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I don't understand why there has to be an extreme side to the fire/keep Robin argument. Nobody is saying that if he's fired that the team will suddenly rebound and win 100 games. On the other hand, nobody is saying that he's the sole reason the team has been in a horrible funk the last month either. Yes he can only play the hand he was dealt but it's up to him to put each player in the absolute best position to succeed. Whether that's where they bat in the lineup, how often they play, telling them when to bunt, a steal, hit & run or putting the right relief pitcher in at the right time. It's nearly impossible to put a number on how much influence a manager has his teams wins and loses but I do believe there are some that are better at in than others.

QUOTE (Lip Man 1 @ Jun 8, 2016 -> 02:48 PM) Historically though that philosophy has been in place almost from the start as at the first press conference EE said (paraphrasing) 'the way to win is with trades and free agent signings not the minor league system.' And that certainly worked early in the 80's when the Sox spent a lot of money and had a guy like Roland Hemond around to execute it pretty well as G.M. Mark One division title and a single playoff win isn't exactly what I would call winning baseball.

Maybe the question at this point isn't so much who can do better but can anyone else be any worse? Maybe it's making a change for the sake of making SOME sort of change but a new voice in the clubhouse could spark something.

I joined a short 10-week summer league with my family. It's all 9-pin no-tap. Very first game I got a 296. Of course the very last shot I made the ball simply didn't hook at all. The next 2 games were ok but not great. I'm just glad I don't have to worry about picking up the corner pins when I leave them! I haven't bowled regularly since April so trying to get back into the routine. I was hoping playing softball would help but my arm is still a little sore.

Pennywise the Dancing Clown is returning.

QUOTE (Jerksticks @ Jun 6, 2016 -> 09:08 PM) And at the end of the day all this is moot; credit shmedit. Either you have some capital to take out a loan or you don't. Either your income and history looks like you can pay it back or it doesn't. I'd argue it's a big waste of time to worry about a fluctuating credit score. Either you can cut a deal with a lender or not. The biggest difference in having a good credit score and an excellent credit score is the interest you pay on loans. Even with a 3 or 4 year car loan your interest rate can make a difference of a few thousand dollars. So having a better credit score can actually save you money. I grabbed this from a random article about credit scores. That's a lot of extra money for having a worse credit score.

QUOTE (pettie4sox @ May 31, 2016 -> 10:15 AM) Not sure if this would be the appropriate thread but since when do you need to be a spouse or a significant other to cosign on a loan for a relative? Must be something fairly new. I co-signed a car loan just last year for a friend I'm not even related to. Had no problems with it. I had my parents co-sign for a car loan when I was 19. QUOTE (kevo880 @ May 31, 2016 -> 12:30 PM) I received a letter in the mail from Chase informing me they are closing a credit card account of mine due to inactivity and that there's nothing that I can do about it. Have any of you had this happen? It doesn't bother me aside from the negative hit to my credit score. I had that happen once with a Capital One card. It only had like a $200 limit and I never used it. You'll take a small temporary hit to your credit score. But unless you are obsessed with having a perfect score, it shouldn't affect you too much.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Jun 1, 2016 -> 09:09 PM) Believe they stopped physical notifications to save money. The good news is that they quit charging late fees until they start sending out the reminders again. This was only after they collected millions of dollars in fines between January and March. Link

QUOTE (Ezio Auditore @ May 27, 2016 -> 11:23 AM) I have a confession. One time when I was 11 years old I was offered, and accepted, a participation trophy for playing Little League that year. My team was in second place and I didn't really do anything special to stand out. As a result, my entire life from that point forward (high school achievements, my internship, being a manager at Blockbuster, my military career, college, my current job) has been a fraud. I would like to apologize to my teammates (even though they, too, accepted the same trophies), my parents, James Harrison, and Donald Trump. I let you all down.

We played the last game of the first half of our season last night. Finished the half with a record of 6 - 1. The one game we lost was because we were playing short-handed for the first few innings because one of our players came late. Surprisingly we didn't have any rain-outs. There was one night were we played but none of the other teams did because the rain came afterwards. Somehow they have us on the schedule for a makeup game though. I've been manning the hot corner pretty regularly and aside from one or two times where there seemed to be a hole in my glove, I've done pretty well overall IMHO.

QUOTE (greg775 @ May 26, 2016 -> 11:58 PM) Now if you want to know what Johnny can do to avoid getting a C- or D in the future, fine, but don't blame the teacher if Johnny sucks at Math or can't write a sentence please. I don't completely blame the teachers for a kid failing but I think they do share some responsibility. Not all kids learn the same way. My daughter failed a math class a few years ago. Then when she re-took the class the next year with a different teacher, she passed it. I asked her what the difference was since it was the exact same class and she said the second teacher explained things in a way she understood better.

At my HS ALL the seniors are exempt from finals. Their last day is actually the week before finals. So they get a 2 week break between their last class and graduating. I'm pretty sure it was that way when I went there too. Although I do remember one computer class where our "final" was to sit in and watch the movie War Games while eating popcorn and drinking pop.

My nephew is graduating Saturday. Then I'm taking all of next week of for vacation time. Actually, my vacation starts at 11:30AM tomorrow.

QUOTE (greg775 @ May 26, 2016 -> 03:45 PM) Maybe the participation trophies aren't so smart after all. I've mentioned this before but I think the whole participation trophies meme is bulls***. I played softball in the 80's and we had them back then too. The thing was, we knew exactly what they were. Something to take up space on a shelf at home and then later get buried in a box in the back of a closet somewhere. They didn't make us feel any better. We were still jealous of the kids that got the much bigger and better first and second place trophies. Honestly, I get more annoyed at the people that celebrate their kid "graduating" every single grade level including pre-school.

I only lived with my parents for about 4 years after I graduated HS. I was able to go from living with them to buying my own house. All while going to college, having 2 kids and having a decent-paying job just about fall into my lap.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 26, 2016 -> 08:58 AM) I did it for about 15. SO glad those days are gone. I did a 50 minute drive for 11 years and a 2+ hour drive for almost 5 years. Now I'm less than 10 minutes from my front door to my desk.

My oldest will be 20 in August and she doesn't have plans to move out anytime soon. Mostly because she is working part-time and putting herself through the local community college. We'll see what happens after she actually gets her degree but full-time jobs are nearly non-existent in the low-skill places like fast-food and retail which is really all she is qualified for at the moment. I also know someone who is mid 30's and still lives at home. He ran into some financial troubles a few years back and he's just now digging himself out of that hole and plans on getting a place by the end of the year. Should be interesting to see when it happens because I don't think his parents are going to handle it well.

Anyone who has read the Dark Tower books should understand the significance of this object. It pretty much gives them free reign to do whatever they want in the movie as well. The Gunslinger fled across the desert and the man in black followed.

I hate bunting when the starting pitcher just threw 8 straight balls to the previous 2 batters.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ May 18, 2016 -> 08:46 AM) Sometimes when you drive alot that tool needs to be extremely comfy with lots of bells and whistles!!! Totally this. I spent 11 years driving 30+ miles one-way for my first job and almost 5 years driving 90 miles one-way at my previous job. So I've always had to make sure my cars were not only reliable, but comfortable as well considering how much time I spent in them. Fuel efficiency was also a big factor so more often than not, the newer the better.

QUOTE (brett05 @ May 13, 2016 -> 12:24 PM) Sure they do. It prevents people from doing what they want. That's not what discrimination means.

My daughter played softball for about 6 years. There were only a couple of times I got really upset. One was when the kids were around 7 or so and the opposing coach kept sending his runners around the bases because he knew kids that age have trouble throwing/catching the ball consistently. Our girls would be throwing the ball back to the pitcher and he'd have his kids still running. The other time was when my daughter was a few years older and the umpire was calling strikes on balls that literally bounced on or before the plate. I later found out that our coach told the umpire to "expand the zone" because we were winning by a lot. Finding that out actually made me even more upset.

QUOTE (greg775 @ May 10, 2016 -> 03:29 PM) You said: "They don't mean you didn't earn what you have, just that you may have had less obstacles to get to it and you shouldn't ignore that. Just realize that there are a lot of things out there that you didn't have to deal with, and just be aware of that." Are you fricking serious? So that gives you the right to come up to me in a public place and yell "check your privileges" And I thought they were also saying "check your white privileges." How the hell does this group of people know that I don't accept the fact I've had less obstacles to overcome??? I might be totally that way. You don't know that when you approach me? But I sure as hell disagree with you screaming that in my face! How the hell do the Black Lives Matter group know that the people they are yelling at aren't fully cognizant of the fact they have had less obstacles. Yes it is VERY RUDE of that group to act in a mean manner to white people just trying to sit in a library. You said you've "got to this point for a reason?" What reason ... that person in the library for all you know is Mother Theresa II and does more things for black people than anybody in the last 100 years. You said: "It's complete s*** that we've gotten to the point that people feel compelled to say "check your privileges", but we've gotten to this point for a reason, because so many people have never given that any thought and can't understand that someone may have had different experiences than them." OMG. You did not get to this point for a reason, because AGAIN, the person you are telling to check their privileges may have done that many times. You don't know their position. Do you want the people in the library to fill out a form expressing their positions before you yell at them?? I was reading that some people who were marching on campus with the angry group of Black Lives Matter people came back to study later and got yelled at anyway!! After marching on campus. I am talking about rude behavior. You have NO RIGHT to invade my space and tell me to check my privileges and act rudely to me. Again how do you know I am not a sympathizer. You go up to the wrong person and you get a knuckle sandwich. Now can you respond to my response? Why do you feel you have the right to go up to innocent people whom you KNOW NOTHING ABOUT and ask them to check their privileges. How bout an answer of "I'll check them later; I'm here to study for my Calculus test motherf***er." I have yet to see anyone in this thread say that what happened in that library 6 months ago was ok.

QUOTE (chw42 @ May 10, 2016 -> 01:22 PM) Please tell me we play the Braves this year. We play the Braves this year.