Thad Bosley

Two smoked balls in a row

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 21, 2016 -> 12:33 PM) It would happen because the front office decides that this strategy didn't work, and that the time has come for real change. I think there is about a zero chance of it happening, as the more meatball portion of the fanbase would absolutely meltdown, and the organziation knows that. Sounds like we'd have a meatball owner, meatball executive VP of baseball operations, and meatball GM if they were making critical decisions based on the reaction of a so-called "meatball portion of the fanbase".

QUOTE (Black_Jack29 @ Jun 21, 2016 -> 12:47 PM) Of course, JR has done that before and the meatballs have returned as soon as the Sox have become competitive again. It's almost pointless to care what the meatballs think about a rebuild when they won't show up to watch a .500 team that's only three games behind in a weak division. My guess is that JR pulls the plug sometime between July of 2017 and July of 2018 and that he puts the team up for sale afterwards. Can I get this in writing, please?

QUOTE (Tex @ Jun 19, 2016 -> 11:23 AM) You really read that list and thought those are all legit reasons for fans to stay away? Well, most of the list, absolutely yes. Buried in that list is the most compelling, legitimate reason of all for fans to stay away - "not winning"! I would say that is 99% of the reason fans have been staying away, certainly in recent years. Look at the baseball that's been played - it's been awful! Ask any Sox fan who hasn't attended a game in a few years, and the reason will be the losing nature of the ball club. It's that simple. As for any fans harboring ill will towards Jerry Reinsdorf for the appalling tactics he undertook in the mid-to-late '80s to blackmail the state into using taxpayer money to not only take on the entire cost to build the new stadium, but also guarantee annual mega profits to the owners via an entirely obnoxious sweetheart lease deal, if someone has taken the principled stance that they would not further contribute to Reinsdorf's bottom line, I'm 100% ok with that. I'm not one of those individuals, btw, despite my consistent criticism on the matter. I was a season ticket holder back in the '90s when I still lived in Chicago. But if anyone was disgusted by what Reinsdorf did and are now aware that while Sox fans continue to suffer with the ongoing losing ways of the ball club, Reinsdorf continues to get his profits subsidized by taxpayers, their decision to stay away until Reinsdorf is gone is absolutely legitimate. Finally, as it relates to aspects about the U.S. Cellular Field experience, again, in the absence of winning baseball that might incent one to put up with something they don't find enjoyable, if someone's budget can only afford them a seat in the upper deck, and they happen not to like sitting in that particular deck for whatever reason, so be it! I tolerate it and will sit up there, but if another individual chooses not to because it isn't the greatest of seating options, then that's their prerogative. If you don't enjoy the experience up there, why would you subject yourself to that in order to watch losing baseball? Doesn't make sense. Same for the parking situation, so on and so forth.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 19, 2016 -> 09:58 AM) And there you go. Thanks for dropping the stupid act, and admitting that there are decades of bitterness and anger over some of the most ridiculous things ever. Lol - the only thing I'll admit is that it's encouraging to see that you've actually dropped your "stupid act". That in your previous post you did a great job of listing out and therefore acknowledged the many, many instances over the years where the ownership has engaged in non-fan friendly behavior. And how that in combination with the dearth of winning by this organization explains not only the size of the fan base, but also it's lack of eagerness to routinely fill the ballpark.

QUOTE (lord chas @ Jun 19, 2016 -> 09:38 AM) We need a total top to bottom enema. All these scholarship employees need to go too. Brooks Boyer, Gene Honda, Buddy Bell, and others all got to go That kind of housecleaning only comes with new ownership. The current owner is clearly very comfortable with the current infrastructure, and that's not going to change. Period. That's pretty obvious at this point. We will just have to grin and bear it until that time comes when the current owner is no longer the current owner.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 18, 2016 -> 09:22 PM) What? You are joking right? Are you new to the internet, or is your head just buried that deep? The slope of the upper deck, the height of the upper deck, the parking situation, the neighborhood around the ballpark, the park was too sterile, there was no where to go after a game, Jerry Reinsdorf doesn't care enough about the team, Jerry Reinsdorf has too much control over the team, threatening to move the team to Tampa, White Flag, not winning a World Series, not winning, no winning multiple seasons in a row, not going to the playoffs enough times in a short enough period of time, Kenny Williams, the park should have been built in the (suburbs, south side of downtown, downtown), unlikable players, Hawk Harrelson, losing Harry Carry to the Cubs, The Cubs in general, and I will finish with all my time favorite, the color of the f***ing seats. Seriously. And so you have all of these things going on over the past 36 years AND the lack of winning by the franchise during that stretch, and you blame the fan base for the poor attendance...why???????

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 18, 2016 -> 09:22 PM) What? You are joking right? Are you new to the internet, or is your head just buried that deep? The slope of the upper deck, the height of the upper deck, the parking situation, the neighborhood around the ballpark, the park was too sterile, there was no where to go after a game, Jerry Reinsdorf doesn't care enough about the team, Jerry Reinsdorf has too much control over the team, threatening to move the team to Tampa, White Flag, not winning a World Series, not winning, no winning multiple seasons in a row, not going to the playoffs enough times in a short enough period of time, Kenny Williams, the park should have been built in the (suburbs, south side of downtown, downtown), unlikable players, Hawk Harrelson, losing Harry Carry to the Cubs, The Cubs in general, and I will finish with all my time favorite, the color of the f***ing seats. Seriously. So I'm guessing you find none of these reasons to be legitimate as to why a White Sox fan should/would be reticent to spend his/her disposable income on the product Jerry Reinsdorf has been peddling these past 36 years?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 18, 2016 -> 01:13 PM) After seeing this fan base for decades, the narrative changes almost annually. So yes, I have seen tons of excuses. Then share your data points with us. Show us these "tons of excuses" you have magically seen that the rest of us haven't, at the quantity with which you must have in order to make your silly conclusions about an entire fan base that you've done. Just show us. You are making conclusions about an entire fan base and representing yourself as some sort of expert without providing one iota of evidence to do so. So that's the ask: provide some concrete evidence that supports your wild claims about the fan base, or cease and desist with making these unproven assertions.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 18, 2016 -> 10:15 AM) *or whatever the excuse of the day is. Lol - no one is making excuses. That's a figment of your imagination. No, turns out people aren't really all that interested in lousy baseball. Take the last few seasons, for example. Were people staying away because they were simply making up dopey excuses to do so? Or was the baseball product so bad that the consumer wasn't interested in purchasing it? The answer is pretty obvious, at least to most.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 18, 2016 -> 09:20 AM) Mostly because the White Sox have a small market fan base. Resulting from routine failure by ownership and management to present a product that would/could grow a fan base. Constant losing isn't attractive.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Jun 17, 2016 -> 09:50 PM) Ventura is a symptom of a stodgy, mediocre front office that lacks creativity, finesse and sorely lacks talent evaluation skills. Not point in moving Ventura if Rick Hahn is still GM; and probably no reason to move Hahn without moving Williams out. And none of that is going to happen with the current owner, so we're back to Square One.

QUOTE (dpd9189 @ Jun 17, 2016 -> 09:01 PM) All BS aside, if this team isn't going to hit consistently then they have no real chance of contending. Can't just hit when they play a garbage pitching staff (Detroit) and then shut it down again when they face real pitchers. The team came in last in offense in the league last year, and the front office brought in Frazier, Lawrie, Rollins, Jackson, Avila, and Navarro in the offseason to fix that. And now Morneau. What can you say?

Hawk and all of the good folks in the ticket office's pick-to-click, Avi, coming through!

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 17, 2016 -> 08:45 PM) You joke but I would definitely ask the Mets what they would give up for either Ain't gonna happen. Reinsdorf sez he's adding, not subtracting.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 17, 2016 -> 08:09 PM) Not sure how Hahn thinks this lineup can compete I'm not worried. Jerry Reinsdorf assured Bruce Levine the other day that he had no plans for anything but a "full on attack to help his front office find a way to win now". So we are in good hands, nothing to worry about. Just sit back and let the magic happen!

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 17, 2016 -> 07:55 PM) The trophy generation has spoken. And rather accurately at that.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 17, 2016 -> 06:29 PM) Yeah, respecting Jerry's business accumen and allowing him to run the company is different than his unilaterally controlling the company. They obviously trust Jerry a lot, because you don't hear about problems from inside of the ownership structure. Well of course the investors trust him. He's done very well by them over the past 36 years, making each of them a whole lotta dough along the way. It's the fans who haven't made out any where near as well.

QUOTE (soxfan2014 @ Jun 13, 2016 -> 07:42 PM) Discredit the FO? What have they done lately? 1 playoff appearance in what ten years?d You mean besides envelop this organization in a culture of losing?

QUOTE (ChiSox59 @ Jun 13, 2016 -> 03:41 PM) People like me? You know nothing about me. Don't get pissed at fans for not being fair weather fans. Trust me, I want the Sox to do well as much as you do - but I don't think boycotting them is going to make any difference, and I assure you that JR wants to win as much as anyone does (as he shows over and over and over again). Is this organization run perfectly? Absolutely not, but one of the reasons I love them so much is they always try, and frankly, while maybe it should have bit them in the ass pretty bad now, it really hasn't at all (speaking last 15-20 years). Evidence?

QUOTE (whitesoxjr27 @ Jun 9, 2016 -> 09:37 AM) http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/rosen...609-column.html Actions speak louder than words. Right now, there are neither words nor any actions happening to give the fans any meaningful indication that the Sox are trying to pull themselves out of this rut they've been in for several years now. This is Year Five of the Reinsdorf/Williams/Hahn/Ventura/Cooper management configuration, and the results rendered to date have been horrendous. This is reflected in the big "F" the fans have given the club on its report card, manifested through the continued atrocious attendance and low TV ratings. What, if anything, is being done to turn the tide on all of this? We the fans seem to be having the same discussions today about the plight of this ballclub that we had a year ago today, two years ago today, three years ago today, so on and so forth. So while words alone coming from Reinsdorf won't make a difference, at least it would be some evidence that there's a pulse in the front office over at 35th and Shields.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 8, 2016 -> 09:49 PM) You can't be serious. This has got to be a long term troll job. Well done. Oh, I'm quite serious. You derail one thread after another with your baseless accusations about "others" - not yourself - but "others" about what you perceive to be misery, angst, and bitterness. You are obsessed with the topic. Meanwhile, the irony of all ironies is that you are the one exhibiting misery, angst, and bitterness with all of your constant harping on this made-up nonsense.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 8, 2016 -> 09:44 PM) HAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH AAAH HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Who is the one obsessed with whining and moaning about perceived bitterness about thousands and thousands of people you don't even know? YOUYOUYOUYOUYOUYOUYOUYOUYOUYOUYOUYOUYOUYOUYOUYOUYOUYOUYOUYOUYOUYOUYOUYOUYOUYOUYOUYOU

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jun 8, 2016 -> 09:41 PM) I'm bitter that this team has been garbage for years and has one weak playoff showing in the last decade. Continually sucking isn't exactly building good will. +1

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 8, 2016 -> 09:33 PM) Bitter much? That would be you, Colonel Misery. You are the only one around here always speaking in terms of misery, bitterness and angst. Seems to be your favorite topics.