Iwritecode

I haven't been since 2006 so it may have changed but I've gotten photographs with a few players while they were signing. They had signs up saying you weren't supposed to but they generally looked the other way if the player was ok with it. Frank Thomas was especially accommodating. My friend, my wife and I all got separate pics with him.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 08:54 AM) I don't buy that for a second. First off that same magic didn't happen here, second that magic didn't disappear when he left. I think having Harry, combined with being owned by a major newspaper along with being aired all season long on a superstation all across the country created the perfect storm for them. Add in a few things like the Sosa/McGuire homerun chase, a handful of playoff appearances (including 2 in back to back years) and anniversaries of all sorts that meant "this is the year" Harry's death, 100 years, BTTF, etc... it's not hard to figure out how they've kept the attendance up year after year.

QUOTE (BrianAnderson @ Jan 20, 2016 -> 02:55 PM) My point is regardless of what they drew in the 70's and 80's that area has been completely revitalized. All neighborhoods from Old Town to Wrigleyville and West to Roscoe Village, etc. are thriving. As long as they are, the Cubs have a giant, wealthy, entertainment seeking demographic within 5 miles of Wrigley. Sox demographic just doesn't fit around the ballpark. Sure a few thousand maybe. But time to move the product to the burbs where you can take advantage of the family demographic. They'll have a nice leg up in creating a family stadium/atmosphere. Just will never happen under Jerry's watch. Winning trumps location.

I seem to remember Coop making these same basic comments on the radio last year.

QUOTE (BrianAnderson @ Jan 20, 2016 -> 12:49 PM) Wow. I didn't figure it was that bad.. Let's face it. We're the diehards of the diehards on this board. We'll go wherever they play. However, people like my father or many friends of mine just won't simply make the trip. They have kids and tasks to do. Taking 2+ hours RT to drive on a Wednesday isn't happening. That leaves a few weekend games a year they go to. The other team draws on a large Northside population. We can argue to the cows come home, but even I, end up going to more Cubs games a year than Sox. (Probably 12 Cubs games, 10 Sox or so each year). How? Why? I get free tickets (never paid to get into Wrigley), and also I can walk or take 2 min cab to a game. Same for when its over. Very nice to leave the ballpark in the Top 8, and be in bed by the Top 9. We'll never win that crowd over. We can however win over the suburb crowd who is looking for somewhat of the same comfort. First of all, it's not fair to compare the attendance of the Cubs to pretty much any other team in baseball. Or pretty much any other sport for that matter. For a long time they were the one exception to the rule of winning = attendance. 20+ years of being owned by a national newspaper that can put rose-colored glasses on every single headline it writes while dogging the intercity competition has that affect. There's no other way to explain 3 million people going out to see a team lose almost 100 games. Secondly, don't by into the myth that Wrigley field has always sold-out. There was a time back in the 70's where they literally closed off the entire upper deck. It hasn't changed locations since then. Until last year (when they made the playoffs) their attendance had been steadily dropping since 2008 (their last playoff appearance).

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jan 20, 2016 -> 11:33 AM) Welp...in the market for a car (unexpectedly). Our 2005 Pilot got rear ended and now damage has totaled the vehicle out (thankfully everyone was okay). Rec actually happened about a month ago but insurance has been a drag as other drive has been lying (thankfully police report called her out for such). Either way, was curious to see if anyone here happens to have a Sonata Hybrid (I've done the research, but curious in case anyone here happens to own one of the Hybrids). We are leaning towards getting the 2016 hybrid limited (was amazed at the bargains they got on those things). I actually was figuring I'd buy the all new pilot or highlander (our other vehicle is the previous generation Hybrid) but after seeing the cost of the Sonota decided we'd go a bit more economical and fuel efficient for our 2nd driver (knowing we have the bigger car for weekends / kid hauling). I have a 2012 Sonata but not the hybrid. I bought it brand-new with 70 miles on the odometer. I've got around 135,000 miles on it now and (knock on wood) it's been basically problem free. The only money we've put into has been routine maintenance. Tires, brakes, oil changes, etc... My only complaint is that it seems to burn out the bulbs for headlights at a higher than average rate. I'm certainly considering another one in a few years so I don't think you'll be disappointed. The 10 year/100,000 mile warranty is nice too. Most of the others I looked at (at the time) were only 5 year/60,000 miles.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Jan 20, 2016 -> 10:03 AM) So our first school cancellation of the year was today. 3½ inches of snow. Worst thing is that it came on the worst possible day for my wife. She works 6:30pm-7:00am 3 nights/week at a hospital, and the normal routine is I leave for work as soon as she gets home, she stays up until the kids are off to school, and then sleeps while the kids are at school. She works again tonight, so just staying up until I get home isn't an option, and I have things going on at work today that I couldn't miss so I couldn't just call in. She's having to leave the 7 and 6 year old mostly unsupervised while she sleeps, setting an alarm every 90-120 minutes to get up and check on them. My wife did that quite a bit when our kids were little and we had no babysitter for one reason or another. Barney and Teletubby videos, N64 games and lots of barbie dolls typically kept them entertained. They knew to stay inside and not try to cook anything on the stove themselves. We had schools close around here yesterday not because of any snow, but because they couldn't get the buses started.

QUOTE (BrianAnderson @ Jan 20, 2016 -> 09:17 AM) You'll always have a very LARGE majority of Chicagoland that aren't really "fans". Meaning I know enough people who were Sox fans in 05-06 and are Cubs fans in 2014-2015. People want entertainment. If that entertainment is a ballpark 20 mins from their home, then that's what they'll take. And what do the Sox in 05-06 have in common with the Cubs in 2014-2015? Hint: It's not about the location.

QUOTE (soxfan2014 @ Jan 20, 2016 -> 09:14 AM) Baby steps...let's first manage to get to ONE play off series at this point. Well of course that's the start. But they've done that a few times. Then they follow them up with a few 2nd or 3rd place finishes and all the excitement that was built up goes away again. It's going to take time and consistent winning to really make a difference. Being in first place for "most of the season" just doesn't cut it.

I shot a 649 last night and we still only won a single game. The second and third games the other team had 890 and 902. That's tough to beat. The women on the other team had averages in the 130 - 140 range and they both had 170+ games. We are still in first but our lead is slipping. I think our lead is down to 7 games now. Although I do have my average up to a 192.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 20, 2016 -> 08:10 AM) Win a playoff series or 3, you will get a bump the next season. There's the key. Now if they could only manage to figure out how to do that two years in a row.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jan 19, 2016 -> 03:49 PM) And it's also why the Cubs being good is bad for the Sox franchise, as the casual Chicago fan right now is definitely going to spend their money on Cubs games/merchandise as opposed to the Sox. It's truly amazing how little Sox merchandise is available at the local mall as opposed to Cubs stuff. QUOTE (IowaSoxFan @ Jan 19, 2016 -> 03:56 PM) I will extend that to where I live four hours away from Chicago, though we are considered "in market" there is virtually no Sox gear at any of the local stores, while there is plenty of stuff for the Cubs, Cardinals, Twins, Yankess, and Royals in that order. The Sox fanbase has an identity problem in the city, I think mostly because they took a good deal to build the stadium in a bad spot when there were better options. And nationally the Sox fanbase is pretty small relative to that of other teams. QUOTE (Dunt @ Jan 19, 2016 -> 03:58 PM) Walked into Dick's to look for some Sox gear around Christmas and they had 1 rack of Sox stuff as opposed to whole sections for the Cubs and Blackhawks. It's been that way for many years around me. I know there are certain stores I can go to and find Sox stuff, but I also know of a lot more stores that will display Cubs stuff over Sox stuff 10 to 1. I think the people that order the stuff for the stores are simply Cubs fans because there is no rhyme or reason to it.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jan 19, 2016 -> 10:49 AM) Seriously. Elba's "Luther" is a total Eastwood character anyway. I don't know what book you are talking about. But Elba excels in broken down, "ends justify the means" heros. Stephen King's Dark Tower Series. wiki link Here's one of the covers. That's the character Elba would be portraying.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jan 19, 2016 -> 10:45 AM) True, but IIRC HiA was written specifically as a companion story to the Dark Tower, whereas the other stories were visited by Roland throughout his travels I may be wrong, its been about 10 years since I read the dark tower series And in reference to Elba, i really dont care that Roland was written with Clint Eastwood in mind. It wouldnt bother me at all if Idris is cast as Roland I don't think it was specifically meant as a companion story. It just gave some background to a minor character that didn't even show up until the 7th DT book. You could read either one without reading the other and not really miss anything. King has always put in little hints to his other books or brought in characters from other stories. There are websites dedicated to pointing out all the connections between all of his books. As for Elba, I'm on the fence about it. He could probably pull the character off but the relationship between Roland and another character would have to be changed slightly.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jan 18, 2016 -> 08:19 PM) And that's just strange, right? Why make a movie which is a small part of a larger story? To be fair, IT, Dreamcatcher, Desperation, Salem's Lot and The Stand are also connected. Or at least they exist in the same reality. They made those movies without the references to the larger story. QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jan 18, 2016 -> 08:19 PM) On a related note, Idris Elba has been cast as Roland Deschaine He's likely to be cast but nothing's been confirmed yet. It's sparked an interesting debate considering SK based the character off of Clint Eastwood. Idris Elba looks nothing like Clint Eastwood.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jan 18, 2016 -> 01:36 PM) Wasn't Hearts in Atlantis a Dark Tower side story? It's connected, much like many of his other books. But they had to cut all those connections out of the movie because most of the audience wouldn't have a clue what they were referring to.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jan 18, 2016 -> 09:14 AM) I think a lot of that is because Kings writing style is very frequently from the mind of the main character. A lot of stories are told that way though and many transfer well to film. I was thinking more like the ending of IT. The people that see the ending of the movie always say IT was just a spider? But if you read the book you realize that ending was soo much bigger and more epic than that. IT wasn't *just* a spider. That was just the only physical representation the minds of the characters could come up with. That final confrontation didn't even take place in the physical world. It also connected to a much bigger universe. Hearts in Atlantis is another one that didn't translate all that well. It's one of my absolute favorite books of his, but they really chopped it up for the movie. The bad guys in that movie weren't supposed to be human. But with the way they are described, it would've been difficult to do on film.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jan 17, 2016 -> 09:33 AM) Stephen King movie adaptations are so weird. Some of them like the Green Mile, Shawshank, Misery are just awesome. Some of them like sleepwalkers, pet sematary, lawnmower man are just not good at all. That's because he pretty much ok's any adaption. Then it's up to the movie people to decide how closely they want to stick to the story in the book. For the most part, the ones that stick closer to the source material seem to be the better ones. The ones that go completely off the reservation (Lawnmower Man is a perfect example) usually turn out to be complete crap. Then there are the adaptions that just don't transfer well from written word to movie/tv screen.

QUOTE (Swingandalongonetoleft @ Jan 17, 2016 -> 11:08 AM) I enjoyed the movie; haven't read the short story yet. That ending was some heavy stuff. The movie follows the book almost exactly, except for the ending. When King saw the ending, he said he wished he would've come up with it first.

QUOTE (AustinIllini @ Jan 12, 2016 -> 08:32 PM) Illinois club hockey fans do that, and once a season, the announcer actually says "You're welcome!" At Rockford Icehogs games the announcer always says "You're welcome!".

Have we come to a consensus on Rey's parents yet? I know the big reason people say Luke can't be her father is that Jedi aren't supposed to have romantic relationships. But was Luke ever told that? That "rule" never even came up until Episode 2, long before he was born. I suppose Yoda or Obi Wan could have told him but they never really made a point of bringing it up in the original trilogy.

QUOTE (brett05 @ Jan 14, 2016 -> 08:00 AM) I don't recall discussing a book/short story with anyone, but now that I know it exists, I want to read it. I thought it was with you on the other board. Maybe not? Anyway, read the book if you can. It is soo much better than the movie IMHO. It's by Stephen King but he originally wrote it under his pseudonym "Richard Bachman". You can either find it as a stand alone book or in the collection called The Bachman Books (which also has another one of my favorite stories, The Long Walk). I'm not entirely sure if the book is still in print anymore as the ending mirrors a pretty horrific tragedy in American history. It gives a much better background on the main character and why hes forced to get involved in the games in the first place. The setup of the games is much better as well. The runners are basically free to go anywhere in the world instead of just being limited to a gameshow arena. There's also no sappy love story intertwined either. The ending is pretty dark but fits pretty well within the story. IIRC, we had/have a book thread in here somewhere.

Didn't they already confirm that Snoke is a brand new character that we haven't seen before?

I joined and adult/youth league with my daughter that started last night. School bowling for her doesn't start until late February so this will help her get used to bowling more than just once a week. It also awards scholarship money so that's a nice benefit as well. We bowl two regular games and then two baker games, so we end up bowling a total of 3 games each. My two regular games were 221 and 180. Her two regular games were 146 and 131. Not bad but she's capable of doing better. First baker game was 186. Then the second baker game we both caught fire and shot a 236. Could've been a 237 but my last shot I left the 8 pin and it literally slid over 3 or 4 inches. It was the only non-strike I threw the whole game.

Are you on a computer or tablet? Chrome has a built-in pop-up blocker that should be enabled by default.