Thad Bosley

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 24, 2015 -> 08:59 AM) Yeah reading the posts in this thread, I don't know where anyone would get the words "fickle" and "bandwagon" from when talking about the White Sox fan base. Yes, thank you! You are exactly right - where does anyone get those silly words! What we are talking about here is performance and how a fan base responds to that performance. Only three playoff appearances since '95 from the only big market team in a generally weak division? Not much for a fan base to get excited about, now is there. And that's precisely the point by several rather astute posters on this thread who are merely suggesting we do a little more of THAT - getting into the playoffs more often and creating some excitement to energize the base. The fans sure seemed to like that in '05, as evidenced by the waiting list for season tickets and the nearly three million fans through the turnstiles the following season. The way forward is more winning by the team and less unnecessary disparaging of the fan base.

Alright, let's do it! Let's give this sellout a thrill!!

QUOTE (fathom @ May 23, 2015 -> 05:40 PM) It's going to be hard for Hahn to find power during the year. Right now, your only power sources are 1b, DH and rf. There's very little, if any, power coming from LF, CF, SS and 2b Or 3rd.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 23, 2015 -> 05:31 PM) Another chopper from right side by Melky. His swing righty is so messed up. 3 for 38. Ouch.

QUOTE (Heads22 @ May 23, 2015 -> 04:17 PM) There's a very slim chance Stoney is back next year. You might be right, but Stoney made an interesting comment earlier about a conversation he had with Paulie on a flight to Arizona last year. He was very complimentary about Paulie's seemingly cerebral thoughts on hitting. Now I am and always will be a big fan of the Hawk, but I kind of like the idea of a Stone/Paulie pairing. Maybe if Hawk reduces his schedule next season and going forward that configuration could come together.

Hmmm...Paulie is quite articulate. Seems at ease behind the mike, too. He may just have a future in our booth.

QUOTE (Soxfest @ May 23, 2015 -> 03:36 PM) Nice to see a full house on a great day weather wise. It is picture perfect out there!

QUOTE (MIZ-SOX @ May 23, 2015 -> 12:39 AM) The White Sox aren't going anywhere. They have a newish stadium in the third largest market in the league. Even with trash attendance, they're the 16th most valuable franchise in the MLB, up 40% from last year. Attendance just doesn't have nearly as big of an impact on the bottom line as it used to, which is definitely a good thing for JR. Well I'm glad that's good for JR - now I can sleep better knowing that. Meanwhile, as for we the fans, since 1995, only two teams in the AL have made it as far as the Al Divisional Series fewer times than the Sox - the Blue Jays and the Royals. And eight of the teams have made it to the AL Championship Series more times. Except for 2005, the ball club has pretty much been nonexistent in the postseason for what seems like forever. There may be other reasons in play for the team's never ending attendance problem, but this is as big a reason as any. In my opinion, of course.

QUOTE (South Sider @ May 22, 2015 -> 04:36 PM) "I haven't completely given up hope on the Reinsdorf regime..." HA! Oh, I have, and with very good reason. The results of Jerry Reinsdorf's 35 years at the helm of this franchise have been a disaster. He has only one season during his tenure as owner that he can point to and really claim to be an exciting and successful one - '05. During the other 34 years, the team only won the division a measly four times, and the playoff appearances those four years were anything but memorable. And then we wonder why the fan base is dormant. Why we have to operate like a small market team because the team Reinsdorf routinely runs out there is not postseason caliber. That is really a horrible record of futility, no matter how you look at it. No sustainable success for three and a half decades now. Meanwhile, over the years he's publicly fought with the likes of Harry Caray, Carlton Fisk and Larry Himes while remaining unapologetically loyal to people like Kenny Williams, Buddy Bell, Robin Ventura, etc. He dumps Harry Caray and WGN in the '80s in favor of SportsVision. He hires Hawk Harrelson to be GM and ends up losing Tony LaRussa in the process. He blackmails the state of Illinois to build him a new stadium while also providing him with a sweetheart lease deal, and then turns around and directs the construction of an abysmally designed ballpark. He fires Himes who drafted Frank Thomas, Ventura, Jack McDowell, Alex Fernandez, Jason Bere, and who traded for Lance Johnson and Wilson Alvarez, claiming Himes got the team from "point A to point B", but he didn't think he could get the team to "point C", i.e., the World Series. In his judgement, Ron Schueler was the guy who could do that. How'd that work out for us! It could have happened in '94, except the Chairman chose his burning desire to break the players' union over the World Series aspirations of his team and fans that year. Terry Freaking Bevington! White flag trade. The list goes on and on and on with this failure. This franchise is in desperate need of new leadership, strategy and vision from the very top. That is very clear. Jerry Reinsdorf has been the owner now for 35 years, and he holds claim to a very unimpressive record of achievement. Yes, the WS championship in '05 was amazing, but that does and cannot mask the other 34 years. The White Sox need new ownership. It's that simple.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 22, 2015 -> 11:17 AM) Apparently you don't read anything that doesn't fit your pre-set agenda. I have even compared our attendance to other teams, including Detroit, to make the point. Even after two of the worst seasons in the entire franchises history, their attendance went up after a 72 win season. Ours goes down after a playoff run. We have a small and bandwagon fan base. Nothing you have said disproves any of that. In fact much of what you say about what it takes to get fans to actually show up only reinforces that. And no, I don't listen to sports talk radio. The last thing I need is to listen to hours of meatball fans complaining about everything under the sun. Comparing our attendance to that of Detroit does nothing to add to what we are talking about here about our attendance problems. And apparently you are not reading anything that doesn't fit your own pre-set agenda, either, which is to blame attendance on fans making excuses, because you were asked to back that claim up with evidence and you didn't. Whatever. In the meantime, we agree to disagree. The club has a very bad attendance problem. I optimistically suggest that would be fixed over time with more sustained winning. That's what I believe to be true. You don't agree, which is fine, and I don't care if you do or not. You're entitled to your opinion. But if what you say is, in fact, true, that sustained winning won't solve the problem, and you are convinced the "small bandwagon" fan base just won't show up for one excuse or another, then Mr. Reinsdorf ought to think about selling the current ballpark that seats 40,000 and building one that only seats 20,000, because to your way of thinking, that's all he'll ever need.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 22, 2015 -> 06:08 AM) I love the way you casually refer to this as as if it were something obvious, like we have a pile of Paul Konerko's sitting around that we are leaving attendance on the table by failing to honor, as if we haven't had two Paul Konerko days in something like the last 20 or 25 home games or something. Yes the fans will show up to see one of the best players in franchise history get his number retired. I will add that to the list of multiple playoff runs in a row you have given me as reasons Sox fans will show up at the ballpark. I am now up to 2 reasons Sox fans will show up at the ballpark. I will have to get back to you on how many reasons they won't show up... You seem to be a reigning authority on these "reasons" or "excuses" you think explain why Sox fans don't show up in droves to the ballpark. You also take the liberty in painting in broad strokes to suggest that the majority of the fan base employs these excuses. How then, pray tell, do you know this to be true. How do you reach your conclusion that the reason for low attendance is a result of an excuse-making fan base? What body of evidence can you point to back up your claim? I say the reason for low attendance is the cumulative effect of a franchise that simply hasn't won enough to generate and sustain enough interest to encourage people to buy more tickets. I can point to 30 of 35 years of non-winning by this current ownership group to support my theory. What about you? Where is your definitive evidence that our fan base is a bunch of excuse makers? Hours and hours of listening to sports radio? Where is it!

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 21, 2015 -> 08:00 PM) So the list is now once in a life time player getting his number retired, and once in a franchise history run of playoff runs to get fans to show up. Color me not too impressed with this. Nor am I impressed with your backwards reasoning on all of this. You are the one talking about "lists" and these alleged excuses fans make for not going to the ballpark, not me, as if you've actually surveyed the entire Sox fan base to come up with these conclusions. Meanwhile, I continue to make the very logical point that if you give our fans a compelling reason to come out, they will. Case in point, this Saturday. A good reason to come out, and the fans are eagerly responding. They will respond the same to a team that wins on a more consistent basis than the garbage that has been served up recently by the Sox and for 30 of the 35 years under the current ownership. I mean, what freaking fan base doesn't react well to winning! Do you think our fans don't care about winning? Of course they do, just like every other fan base on this planet. That's common sense, but unfortunately it's a little hard at the moment to prove to your doubting mind because we are in a 35 year franchise slump under Mr. Reinsdorf's leadership, where during that timeframe there's only really been one year of real winning worth talking about.

So let's see, what are we learning here. You give our oft-maligned fan base - you know, the one that allegedly employs every excuse in the world not to come to the ballpark - you give them a "compelling" reason to do so, in this case to pay tribute to a franchise hero, and they pack the place. Not a seat to be had! All of the excuses - poof! Gone! They disappear into thin air! Hmmm...kinda sorta makes your mind wander a bit, perhaps even dream, doesn't it? Makes you wonder if another "compelling" reason were to occur, say, oh, I don't know, maybe if a more consistently WINNING product was put on the field, just what might happen then. I don't know, but it sure would be nice to find out one of these days!

QUOTE (fathom @ May 21, 2015 -> 07:31 PM) If this season tanks, it's going to be quite difficult for the organization to get fans excited again heading into a season. I don't think we can assume they will spend a fortune every offseason like they just did. Let's be careful on how we classify the spending of this past offseason. Saying they spent "a fortune" can maybe suggest to some that they went above and beyond. They certainly did not. They had a ton of money come off the books with trades and expirations of other contracts, so they took that money to obtain players to replace the ones that went away. But at the end of the day, our payroll is only in the middle of the pack in MLB, and only slightly ahead of that of the small market Twins and Royals.

QUOTE (Soxfest @ May 21, 2015 -> 07:24 PM) I would love Jerry to sell and KW gone and have a new vision Sox need it badly. I could not agree more. This franchise is sorely in need of that new vision you mentioned, a house cleaning, as you suggested, and an overall new strategy. What Reinsdorf has employed during the last 35 years just hasn't worked, it's left our fan base dormant, and completely wasted the potential of a big market ball club.

QUOTE (Soxfest @ May 21, 2015 -> 07:17 PM) SOS 2015 fans have seen this movie before PASS This would be the 30th time in Reinsdorf's 35 years as owner that we've seen this movie. Where is the criticism of and outrage against the horrific managing of this franchise by this guy!

QUOTE (Soxfest @ May 21, 2015 -> 07:12 PM) Losing 7 of 8 to those to teams no wonder they are under .500. And might also explain how we've picked up where we left off last year, attendance-wise: third to last in all of baseball.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 20, 2015 -> 10:26 PM) Awful weather tonight didn't help Other teams draw on nights like this, fathom. Much better than us. We can't just blame the weather.

This continuously empty ballpark nonsense - brought on by continuously failing ownership - just must stop at some point. It is beyond ridiculous. Reinsdorf's horrible management of this franchise needs to either figure out a way to improve this situation, or bow out in favor of a group that can. But our ballpark game after game, season after season, being as empty as it is - completely unacceptable at this point. Time for our fan base to demand something better!

Quintana's record throughout his brief career with our Sox needs to stop being described as just "bad luck", but rather on the poor ensemble supporting him that, overall, has been unable to get the team to the postseason in recent years.

Hawk's said it about a million times over the past few years, but hot dang if he ain't right about this one: Quintana is not afraid to pitch out of a jam!

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 13, 2015 -> 03:28 PM) This is what happens when even the examples given as to how the White Sox should be run, such as the Tigers, fall apart under closer examination. Oh don't worry. I would never in a million years suggest that the Oakland White Sox be run like the New York Tigers.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 13, 2015 -> 02:06 PM) It is OK for me to answer the incessant complaints of people who don't want to look at the whole picture of a situation. Apparently you have a guilty conscious about it. Welcome to being on a message board. Public posts can, and sometimes will, draw responses. LOL - "guilty conscious". What kind of crazy talk is that. But to your point about about public posts drawing responses, sure, that's obvious. But also keep in mind that public posts that ridiculously and erroneously condemn a fan base for not blindly supporting a continuously mediocre-to-subpar sports product will also draw responses. I mean, talk about not looking at the whole picture.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 13, 2015 -> 12:36 PM) Then Sox fans should expect a similar level of commitment from ownership. That is what I am saying. I guess I don't see it this way. I don't think this about commitment. I think it's about the ownership having a product to sell, and if we, the fans, i.e., the consumers, aren't buying it, whose fault is it? And what we are not buying is a team that hardly ever wins anything. I don't have to commit to Jerry Reinsdorf that I'll go sit in his stadium X number of times of year in the hopes that he'll somehow figure out a way to put a consistent winner on the field - which I remind you, he has miserably failed to do for the last 35 years. No, the onus is on him and his management team to put together a product that is worthy of greater support than the mediocre one that has typically been put forward.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 13, 2015 -> 11:07 AM) So basically the White Sox need to spend a five to seven year period as the best team in baseball to get fans to show up. That's my point exactly. Sox fans will always have an excuse. If they old ones don't work, they move the bar to a new one. Now Sox fans need a dyntasy type period to show up, as measly playoff births aren't good enough. Nah, I don't see why anyone would think Sox fans are fickle. Oh yes, these "fickle" fans, simply asking for a product worth coming out to support. The nerve! They should be satisfied with averaging a playoff appearance once every seven years (and a very brief one at that) as has been the average during Reinsdorf's 35 years at the helm of this organization, and just get their butts to the ballpark en masse. No excuses, say you, just support whatever collection of misfit toys the team of Reinsdorf/Williams/Hahn put on the field. Put up and shut up, you excuse-laden, fickle fans, you!! That is the message to you!!