lostfan

This is what it sounds like when Ozzie admits he's wrong: "For all those people there saying it was my fault about Jim Thome, yes it's my fault. If those people don't like that, f*** them."

Ozzie Guillen seems to spend half the time sucking the Twins off while his team pisses down their collective legs against them, and the other half coming up with various ways to avoid admitting he's made a mistake and for the fans to stop criticizing him because they don't know s*** about baseball and to not watch games if they don't like it. Holy f*** Ozzie will you please STFU. Just once.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 18, 2010 -> 06:38 PM) It also was annoying for me in standing up for Jenks and getting brutalized. I still say it's all bad karma coming back to bite all of us. All of you that wanted Putz got it shoved in your face; the 2 of us who wanted Bobby got it shoved in our face; and those who love Thornton got owned last night. Twins get last laugh; we get to watch the Bears. Frankly the only one responsible for that is greg775. This is why we're taught as kids not to play on the train tracks, and you don't get mad at the conductor later after the train runs you over. Different people tried in different ways to tell you this but you weren't trying to hear it. Just like you said, it was annoying... right? So... yeah. I'm being quiet about it, the exact opposite of what you were doing. What's there to say? Putz sucked. You want me to say more? Why?

I was wondering how I'd feel about this thread after the bitterness from last night wore off, and to see if I felt any different. I don't. f*** everything about this thread. It sucks. The reasons have already been stated by other posters but in nicer language. That is all.

The fact that Putz blew it after being given the ball does not change or absolve the fact that Bobby was absolutely terrible except for a few weeks in June, and doesn't mean it wasn't the correct decision. Putz's stats were murdering Bobby's in every category you can come up with and he had been a successful closer in the not too distant past. I haven't talked about it because it's a predictable, very annoying, and at times just plain asinine discussion to be honest.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Aug 18, 2010 -> 02:53 PM) With regards to the mosque story, was wondering if anyone mentioned the Dubai port thing that Dems were up in arms about a few years back. What's funny about that is that as a result of that freakout, DPW had to sell off its American entity and you know who bought it? AIG.

Someone pointed out to me today that Jim Thome's WAR is greater than that that of Mark Kotsay, Juan Pierre, Mark Teahen, Andruw Jones and Omar Vizquel COMBINED.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Aug 18, 2010 -> 05:59 PM) Figured you'd at least sit back, relax and strap it down. Whatever you do, don't strap it on.

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ Aug 18, 2010 -> 12:10 AM) They can't get rid of Guillen....the factory that makes his assistant coaching contraption might go out of business. I laugh but...

When I was about 10 I had to decide which Chicago baseball team I was going to be a fan of for the rest of my life. If I had decided differently than I did, I probably would be agreeing with this post.

Hopefully you have some Ben-Gay handy in case you pull a muscle after that stretch you just made.

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Aug 17, 2010 -> 07:36 PM) there are exceptions, though. especially the orioles of late. Pinella used to have the magic touch as well. seems a manager can do more harm than good, in a weird way. Or maybe it's just that their mistakes are more magnified (Grady Little). I was going to say this but it would've changed the direction of my post. I think the amount of "magic" a manager has is limited by time. Kind of like how in the NBA you bring in a disciplinarian coach (like Scott Skiles) and you always get improvement at first and then the players tune him out after a couple of years.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 17, 2010 -> 07:37 PM) You made the statement that every country would do the same as the US were they in the US position. I'm not sure exactly what you were saying there. All I'm saying is that I disagree with you. I think that the vast majority of countries have no designs on being a world superpower. Maintaining or improving stature, yes. Being a world power similar to the US? Some, but I don't think the majority, let alone every nation. I can't think of any country that would willingly downgrade its status, wealth, influence, military power, standard of living, etc. (and not in a deliberate way of rolling with the inevitable to make it orderly if the nation is already declining). Show me a country that does that and I'll show you a country that sucks. I also don't see how a country wouldn't want to be more powerful, spread its influence across the globe, and such... yes we are talking about different countries in very different regions in the world, with different goals and views of themselves but when you make it a choice between "be more powerful" and "not be more powerful" I don't see too many leaders choosing the latter.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 17, 2010 -> 07:21 PM) Your argument is that every nation would do the same as the US, should it have the opportunity, correct? I don't know what you're getting at when you say "do the same as the US." If you mean "do what it can to preserve its position as the dominant superpower and center of the world" then yes. Absolutely. If you mean "build a s***load of nuclear weapons" then no. If you mean "want to keep itself as one of the haves while everyone except for a handful of others are have nots" then maybe.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Aug 17, 2010 -> 05:55 PM) To anyone who works in Tech support, you are a better person than me. I consider myself to be an extremely patient person (and I believe everyone I know would agree), but I had to just hang up on my mom while talking her through a simple computer procedure. I feel like I might as well have been talking an Alzheimer's patient through brain surgery. My wife's aunt is like that, she calls me for everything about her computer that is more complicated than turning it on or using Internet Explorer. When she got a new laptop she had the Norton thing come up and ask her something like did she want to pay a promotional rate now, or wait and do it later (for more $$) or to decline. She's like "what's this box?" I said it pretty much means exactly what it says. Do you want an antivirus subscription or not?

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 17, 2010 -> 07:17 PM) So you're arguing that every country throughout modern history has sought to dominate the world? This is second nature for all governments? I could not disagree more. Maintaining or improving world stature and building 35,000 nuclear weapons are simply not the same thing at all. ???? You made Balta proud just now

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 17, 2010 -> 06:54 PM) In the great words of Mr. Obama...."If it was easy, it would have been done already!" Look, again, I'm not arguing that it is easy, or that the situation is not complex. All I'm saying is don't treat me like I'm f***ing stupid. Admit the situation is what it is, and let's make decisions based on that. Let's not make up fake reasons and bs arguments to justify what the real result we're going for is - we want to control the supply of nuclear weaponry so as to continue our status as the only, or possibly in the future, one of, the world's superpowers - now was that so hard? Actually, even granting you that, I don't even know why this would be wrong. Acting out of self-interest to improve/preserve position is something every country does (and will always do lest another country do it first, see: Iran) That kind of thing is just not said out loud in diplomatic settings though, for reasons that should be pretty obvious.

c, c Not enamored with Ozzie, the shine of 2005 started wearing off sometime in 2008 (despite winning the division) but I don't blame him (solely) for this team being what it is right now - for example, the pathetic start to the season wasn't his fault. At the same time I wouldn't really be all that upset if he was gone either, for the reasons BigSqwert stated early in the thread. I think a manager's influence on a MLB team is pretty overrated most of the time, although you can't really just make your team start winning more by saying "guys you need to play better."

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 17, 2010 -> 06:21 PM) Fair enough. So 20 years is acceptable? Especially when you realize that the reduction that's occurred to this point has, for all practical purposes, accomplished nothing. What is the practical and real difference between possessing 35,000 bombs and 4,000 bombs? Absolutely nothing. They've been dragging their heels on this and the only accomplishment is a numbers game, so they can say "we've eliminated 80% of our stockpile!" That isn't anywhere NEAR as easy to do as you're trying to make it sound.

QUOTE (Rex Kicka** @ Aug 16, 2010 -> 02:31 PM) Actually, Obama ran on a platform of change in 2008. He rose a pretty high bar for himself that year, and he's paying the price now. You could say that 2006 the Democrats ran primarily on a "We're not Bush" platform, but I would argue that 2008 was very different. In 2008 there was a platform that won. Lily Ledbetter, repeal of DADT, health care reform, wall street reform, shifting the focus of the military from Iraq to Afghanistan were all key parts of his platform and many of these things were enacted. Many of these things were in the platform of 2006, but got drowned out by the frustration. You can even make an argument that the platform of rooting out corruption has, more or less, been honored as well. True, you can point to Rangel and Waters as examples of how that's not true. But in reality, the fact that two very powerful congresspeople have essentially been sidelined to the backbench due to ethics violations, and are literally being put on Congressional trial within three months of an election is a testament to how serious the Democrats have been in this regard. How many ethics trials were you seeing in 2006 held by the House of Representatives? None, because the ethics committee wasn't actually active. What's different between 2006, 1994 and today is that in previous years, when you peeled back the motivating anger - there was real, serious policy. Even in 1994 with the Contract on America - there were significant policy initiatives and goals that the GOP sought to pass in their first term. This year, when you peel back the anger - you only find more anger. Was this intentional? If not, that's pretty f***ing funny.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 16, 2010 -> 04:12 PM) Multiple reasons. There is no one, shiny object to blame here. Balta's right, the Senate is worthless. It's embarrassing.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Aug 15, 2010 -> 06:38 PM) If you made it through the '94 strike, you'll be fine. Trust me. But yes, It's looking more and more like the true talent level of this team is finally coming to the forefront. Let's face it. That 26-5 run was not really this team. If the Yankees, Red Sox, Rays or a healthy Phillies team go on a run like that, you know it's legit. I "made it" through the strike but only in the most literal sense, in that at some point in the past 16 years I started watching baseball again.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 15, 2010 -> 01:13 AM) Hey you know the motto around here. We b**** and moan and bury when the Sox lose. We for the most part yawn after the Sox win. Such is the nature of fandom circa 2010. I dunno, maybe its being in a bad mood from seeing ANOTHER blown save but the inane s*** that gets brought up afer a loss is even more annoying than usual.

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 14, 2010 -> 11:07 PM) He's done that about 5 times over the last three weeks. It just seems like he has no plan at the plate, and giving up at bats more than usual. Even when he's hitting, when has AJ ever had a plan at the plate? Ever?

QUOTE (chw42 @ Aug 15, 2010 -> 12:21 AM) I think I've come to the conclusion that this team might not be good enough. The real test is coming on Tuesday. Maybe. I don't know. But - and I hate being "that guy" - I do know that in the 6 minutes or so I spent reading the postgame discussion I've actually lost knowledge and forgotten things.