the team lose money and win than make money and lose. I "lose" money every month on my mortagage but I am building equity. The value of the franchise continues to rise. It isn't like the investors will lose money on their investment long term. If people are really that interested in the team's finances, send them a check.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ May 24, 2012 -> 01:13 PM) That has nothing to do with it. It's a good business decision because you don't want you team handicapped by an overpriced contract as a player's skill set diminishes with age. I am with you 100%. Yeah profits! I still would be so crushed if I found out the team lost money in 2005. It would totally ruin that WS for me. Which year(s) payroll made 2005 possible?

QUOTE (fathom @ May 7, 2012 -> 05:55 PM) You're right, when the Sox are starting Molina, Quintana and Castro next year to go along with Floyd, it would have been great to have Buehrle and his 4.00 ERA for 13 million a year to help the team win 75 games instead of 72. It was the right business decision to let him go, and let's just hope Danks can turn it around. And for people who prefer to get their sports news from the middle of the newspaper or the WSJ, instead of the back page, that means a lot. For fans who prefer watching a very good player pitch, who would continue to at least follow the team every five days, a winning bottom line for a privately held corporation, ain't that great of news.

QUOTE (iamshack @ May 23, 2012 -> 02:14 PM) And these are all for the most part ineffective. The issue is, many people make the incorrect decision once they begin drinking. You're asking someone to make a responsible decision once they are already impaired. It's just not going to happen a lot of the time. I agree. The biggest issue with alcohol is it takes away your decision making ability. Right when you need to make a good decision you are least likely to make it. If only more people knew that. Why not spend money in education programs and treatment programs funded by DUI fines? Oh wait, that is what most states do. So if people can't help driving drunk, what shoudl we do? Allow it? Ban alcohol? Close bars and restaurants? Making bars and restaurants and their employees more responsible for monitoring their customer's condition is a nice step in the right direction. It should be sober people serving them.