bigruss

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Apr 26, 2011 -> 02:22 PM) I think I just went crazy rreading the product reviews on amazon and pulled the trigger on a Weber Q320. Hoping it leads to better grilling all summer long. Does anyone have any cool grill recipes to share? I like to grill my hot wings after baking them in the oven, gives them a nice char and good crispiness. Wow that sounds really good actually! I like to grill my onions, make a container from alum foil then put chopped onions in there with garlic salt and a touch of olive oil and a ton of paprika. Put that on some hot dogs or burgers, soo good. Also love to just pick up a ton of fresh local sweet corn and grill up a ton, just put it right on the grill and pull off the stalk part after, no butter or salt needed either.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Apr 26, 2011 -> 12:56 PM) Wow you just killed Hank Hill. BWAAAAAHH!

Last night in Europe after being here for over 4 months, I feel almost depressed about having to leave this lifestyle of backpacking around.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 24, 2011 -> 09:02 AM) It sure was enough games to call the Hudson trade a complete failure last year, that's for sure. You can't really grade the trade for another 5 years or however much time Hudson is under team control, but it's fairly easy to say the Sox lost the trade last year because of how well Hudson pitched down the stretch and still having all that team control time left while pitching for pennies.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 24, 2011 -> 10:39 AM) What you've got to realize is that in any draft, there's probably 5-6 different guys who could be considered "Best player available" regardless of where you're picking, 2-3 of those guys are going to be busts, and there's little to no correlation between how good they are and how much money they're asking for. If you're not taking one of the guys who could legitimately be considered one of the best players available (see, the 2005-2006 sox drafts) then you're making a mistake, but it's such a crapshoot that as long as you pick one of the guys you think is the best available, you're doing what you can. It's a crapshoot, but that's why you try and give yourself the best chances possible by going overslot if need be, and not having wasted picks.

QUOTE (Paint it Black @ Apr 24, 2011 -> 12:01 PM) I completely agree on the drafting and developing. HOWEVER, I'm not sure it's all the fault of KW. I mean, it's not his money he is spending. Rather, it's Reinsdorf money and he might not want to spend the money on the draft (they have not spent a lot of the draft for years). It's hard to bring in talent through the draft when you don't want to spend top dollar on it. It's possible, the Twins don't spend a ton on draft bonuses but they tend to produce a good farm system, but it is muchhh harder if you're not willing to spend. Much like the payrolls of the MLB teams, it becomes easier with a bigger budget, but doesn't guarantee success. QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 24, 2011 -> 12:06 PM) Or maybe it's the $15 million they spent on Borchard and Viciedo with not much to show for it so far... Borchard was a stretch, and the jury is out on Viciedo still. That doesn't mean it should deter the team from making solid signings in the future. If KW loses a few trades should he stop trading?? If that was the case, he should've stopped trading since 2009.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 23, 2011 -> 09:22 PM) Yeah, having a good farm system is the primary way for the Sox to acquire Major League players via trade. Last year, it was much harder to make trades to improve our DH spot because of the lack of minor league depth. I know you know this, and I'm shocked that any Sox fan would think otherwise. I respect Balta, he usually is a great poster, but when it comes to someone saying the minors has an effect on the major league roster he just doesn't see it. Every single time he will post some response like that.

I have two nights now left on my trip, this is not cool. Atleast Im drunk....

Get this s*** out of the way now, and start playing some complete ball soon. The stretch won't last forever, but the good teams are ones that can persevere out of a stretch like this. It'll show a lot of the mentality and character of the team in how they recover from this. Hopefully it brings them together and they start playing some good baseball by the time I return in a week.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Apr 20, 2011 -> 10:50 AM) What went on at the third site? In reference to the bold part, I can't fault whoever said that. It more than likely would have been too far fetched to believe at the time. Hell, there are still morons to this day that refute the possibility of the Holocaust. I actually said there was a chemical factory there, but I meant to say ammunition factory that they used jewish labor for free. As soon as the workers died they were replaced by another wave. And agreed, I just found it interesting that the Polish people, who did not live very close at all, risked their lives to report the situation.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Apr 19, 2011 -> 08:07 PM) How does it feel that Alex Gordon appears to have finally figured it out? It was only a matter of time, imo. Dude had to much talent, to me it was just all the pressure to save that franchise.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 19, 2011 -> 01:33 PM) I can't imagine the feeling walking those grounds. I know how powerful it was to stand at the top of Little Round Top in Gettysburg PA and imagine the battlefield in 1863. At least those guys had a fighting chance. It was amazing (and obviously disgusting) how efficient they became. And since they technically had 3 different Auschwitz camps, the Polish Red Cross saw only the "humane" one (Auschwitz 1). This one actually had brick barracks (used to be for soldiers) and was reserved for Polish and non Jewish POWs, the conditions were still terrible and they basically all worked to death, but from the accounts of the survivors Auschwitz 1 was looked at as a hotel comparatively. The shooting wall was located here though, along with the first test gas chamber (which you get to walk through, it was later changed into a bombshelter). Most of the history is kept here since the brick barracks have with held quite well over the years. You'll see piles of shoes, hair, personal belongings, luggage, etc that was left by the Nazi's in their haste to flee the camp. The saddest part was the thousands of pairs of children shoes they had in one pile, if the child was under 12 years old or unfit to work (and they all arrived on a 5-7 day train with no food) then they were sent immediately to Auschwitz 2 for the gas chambers. Auschwitz 2, where the mass murders occurred, was 1 km long, and very few of the wooden barracks are left. There is only about one row left, and that's because they were originally built as stables for 52 horses, but stored at least 400 people each. When you go past the first row of barracks here, all you see is just old chimneys, and rows of them, because that's all that is left of the old wooden barracks. It was just astonishing being there, knowing 1.4 million people lost their lives there. One last interesting tidbit, the USA actually received a few reports from Polish residents who risked their lives to report the camp to the government. But President Roosevelt (or some high ranking general, I can't remember) replied saying "Thanks for the report, but this is just to hard to believe." The USA actually had aerial recon shots of the 3 camp grounds, but only targeted Auschwitz 3 as a strategic point since there was a chemical plant there.

QUOTE (whitem0nkey @ Apr 20, 2011 -> 01:56 AM) having the best minor leagues means your not making your pro team better. BTW go sox, lets get going. How do people not understand the value of prospects for depth in case of injuries or as trade bait!? Probably the same people who get mad that the Sox can't make any moves at the trade deadline and not know why.

QUOTE (flippedoutpunk @ Apr 19, 2011 -> 12:41 PM) Last night for dinner before heading to the bulls game I went to longman and eagle and thoroughly enjoyed a glass of La Chouffe and Westmalle Triple and topped it off with a delicious pork belly confit... i felt like i was in heaven La Chouffe just wasn't my beer, but Westmalle Trippel is delicious!!!

Just got back from Auschwitz (we're currently visiting Krakow), what an intense place to see. Also, I had no idea that there were 3 different Auschwitz camps, very interesting to see the difference between the two remaining.

QUOTE (knightni @ Apr 19, 2011 -> 02:08 AM) The bleachers were brutal. Metal benches at a major league park... really? I unfortunately had to grow up with the new Comiskey as the only Sox park I knew. The biggest non baseball attraction as a kid was the outdoor shower, where you could go under to cool off. I remember a few fans sitting next to us one game and they were traveling across the states going to a ton of ballparks, and they we're just like Comiskey is "meh, it's a ballpark and that's it."

Went to Prater beergarden today, sooooo tasty for a pils, going back tomorrow for dinner and a night at the beergarden, pics to go up here tomorrow when sober.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Apr 16, 2011 -> 08:14 PM) Hanover park. Just name the time and place. Im near Lake Zurich in the summer, don't know the area too well but Im thinking Sox game meet up at the Cell or a bar.

QUOTE (kjshoe04 @ Apr 16, 2011 -> 08:12 PM) We drink a boot every year at thanksgiving. good times. I like your traditions very much, where did you buy the boot?

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Apr 16, 2011 -> 08:08 PM) We seriously need to hang out. Deal, what NW suburb are u in

Had a Das Boot tonight, killled it but no way I was beating the pub record on 1min 14secs of 2L. Still, girls loved it, but got pretty drunk.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Apr 15, 2011 -> 01:15 PM) 2005 & 2006 rotations had fewest starts last 4 innings or less since 1919 That's really cool to see, I wouldn't have expected 2006 to be that low but the Sox have been great at going after guys that pitch a ton of innings and still stay relatively healthy (sans Peavy).

Apparently Berlin is host of the NATO talks on the Libya situation, the number of police in the city is astounding. Went by the hotel they we're staying at and the whole area had atleast 25 police vans and what looked like close to 100 policemen patroling the area.

QUOTE (FlaSoxxJim @ Apr 15, 2011 -> 07:24 AM) The oldest and most famous Berlin Beer Garden is Prater Biergarten dating back to the 1830s. That would be a must-do stop for me. If you make it there or to any of the large biergartens please take a photo and post it. Though you will be able to find a lot of variety I'm sure, THE endemic Berlin beer is Berliner Weisse, which is a world classic style. Very light in color, body, and alcohol, with just a slight tartness to most and a sharper tartness in some. Traditionally a dash of raspberry syrup or woodruff syrup are added to sweeten. It's not necessary and i like it both with and without syrup. That's the beer garden located within a 5 minute walk from my hostel, we are going there tomorrow. I'll definitely take some pics and post them. I went on a brewery tour in Bruges, I'll have to see the pics and if they are good I'll post them too. I've had a few local beers, nothing special so far since they have been pretty cheap, but looking forward to going out and trying more tonight and tomorrow. So far we've only hit up the historical/cultural part, going to the museums and taking a 4 hour walking tour. Also pretty cool that the NATO meetings on Libya are taking place here right now, and the amount of police out right now is astounding.

QUOTE (FlaSoxxJim @ Apr 14, 2011 -> 08:14 PM) Consider me insanely jealous, what a great experience in the Disneyland of Beers. I have had all of your "Decent Beers" (and I agree with G&T you are a hard grader), three of your "Good Beers" (Delirium Tremens.Augustijn, Saison Dupont), and none of your "Great Beers". I'm sure they would all taste three orders of magnitude better in a Belgian bar or cafe. I note that blended gueuze lambics are entirely absent from the list. Is that due to Bruges beating out Brussels for your attention on your visit? Although I may have labeled them wrong, it is meant to show just how great that last list of beers was. Jim, if you really liked Saison Dupont and Avec Bons Vouex make sure you try the Moinette, probably my favorite beer from the trip. My brother, who is a huge beer fan and is actually a homebrewer of about 3 years (he's only 24) and has won a few local awards, said that Moinette was his second favorite, behind De Garre. WHich, unfortunately you would have to go out to Bruges to try. And yes, we were limited to only 2 nights in Belgium, both in Bruges. I went to Brussels in my last trip ther, but found the city to not have as much historical sights or culture to see. So with only 2 nights for that part of the trip I decided to only take us to Bruges. We're now in Berlin, any suggestions for some good German beers?