The Sir

I don’t think Moncada “completely sucks” but I don’t think he gets much better. Lots of walks, lots of Ks, low slash numbers, the end.

25 posts and Eloy has been mentioned twice, and never by himself? Both times he was mentioned in a list with other far less exciting players. Weird.

Sorry for both of your losses. My wife recently had a probate court battle with her birth father's family over his estate. She was adopted at birth, but she had a strong relationship with him until his death in 2017. His family denied that there was a will (which is fishy, since he was a financial planner) and even went so far as to claim that he wasn't my wife's actual father (an absurd claim that his own actions never suggested). They smiled through their teeth at us at his funeral, and turned into a bunch of assholes as soon as money was involved. My wife's only request was to be given some of his old clothes so she could make a quilt out of them, and they couldn't even oblige that. Fuck them.

So he’ll be back at AA when he’s 25 and a half? Oof. Well, at least we got a #3 starter or so out of the Eaton deal.

After further reflection, I think this is the crux of it for me. Due to mitigating factors such as his own youth when the offense occurred, society determined that he didn't have to rot in prison for the rest of his life. He should be thankful for that. Nowhere does it mean he deserves an amazing job with a millionaire salary.

Huh?

That's a fair point, and my own stance disgusts me enough that I'm dropping out now.

I get it, man. And again, I think pedophiles should be killed, so this is a gut wrenching thing for me to have defend in even the slightest way. If an adult has sex with a 15 year old, it doesn't matter how much the 15 year old "wanted it". It doesn't matter how much the 15 year old is showing signs of maturity. No amount of "well, she's in driver's ed!" or "he came on to ME!" or "she's wise beyond her years!" will save that guy (or gal). We as a society have determined that 15 year olds are not developed enough to make those decisions, and that determination is so stout that we will send that adult to prison for a long time. So with that in mind, how can we turn around and say that Heimlich was truly developed enough to understand what he was doing? Society says he cannot fully understand sex with you or I, so how can we say he understands it with anyone? And yeah, I get that this isn't a question of whether he goes to prison or not, but whether he now gets to live his dreams to the fullest. Maybe that's the difference.

Without getting too political, I think convicted pedophiles should receive the death penalty. So that’s where I stand. BUT... Something that mitigates in this case is that Luke was 15. This isn’t a 30 year old who was predating on children. He himself was a child, albeit a slightly more developed one. Still, if an adult had sex with him around the time he did this, we would all pretty much agree that he lacked the ability to properly consent, no matter what words were coming out of his mouth. So how can we look at this situation and say that he had the full mental capacity to understand what he was doing and how insanely wrong it was?

San Antonio "expert" here. First, check the forecasts, of course, but it should be warm, if not outright hot. Second, the Alamo is a pretty quick thing. Out of a dozen trips to SA, I've walked into its plaza once and I actually deliberately visited it one other time. The gardens are pretty and interesting, but the line to enter the chapel (the famous building we all know and recognize) was super long and we skipped it. Honestly, walk through the plaza, take pictures of the exterior, see the history exhibits in the garden, pay no fees and wait in no lines, and let that be that. An hour tops. Third, there are some good restaurants on the Riverwalk and I enjoy eating there for the scenery, but choose wisely. Casa Rio and Cafe Ole are poor, but the Iron Cactus is pretty solid. Best Mexican food is away from downtown though, at a restaurant called La Fogata's on Vance Jackson Blvd. For more casual and cheaper meals, there's La Villita, which is an artsy-fartsy shopping plaza tucked behind the Hilton Del Rio, and the La Villita Cafe (smack in the middle of it) serves decent sandwiches and salads. Don't know the hours; only ever been there for lunch. Fourth, the riverwalk boat tours (which launch from several different sites and all circle the main loop) are worth it. It'd even be worth it to do a day tour and a dusk/night tour, in my opinion (if only going with one though, go with a night one). Feel free to PM me if you have other questions. When I'm in my home city, I mostly hang out in the suburbs. When I'm in SA, it's all downtown, all the time. So I know it even better than I know my own city.

Not really, but we had almost NO weaknesses. Every spot on the field was filled by a player who served a purpose. The bench was decent, the bullpen was terrific, and the rotation was solid even without an outright ace. The only issue was the fifth starter, and we got a 12-11 W-L record from that slot.

Goodness. Everyone thinks Reinsdorf is cheap because he does things that are cheap, dating all the way back to the ‘94 strike (maybe beyond, that’s a little before my time). Not because he’s Jewish. Seems like you’re the only one running with this angle.

Agree with this. So many people are acting like it will be a success if Moncada puts up a .775 OPS with decent D for a couple of seasons. We traded Chris Sale for this guy- he needs to be Robinson Cano and we need to hit on Kopech or Basabe as well. As pissed as people are at the FO, they need to realize that a lot of our fans have pretty low expectations themselves. Glad the knives are out after the whale failure, but they should have been out after seeing the horridity of some of our prize prospects last year.

That's a star in this organization.

I feel like Eloy, Cease, and Kopech are elite prospects. Other than that, I don’t know what Justice is looking at.

Does anyone have a good link on what Yonder and Jay told Manny about SD? I see a lot of comments about it, but haven't seen the actual source.

Last I saw (on TMZ I think) was that even the rest of the Empire cast was furious at what he did. Pretty much everyone has abandoned him now. Which is what he deserves, even more than prison. He was fully ready to send two innocent men to prison all for his bullshit. Dumbass sociopath.

Red Ruffing is another one. As a 42 year old, in the final stop of an HOF career, he put up a 6.11 ERA in 53 IP. Famous Cub Johnny Evers went hitless in 3 ABs at the age of 40 in 1922. Larry Doby's second tour with us was, umm...bad. .560 OPS in 21 games. His first time was shit hot though. George Davis played the last six years of his career in Chicago from 1904-1909. He never broke a .700 OPS with us, but in the earlier years with the NY Giants which launched him into the HOF, his cumulative OPS was .860.

In 1925, 41 year old future HOFer Chief Bender broke an eight year retirement to throw one inning for the White Sox, in which he walked a guy and then gave up a homerun. He never played in MLB again. I'd say I win, but we've had a habit of acquiring well over-the-hill legends long before Jerry Reinsdorf showed up. Sad!

Bro (I am also a bro, btw), that’s a really cool story of the impact this team had on your life. Thank you for sharing. As significant as this all has been in my life, I’m not actually related to any White Sox fans. My dad grew up in upstate NY and rooted for the Yanks until the strike of ‘94, when he mellowed into something of a neutral observer of the game. Sibling rivalry made my younger brother into a Cubs fan when he realized I had already sided up with the Sox. My mother is a brilliant woman, but on this topic, she just tepidly supports whatever her boys do. And now I’m married to a Rangers fan. Remember a few years ago when we walloped then 19-3? I do. I had to temper my absolute giddiness with faux sympathy for her and her team. Anyways, I know it stinks. Just don’t let it override everything. You’ve got bad jokes being made about suicide hotlines (ok, that might have been a one time thing), you’ve got people threatening to root for the Cubs, you’ve got people moving to Nashville, you’ve got people declaring how pissed they are after sleeping on it. Let this add to our lives in a positive way. Demand Hahn be fired to your heart’s content, but keep it in perspective. If you’re not having fun anymore, just let it go for a bit.

I've always thought of myself as a diehard White Sox fan. I remember, as a young kid in Chicago in the mid-90s, hiding under my covers late one night to listen to the Sox play the Tigers on a portable radio. It went into extras, I thought we had it won, and then Bobby freaking Higginson hit a three run bomb to tie it up. My mom chewed my ass when she heard my screams of horror, and I ended up not finding out that we won 17-16 until the following morning. I remember, a few years after that, when my mother got stationed in southern Spain with the Navy. It was before the internet was really a huge thing (at least in my childhood), so I had relatives who were still stateside tape White Sox games and send them to me so I could watch. Of course, I was horribly impatient so I usually caught highlights on ESPN somewhere on base. I would faithfully watch the recordings later though. That was how I followed this team for a few years. I remember going to Paris and crying pretty much the entire time. It was October 7th, 2000. I don't remember how I found out, but I definitely got word that the boys had been swept by the lousy Mariners in the ALDS. As a result, I moped the whole weekend, much to my parent's chagrin. Oddly, out of all the places in Europe we went while my mom was at that station, this is the only one for which I remember the date (most of the trips, I only remember that we went, not even the order or year), and it's only because of the Sox. I remember using this new thing called Facebook to furiously message fellow Penn Staters who were in a White Sox fan club in October, 2005. I hoped we could all get together and watch the World Series. No one took me up on it and I ended up watching the games alone. I felt like a complete idiot because I took a long nap and woke up in the third inning of Game 1. Even missed part of the Penn State game which was on simultaneously. I set stringent alarms for the other games. I remember all the big plays, but honestly, I've forgotten how I reacted. I do remember that I considered it the best time of my life, up to that point. I remember how mad I was when the Twins almost ruined our 2008 season. I saw a Twins fan in one of my class buildings one day, and for whatever reason told him I was a White Sox fan. He literally laughed in my face and walked off. I stood there dumbfounded that he would be such a prick. I wished I would have run into him again a week or so later, but no such luck. I spent several nights before the last minute salvation drowning my sorrows with some friends of mine who were Mets' fans. Their season actually ended in disaster, with no ultimate success. There was nothing fun about it- we were mostly grown men, sitting in silence, drinking, and feeling sorry for ourselves. I do not remember when I relaxed about all this. Maybe it was when I was trying to follow the awful 2013 season on a shitty internet connection in my tent in Afghanistan (interestingly, the Sox once again help me with dates- I was flying to a new location on May 17th, because the airfield had much better wifi (WTF) and I was able to actually watch Sale dominate the Angels). Maybe it's when I attended the game to launch the rebuild. Yep. I was there when the Sox blew a 10-5 lead in Arlington. They became 23-11 and just got worse from there. I didn't stay until the end (there had been a long rain delay and my son was only a year), but I got home just in time to watch them fall apart on TV. It was devastating. I couldn't even think about baseball for a few days. So I've been there. I've seen my entire emotional state ebb and flow with this team. I don't feel like it does that anymore, but maybe the awfulness of the last decade has just made me nonchalant. Either way, to make my ultimate point, this is supposed to be fun. Regardless of what I thought about all these moments as they were happening, I now look back on these memories and smile. They've tied into my life in deeply meaningful ways and even helped clarify experiences that I've partially forgotten over the years. I get that it sucks that the FO failed to achieve its goals. It takes the motivation out of watching in forty-ish days, and I certainly want JR to sell, and Hahn and KW to be fired. No objections there. But this is a game and it should be fun. It should bring joy to our lives. If it doesn't, then I say this without condescension or scorn, please do something else. Simply so that you can be happy. Play with your kids. Drive out into the countryside. Plan a vacation. Go on a date with a cute girl (or boy). Let this game enrich your lives; not darken them. I feel like my thoughts have shifted slightly since I started writing this. So if you're still reading this, I hope I made it worth your time. If nothing else, I hope you smiled at how this team we all love tied into one kid's life as he grew up. Cheers.

You just added that avatar, didn't you?

Seriously, this is such a stupid fucking take it might make me forgive Hahn/KW/JR and actually appreciate guys like Jay and Alonso. Damn you, Ron.

Shut the fuck up.