Lip Man 1

I think you are correct. They are also moving the pitching rubber back two feet!

Yes to beat the rush for next season. Do it now when you aren't competing against a half dozen teams for a small number of available guys.

On the subject of Hahn and his trades, I've got a suggestion. It's clear the Sox are going to need more pitching to make the jump hopefully next year regardless of if the injured pitchers come back healthy. Today you damn well better have six guys who can go, given injuries and slumps. Personally I'd love a seventh guy too either a top prospect or a vet thankful to have a nice payday at the Triple A level. Anyway, what I'd do if I was Hahn would be to try to get some pitching now (in the next month) not necessarily for this season but for the future and to "beat the rush" as it were when the big money teams are going to be heavily involved in the few free agent pitchers out there or a bunch of teams are going to be willing to "up the ante" for trading for pitchers. Remember when the Sox got Freddy Garcia and Jose Contreras in mid-season 2004? They only had to deal with one team each in the deal...not trying to work against a number of them. I'd do a serious search of the teams that are going to be DOA in a few weeks, see if they have some good pitchers available and make a deal or two right now. Then you aren't in a desperation mode come the off season when it comes to pitching and you may be able to even better yourself by working from a possible strength. Just a thought.

In one of the minor leagues later this year that is one of the experimental rules as I recall...banning shifts.

In fact according to Steve Stone and repeated in the book, the Sox offered Harry more money to stay in 1982 than the Cubs offered. Harry simply wanted to get away from the owners and he knew SportsVision was destined to fail because the technology wasn't there yet. And here is the exact quote from Harry / Jimmy on Royko's show: September 6, 1981 – It was the beginning of the end for broadcaster Jimmy Piersall in connection with the Sox. Piersall and Harry Caray appeared on the ‘Mike Royko show’ on WLS-TV. Royko asked the duo how they handle baseball wives who disliked the comments they made about their husbands. Caray said, “You know what Mike. I would love to call all the wives together someday and tell them what their husbands say about them across the ballfield.” Piersall’s answer was more controversial to say the least. “First of all they were horny broads that wanted to get married, and they wanted a little money, a little security and a big strong ballplayer. I traveled, I played. I got a load of those broads too.” And here is what Jimmy had to say when I interviewed him: ML: The Mike Royko show saw you and Harry appear as guests on September 6, 1981. During the show you made your comments about player’s wives and got suspended for a time. Now I think I understood what you were trying to say, it just came out politically incorrect, but what amazed me was when you told me that despite all the disagreements, you actually got along very well with Eddie Einhorn and that he complimented you on having a good season in the booth. True? (Author’s Note: Royko asked both Caray and Piersall how they handled the reaction from player’s wives when they criticized their husbands. Caray said “You know Mike I would love to call all the wives together someday and tell them what their husbands say about them across the ballfield.” Piersall said, “First of all they were horny broads that wanted to get married, and they wanted a little money, a little security and a big strong ballplayer. I traveled, I played the game. I got a load of those broads too.” JP: “This all started when a group of the player’s wives, led by Tony LaRussa’s wife, tried to get me fired. As soon as I said it I thought to myself this could be a problem, but I was pissed off about them. The funny thing was Jerry Reinsdorf told me himself that both he and his wife saw the show and that he enjoyed it. Then Tony LaRussa went nuts over it and I was suspended.” “The way I was suspended was kind of funny. Eddie Einhorn said he needed to see me. So I went to his office and he’s standing behind his chair, like he was afraid I was going to do something. He told me that I was suspended because the Sox players threatened not to play unless something was done. Yea, I did like Eddie, and he and I got along well.”

So this is what .500 looks like in June...nice view. First time the Sox have been at .500 this late in the season since 2012. I was hoping to get a split in this series. Mission accomplished. Now I'm hoping for three out of four...we'll see. Gio continues his amazing run and Eloy looks like he is starting to figure it out.

Unless he gets an extension from the Tigers: https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/nicholas-castellanos-says-he-will-move-to-first-base-only-after-the-tigers-give-him-a-contract-extension/

I don't see what is dumb making teams pay dearly for the shift. Do it enough times and they'll have to stop or always concede you a infield base hit which would REALLY be dumb.

Let's see how close to .500 the Sox are at the end of the season. If they are, he should get some votes but no he is not Manager of the Year barring a miracle.

One correction SportsVision was the brain child of Eddie Einhorn. He was the driving force behind it, not JR.

If they go deep in the playoffs this season probably astronomical. Expected to pull in 30 million more per year than they are getting right now minimum from TV money

Maybe he saw Giolito's high school coach? ? A very nice start to a difficult stretch of games. The top three hitters in the order had six of the teams seven hits. Rest of the order basically did nothing...yet they somehow won. Speaking of nothing...Alonso now down to .178. Maybe he needs to sit to have another "mental" break. LOL. One under yet again...do we dare hope to hit the elusive .500 mark?????

Given his lease agreement and the money pouring in from MLB properties and deals MLB cut with streaming services, I honestly don't think he cares much about attendance / ratings as much as say when he bought the team in January 1981. They are a factor but not as much as they used to be.

From my interview with Mike Veeck: MV: “The idea actually started two years earlier in 1977. Jeff Swartz, a guy who worked for United Artists, suggested it to me. In 1978 in connection with Coke, we had a dance contest at Comiskey Park. There were 25,000 kids dancing on plywood stages that we had on the field. We thought it might be an idea to have a night for people who hate disco.” “Anyway I get a call one day in 1979, from Swartz who says to turn on my radio to WLUP, that there is a guy named Steve Dahl who is going to blow up disco records at a shopping mall. I listened, then called him at 10:05 AM, as soon as he got off the air, and offered him the chance to do that at Comiskey Park. He was going to do it in front of 3,000 kids. It didn’t take long to convince him he could do it in front of 40 thousand kids.” ML: Let’s talk about that night, what went wrong, and what would you have done differently? MV: “My mistake was thinking that we’d get about 35,000 for the promotion. It turned out there were 60,000 inside the park and another 30-40 thousand on the streets around the park. Traffic was backed up all the way out to O’Hare Airport! Who had any idea that many kids would come out? WLUP was a 5,000 watt station; it wasn’t a giant like WLS or WCFL from when I was a kid.” “The other thing that happened was that we moved some of the police off the field. We had an adequate security force for 35,000 fans but not for 60,000. Outside of the park there were some temporary ticket booths staffed by older people. The kids were starting to get out of hand and started rocking those booths. We moved some of the police off the field outside to help. What happened next was the worst thing that could possible happen, the crowd began thinking as one and they realized there were only 35-40 police on the field. When a crowd begins thinking as one there is no such thing as crowd control. They said ‘let’s go on the field!’ ML: Some Sox fans feel DJ Steve Dahl could have done more to help calm the situation; instead he left the park with the riot in full force. Could he have done more to help? MV: “He could have made an effort. I, my dad and Harry Caray were all down on the field trying to regain control and he wasn’t... but the responsibility was mine. It was a bad decision.” “It was also a slow news day and that generated a tremendous amount of publicity, it was also an election year and Jayne Byrne used the situation as an election photo-op. What I most remember is newspaper guys like Bill Gleason saying what a tragedy it was. I know what a tragedy is, my daughter is losing her sight... this wasn’t a tragedy. The sun came up the next day; the Sox played another baseball game a few days later. It was the fourth forfeit in baseball history but how many take the same umbrage at 30,000 Dodger fans throwing baseballs on the field causing the fifth forfeit in baseball?” (Author’s Note: That took place on August 11, 1995 when Dodgers fans threw baseballs by the thousands on to the field with one out in the 9th inning in a game against the Cardinals. St. Louis was awarded a forfeit win.)

Certainly possible Cubs are very creative in things and very proactive.

Except on this night: July 31, 1991 - The white hot White Sox capped off a sizzling month with one of the most dramatic moments in team history. The Sox trailed the Rangers 8-6 going into the bottom of the ninth inning. Texas brought in former Sox All Star pitcher Rich "Goose" Gossage to close things out. But the goose got cooked on this night as with two out, Robin Ventura hammered a grand slam into the right field stands winning the game 10-8. A full house, which included noted Cub fan Bill Murray sitting almost behind home plate, went wild as Ventura was bodily lifted off the ground by massive Frank Thomas in a celebration hug at home plate.

Can't post the link because it is a pay site but the headline got my attention: Two years after Tommy John, Zack Burdi isn’t back to normal…yet Story talks with him about his issues and how he is trying to overcome them. Kid was a very, very high draft pick and shows that TJ surgery is not a 100% guaranteed success.

Up 41% on Comcast Sports Chicago: https://chicago.suntimes.com/white-sox/2019/6/13/18677480/sports-media-white-sox-tv-ratings-nbc-sports-chicago

Two people of note who were at the game that night were future Sox pitcher Donn Pall and future actor Michael Clarke Duncan. DP: "I was. I had seats in the lower deck, third base side, about halfway up. As I walked around the park that night it was packed, but I thought I was at a Grateful Dead concert instead of a ball game. I literally saw a cloud of smoke hanging over the field. It’s funny, I remember wondering if the record that I took with me to get in was going to be accepted as a disco record. I thought that the ticket takers wouldn’t let me get in because it wasn’t disco! (laughing) Remember you had to bring a disco record with you and if you did, you could get in for .98 cents." "Between games after they blew up the records, people started running on the field. They weren’t just trying to run the bases; they were ripping up the grass, trying to tear out the bases. I remember seeing some guy climbing down the foul pole! I saw a lot of people with gashes on their heads because people were throwing records around like Frisbees. It reminded me of a concert where for a while a baseball game broke out. When that second game was declared a forfeit, I was pissed off! The Sox were pretty bad and they couldn’t afford forfeiting a game! I was probably the only person who left the park that night upset over that loss

It was right after Memorial Day after Cleveland beat up the Sox in a series.

Best story on Cusack I heard from Brooks. He said right before the World series Cusack's secretary called and said he wanted tickets. When told the Sox would see if any were available, Cusack got on the line and started b****ing "demanding" them. Sox got him some and I was told the guy was a real obnoxious prick. basically the Sox said, "never again" if he wants tickets he can purchase them like anybody else. I don't remember if JR said that last part or not.

Something good may finally be coming out of the college basketball scandal. Me thinks Louisville (which is already on probation), Kansas, Arizona and LSU have a reason to be very nervous now... https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/at-least-six-college-basketball-programs-will-be-notified-of-major-ncaa-violations-by-this-summer/

Because they EXPECT their team to win and when they don't, especially if they don't bother to show up or play as fundamentally sound as a bad Little League team they are going to vent. Just my opinion on that. I mean these are professionals...they are paid to win. That's what they should be doing. So when they do it's like, "OK they won...great...that's what they should be doing..." Again just a guess here.

Maybe because that is what fans expect their team to do? Actually win games...

It's not that Sox fans "hate" winning as the original poster said, it's just that they aren't used to it because they haven't really seen it since 2012. And while improved let's not forget they are still a below .500 team at this point with seemingly new injuries every day.