3GamesToLove

I grew up in the far West suburbs and the Cell is about an hour and pretty painless. Get on the Stevenson, exit at California, take 35th all the way in to Lot G. Feels direct and avoids the backup you get on the Dan Ryan. It's a bit more complicated now that I live just west of the Geneva/St. Charles area in Kane County. I want to avoid the Eisenhower and all of that, so I have to take 88 to 355 to 55...which sounds complicated but is the least frustrating way. If I lived much further North it'd be tough--at that point the easiest place to get would be Miller Park, which is also very doable from where I am. 2 hours, hardly any traffic.

These days I'm really more of a baseball fan first and a Sox fan second, so while this would be awful, I think I'd take it better than many people. I've often said that if I had to move and wound up within a few hours of another major league team, I'd probably go to almost as many games as I do now. I'd still follow the Sox in their new location for a while, I'm sure, though as the years went by and the players changed I'm sure that'd fall away. I would probably adopt the Brewers too--nice and close. I'm already not a Cubs-hater; I'd imagine I'd start following them more closely...moreso just as the local team rather than any real rooting interest, though.

As a Spurs fan who studied in Leicester in fall of 2010 (saw Spurs six times and the Foxes twice when they were in the Championship), this season is amazing.

There's a Juan Uribe quote that I'm tempted to post here.

My favorite Freddy moment was in 2010. He was off to a great start and reporters were asking what he was throwing. His response? "A bunch of bulls***."

His final outing, the final of the Caribbean Series, is live on ESPNEWS right now.

It's a nice park. It's not going to wow you or knock your socks off, but it certainly gets the job done. It's a nice place to watch a game and isn't an eyesore. The new boards will rectify my only major problem with the park.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Feb 3, 2016 -> 10:32 AM) If you can get 5K wiped off (and you are certain of it...I will bold this because you need to be clear you can get that forgiveness without any issue). Calculate whatever your interest cost will be on that amount (I presume much smaller) and make sure 5 years from now you have exactly 5K to get that reduction (I'd also check but I presume that 5K reduction will be taxable unless there is some excemption related to forgiveness of student debt). Oh and just put the extra money into a downpayment for a house account or some other savings account (obviously don't go blow it). But if you truly can get the 5K reduction, my theory is you should take it (it is there for a reason). This is nothing different than a millionaire or a billionaire would do when it came to tax planning strategies, etc. By the way, touche, in general sounds you have been savy with your funds (no debt and working aggressively to pay this down...only thing being, if you can get 5K for free, why not take it). Thanks--I've looked into the requirements quite a few times and it certainly seems I will qualify so long as I stay here or go to another school that meets the low-income requirements. I doubt things will unfold in any other way. And again, at least I'm putting the money towards something. (getting the car paid off will be good), and then I'll have a ton stashed in a savings account if somehow I don't wind up getting the forgiveness. And yeah, I've been in very sound shape. I have relatives who worked in more lucrative fields who decided to pay off their student loans IMMEDIATELY by living a beggars' life for a few years. I've done a good job balancing my spending so far--I do have probably $5k or so beyond a rainy day fund that I want to do something with...probably looking into a CD. Again, getting married this summer and likely will be starting a family in about three years. Having both my car and student loans paid off by then, and possibly my Master's Degree, seems like a good plan to me.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 3, 2016 -> 08:42 AM) For my two cents, with student interest rates being much lower than consumer debt AND it being tax deductible, it would be one of the last things I would pay off. If you have credit cards, pay those first. If you have a car loan, pay that next. Then pay your student loan, and last of all mortgage. Thanks. I don't carry a balance on my credit cards; just pay them off every month. My interest rate on my car is lower than my student loans.

I've been paying ahead on my student loans, but found out that as a teacher I may be eligible for $5k in forgiveness in a couple years. What do I do? I've been paying ahead a decent amount, $100 over the minimum each month and also 1/2 of each of my extracurricular stipends. At that rate I'd be done with my payoff in about 5 years rather than 10. But I recently found out that by the end of my 5th year teaching (June of 2018), I could receive up to $5,000 in forgiveness from the government. At my current rate, my loans would all be gone at that time! What I've done for now is stopped paying ahead so much and started putting that extra towards my car instead. Once that's paid off, I think I'll start stashing everything that I was paying for that each month in savings, just in case something happens and I don't get the forgiveness, and can pay off the debt at that time anyway. Does this seem sound? I know the car debt isn't ideal because of the difference in interest, but if someone else is going to pay my $5,000 I'd like to let them!

So, did he leave FOX or what? Unclear from that tweet.

I don't have any issues with this list. I love Abreu, but in 2015 he was merely a good player, as opposed to his rookie year when he was truly a great player. He may well return to that level. We'll have to see.

Not to mention inflation.

QUOTE (Heads22 @ Jan 14, 2016 -> 09:34 AM) He is doing the Iowa State game on Saturday. He's doing the Michigan State-Iowa game tonight (Thursday) on ESPN.

The prequels are terrible. They all are. Episode I is probably the least terrible of them, though.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 13, 2016 -> 01:48 PM) I like Farmio. When we had tickets on club level we took the elevator with him several times. He's a really nice guy. He may well be a good human being for all I know. That has no bearing on the fact that he's bad at his job.

QUOTE (Swingandalongonetoleft @ Jan 13, 2016 -> 01:32 PM) They can lock Farmer up for a few more years and they're all set. I would usually assume this to be satire, but then I saw your username...

Len Kasper is the picture of what a modern baseball broadcaster should be in terms of how he handles the game and incorporates new ideas. You can have your own opinions of his voice or his "bias."

Who's going to be on Benetti watch, alerting us to the next game he calls on ESPN?

QUOTE (Swingandalongonetoleft @ Jan 13, 2016 -> 08:08 AM) Well, this is random. It's not a very White Sox move, but it's kind of exactly who you'd hope/expect a team to hire in this situation. A young local guy with both national experience and baseball experience.

My only hope is that if he's attuned to advanced metrics, that Stone works with him on those topics. Stone doesn't exactly buy in, I don't think, though maybe he does a little more than he lets on with Hawk.

Austin Jackson is not good, guys.

Gotta say, somehow I hadn't realized that Fowler's on-base skills were so good. Makes him much more palatable to me.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Jan 11, 2016 -> 07:54 AM) This is good news. I think Central Indiana is a huge untapped market for the Sox. Reds have been the most popular team but they are really down right now and it's a good time for the Sox to hit that market aggressively. I think a certain other local team are in much better position to take advantage of any Reds downturn.

Huh, I had assumed it'd be Rob Hart, since he hosted a few "White Sox Weekly" episodes and has been tweeting a lot about the Sox.