Thad Bosley

And while yer at it, ask him why he bothered sending Jim Thome down to Las Vegas in November to speak to Harper, and why they bothered with all of that fancy Bryce Harper production at the United Center, when Harper had already turned down a 10 year, $300 million dollar offer from the Nats at the end of the season. Did they think he would somehow accept less than the Nats' offer? I mean, c'mon. Wtf.

The better solution for everyone, of which I’m sure you would agree, would be for the owner who has inflicted so much misery on the fan base for four decades now with all of his franchise-crippling, non-fan friendly actions, to be the one to finally go away, not the die-hard fans. The fact that you are applauding this particular die-hard fan for walking away from a team he’s clearly so passionate about is really rather appalling. For whatever reason, your feelings are hurt so much more and you become so much more angry at fans reacting negatively to this owner’s continued failures than the failures themselves. The thinking couldn’t be more backwards.

So are you saying this pursuit of the past three months by the front office, which today Hahn claimed the organization should be proud of, was just a charade? Were we all duped by Sox management, in your view? Or are you suggesting the pursuit was a fool’s errand on management’s part?

This conclusion has been very clear to many people for a very long time now. Today’s debacle is just another in a series of franchise-crippling failures/disasters which have defined the Reinsdorf ownership throughout his near 39 years at the helm. This particular epic failure is neither an outlier nor anomaly under Reinsdorf’s watch, but rather business as usual and par for the course. Our beleaguered fan base is truly in need of a complete overhaul of the ownership and management of this franchise. The fan experience with the current group of losers just continues to get worse, not better. Let’s hope that this inevitable change is closer on the horizon than may be obvious to any of us today.

And what's the prize we get for coming in second?

I’d like to think we have a gentleman’s agreement to avoid that sort of situation!

There. Fixed. And free of charge.

For Messrs. Machado and Harper, Mr. Reinsdorf is “chasing the market” on both, meaning he’s waiting for the collective action of the market to eventually set the price for each that he needs to beat to make the kind of offer to entice them to sign on with the White Sox. From the beginning, it was the Sox’ only chance to get either - to offer a certain amount more than any other team would be willling to pay them to incentivize either to come ply their trade on the South Side. That’s why the Sox are still very much in on both - they’re playing the waiting game to see where the market finally lands on both guys before they make just-the-right above market offer to both, which they are equipped to do given their payroll flexibility. This long wait only increases the Sox’ chance of landing one or maybe both of these guys. The market price for both will be set soon. The Sox appear to be prepared to react to that, no matter what it eventually turns out to be, and when all is said and done, will leave the best financial offer on the table for both. What both players choose to do with those offers will remain to be seen, but I believe in both cases, if the Sox don’t land either whale, it won’t be because they didn’t leave the best possible financial offer on the table.

So all we have to go on is your superior insight to support your contention the Sox couldn’t possibly be outbid by the Padres. Nothing else?

Based on what?

Are you sure about that? The Pads appear to have more payroll flexibility at the moment than even the Sox do, AND they have three contracts in their history larger than any White Sox contract ever given, including the Hosmer $144 million contract signed last year. So an objective eye could look at this and think the Sox would be less likely inclined to be the highest bidder than the Padres, given each team's relative history as far as spending on premier free agents goes.

Just out of curiosity...how do you know this? How do you know with 100% certainty what the current owner does or does not do, related to White Sox baseball?

Our long suffering fan base is in desperate need of the kind of excitement infusion a new ownership brings. New vision, new strategy, new everything. Get this organization out of the deep rut the current owner has had it in for way too long now.

Nah, just pointing out yet another irrational rant of yours re: Sox fans. Would be nice if you’d stop bashing them all the time

Soxtalk Board Admin: All Sox fans stink! I’m the only one who gets it! Winning isn’t important!

My overall problem with Benetti & Stone is the age difference and how that gap plays out in the booth. Stone is a little more than twice as old as Benetti, and had finished his MLB pitching career and was already in the Cubs’ booth with Harry Caray before Benetti was born. So they are hardly peers in one sense. Yet Benetti engages and often needles Stone in a way you might expect two old college roommates would at Benetti’s current age. It seems awkward at many points in any given broadcast when the 71 year-old Stone tries to play off that approach. I like the fact that the two genuinely seem to enjoy one another’s company in the booth. I just wish they could develop a better dynamic between them that was more age appropriate to both.

Meh. I thought Brown was the poor man’s version of Joe McConnell. I liked McConnell’s energy he had, and he was actually fairly knowledgeable about the game for someone who had never played. But Brown was a Sox fan, through and through, and that did come out in each and every broadcast, which I appreciated.

And the last time our owner fielded a fan question at Soxfest was...when?

So after all of the hoopla around fancy presentations and special trips made by Jim Thome, the Sox are just out of this thing, without having made a formal offer? I'm not sure I believe this. I don't think the Sox have played their final card on this one, not after all of this time and effort.

One championship. One baseball championship over 38 years. Don’t conflate the two teams. We’re only talking about the White Sox fan experience here.

It’s just unfortunate that he & Co. didn’t deliver a better fan experience during these years of unabashed loyalty while they were making all of that money.

Helps to be a major market team in times like these!

This, thank you. This is why I don't get caught up in or buy all of the "oh, the Yankees were his childhood favorite team" blah blah. If that tie to his childhood was so important to him, the Yanks could have signed him up back in November. As an adult, I am sure $$$>>>>childhood favorite team with the man.