claydude14

I requested off work a while back. Now just gotta stock up on the essentials: beer, dogs, peanuts, popcorn, cracker jacks, sunflower seeds, cotton candy and big league chew. Think I didn't miss anything, that's been my Opening Day shopping list the past few years.

Adam Dunn

I'm 28. Living in Western (Rochester), NY having grown up around Yankee television and fans and never having access to White Sox games (no WGN on my cable provider growing up) I didn't get to really follow Sox teams outside of collecting their baseball cards and reading box scores. I didn't even really follow or watch any sports until playing fantasy football my sophomore year of high school and realized it was a nice way to make conversation with other dudes. Then, when 2005 happened and it was apparent in April they were off to a nice start, and having my interest peaked following my Freshman year of college and seeing my entire floor in the dorms going nuts for the Boston/NY ALCS, I realized how much I loved baseball and started to at least read daily game recaps. After the All-Star break 2005, I was actively searching out opportunities to watch the Sox when on National TV, and then followed the playoff run. Pierzynski was my first favorite for the dropped third strike call and going into 2006 I didn't look back. Got mlb.TV for the 06 season and watched at least 2-3 games a week, taking even more to AJ and Freddy Garcia became my favorite pitcher, particularly for his Halfway to St. Patrick's Day start in September when I still believed we were going back to the playoffs. Also loved Thome, but he kinda "plays for us now." 2007, ouch. Buehrle shot up the list with his no-hitter in April, which I watched completely live. This season was bad baseball but I fed into the prospect hype and was excited to watch Danny Richar and Josh Fields in my first US Cellular Field visit since seriously following baseball, wearing my Reebok clubhouse Sox shoes I had bought. Still loved to be there and to get to see Bobby Jenks close it out in extras; but again he hasn't signed anywhere has he? Eventually bought a Darin Erstad jersey shirt off ebay in 2009 for under 10 bucks to support my love of learning to enjoy bad baseball too. 2008. Every game, every night. Pre-season I wanted to buy into Swisher and bought a Dirty 30 shirt from his personal website. Ugh, #regrets. This was the year of TCQ (The Carlos Quentin). Unfortunately was at the game in Cleveland third row behind the Sox dugout as he punched his bat and ended his season in the 9th inning against Cliff Lee's 20th or 21st win complete game shut out. That f***ing sucked. And I blame me and my friend chanting MVP for getting him so amped that he punched the bat. Really loved Quentin. Since then, still catch 3-5-all games a week via MLB.tv Love me some Sox, but of course my return to The Cell since 2007 came last season in July in an even worse season (who woulda thunk it!). tl:dr, Top Sox on Other Teams: 1. Carlos Quentin 2. Buehrle and Pierzynski 4. Uribe (forgot to mention him, got to see him rehab in Rochester in 07 ir 08 and have followed him on the Dodgers since they are my brother's team). 5. Freddy Garcia, sweaty Freddy, loved to talk him up to Yankees fans the seasons he was there just doing work and getting by.

I went to try and look up hotels last night and the Oneonta, NY Super 8 I stayed in two summers ago is totally booked that weekend. And since I don't have the money to throw down right this minute, I probably won't be able to book a hotel until I get my tax refund. Looking likely I will spend Saturday night in Albany (a good hour and a half from Cooperstown) because it's got plenty of hotels and there should be things to do Saturday... I'm not concerned with seeing the Hall again as I was just there two summers ago, but damn guess I should have thought of this ahead of time and booked when I still had Christmas money left. Most hotels half an hour away according to hotels.com/priceline that are in my budget require the money today and are non-refundable. The ones that are refundable still require the deposit today.

Not sure why the Who's Going to Cooperstown thread was locked, would have been nice to have a place to exclusively discuss that without getting mixed in with all this chatter... But holy s***, I went to try and look up hotels tonight and the Oneonta, NY Super 8 I stayed in two summers ago is totally booked that weekend. And since I don't have the money to throw down right this minute, I probably won't be able to book a hotel until I get my tax refund. Looking likely I will spend Saturday night in Albany (a good hour and a half from Cooperstown) because it's got plenty of hotels and there should be things to do Saturday... I'm not concerned with seeing the Hall again as I was just there two summers ago, but damn guess I should have thought of this ahead of time and booked when I still had Christmas money left. Most hotels half an hour away according to hotels.com/priceline that are in my budget require the money today and are non-refundable. The ones that are refundable still require the deposit today. s***.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 12, 2014 -> 03:27 PM) If you drive into the area on that day/morning, is there parking? If I recall, there's not a ton of public parking (and this was a non-indution weekend) but there's big lots outside the village that have Trollies or something of that sort to bring you into town.

Me and the gf are planning on going. Went a couple summers ago, stayed in Oneonta NY at Super 8 about 20 minutes away. Nice little college town lots of good pizza places. There were a few chain hotels closer to Cooperstown but right outside the main village. Of course there's also the Ostega Resort Hotel in Cooperstown, which is famous for being haunted and was on Ghost Hunters. That place is pricey though. If you are looking for something to do that weekend not baseball related, we went on a Ghost Tour around Cooperstown that was a nice history lesson on the village and it's founders. http://www.thisiscooperstown.com/attractio...ght-ghost-tours

I love Juan Uribe. So do his teammates. This contract will ensure my Dodgers fan brother gets a Juan Uribe card for Christmas once again! (Previously gave him Juan Pierre too, a mutual Juan gimmick).

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Dec 10, 2013 -> 08:07 PM) Today was a struggle, but I pumped out a 2000 word feature story and reflection paper, had it all in by 5 pm, picked up the new Childish Gambino CD and then had a farewell get together for my major. Now off to the Hawks game at a buddy's house. Today was a real busy day all around. Oh shift forgot that Gambino came out today how is it?

It's my birthday and I think my girlfriend is slightly annoyed I've spent 2 hours reading the board and related articles instead of spending time with her.

I like the trade. Thought the prospect throw-in was unneeded, but it sounds like it's not a big loss anyways. Hopefully we can get something decent for De Aza now.

Yep Leury you owe a Konerko thread drink : Man now I'm thinking about a drinking game for this thread but it'd be too easy we'd all get too drunk and by this page we'd all somehow agree with Greg and talk ourselves into Kong somehow being the 1B starter lol

When I first heard about this, I was all After reading all 37 pages (over the past 3 days at my own pace) I was doing a lot of this I've settled in at I don't mind a bench of Keps/Garcia/Backup C/Konerko. I didn't get to see Konerko at my "I only visit the Cell when they are terrible" visit last summer (2007, 2013 being my Chicago experiences; have been to Cleveland/Toronto/Boston/NY/Detroit due to my location), so since I get the chance to see him in Toronto or Cleveland next year I'm actually I don't think this move hurts as much as some people hate it, like it's been said, we are upgrading the DH spot. If somehow the White Sox are somehow contending for a Wild Card by the trade deadline, I'm sure a few minor tweaks will be made. Cleveland made the Wild Card last year, and I wasn't terribly impressed with that team. Contenders as I see it divisionally/Wild Cardly: The whole AL East (but they have to all play eachother 18 games), Detroit/KC/maybe Cleveland/maybe us(if it's a 2012 season where everything goes right), Texas/Oakland/Seattle/LAA in the same boat as us and Cleveland with a solid maybe. Sure that's a lot of teams in the fray (I apparently only count out Houston and Minnesota), but if everyone beats up on everyone, who knows. I'm an optimist. Time for more drinks

Went to Cooperstown in 2012 but would definitely be up to make the trip again for The Big Hurt's induction (doesn't hurt to live 4 hours away). The hotels in Cooperstown were pretty expensive on a non-inductee weekend (although the town was overrun with little leaguers since there's apparently always a summer tourney going on there) so we stayed in Oneonta (~20 min away IIRC, and plenty of places to eat (great pizzerias) there since it's a college town).

Contracts in baseball don't surprise me anymore. 5 years 70 million is the new 3 years 15 million.

I like that Sale gets to face the Twins Opening Day. Opening Day is one of the biggest days of the year. Always take off work and get nice and loaded and eat dogs and peanuts and popcorn and cracker jacks etc.

Do you think they would look at Ozzie? He is friends with Miggy after all.

Vintage Peavy against the Tigers. I was telling the gf not to be so excited about seeing him pitch again (we r cheering bosox).

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-10...n-bartman-story Kudos to the guy for staying out of the spotlight and turning down plenty of chances at easy money.

Cheering for the Red Sox (Peavy) to win the AL then lose in the World Series, preferably to Juan Uribe.

Glad to see the @Toronto series is on a weekend next year; that's the closet MLB park to me. Gonna try to get to NYC too. Cleveland always a possibility.

Sadly Big Hurt Beer alluded me in my two visits to The Cell this summer... asked around to some employees, tried to hunt it down in the outfield but was eventually informed it's not available at the park anymore. And the one beer store I tried in the Northern suburbs hadn't even heard of it!

I've got Peavy/Buerhle on is that a bad thing?

Paulie!