Texsox

QUOTE (BigEdWalsh @ Mar 22, 2011 -> 02:06 PM) How amazing is it that he was still performing at that age? Jeez! Was Ed talking about himself?

Excellent point Dick. I agree. But there is a difference between expectations of success and expectations of failure. You are stating exactly what I am saying, especially in April, expect the best, expect victory. Don't focus so much on what could go wrong. But again, I know that might souind preachy so if your mindset is to think about all the ways things will go wrong, go for it. If someone wants to expect failure, and there are some posters here that seem to relish in figuring out ways the team suck, I probably wasted my time typing this morning.

Dick, what I was trying to say is when you go to the restaurant that you like, instead of sitting there talking about all the menu items you don't like, enjoy the ones you do. Don't sit there and say, I wish their steaks were better, you can't get a decent desert here, that waiter was fine today, but next time we are there, I know he's going to suck. He;s been here for ten years and he's getting to old to wait on me. You know they aren't training anyone to take over in the kitchen, if the chef is calls in sick, this place is totally f***ed. Ever notice those chairs over there are terrible, the chairs at the other place down the street are so much better. And they spent all that money on new paintings, they don't have any money to buy new carpet. etc etc etc I mean, if that what you enjoy doing, knock yourself out, but it seems a little crazy to me. Since you might eat at that restaurant five times a week, you are a great customer, but why torture yourself?

Pointing out to people that this is a great time to be a Sox fan is bad?? Telling people to stop and smell the roses is bad?? WTF? If I had said don't plan on too much fun at the ballpark this summer. We don;t have a fifth starter, our closer is unproven as a closer, Konerko is getting older, AJ is getting older. this team could really suck and baseball on the southside is going to suck would that have been condesending? Yeah, we're going to be out of it by June. Don't waste your money buying tickets now for the second half, there will be all kinds of sales if you enjoy watching Ozzie throw out a white towel.

I wrote a long post telling people to lighten up and have fun at the ballpark, I am such a f***ing bastard I am so sorry to encourage you to have fun at the balpark. Milkman, have a f***ing s***ty time at every game you go to!! Is that better?

I get blacked out on Ranger games. Dallas is 400+ miles away and there is no local coverage of the games.

^^ True heroism IMHO is having a choice, these guys presumably could have gotten out of town, but stayed.

Thanks Cali, I appreciate the comments and that is true, I wasn't trying to be condesending. But after really thinking about it, it wasn't my place to suggest to anyone to enjoy life. If people wish to be unhappy and pessimistic, that's cool. And they found other pessimists to hang with. This team is one of the best ones that has wore a Sox uniform in the past 30 years. Capable, if things go right, of winning a championship. That isn't blind optimism, that's looking at roster from 1970 forward. In those forty years, find me ten Sox teams with better lineups. If y'all want to concentrate on the problems, look for flaws, figure out how this team will suck, knock yourself out

I've agreed with Kap before, it ain't so bad.

Dammit, I upgraded to Firefox 4.0 and have a problem editing posts. It basically keeps the cursor from being inserted anywhere but at the end. I also cannot add to the end of a post is I quote someone. f***, I hate s*** like this,

We owe them an unrepayable debt.

Thank you sir. So they were using sea water because it was plentiful?

The money maker games are summer dates.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Mar 26, 2011 -> 01:05 PM) The problem is, the teams in warmer weather cities or with domes don't want 10 home dates eaten by April 12th. Great point.

I know there is a small difference in the boiling point of sea water versus freshwater, but it seems rather minimal in this situation, or is it? Why do they make a big deal about using saltwater, now freshwater?

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Mar 26, 2011 -> 10:51 AM) I appreciate the sentiment, but I'm so tired of this "sage wisdom" from "wiser" fans because they're older. I also noticed that none of those posters you mentioned even live in the state, so maybe they go to 1 or 2 games a year. I'm not saying that makes anyone a better fan, which I DO believe is the theme of this thread and your overall history of posting, but I'm not going to take advice on how to enjoy a game from someone who hardly ever goes to any. Trust me, I thoroughly enjoy going to and watching games despite my pessimistic attitude. QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Mar 26, 2011 -> 11:21 AM) And being pessimistic doesn't make me any less of a fan. In fact, I'd say that the amount of time I dedicate to this forum and the money I spend at games make me a pretty damn good fan. Yep, we live out of state. No spoon fed Sox news on local stations. No easy drive to a game. Instead we have to work at following the team. We all grew up attending lots of games. Now we have to plan vacations around attending Sox games. I'll bet my trip to attend two games cost me about as much as your 30 games.

Well some people as they get older will not be any smarter and have nothing more to share than what they already know now. And Milkman, of course you can enjoy being a pessimist. I imagine for some people always looking at the down side is fun. Figuring out how everything can go to hell makes you all smiley. I couldn't stand 30 years of that, but knock yourself out. You will be right way more than wrong. And I'll bet in thirty years you won't have anything to share from being a fan.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Mar 23, 2011 -> 12:44 PM) You should try it more often. They even give you a bucket to vomit their crap into.

8th grade and some are already into gangs and stuff. Some have some pretty messed up home lives.

QUOTE (Chet Kincaid @ Mar 25, 2011 -> 07:40 PM) Every new stadium in the north should have a retractable roof. Domes no, retractable yes!

If we didn't have Konerko to fit in, I'd say fourth, I like Konerko in the 4th spot, so that bumps Dunn somewhere, and third seems like the spot. Now if Q comes around, Oz has some options, and they all look pretty damn nice. I'm just bracing for a swinging third strike to end the first.

Some of the guys around here with 20+ years following the team have had some side chats about the expectations of the newer fans. Fans in their twenties have arguable witnessed the greatest streak in White Sox history since the 1910's. Fans under thirty rightfully expect this team to compete for a world series every year. Fans in their 40s and 50s have much different expectations. Winning a world series should be the goal of every mlb team. But as a fan to expect that from your team, you are setting yourself up for frustration year after year. The most successful franchise, the Yankees average winning a ws every four years. Eight franchises have never won a world series, five have never been to a world series. The second most successful team, the Cards, average a world series win every 10 years. The sixth most successful, the Reds or Pirates, a win every 22 years, and they may never win another one. Teams win ws when things go right. No one has amassed a team that couldn't be beat. No matter the level of talent, teams win the ws with a little luck, guys having career years, balls falling their way. Try to focus on what can go right for the team to win. There are hundreds of ways for the team to fail, hell only one team is going to win the ws, all the rest either won't get there or lose once they are there. Stuff will go wrong on every one of those teams. It isn't that hard, it doesn't prove your baseball acumen, to figure out what can go wrong. Guys are getting too old, guys don't have enough experience, guys never did it before, it just isn't that hard to find the weak spots. IMHO, to survive as a baseball fan to the ripe old age of BigEdWalsh, YASNY, or FlaSoxxJim you have to be a fan of the game. You have to enjoy a baseball game, win or lose. Be a fan for 30 years and your team will lose over 2,000 games. Attend a lot of games and your team will probably lose close to half of them. Find something to get excited about. Enjoy the sights, the sounds, the smell of the ball park. Baseball is an awesome game. If you can't watch a well played game where your team loses without throwing s*** and being upset, you're killing yourself for nothing. The old guys around here have sat through many a White Sox season where we knew the team had zero chance of making the playoffs. We came away with some great memories. People we met, things we did, great experiences at the games. We saw some great plays from terrible players, we watched some interesting characters. A good season was when a team was competitive until the Bears started playing. Relax and watch the season unfold. Be a fan, look for what could go right. Let your expectations rise, this team, if things go their way, will be in the hunt all summer. Get out of the gloomy shadows of negativity and spend some time in the sunshine thinking about all that is right with the 2011 Sox. If things go to hell, there will be plenty of time to wail and cry. But April is for optimism.

Very slow clap

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 25, 2011 -> 04:06 PM) I finally got a job offer!!! Well that only took 23 months. I'll be starting in about three weeks. Yeah!!! Thank God that the stress of the hunt is over! Awesome news Mike.