caulfield12

It was a succession of embarrassments after that 23-10 start. The fact you could just feel it slipping away. Robin Ventura. At one point, even rookies like Fields, Owens and Wasserman were fun in 2007. Honestly, not even Tim Anderson could redeem this season very much because there was pretty much nothing to care about for almost three months other than the draftees. Then you had the deadline inactivity...Chris Getz, offering Ventura the opportunity to stay but not really? The White Sox had their history, too. Shoeless Joe Jackson. Bill Veeck. Southside Hitmen of 1977. The Field of Dreams. They were the team true baseball fans followed in Chicago, and maybe the hollowing out of those blue collar factory workers from the 60s and 70s is representative of the ebbing and fading of the franchise now as well. Heck, I even used to only drink Miller Lite because it was associated with the team and union workers...Budweiser was for the yuppie Cubs fans. And yeah, when you get older...priorities change. It's different for the fans who grew up in the 70s and 80s and remember the Old Comiskey...and how far things fell in the mid to late 80s for the franchise. It feels like with the Cubs winning, the organization has completely lost its identity. We're currently mirrors of the Bulls, except we don't even have any playoff appearances to hold onto as each year passes. Pretty soon, the Padres and Mariners will make the playoffs and the only team with a longer string will be the Jose Fernandez-less Marlins, and at least they have the weather, new stadium and two World Series trophies in a lifetime. Hope that one day the White Sox don't become so irrelevant like the Dolphins that totally giving up the sport becomes an option...but it's 2-3 years away at the rate they're going.

http://www.npr.org/2016/10/23/498878356/se...vitable?ref=yfp Trump that B***H Sexism out in the open in the 2016 campaign that may have been inevitable...of course, this wouldn't have been tolerated by any other GOP presidential candidate.

After the election, we need a "these are the indicators that Hillary is the Antichrist and is destroying the very fabric that holds Amerca together" thread with regular updates.

Because he was originally acquired via trade...and probably would never have fought to come back as a FA had he not already been there first.

This is like arguing Marco Rubio would have won had he never flubbed a debate. In Greg's idea, then...four years ago, we likely would have had Herman Cain, Rick Perry, Rudy Guiliani, Michelle Bachmann or Newt Gingrich as the candidate, and Dr. Ben Carson this year. The process actually has done a pretty good job until this year of weeding out unworthy candidates...

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/why-steve-bar...-061105324.html Passan argues why Bartman should throw out the first pitch (over Billy Williams) for Game 3

QUOTE (ron883 @ Oct 23, 2016 -> 06:51 AM) GO CUBS GO GO CUBS GO HEY CHICAGO WHATAYA SAY THE CUBS ARE GONNA WIN TODAY I'm still completely wasted from last night. Chicago was a complete s***show. So fun though Hmmm...these threads are going to get nastier (see Deadpool) before the next ten days are over. The Cubs' idiotic theme song probably won't help matters much.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Oct 22, 2016 -> 11:42 PM) The Republicans should have figured out a way to "rig" the nomination process like the DNC did to burn Bernie. Anybody but Trump probably would have beaten Hillary. Maybe the FBI would have actually done the right thing and recommended charges if the Repubs had gotten behind Bush or Kasisch or Cruz. They let Donald whittle the field down single handedly. He made Bush seem like a bozo at the debates; he turned Cruz into a cartoon and nobody gave Kasisch a chance. Cruz would have beaten Clinton if Trump hadn't been around attacking Cruz and all the others at the Repub debates. Don't think Cruz beats Clinton. He's not well liked by anyone and too much of a religious conservative to win a national election. The FBI simply won't indict a candidate of the president's party unless it's a crystal clear case like Watergate where the entire process of governing has been subverted. Questionable judgment is a different standard.

QUOTE (Brian @ Oct 23, 2016 -> 06:03 AM) Do Cubs go Arrieta-Lester, or Arrieta-Lackey-Lester? Current Indians' roster vs. Lackey .717 ops in 176 at bats Rajai Davis and Marlon Bryd (not sure why he's showing up on this screen) have been the only two to do much damage Salazar and Bauer are both expected to throw in a simulated game Sunday to determine their status

QUOTE (Brian @ Oct 23, 2016 -> 06:03 AM) Do Cubs go Arrieta-Lester, or Arrieta-Lackey-Lester? Current Indians' roster vs. Lackey .717 ops in 176 at bats Rajai Davis and Marlon Bryd (not sure why he's showing up on this screen) have been the only two to do much damage

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/page/playo...y-night-wrigley The World Changed Saturay Night....Jayson Stark

What are their commitments to Anderson, McCarthy, Ryu and Kazmir after this year? Logically, they need to improve their offense more than their pitching. We'd be better off trading them Robertson and/or Nate Jones, as bullpen will be their second biggest need.

QUOTE (soxforlife05 @ Oct 22, 2016 -> 11:11 PM) The bullpen was lucky for sure. A lot of retread vets had great years like Dye and Everett as well. I never wanted Ozzie gone. Sure, Politte didn's sustain his success. But Cotts has had a long career, Marte was one the best lefty set-up guys in the league until 2015, Hermanson was originally a very high draft pick of the Expos, Jenks always had a ton of talent...Vizcaino and ElDuque were the very back end that year. They started with Takatsu before his one act frisbee stopped collecting gongs.

it's bad enough there wasn't a single Sox team in the playoffs while he was president, but now lots of idiots on the internet are arguing he's a Cubs' fan ugh...it's like the Sox don't even exist, and then all the politicians like HRC and Emmanuel will be fighting to claim to be the biggest fans too all that's missing is the obligatory Steve Perry, John Cusack, Eddie Vedder and Bill Murray appearances go Indians!...68 years and counting

QUOTE (JUSTgottaBELIEVE @ Oct 22, 2016 -> 10:29 PM) But much of the Sox current core has been through development. Sale, Q, Rodon, Anderson, Eaton are all guys they have developed. The finanacial limitations imposed by JR absolutely make it more difficult for them to field a competitive team. Of course it's not impossible but it is much more difficult. Although they would never do it, signing guys like Cespedes, Fowler, and Jansen this offseason would instantly make them a contender in the AL central while maintaining payroll similar to the Cubs this season. but not sustainable Fowler and Cespedes will likely attract multi year offers, and the logic of having Jansen and Robertson and Jones and Burdi only works with a $150-175 million payroll, not $125 they're better off operating like the Marlins and waiting for a deep-pocketed investor group

let's not forget they were going to pay Tanaka and Samardzija. now we know what it is like to be Oakland A's fans, albeit with a better stadium but a lesser GM The only positive about this is tv ratings and perhaps an expansion of younger baseball fans if the cubs build a mini dynasty but how that would help the White Sox is unclear

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/don...m=.663cc5375b1b George Will on Trump and GOPers who supported/enabled him. The line that stuck with me was the one about divorcing first wife Ivana because her breast implants felt wrong to him...when there's a 99.8% likelihood he was the one who pushed her into having plastic surgery in the first place.

QUOTE (hi8is @ Oct 22, 2016 -> 02:29 PM) You're right, exotic parrots are deplorable... I recant and apologize profusely. Directed at the post you were responding to. Should have been clearer.

Not sure how much of it is the current political climate...the Cubs' ascent...or the general malaise and lack of civility in internet message board discourse, but this seems like it's going to be more and more common going forward.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/donald-trumps-fi...-192113945.html Donald Trump's fine art of losing

QUOTE (Joshua Strong @ Oct 13, 2016 -> 10:09 AM) I don't get what point you're trying to make. Suicide Squad easily crosses a billion dollars if it was in China. My point was it is the biggest hit of the summer, not in terms of dollar but in longevity and it's still playing in theaters. I wouldn't say that Deadpool is better than SS or that SS is better than Deadpool, I have similar opinions on both films. There's been a dearth of decent movies the last two months. Sully, Magnificent Seven, Deepwater Horizon and this weekend's Jack Reacher are some of the few I can even recall. Deadpool is simply much more entertaining. I don't think many will care to watch SS again...unless they are fanboys and girls of Margot Robbie.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Oct 20, 2016 -> 03:40 PM) The one thing Ill give Wallace credit for was that he realized Trump was full of it early on. There was a point in the debate where Wallace made a decision that he wasnt going to crush Trump because that wasnt his job. I think he could have tried to pin Trump down on answering questions ie boots on the ground in Syria, but at that point Wallace realized that there is no point in pinning Trump down, because in a day, week, month he will say that never happened (even if you read a quote verbatim.) The good news is, I think that most of America saw Trump for the fraud he is. Push too hard, he gets to claim bias/unfair (despite FOX) and turn back to rigged election conspiracy theory land. Trump was left out in the open water without a life preserver. Burying him only would have made Wallace the story. As it stands, his superior moderating compared to others and Trump's refusal to accept the results were the two themes that swamped all others.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Oct 20, 2016 -> 03:26 PM) Even if SA gave the money to the Clinton foundation, Hillary isnt on the board of directors at this time. https://www.clintonfoundation.org/about/board-directors Im not sure if you can legally give back a donation, but lets just assume it can be done, it would be up to the board of the Clinton Foundation to make that decision according to the by laws of the Clinton Foundation. It seems that Trump doesnt fundamentally understand how a 501c3 works. Because the board would have a fiduciary duty to the charity, and im not sure how you would argue that it is in the best interest of the charity to give back $25mil for the sake of helping Hilllary become President. In fact the more I think about it, it would actually raise more red flags if a charity (with no connection to Hillary) gave back money, in an attempt to help Hillary. Because how would giving back the money help the 501c3's charitable purpose? Worst case scenario, they should donate/reroute it to the Gates Foundation or the UN/Millenium Project with Dr. Jeffrey Sachs. Both of those charities overlap a lot in their African continent initiatives. Nobody should complain about that outcome

Mazara and Profar were arguably their two worst offensive players, after Moreland and Fielder. You have a healthy Choo, two superior catchers in Chirinos and Lucroy, Beltre, Darvish and numerous pitchers back, Odor and then Andrus had a really good season as well. Desmond faded in the second half...along with Profar and Mazara, but they also have the advantage of a huge tv contract to pad the payroll down there. They also are saving a ton of money that looked like a sunk cost with the Fielder insurance settlement. When you've got Darvish/Hamels and that bullpen, you've always got a chance.

Winning elections is about articulating a better vision for the future, especially if you're challenging incumbents essentially. Trump's only consistent proposals have been building a wall that he can't pay for, will be totally ineffective and sends exactly the wrong message about what we stand for as a country...at a time when we actually need to be recruiting and competing for the best immigrants to fill the gap in STEM areas for high tech companies. So that idiotic plan, tax cuts for the rich and corporations and finally constantly undermining our NATO allies while cozying up to the Russians. Brilliant ideas that surely will work out well. Apparently nobody was alive around here when Lee Atwater was using his bag of tricks (Willie Horton/Dukakis) or the Bush campaign claiming McCain had an illegitimate African American child in South Carolina. What I find most amusing is that some of those who want to see more positivity about the White Sox have been consistently complaining about the unfairness of the Clinton campaign. How about instead of only proving the negative, they try another tact? If you can spin that the glass is half full with the White Sox, why can't the same be said of this election? And let's be honest. Bernie Sanders had about a 1/20 chance of overseeing significant banking reform as president, and a zero percent shot at universal free tuition. Zero interest in foreign policy, much like Trump. He never had a realistic chance of beating Clinton. The only reason he did is because he wasn't taken seriously as a threat, just like Trump on the GOP side and similar to how they let Obama get all the early traction in Iowa and South Carolina in 2008.