35thstreetswarm

Great! Levine's first post can be to announce LaRussa's hiring two days after the press conference.

I don't want LaRussa, but I'm also surprised by the intensity and near-unanimity of the anti-TLR sentiment here and among fans I know. I would think he'd have more supporters just based on track record alone.

Unreal. That was some Ricky ish right there

My hand hurt for days from high fiving every car stopped in bumper to bumper traffic between Schaller's and the park.

?

If nobody ever mentioned Gio Gonzalez on this board for the past full season he's been a White Sox, the period prior to that when he was pitching in the playoffs and a free agent target, and the many times he's been mentioned because of his history with the Sox, then that would make sense. But Gio Gonzalez has been mentioned hundreds of times and I've done plenty of double-takes. Whatever, it doesn't really matter. Gio will soon be gone and we can go back to calling Gio Gio instead of Gio (except if we're talking about Gio's time with the Sox) and all will be well.

I will never understand the widespread habit of shortening Giolito to "Gio" when we *literally have/had another starting pitcher on our team whose first name is Gio.* I think I'll start referring to Luis Robert as "TA" (you know, for "totally awesome").

Of course. (Or substitute Engel). Our lineup is loaded with or without a big-ticket RF addition. Yes it would be nice to have a potential All-Star at every position, but it's a luxury, not a necessity.

It was pretty embarrassing. If Ricky was behind it I feel better about it, actually.

I can understand the desire for true “new blood”, but Hahn’s prerequisites seem to rule that out.

For the life of me I can’t understand why Bochy is not the main topic of discussion around here, or really why he’d be anything but #1 on everyone’s list.

Awesome! Heckling is a dying art.

Wonderful. Do we now get to see Stone extend his signature thin-skinned Twitter b****iness to fans who would prefer not to hire a disgraced cheater? That would be a fun way to cap off 2020.

I’d agree if we’re talking about a dark horse. But I don’t think floating the name of a guy who hasn’t managed in years is going to do much to make people forget that Hinch is fresh off a suspension for presiding over the biggest cheating scandal in a century.

Sign me up for Bochy. Winner of three actual World Series trophies and zero fake ones. Not really all that old. Seems perfect to me.

That's the thing about trolling, I guess...sometimes you hook one. Congratulations?

All this talk about Hinch making us "bad boys" is laughable. There's "cool bad," like being brash, talking smack, flipping bats, or starting fights. Don't think using cameras and computers to steal information then lying about it quite fits into the "cool bad" category. I'm sure marketing is salivating: "Welcome to G-Rate, baby - come into our house and we'll utilize technology to gain an unfair advantage over you! Step to us, and we'll lie about it M'Fer! But if you catch us we'll totally apologize...b****!"

He was richly rewarded for his cheating with a World Series trophy that he didn't have to give back. His "punishment" was sitting at home like the rest of us for a three-month quasi-season during a pandemic. He's apparently about to be rewarded with a rich contract a few months later. Say what you want, but if you're an aspiring cheater, you can look to the AJ Hinch story as positively inspirational.

...and about 60 others apparently. What exactly are you hoping to accomplish with this?

This place is depressing.

And you can definitely trust that what he tells you in that interview about the scandal will be the truth. Now, the other times he addressed it (before getting caught anyway) he wasn't truthful, but this time he definitely will be. And if there's another incident in the future, he'll definitely be transparent about it. Again, not like last time--but definitely this time. You can count on that.

I think I made my opinions abundantly clear in the other thread, but it would be an unbelievable disappointment if we hired this guy.

Your first mistake is not reading my post before responding to it.

Thanks for the help, but my kids are smart enough to recognize adult rationalization and double-speak when they hear it.

Rick: Lifelong Sox fan here. I won't bore you by establishing my bona fides, but suffice it to say that most who know me would agree my devotion borders on pathological. Opening day is a holiday in my house. I've hung on the team's every move for decades. I was excited and encouraged by the decision to move in a new managerial direction. I won't speak ill of Ricky Renteria, who was by all accounts well liked and led the team to a great season, but I applaud the front office for "thinking big" and readying the team for sustained postseason success. But I have been shocked to find my feelings of elation quickly turn to terror as rumors have begun swirling about AJ Hinch (or even Alex Cora) as potential hires. At the risk of revealing my naivete, I had never even considered they could be options. Perhaps they are not--but in the event there is truth to these rumors I wanted to make my strong feelings known, for whatever that may be worth. Like many fans, I have been profoundly troubled about the Astros cheating scandal over the past year. I've been baffled by the lack of accountability for some of its participants. While I was encouraged by the initial, and appropriate, reaction of shock and revulsion that met the scandal within the baseball world, I have been surprised by how quickly many have changed course and seem willing to "just move on" from an orchestrated scheme of fraud that infected the game's most basic competitive elements. I have often tried to imagine how I would have managed all this as an Astros fan, and have felt blessed that I never had to confront this question in anything but the abstract. So I ask you, please: don't force me into a similar position now. There's no question here -- while their roles differed, AJ Hinch and Alex Cora both led a team that cheated its way to a World Series title, then smiled into the camera as they accepted a trophy they knew in their hearts was tainted by fraud. They were *fired* by other teams--including the *Houston Astros themselves*--for their roles in this scandal. How could we, as fans, be excited about hiring either of them to stand as the face of the Chicago White Sox franchise? How would I explain this to my kids? It is more difficult every day to impress upon them that they must adhere strictly to moral and ethical standards that so many people and institutions brazenly trample when it's expedient. Please don't foist these ugly dilemmas on us, not in this corner of our lives. It has taken a century to recover from the Black Sox scandal that darkened this franchise's legacy. You hold that legacy in your hands now, and at a precarious moment. Please do not sully this organization for some minuscule (and questionable) perceived marginal competitive advantage. Go Sox.