Thad Bosley

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 8, 2016 -> 06:11 PM) There is a big difference behind an erosion, and a huge hit to the fan base, ala White Flag. White Sox fans are a bitter lot, and would absolutely flee in droves over another massive sell off. Think more like 1997 to 1998. Here we go again - SS2K5 maligning an entire fan base comprising thousands and thousands of people he doesn't even know. Yet he feels compelled and dare I say empowered to slander so many people. Un-frickin'-believable that he continues pushing such miserable condemnations about so many people with whom he has no data points to make such statements. STOP ALREADY!

QUOTE (WhiteSoxLifer @ Jun 8, 2016 -> 10:36 AM) The million dollar question is what Manager could take this current team and start winning with it. Latos is pitching his way out of the rotation. The bullpen is throw a dart at the board to see who pitches cause no one is doing their job. You have a aging short stop and a utility player rotating a SS. You have a catcher who does better framing but can't hit and the other one who can't frame well but is slightly better hitter. You have a rotating dh of Shuck and Garcia with no better solution. When you lose players to injury there's no depth to back them up. You have one of you best players underperforming. This team has had hole for years not but have been patching it together to hopefully better performance. Don't have the minors to produce good position player for the major league team. Saladino is the only home grown player at the majors. They either have to trade to fill in the gaps at the major league roster or go dumpster diving at the free agency level cause they don't give out and lump of money to get the better players. Should robin go probably. Make a shack up to see if it awakens the player but it's not a guarantee fix. It starts at the top for accountability and goes down from there. You are absolutely correct. The angst over the current stretch of losing is misplaced. Ventura is merely playing the hand he's been dealt. He's not the one who, in an attempt to "upgrade" several positions that contributed to the league's worst offense last year, went dumpster diving last winter to do so. Rollins, Jackson, Avila, and even Navarro were the results of dumpster diving by the front office. And not to mention, but Ventura was originally going to have to trot out LaRoche again, too, only to then be forced the need to employ one Avi Garcia instead. So my frustration at this point lies more with Hahn, Williams, and You-Know-Who more so than Ventura. At the same time, as I mentioned earlier, managers are hired to be fired, so I do think he needs to go at this point. But that is only curing a symptom rather than the true root cause of what continues to ail the White Sox.

What's that old adage? "Managers are hired to be fired". I would wager that the vast majority of managers fired over the course of time were fired for far less failure than what Robin has racked up during his time here. So it's a no brainer at this point - he needs to go. Time for fresh blood!

QUOTE (Tex @ Jun 7, 2016 -> 08:29 AM) Fixed. After a few decades you realize that sustained success isn't that easy to predict. I remember the string of Bear's Super Bowls in the 1980s. I believe they were going to be the dynasty. Don't sell the Cubbies too short. They had an excellent season last year, one that saw them go deep into the playoffs. They are well on their way to accomplishing something our organization has never achieved in over 100+ years, which is making it to the postseason in consecutive seasons. Playoff appearances in consecutive seasons equates to sustainable success, at least in my book. And the way they've built their team by stockpiling the kind of young, elite talent that they have, they've positioned themselves as well as they possibly could to be successful well beyond this season as well. The games still have to be played, of course, and nothing is ever a given in baseball, but your edits to dilute my original post do not paint an accurate picture of what's transpiring on the north side.

QUOTE (miracleon35th @ Jun 7, 2016 -> 07:11 AM) Ozzie worked out well if you remember 2005. As far as the Ricketts/Ameritrade approach, they got lucky getting Rizzo, Bryant and trading for Arrietta , now it's all about trying to buy a world series. It would be funny if they don't win it with those guys. Yes he did, but that's not my point. What I said was just having White Sox ties does not "automatically" qualify you to be manager of the team. As for the Cubs getting "lucky" to get Rizzo, Bryant and Arrieta, that's just sour grapes from a Sox fan. They run a good baseball operation over there, plain and simple. That wasn't the case for three+ decades when the Tribune Company owned the club, but it is now. They have shrewd baseball men at the top of the house who have done quite well in several trades and in the draft. Give the devil his due - they've put together a team that is now in the throes of achieving sustainable success. Oh for the day when we can make a similar claim for our Sox!

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 6, 2016 -> 01:21 PM) IIRC, Hahn sent personal letters to JR begging him to give him a chance to work for the Sox. Like, as in 'snail mail'? That's weird! "Dear Jerry, I am taking pen to paper today to implore your consideration in the hiring of Nicholas Hostetler to be our new amateur scouting director. He comes with unparalleled qualifications and you'll just love him. My return address is on the envelope, so write me back at your earliest convenience. Yours Truly, Rick P.S. - Wish you had let Kenny go to Toronto when you had the chance!"

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 5, 2016 -> 08:04 PM) Renteria was hired to be a manager very soon. If the Sox keep failing, it will be here. If not, it will be somewhere else. I don't care for the optics of the Sox hiring the Cubs leftovers as manager. At the same time, there would be an interesting story to tell if the Sox hired Renteria as manager, and he managed to not only take the Sox to the playoffs this year, but also got them to surpass the Northsiders in accomplishment. That could be a lot of fun!

QUOTE (lord chas @ Jun 5, 2016 -> 04:12 PM) It seems to me it is time for a fresh voice. History tells us that JR prefers someone with White Sox ties. Names like Dave Martinez, Sandy Alomar, and Omar Vizquel will be mentioned I believe it is time for a complete organizational reboot. Who are some logical targets the White Sox should go after? Thoughts? NO! That's the problem! "White Sox ties" doth not automatically a great manager make! Stop with that nonsense already. Look at the Cubs. Just a few years ago they said "no thank you" to one of the greatest Cubs of all time in Ryne Sandberg to be their manager, and instead looked for whom they felt was the best qualified against far more important criteria than simply history with the franchise. That approach eventually landed them Renteria and Maddon. Now that is a sound approach to operating a MLB franchise. Governing solely from some silly loyalty program is not.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Jun 5, 2016 -> 02:47 PM) Exactly, he's done nothing as a manager to deserve unconditional support. And honestly, there's absolutely no downside to firing him right now. Maybe canning him does nothing, but there's nothing to lose at this point and plenty to gain if it does wake this team up. If we had an owner of the impatient variety, we wouldn't be having these kinds of discussions. Sadly, we have quite the opposite.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Jun 5, 2016 -> 02:21 PM) If you want to get the core, Williams and Hahn should be fired....they hired and extended Ventura and Cooper. and they put together this bunch. Under Reinsdorf's decree. Don't lose sight of that salient fact. The bad decisioning of this organization begins with him.

QUOTE (pettie4sox @ Jun 5, 2016 -> 02:14 PM) Fire them both! Put this team on notice, if you don't perform you're gone. Jerry Reinsdorf's Loyalty Program called and said "That ain't gonna happen!".

QUOTE (Deadpool @ Jun 4, 2016 -> 08:21 AM) I can't open the link, but this is a common comparison. We're in the "lightning in a bottle" mode, where we reload every year. It just doesn't work when you can't draft everyday big leaguers. Regardless of what you think about a "full rebuild", the White Sox have to draft positional talent better or none of this is going to work. Very true statement, given what we saw last offseason with the team's inability/reluctance to compete for the premium positional talent that was available in free agency.

QUOTE (captain54 @ Jun 2, 2016 -> 03:39 PM) I wish people would stop with "the Sox are above .500 and in 2nd place on June 1st. Everybody would have been happy with that pre-season" That's not the point. During the course of the first 1/3 of the season, the Sox lost a 6 game lead and then dropped 2 games back. That's a pretty alarming swing. Despite that, the season proceeds as is and the status quo remains Hahn's recent comment on the state of the Sox seemed to infer that the same bunch got the club 13 games over at some point, so it's certainly capable of doing it again. Yea Rick. But the same bunch also was capable of a 7 game losing streak and some historically horrific loses. So equally, they are capable of that as well Interesting post. This Sox team is a tough one to figure out. It is obviously not as good as the one that started out 22-10, and yet it's not as bad as the one that subsequently went 7-15. The question is whether it's good enough to go at least 58-50 the rest of the way to sneak its way into the postseason. This is an organization with a fan base that desperately needs a shot in the arm of the excitement that a strong postseason run would bring, so here's to hoping the crack management team takes the necessary measures to help make that happen.

QUOTE (Lip Man 1 @ May 31, 2016 -> 10:27 AM) Considering Seattle, Arizona and St. Louis recently got deals in excess of multiple Billion dollars, should the Cubs continue to do well on the field they will probably get the most amount of money in history for a TV deal. Crain Kenney already told the media this off season of their plans and because of the expected windfall they took the gamble and signed Heyward to that mega contract. Meaning they know what's coming. They'll be able to basically sign everyone and anyone they wish because of the TV money they'll be getting. Plus advertising and marketing companies will be falling all over themselves and willing to pay just about anything to advertise with them. In short, they'll have more money than God and suck up a lot of the potential advertising / marketing / PR deals for themselves. There won't be much left for the Sox. Plus if the Sox continue to embarrass themselves and make themselves irrelevant in their own market when their TV deal expires (unfortunately for them at the same time as the Cubs basically) they won't even sniff what teams like Seattle and Arizona got...it simply will not be there. Not a good situation at all. Mark The Cubs were a dormant, slumbering giant of a franchise for a very long time, fully capable of realizing the potential of which you speak but had not. And for over three decades the current ownership group had a chance to get out in front of this and take steps to cement and maximize the Sox' place in the market, but did not. The level of relevancy that Jerry Reinsdorf's White Sox have in the market both locally and nationally today is the same as it was when he took over the team in late 1980. And it is this level of relevancy that Eddie Einhorn mocked on the first day of the current regime's ownership when he started spouting off about turning the Sox into a "first class organization". How has that turned out, now nearly 36 years later? It's pretty obvious. As a wise man once said, "Actions speak louder than words".

QUOTE (Lip Man 1 @ May 30, 2016 -> 05:16 PM) Historically based on what is happening on the field it's the worst period since 1968-1980. Mark Meaning we are in the worst stretch of Jerry Reinsdorf's already excessively underperforming tenure as owner.

QUOTE (Lip Man 1 @ May 30, 2016 -> 10:43 AM) For right or wrong JR has never cared what the media thinks, what the agents think or what the fans think. And some of that is certainly good, as a business he has to look at it this way. But historically under this ownership there has always been a streak of arrogance, 'we're smarter than all of you...' 'we know what we're doing, you don't'. It goes all the way back to EE and his comments about 'building a first class organization' on the press conference the day they took over insulting the Veeck family. History again shows they really haven't built a 'first class organization' based on the on-field record. Plus Kenny is about as arrogant as they come. The former PR / marketing director Rob Gallas was as arrogant and taciturn as they come. This can't really be called a 'fan-friendly' organization not based on the record and comments about said fan base over the year particularly from Kenny and Cooper. Mark Ohhhh yesss, on Day One of the Reinsdorf Reign of Terror, we were told that a "first class organization" was coming our way. Nearly 36 years later and we have still seen no such thing. And anything they might try and take credit for building was built off the backs of taxpayers. So who knows? Maybe they are smarter than the rest of us because they found a way to build immense wealth for themselves at very little cost to them, investment wise.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 20, 2016 -> 02:11 PM) This is comedy cold coming from the guy who patented the 5 in 35 meme. I've got "6 in 36" locked and loaded and ready to go!

QUOTE (Deadpool @ May 19, 2016 -> 05:05 PM) It's fairly obvious Jason is a professional and the Sox have done nothing to get over the moon excited about. The season is too young. Get back to me when he calls the Sox winning the division. Also, if you find the horsecrap Hawk spews out now "a broadcast" and you can get past the fact that Stone visibly dislikes Hawk and hates his antics. Hawk and Stone are like a movie where one person is trying to take the movie seriously and the other is trying to spoil it. Lol - "the internet truly is a wonderful place", indeed! Here we have the White Sox who have made one and very brief postseason appearance in the last decade, are on the heels of three straight brutal seasons, and who have now been in first place for nearly a third of the season, and you say there's nothing for a White Sox announcer to get excited about. What a point of view.

QUOTE (harkness @ May 19, 2016 -> 09:45 AM) Ahh k so Benetti doesn't get excited because it's early in the season...You know this how exactly? I also never said he didn't care - that is the presentation style. I more I listen I'm starting to not like him and Stone together that much. It's kind of like being at the movie but your friends are joking and not paying attention and you are trying to watch the movie. Jason needs to curb some of his little jokes that aren't all that funny. He does have several witty barbs throughout the telecast, but just one too many nerdy comments that tend to take the focus off the game and require Stone to have to reel it back in.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 16, 2016 -> 06:09 PM) The resident ownership hater claimed that the difference between Sox fans and Cubs fans bases today is Harry Caray. I wish the resident fan base hater/basher would not misquote other posters on this site. I never said anything like this. I said three things: Harry Caray had a positive impact on Sox attendance during his stay with the Sox, a view obviously agreed to by the then-Sox ownership because they paid him huge bonuses tied to attendance. I also said Harry Caray managed to have that impact despite rather minimal exposure on a suburban radio station for awhile and Channel 44. But my broader point was that Harry Caray would have accomplished expanding the Sox fan base the way he impacted and expanded the Cubs fan base had he remained the Sox announcer on WGN. With the power of the superstation at his disposal, he was primarily responsible for the Cubs becoming a national treasure on WGN. The outstanding job he did selling the Cubs and Wrigley Field on WGN translated into an extraordinary boost in attendance, and the Cubs continue to benefit from what he started to this very day. If you choose to deny that, SSK5, that's your problem, but it remains the truth. What also remains the truth is that it was a colossal mistake for the current ownership to let Caray go in the first place and to forego WGN in favor of SportsVision. HUGE, HUGE mistakes by Jerry Reinsdorf & Co. There is no denying that. For anyone interested, here is a great article from a few years ago summarizing what is my point of view. You'll see it is quite different from the silly attempt by SS2K5 to try and paraphrase my opinion. http://kentsterling.com/2013/07/15/chicago...lk-to-the-cubs/

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 14, 2016 -> 08:13 PM) The facts are right there in front of you. The numbers don't support your theory, at all. Your "facts" are reliant on the opinion of someone. My are based on real life actual numbers. Attendance fell during the last half of Caray's time with the White Sox by about 25%. LOL! I must admit, this really is one of your funnier efforts to try and defend the indefensible, and all just to be contrarian on your part. Seriously, you must be on the dole for Reinsdorf to go on these fanciful yet highly ridiculous tangents you do to try and defend that buffoon. But you do and therefore we just have to deal with it, and continually just call out its silliness. Attendance tripled from the time Harry Caray came to the Sox and when he left. It increased by 68% just after his first year and was tripled by the end of his second. He accomplished all of this - and again, it was explicitly what he was brought into do - with the weakest of tools to support him. He was broadcasting initially on a tiny, 5,000 watt radio station in LaGrange, IL when he first got to town, and then the best he got was a UHF TV station of all things, Channel 44. HARRY CARAY TRIPLED WHITE SOX ATTENDANCE WITH THE POOREST POSSIBLE MEDIA EXPOSURE AT HIS DISPOSAL. Bill Veeck, however, managed to get the team on WGN for 1981 before he sold the team. Then Harry had the power of the superstation and it's mega-exposure with which to sell the White Sox experience. And he did so brilliantly during the strike-shortened 1981 season, resulting in the highest TV ratings ever for the Sox at that time. But then the genius owners of the Sox committed what renowned White Sox historian Richard Lindberg (or as renowned Reinsdorf apologist SS2K5 refers to just as "someone") referred to as a "mistake" by letting Caray go to the Cubs, where he took that national exposure on WGN to make both he and the Cubs a household name. The Cubs haven't looked back since. HARRY CARAY TOOK THE CUBS FROM HAVING THE SAME KIND OF ATTENDANCE ISSUES AS THE SOX TO BEING THE NATIONAL PHENOMENON THEY ARE TODAY, ALL DUE TO HIS ABILITY TO SELL THE PRODUCT ON SUPERSTATION WGN. That could have and should have been the Sox. It's that simple. But our genius owners...SportsVision...and you know the rest.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 14, 2016 -> 10:27 AM) We didn't even win the Chicago market when Caray was a White Sox broadcaster, which would seem like the logical result to see if any of this were actually true. One of the two years (out of 10) that we did out draw the Cubs was the South Side Hitmen. Guess what happened after that? Attendance fell every single season after that until Caray left. We went from 1.65 million in 1977 to 1.2 million by 1980, (that is a fall of 25+%!)excluding the 1981 strike year. The two seasons before 1977, we hadn't even drawn a million fans in either season. The attendance numbers weren't trending up at all, except when the Sox were good. There was zero Harry Caray effect with the White Sox. Then, just like now, they followed the bandwagon. Lol - only if facts are to be completely ignored. I mean, really - as absurd a statement as could be made in relation to the Chicago White Sox organization and it's history. Go forth with your fairy take view on it all you want, SS2K5. I'm with White Sox historian Richard Lindberg and so many others in the know who understand and recognize the tremendous impact Harry Caray had during his time with the White Sox, and the extraordinary missed opportunity the organization had when they let him slip away and go to the Cubs.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 14, 2016 -> 07:32 AM) Yeah, I am going to guess that Sox fans wouldn't have somehow been brainwashed by Harry Caray, if he hadn't have been able to do so in the 10 years he was here. I'm not quite sure what any of that is supposed to mean, but what I do know is Harry Caray was immensely popular with White Sox fans and that was reflected in the attendance back in those days. That was half the reason the Sox brought him to Chicago in the first place - to help with attendance. He had a bonus in his contract tied to increased attendance, and the Sox actually had to cancel that bonus a few years into the deal because they couldn't afford to pay it, it had gotten so big. And he managed to accomplish all of that and have the influence he had only broadcasting on a tin can radio network and Channel 44. Pretty impressive to say the least. Fast forward to 1981, and now Harry had the power of superstation WGN behind him. And in his short stint on 'GN as a Sox broadcaster, the Sox set TV ratings records for the team and attendance was beginning to skyrocket before the strike occurred that year. It was very clear at that time that the Sox were moving into a whole new and exciting era with the team on WGN and Harry leading the way. Well, clear to most people, except the owners, who within a blink of an eye let both Harry and WGN slip away in favor of...SportsVision. If that doesn't scream purely inept, I don't know what does. White Sox historian Richard Lindberg seems to agree.

White Sox historian Richard C. Lindberg, on Harry Caray: Allowing legendary broadcaster Harry Caray to go to the Cubs after the 1981 season was a mistake, he said. "That helped contribute to the rise of the Cubs and the sinking of the White Sox during those years", Lindberg said. That's putting it mildly, but at least this renowned historian on all things White Sox understands the breadth of this the first of many crippling mistakes the current owner would make over the course of his tenure as owner.

QUOTE (South Side Fireworks Man @ May 13, 2016 -> 04:14 PM) I like Benetti. But whether you like Hawk or Benetti, no one was better than Harry Carey in his prime. Check out this clip from 1974 with Nolan Ryan taking a no-hitter into the bottom of th ninth at White Sox Park: https://youtu.be/pliinyC3h64 You are exactly correct about Harry Caray. And if our inept owner had left well enough alone back in 1981 when he had the ultimate package of Harry Caray AND WGN together, we wouldn't be talking about attendance problems today. The inimitable Caray was well on his way to selling the White Sox experience to a national audience on 'GN back in '81 the same way he would eventually do with the Cubs a few years later, which garnered them the national popularity that they enjoy to this very day. There has been nary an empty seat in Wrigley Field in over 30 years now, and that's primarily due to the effect of Caray on 'GN selling the Cubs back in the 80s. Could of/should of been us, folks. It's that simple. Letting Caray go over petty reasons was a mistake of the highest consequence on the part of Reinsdorf & Co. that will characterize, among many other things, a failed legacy as owner of our Sox.