Texsox

So media and money prevent even better candidates from running?

QUOTE (knightni @ May 8, 2008 -> 10:01 AM) If the list is different enough, I can go Tex and Tex's Evil Twin. I can be wrong twice! btw, that first post should have been in green, noobie error

QUOTE (shipps @ May 8, 2008 -> 08:16 AM) It sounds like you live in the Middle East. Actually I think Pittsburg would be middle east, Boston would be far east

QUOTE (knightni @ May 7, 2008 -> 02:23 PM) 12 from Soxtalk, about 5 from TalkBears. You mean I can vote twice? Swwwweeeeeeeeeeet

QUOTE (WilliamTell @ May 6, 2008 -> 04:06 PM) 32 pages to go in 43 hours, I'm soaring!!! I need to deactivate my facebook and soxtalk accounts for the next 2 days, haha. BTW, we suspend accounts all the time for big projects. Usually it is the mods and admins.

First off I'm not certain the candidates today are any better or worse then at any other point in our history. I think we now know more about them and their are much more efficient methods to build up and tear them down. But for the sake of discussion . . . How can we improve out choices for elected office? From the local level to the White House. What needs to happen to attract better candidates to puiblic service?

I promise, my final words I was mildly surprised it was still being discussed. This is the area that the employer has clearly set aside for interviews with the media. The area that has not changed since the players joined the professional ranks (in some cases over ten years ago). That is why the office analogy holds true to me. This is not something new they needed to adjust to. For some players, over 1,000 times after a game a reporter has been in this room waiting to interview them. They know the expectations, and the risks and rewards of their actions. Each day they are given an opportunity to send a message to their fans via the media, this was the message they chose to send. Obviously it was well received by some, poorly received by others. The topic has worn itself out. Sticking bats up latex dolls butts does not stop a losing streak. Large problems like fans running onto the field after Disco Demolition or fans running on the field to attack a coach, create the image; small events like this either confirm or contradict that image. This, and the fan reactions, adds a little more confirmation. This did not enhance the team's image in any way I could be proud of. If they are trying to attract more fans that think latex blowup dolls are cool, it may have worked. This did not enhance the image of the players in any way I could be proud of. Maybe some people are impressed that adults with kids can still act like college drunks. I'm not. It is reasonable to expect adult men to conduct themselves at work in a manner that enhances the team's image and maintains a professional image for themselves. It is called being a responsible adult and employee.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 8, 2008 -> 09:05 AM) The last thing we need is another all or nothing guy who can't hit in the clutch. do you mean The Walker Method™?

Sox fans? Yeah, there the ones that get drunk and assault players and think simulated sodomy is a perfect PR move. I always wondered who used those dolls. Mystery solved.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ May 6, 2008 -> 05:03 PM) Your movement for respect to all blowup dolls everywhere is commendable sir. Are you this sensitive at home? TV must kill you. Again Rock. This was done with reporters around. Mr. Ball Player, we are going to pay you $6,000,000 per year. In case you forgot, reporters will be in the clubhouse. We need the reporters to wrote nice articles about us, which makes people come to the ballpark and watch on TV. Then we make money and can cover that paycheck. So sparky, do you know how to act around reporters? To make a comparison to my reaction to TV is as ridiculous as if I said I guess you wouldn't mind your dad putting up this same display at Christmas in your living room. Two different venues. I also said if they did this at a private party, I'd cut them all the slack. The problem is they produced a sexist, perverted display, in their workplace, with reporters around to see. Unless they are totally clueless, they knew this would offend a segment of the fan base.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ May 6, 2008 -> 02:56 PM) Just got back from court. I will be sentenced to 10 days in CC for driving on a statutory suspended license (it was originally suspensed for driving drunk). Anyway, I've never been in actual jail before. I'm a little nervous. Has anybody from the board spent any time in jail? What should I expect? Are the "don't drop the soap or else" myths true? Any info will be appreciated. QUOTE (shipps @ May 6, 2008 -> 03:34 PM) Wow after reading the posts in this thread jail dont seem half bad.I could really use a vacation,do they have pamphlets or a website with their rates? Shipps and NSS have caused havoc with my keyboard today.

QUOTE (shipps @ May 6, 2008 -> 03:34 PM) Wow after reading the posts in this thread jail dont seem half bad.I could really use a vacation,do they have pamphlets or a website with their rates? A number of years ago a buddy and I were thinking a couple years just reading books and hanging out in a minimum security palce sounded pretty damn good. Some even have golf courses. I think you have to be a politican to get in that one.

It was fun. Grown men needed to place bats up dolls rectums; knowing it could and probably would be reported. Sox fans defend the action. A proud day to be a Sox fan

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ May 6, 2008 -> 04:22 PM) No there is outrage based on the poor child that could hear the story. I suggest listening to he news/radio or surfing the net can find you a whole bag of worms that is worse than the Doll story. So you are defending the doll based on there being worse things out there? And comparing the doll to a triple rape? OK. I'm done. I do not have any response to logic like that.

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ May 6, 2008 -> 04:19 PM) And what story will offend them more. The story of the plastic doll with a bat with no more than a basic description of the act. Or the front page story of the triple rape in Lincoln Park. Hell a few years back we had a president who decided to drop some DNA on a blue dress that was more offensive than this. And the internet, good luck with that. If this is the worst thing they see they are lucky. Are you suggesting that because there was a triple rape in Lincoln Park, that we should allow any behavior less reprehensible than that?

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ May 6, 2008 -> 04:01 PM) The youngest fans aren't in the locker room, and to expect people to always act in a way everybody can view is ridiculous. Besides, any kid who looks up to athletes as a role model has some misguided parents to allow them to do so since none of us (or very few) have actually met the athletes. As YASNY pointed out, there are reporters in the locker room, who function as our eyes and ears. They bring that, good and bad, into our living room. And as I explained earlier, if they had done this at a private party, in their own homes, no problem. But they did it at work, in front of reporters. That's how much they think of their female fans, their young fans.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ May 6, 2008 -> 03:58 PM) Your kidding right? There is a big, big, big difference between a doll, simulated acts or not, and commenting on a real persons breasts and asking co-workers out. A huge difference. I can't believe you actually just made that comparison. You think that today, but that was the argument back then. It was uppity women libbers When do you think the sexual harassments laws went into effect? Women had to fight for the right to not hear that stuff.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ May 6, 2008 -> 03:56 PM) Again, if you don't like and especially can't handle the act like a 15 year old atmosphere and sophmoric humor, don't follow sports because that is what it is like in every locker room there is. This certainly is a topic that merits discussion, and it can merit disagreeing with what was done. But to take this to the extreme that people like TexSox and Carol Slezak are is pretty ridiculous, you'd swear rape and sodomy were committed on an actual woman when a stupid joke involving a blow up doll and a bat to try and loosen up a team is what really happened. It's extreme to expect adults to act in a manner that the youngest fans can view?

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ May 6, 2008 -> 03:55 PM) so let's just say, for the sake of hypothetical discussion, that you were a member of the white sox and you came into the clubhouse before the game that sunday in toronto and you saw this mock shrine devised to "charm" everyone's bats. What would've been your reaction? I would have said something along the lines of we have to take this s*** down before some reporter sees it and we have a s*** storm to deal with.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ May 6, 2008 -> 03:49 PM) Because people have the right to be stupid in our fine country, even if we don't agree with it. Nobody is being hurt or threatened by having a stupid blow up doll in the locker room with some bats to try and bust a slump. If people want to interpret it as this terrible thing, that's fine, but in reality it's not. It's just another case of pro athletes being what they are (pigs), and if that bothers you, that's fine, just don't follow sports. That was the argument in the 1970s and 1980. Guys will be guys and no one is really hurt when an off color joke is told in the workplace. No one is really hurt when we comment on a coworkers breasts. No one is really hurt when the boss asks an employee out repeatedly. Like it or not, an employer or employee cannot draw a circle around part of the workplace and say laws do not apply. The fact they were in Canada only means Canadian laws apply. And yes, some industries have special exemptions.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ May 6, 2008 -> 03:45 PM) You can sodomize a doll, something of which isn't a living thing? As I've said, I personally wouldn't do something like this, but your just going way over the top with your literal look at something that involves an inflatable doll. I don't think anybody was promoting sodomy here, they were trying to do something stupid to loosen up an obviously tight clubhouse. It obviously didn't work, and it was not something I'd do, but your just going way over the top with how big a deal this is. I've been saying simulating and depicting, I may have not typed it one time. But that is what it is. Someone decided to loosen up the club house, they decided to bring in an inflatable doll and someone also decided to stick a bat up the butt. They knew it would be viewed by reporters and possibly be made public. The vast majority of Sox fans defend this display of simulated sodomy. The image people will have of Sox fans from this is that Sox fans defend displays of simulated sodomy of a woman with a baseball bat.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ May 6, 2008 -> 03:41 PM) Since it is an unfortunate reality that reporters are allowed in the locker rooms... and having read the arguments here... I am going to have to agree with Tex, in that the team really f***ed up here leaving that out in view. If they want to do that palling around by themselves, then stick it in a closet before the press arrives, I think that's fine. But the idiots that run MLB have decided that the locker room is an OK place for non-players/coaches to hang out, so, it should probably be treated like the dugout, for that time period. It is a 100+ year tradition that has to go. Have an interview room off to the side.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ May 6, 2008 -> 03:39 PM) Declining fan base? Baseball is on pace to set an attendace record this year for the 5th straight time, after having an all time record for spring training attendance this March. This all despite a recession in the American economy right now. OK. I guess sodomy with latex dolls is in

QUOTE (Controlled Chaos @ May 6, 2008 -> 03:37 PM) Nobody here has said that is the image Sox fans want or support. You take things to such extremes. The players are depicting the sodomizing of a woman with a baseball bat. The majority of Sox fans defend that. Fair enough?

QUOTE (Controlled Chaos @ May 6, 2008 -> 03:29 PM) Well you guys are definitely in the minorty....at least according to sports reporters, as well as callers...men and women, I have heard on the radio. I'd rather be on this side, then defending the need to simulate perverted sex acts in a sport that has a declining fan base, especially among children. If that's the image that the majority of Sox fans support, it's really sad. I hope they recreate it for Bring Your Daughter To Work Day!