Carlo Paz

Jerry gets trashed a lot because Jerry makes a lot of decisions that leave many of us scratching our heads and saying WTF. Those of us that b**** about his decisions could certainly all be wrong. It's easy to shoot spit balls from the side lines. In my opinion though, those that complain about Jerry do so precisely because they (we) are concerned about winning. I don't think Jerry makes decisions that optimize our chances of winning, thus, I complain. Believe me, I was much happier saying things like "holy s***, LaRussa made Billy Martin look like a chump that whole series, I think this team is going places".

Many people on here (myself included) seem to think that Jerry Manuel is a very bad manager. I'm wondering if there have been any examples of bad managers who have won big. Can anyone think of a team in recent memory that was so talented that they won despite having a manager who couldn't pour piss out of a boot with the directions printed on the heel? (The obvious example being the 2000 White Sox)

The only circumstance I can think of to root for the Cubs occured last night, and even then I was having mixed emotions. I wanted the f***ers to hurry up and win already so I could watch the Sox game, but damn I wanted them to lose. Stupid Diamondbacks.

Yeah, Alvarado sucked pretty good, but I used to love to watch him field ground balls between his legs and behind his back in the pre-game warm ups.

When I was a little kid my dad somehow got us tickets between the Sox dugout and home plate. My brother and I were in the front row watching the players warm up. Woodie Held was playing catch with Ron Hansen almost close enough to touch. As they finished throwing and trotted towards the dugout another kid about my age was standing to the left of me screaming "Woodie, Woodie, throw me the ball!" over and over again. It was a bit obnoxious. Just before he got to the dugout, Held looked at the kid who had been screaming at him, then turned and tossed the ball right to me! Man, was that kid pissed. I kept that ball for years until my nephew took it out and used to hit ground balls to his friends on a muddy day. Held only hit .143, but as far as I was concerned, he was the greatest player on the Sox.

Nice job.

I heard on the radio yesterday that Frank Thomas and Jeff Bagwell have the same date of birth. It's amazing how similar their career numbers are, especially if you figure in Thomas' lost season. Here's a link to their stats (if anyone cares). http://chicago.whitesox.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb...e.x=&statSet1=1

All true. Which is why I hated him so much. Ozzie had TALENT. Big deal. I'm not impressed with talent as much as I am with what someone does with it. Ozzie never did anything to improve his offense when just a little bit of discipline would have helped the team immensely. What good is a base stealer who can't get on base? How is Ozzie going to impose discipline on players when he never had any himself?

I assume this is a joke. That little prick never got it in his head the entire time he was here that it would help the team if he got on base every once in a while. He was a career .264 hitter (not too bad) with a career OBP of .287 (inexcusable). s***, Royce Clayton was at least as good a SS as Ozzie and while his career BA is only .255 his career OBP is .309. We couldn't wait to get him out of here. I felt the same way about Ozzie. Understanding the game means doing what it takes to win. Ozzie didn't understand s***.

Great post. Thanks for the info.

"cough, cough, KONERKO, cough, cough"

The All Star Game will be the first sell-out of the season? No sell-outs against the Cubs? Blaming the stadium for lower attendance than Cleveland, Seattle and San Francisco is disingenuous. I think on field performance has far more to do with that. Is Cleveland selling out every game now that they are a second division team? I don't think so.

I thought the decision to sit Konerko for the first two games of the trip was horrendous. The guy is coming off his only highlight of the entire season (late HR vs. Twins). Seemed like a perfect opportunity to get him rolling again. Instead he sees no action for two days. Emotional high effectively dissipated. In my mind this is Manuel's failing in a nutshell. His game strategies are mediocre at best, but his managing of the intangables (things like momentum, chemistry and attitude) is about the worst I've ever seen. When he left Mark Johnson off the '90 playoff roster I said to myself that Manuel was a clueless asshole. He's done nothing since then to change my mind. There is plenty of talent on the Sox, but if they do anything this year it will be despite JM, not because of him.

Yep. Borchard needs to take some lessons in "short and quick". Look at Aaron Rowan since he's been back. Dangerous.

Wow, that works really well. Nice to be able to feel that I can play a role in getting Frank on the team.

Those commercials are one of the reasons I usually tape the games and then watch them late at night. When I occasionally watch the game live, I find myself hitting the ff button on the remote after almost every inning.

A-Rod.

What about A-Rod? Now that would blow my mind.

I usually disagree with almost every decision that JM makes. I still think the team would be better off without him despite the recent mini-surge. With that in mind, I think the decision to start DJ at third today was a great idea. Crede has been struggling again, DJ handled third late yesterday and is coming off the emotional high of driving in the game winner, plus you get the added lefty bat in the line up. Real good chance to find out if DJ is a viable back up (or even possible replacement) for third. The season is long and sometimes a manager has to make moves in the short run that blow up in his face in order to get info for the long run. (First post...be gentle)