mmmmmbeeer

I was also born a Sox fan, 3rd generation on my dad's side raised in the SW burbs. My Uncle was the one that really took me to the most games, but small talk with that side of the family usually involved the White Sox. I remember when JR was going to move the Sox to Florida. My dad was a nervous wreck about the whole deal, just pissed. He stayed up the night the legislature voted for funding like right before midnight, came and woke me up out of a dead sleep to let me know that they were staying. He was so excited, good stuff. My mom's parents were sCrUB fans so there was always a fun rivalry there. My grandma would always bet me and my brother and sister a $1 on the crosstown classic. I watched many a sCrUB game at their house. Afternoon games when they had Jody, Ryne, and them. So it seems that they were trying to turn me to the dark side, but never succeeded. My two sons are already brainwashed, especially my 5 year old. He'd walk around the little league parks last year, pimping his T-Ball uniform, and yelling "boo cubs" to any kid wearing a little league Cubs uni, regardless of their age. He'll see someone in public wearing a sCrUBs hat or shirt and he'll whisper, "hey daddy, look, choke cubs hat". And of course, most importantly, he's quick to give props to anyone he sees wearing Sox gear, which is rather seldom (Tulsa, now Atlanta).

You can send back movies as long as you haven't opened the brown mailer they're sent in. If you're looking to build your collection this is a good deal. Fulfull your membership, quit, then they'll offer you an even better package to rejoin. Repeat until there just aren't any more movies that you want from their selection. I'm not in either club any more just because of the damn directors picks that they send you automatically. I'm just bad about remembering to decline online or by sending the postcard.

That's an impressive amount of history in your blog. You must spend a lot of time on it. Thanks!

I'll disagree and say Chicago is a baseball town. I've been out of the Chicago area for about 12 years and every time I come home I'm surprised by just how much love baseball gets in that city, moreso than any other city I've ever visited. Sure you can say that the Bears were the first in the NFL, but the Sox and Cubs go back atleast another generation. 100+ years of two franchises in the same city tends to create a pretty deep bond, one that 60+ years of football cannot compete with.

Tanqueray Ten..compliments of my sister via Christmas

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Dec 15, 2006 -> 08:13 PM) They're asking a ton for a young player who has a great bat, good defense, and a great contract. That's not too damn much, that's getting a full return on your product. Chris James is the Braves' equivalent to BMAC. Would you trade Brandon AND prospects for Baldelli? I sure wouldn't. They're asking for too much. They have too many outfielders down in Tampa and unless they learn that no one outside of the Mets are going to overpay for one of their players, they'll continue to have a glut of young stud players sitting on their bunch or getting pissed off because they're still stuck in the minors.

I like the approach, honestly. No pitcher in our rotation would qualify, IMO, as a absolute keeper, in the molds of a Santana, Peavy, Bonderman, Verlander, etc. Because of this, there's nothing wrong with refusing to pay big money to retain our staff. With that said, if this is going to be our new mission and mantra, JR and KW had better find a way to start working with Scott Boras and/or get over the Borchard deal and not hesitate to offer big money to top picks. As Flash loves to point out, we need to do a better job of drafting power pitchers. If we're building with youth in the staff, we need to have a variety of styles of pitchers to choose from, not just a bunch of MBs. I don't know if Kenny is the guy to head up this kind of effort. He and his staff seem more adept at picking vets to complement a team than he does choosing young impact prospects. This is the kind of project that you can't really afford many mistakes. One miscalculation can blow an entire season if you're left with a hole or two in your rotation. This is the part of this that makes me think it's way too early to start "rebuilding" after our championship and such a strong core still in place.

QUOTE(jphat007 @ Dec 5, 2006 -> 06:19 PM) I'm beginning to get the feeling that there are going to be some sad and whiny people by the end of this offseason. If this is any indication of what we can expect in a deal, ya damn right there'll be some whiny people...and I think rightfully so.

QUOTE(Felix @ Dec 5, 2006 -> 04:57 PM) I'm a fan of this proposed deal. why? is rowand, including money in your evaluation, that much of an improvement over Anderson...if at all? Are we really improving in CF? Unless one of the two disappointing prospects are what makes this appealing to you.

that sounds horrible.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Dec 5, 2006 -> 03:22 PM) How is Mark streaky? He's had one bad season and that was last year. Mark is younger and has better career numbers, how is Freddy better? When Mark is rolling, he's rolling. When he's struggling, he's struggling...it might be for 2 weeks, it might be for a month, it might be for 3/4 of the season..but he's always come across to me as a streaky pitcher. It's just an observation of mine and I'm not skilled, nor bored enough, to dig through statistics to prove my observation. The context of my statement was built on the premise of a long term deal. I think Freddy, due to the ability and initiative to adjust his game when struggling, is a better candidate and investment for a long term deal. Freddy was a power pitcher, he's got a whole other style to fall back on, namely deception and control. Mark was never a power pitcher and already relies on deception and control. So if, like last season, he loses that control and deception, what does he fall back on? He's got nothing unless he learns a knuckler from Haeger. Edited to add, give me Freddy in a big game over MB. That alone is worth a contract.

IMO, y'all overvalue MB. There's no way in hell I'd offer him 5/65. $15m a year for a guy with so many innings, so dependent on control over stuff, so streaky? I know many will disagree, but I think Freddy is a much better pitcher than MB and I think it'd be a mistake to let Freddy go while signing mark to a 5/65 deal. Neither of them had their best stuff last year but Mark atleast started the season pitching well. When he lost it, he lost it. He was horrible and I saw few adjustments on his part to make things improve. Freddy never had it last season and yet completely adjusted his approach to compensate for his loss of velocity. Hell, he even learned a new pitch which paid instant dividends. When looking at a longterm deal, and a strong possibility of the pitcher losing his "stuff" with age, I want the guy who has the ability to change his style, not a guy who just waits around to get his "stuff" back...especially when that "stuff" was never great to begin with.

QUOTE(LowerCaseRepublican @ Dec 3, 2006 -> 02:23 AM) Current books I am looking through in the near future The Essential Chaplin Bill Hicks: Agent of Evolution The Audacity of Hope - Obama We Regret to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families (about Rwanda in 1994) Rationale of the Dirty Joke Love the People (Bill Hicks book) American Scream (another Bill Hicks book) A bunch of books from Disinfo.com Started Obama's new book...seems like a bunch of pie-in-the-sky rhetoric so far. He does write extremely well so atleast he makes it interesting. He definitely comes off as a politician who hasn't been corrupted by Washington yet. To be read soon: *The Elephant in the Room: Evangelicals, Libertarians and the Battle to Control the Republican Party - Ryan Sager * The Conservative Soul: How We Lost It, How to Get It Back - Andrew Sullivan *The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin - Gordon Wood I had made a post here about it, but I'd really recommend Woodward's "State of Denial", very interesting read.

QUOTE(Rex Kicka** @ Dec 3, 2006 -> 09:39 AM) Do suitcase nukes actually exist? I could probably show some initiative and google that for you, but it's a lazy Sunday morning. I just remember reading something about this. I wouldn't think that they'd pack much of a wallop, just due to the size of the weapon, but a nuke is still a nuke. EDIT: It only took a second, so... http://www.military.com/NewContent/0,13190..._072204,00.html

QUOTE(Texsox @ Dec 3, 2006 -> 08:26 AM) It's been a while since I've read anything on the Russian nuclear situation, but it was a very disturbing problem. No money to maintain the buildings, no money to pay security, no money to investigate the people with access. And government scientists, with ties to some unsavory characters from "negotiations", who had been living in the lap of luxury, suddenly without paychecks. I remember coming away from that book, and the title escapes me now, with the nagging feeling we were less safe with the breakup of the Soviet Union than before. The book was written, largely, with information from one of their scientist who had defected, so who knows how accurate a picture he drew. If I remember correctly, there were also a small number ( As far Litvinenko, I have no doubt he was assassinated. There is just too much evidence after reading this continuing saga.

We hooked up some Tortilla soup in the crockpot today. Delish and super easy. Brushed some butter on some flour tortillas and tossed them in the oven for a few minutes and then dropped them in the soup along with a dab of sour cream and some shredded cheddar. Great meal.

Baseball perspective aside, I really don't like this deal. Crede has become probably my favorite player on the team. I really don't like Chone Figgins at all and Ervin has always been one of baseball's most overhyped players in my opinion. It just seems that with this market we could "downgrade" a Santana to an ML-ready prospect and not have to give up Crede. I just assumed that in this market any deal we'd make would be an obvious white sox winner. This proposed deal is far, far away from being an obvious sox winner...if anything, it creates another hole.

Just finished reading this book and gotta admit I was really impressed. I was expecting a scathing commentary on the President but the book went much deeper than I had anticipated. Target numero uno is Rumsfeld. If even 1/2 of what Woodward reported is true, we may see a real change in strategy now that Rummy has FINALLY been pushed out of the administration. I didn't find this a partisan book but I can certainly see why some in the administration wanted nothing to do with it. We all know that there were mistakes in Iraq, but this book just seemed to really get down to the bare bones. The ideas for a smoother post-war Iraq were there, the implementation is what was missing. Anyone else read this? If you haven't, I'd recommend it. The book is fairly long but reads quickly.

I worked for a company where I received 25 days (200hrs) of PTO (paid time off) that was to be used for either vacation or sick days. We also received the standard holidays and 3 IFM days (family medical days). Well, that was a good deal because the company expected you to take 28 days off a year. We got bought out by another company where we now get just 15 days of vacation, 10 sick days, and 3 flex holidays. This is the EXACT same amount of time off but they sneakily place 80hrs worth of vacation as sick time, counting on people to feel guilty, or like they owe something to "the man". I say screw 'em. I'm going to take my 10 sick days each and every year. They do not carry over from one year to the next, so I've got basically one day a month that they can count on me not being there. The large majority of my new co-workers treat this the same, and the supervisors understand that that's just the way things are. The company is trying to get off cheap, as usual. It's up to employees to realize that the company is out to screw them over at every turn, we must do the same and maximize our benefits.

No thanks on Clemens. His numbers have looked good the last couple seasons solely because he was pitching in the NL. He sucked the last time he was in the AL with NY.

QUOTE(redandwhite @ Nov 7, 2006 -> 04:40 PM) Does anyone know if because my fever, headache, and overall soreness is gone, that it might be just a bad sore throat or something? That's really the only symptom I'm having, although it's bad enough to the point where It's tough to swallow or eat anything outside of apple sauce and water. mono is quite a conclusion to jump to...much more likely you just have strept or something similar. I had mono back in high school and you'd know it if you have it.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Nov 6, 2006 -> 02:38 PM) IF all of those kids develop right away. How many times does a touted starting pitcher step into the rotation and realize his potential right away, let alone having multiple starting pitchers do it, all at the sametime. Its one thing to be breaking in one starter, which it sounds pretty for sure we are going to be doing, it makes things even more complicated. Sure it might work 2-3 + years down the road, but odds are in 2007 we do not make the playoffs. Heck, who was even the last team to make the playoffs with two essential rookies in the starting 5. The 2006 Twins.

"The White Sox could take a shot at Rangers shortstop Michael Young as part of a major deal. Young can become a free agent after 2007, and the Sox could elect to take a run at him then. The Sox have thoroughly scouted Texas pitching prospects Edison Volquez, John Danks, Thomas Diamond, Nick Masset and Eric Hurley, and preliminary talks last November broke down when the Rangers were unwilling to part with Danks or Diamond in a multiplayer trade." -- Chicago Tribune http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/scor...ex.html?cnn=yes Never knew that we had talked to Texas about Young. I know a Young acquisition has been discussed on here before, and I believe everyone loved the idea. No doubt TEX needs pitching, so we'd matchup with them well as a trading partner.

Is the agent supposed to say that Dave wouldn't fit in here?

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Oct 13, 2006 -> 11:41 AM) I don't see how Buehlre could possibly be a lock at this point, hell his option hasn't even been picked up yet. Once the option is excercised he still isn't a lock seeing how he can walk after the '07 season. There are no locks for next year's rotation, the pitcher's who's jobs are the safest would be McCarthy, Garland and Vazquez then a little ways down you have Contreras followed by Buehrle and Garcia is on the very bottom of the list, here's a visual: Garland | McCarthy | Vazquez Contreras Buehlre Garcia outstanding visual, bro. thanks.