Lip Man 1

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Aug 27, 2015 -> 09:48 AM) Yea you're right but it might as well be $100M because it is the Sox we're talking about here and they will do everything they can to try and recoup that money by playing the guy . Same thing with LaRoche . Everyone and their brother knew he should be platooned but somehow some way the Sox didnt anticipate that and it left a gaping hole in the middle of the lineup against left handers. You just can't win with such a huge hole in such a key spot yet come hell or high water the Sox want to squeeze every ounce of production or lack of production for the money they are paying him at the expense of playing winning baseball. Which is the same reason they won't fire Ventura. He's got a contract through next year. Mark

Let's just say that if any of these rumors come to pass I'll be mighty surprised. Mark

Seaver remember folks won 15 games each year with the Sox with a very good ERA in 1984 and 1985. He was older byt the guy could still pitch. Mark

18th time the Sox have held an opponent to three runs or less and lost. Mark

The issue with trying to have Johnson, Sanchez and Saladino in the starting lineup potentially for next season is the lack of power. U.S. Cellular Field is a power-park, these guys are not power / RBI type hitters. You can have some of them in the lineup since they bring needed speed, defense and youth but I don't see how you can keep all of them even if Ramirez is let go. Mark

QUOTE (Dunt @ Aug 26, 2015 -> 12:51 PM) Getting off to a good start is paramount. While Im not sure it's very quantifiable, there has to be a lot of positives for teams that dont start out immediately in a hole, that arent making mental mistakes and losing the trust of their pitchers early in the season. They always do seem to come out flat and typically end up getting buried early. Another concern for me is that Robin isnt really the best strategic manager. This lineup might not have been constructed to give him too many options, but the fact that LaRoche got so many starts against lefties this season is really concerning to me. If a platoon is needed, that needs to be determined in april, not august. In 2015, Adam Eaton is batting .227 against lefties and .280 against righties? Why isnt Trayce playing for him against lefties? I think he's had him replace Eaton once since being called up. He just hasnt proven to me that he is a good strategic manager. Why did it take the Sox until SSS posted about CERA to switch up Rodon's catcher? Are these guys just not paying attention themselves? I can't speak with certainty and I certainly haven't been told anything specific but if you look at this organization since the new owners took over I've gotten a strong sense that they want to win but they want to win their way under their conditions. This organization (and I'm not saying they should) has always felt they were "smarter" then the fans, agents, the media when it comes to general concepts like how to build a winner and what that takes to accomplish. I don't think it's a question of 'getting it' or 'understanding things' I think it's more along the lines of 'we're going to do it our way' (for better or for worse. Mark

QUOTE (Thad Bosley @ Aug 26, 2015 -> 10:20 AM) And so what? What does that have to do with the poster's assessment of Reinsdorf's legacy as "terrible"? You get to that conclusion based on evaluating the results of his tenure, not on how he stacks up against other owners who had their own set of problems. Steinbrenner was forgiven for his "sins" because of the fact that the Yankees never forgot under him that the only thing that mattered was winning. Everything else took care of itself so long as that took place. Mark

I appreciate the time and effort put into the start of the thread. To me though it boils down to basically one thing and one thing only regardless of who the Sox keep, trade, sign, draft. GETTING OFF TO A GOOD START. The Sox haven't had a winning month of April since 2009. That means that by May 1st they are usually three, or four or more games behind the leaders. On paper that's not a big deal not with 130 games to go. However, with this organization it seems that once pressure starts to be applied mentally, the players don't respond well. Four games behind to this bunch IS a big deal in my opinion. This team was woefully unprepared to start the season. They were brutal the last 10 days of spring training. They were flat opening day, they were flat again for the home opener. How can that be? Unless Robin and his staff (since I don't think anyone is leaving) changes their ways I don't think it will much matter what the Sox do in the off season again. Ozzie was the same way, thinking spring training was a joke and the results played themselves out for him as expected to his last few years. Just my opinion. Mark

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Aug 26, 2015 -> 06:43 AM) Is he the guy who sounds exactly like McDonough? I don't think Hawk is retiring unless his eye issues are becoming too extreme. Yes. By the way I've noticed that myself. Also found out another interesting thing about NESN where Orsillo worked. When their new guy, I think he's the G.M. of it took over he instituted a policy where his announces MUST take a break during the season. Don't know how much time they are required to take off and if it's a paid leave or not. Just found that different. Mark

QUOTE (ewokpelts @ Aug 26, 2015 -> 07:22 AM) Oh, and you don't have to put quotations marks when talking about the official site of the sox. It's operated by the team and owned by the league. I figure a "journalist" like yourself would understand the meaning of "official" My apologies for the mistake and for offending you. It won't happen again. Mark

This kid needs to be playing every day. Move Garcia to DH and bench LaRoche for the rest of the season. Just my opinion. Mark

He's certainly competent and has been doing the Red Sox for a number of years. Took over for Sean McDonough if I remember correctly. Mark

WB: You'll be interested to know that I've submitted a story on the history of SportsVision and its impact on the franchise to the folks at Sox Net. Hope you'll enjoy reading it. Mark

Interesting discussion here so far. Well done. Again just putting some points out there not advocating either way, devil's advocate more or less. 1. The reply to those who say winning once is better than numerous times getting in without doing so is, "well, you can't win the World Series if you don't make the postseason..." Today the playoffs much like the NCAA basketball tournament is a crap shoot. Match-up's, health, the bounce of a ball or a call (or non call) decides games which in a short series or a one and done scenario can be the difference between winning and losing. Jerry Koosman told me once that he thought it was harder to win in the playoffs then the regular season. I asked why and he said because over the course of a 162 games the best team usually wins, that's not the case in the playoffs especially a short series. 2. When you look back at the ownership of JR and EE it's sad that the Sox have actually wasted more chances to make the playoffs than they actually got in. Sox have made the post season under their stewardship in: 83, 93, 00, 05 and 08. They wasted reasonable chances to get in in 84 (first place at the break, had won seven straight, collapsed in the second half), 91 (one back on August 11 then lost 15 of 17), 94 (1st place at the time play was halted via labor impasse driven in large part by JR), 96 (40-21 in June, finished with 85 wins, collapsed in the second half because of a bad bullpen and no 5th starter), 03 (had a two game lead with 18 games to go, finished three games behind Minnesota. Lost five straight to them in the final two weeks. Again the lack of a reliable 5th starter during the season cost them dearly), 06 (57 wins in the first half, finished with 90, collapsed in the second half), 10 (1st place on August 1st, by mid August were four back, finished six behind Twins) and 12 (had won five straight, had a three game lead with 15 games to go, went 4-11). That's a sad legacy. *Note I don't count 04 in this because even though they were in first place at the break they had lost both Ordonez and Thomas for the season. No team could survive that. Mark

Daniel: I can certainly see both sides especially from an economic / business / attendance stand point. Think the Sox would be having the issues they are having in attendance and media coverage if they made the playoffs in say 2000, 2003 (which they blew), 2005, 2006 (which they blew), 2008, 2010 (which they blew) and 2012 (which they blew) even if they didn't win the title in 2005? It's a very complicated question depending on your perspective I guess. Mark

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Aug 25, 2015 -> 12:09 AM) Granted, they've shared that market with a media juggernaut, in no small part due to Sports Vision. Kansas City needs more than one division title to dominate. The rest don't have championships to show for the domination. Daniel: That brings up the age old argument which I don't have an answer for. Would you rather win one title or have the chance to win one (no guarantees) by consistently making the playoffs, like say the Twins in the 00's? Guess it depends on your point of view. Mark

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 24, 2015 -> 09:56 PM) Interesting somebody said Santo. Didn't he say he just hated his one season on the Southside? Was miserable? Kessinger was a big bust, too, as a Southside player/manager. I don't know if he hated being a Sox though. He probably did as well. Santo hated his time with the Sox is true. He hated being moved to second base, hated being benched by Chuck Tanner, just a real ass. Carlos May told me this story about Santo when I interviewed him. “The other time was when we got Ron Santo. He was our DH that year. We were in Chicago and it was cold and wet. Dick was hitting 3rd, Bill (Melton) 4th, and Santo 5th. Ron was back in the clubhouse, I don’t know if he was getting loose or doing something but Dick made an out and went back to the dugout. As Dick was sitting down, Ron came out of the tunnel and asked him what the pitcher was throwing. Dick exploded and basically said if he wanted to know what the pitcher was throwing he should have his ass on the bench watching with the rest of us.” Mark

QUOTE (Dizzy Sox @ Aug 24, 2015 -> 08:22 PM) Navarro in a landslide--he combined a terrible attitude, horrific performance, and the opportunity cost of signing him over Clemens. Tough to beat all that, though Royce Clayton does deserve a (dis)honorable mention. Actually signing Navarro didn't cost the Sox Clemens. Clemens' agents the Hendricks Brothers contacted Ron Scheuler after they singed Albert Belle but he wasn't interested. His comment at the time was (direct quote) "Roger Clemens is over the hill". Of course he wasn't but we also have pretty strong evidence that he wasn't because of steroids. My point though was Scheuler wasn't interested in the first place. Navarro actually took the place of Kevin Tapani who had a good year for the Sox in 1996 but he suffered a finger injury and Ron actually had the gall to claim that Tapani was faking the injury. The Cubs signed him...and he missed the first half of the 97 season as I recall because of that so-called fake injury. Mark

QUOTE (LDF @ Aug 24, 2015 -> 09:05 PM) i am going to play devil's advocate. shouldn't the world series give the owners a free ride??? considering how many yrs it was since the other world series win. In my opinion no. It's not a lifetime pass. They should be doing much better. Cleveland, Minnesota, Detroit all took turns dominating the division. Kansas City appears to be doing so now. None of those cities has the advantages the Sox do in population, radio / TV deals, advertising and sponsorship possibilities. Yet the Sox can't even figure out how to make the playoffs in consecutive seasons. Let's put it this way, JR and EE have owned a major market team for 35 seasons. They've made the postseason five times and the overall post season record is 15-16, with 11 of those wins coming in 2005. That's simply not acceptable to me. Mark

QUOTE (flavum @ Aug 24, 2015 -> 09:17 PM) How about a walk-off homer? Only the Cubs do that it seems... Mark

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 24, 2015 -> 05:04 PM) Clayton, Rios and Swisher would be right up there. Dunn and LaRoche are right there as well for me. Of course Navarro like many said. Ron Blomberg was a big bust. Being a bust as a player though is different from being hated. And I was told a story about Swisher from one of the beat writers. In the second half of 2008 after the Sox got Griffey, he tried to help Swisher who was in a bad slump by offering some hitting tips. Swisher literally blew him off I was told and just ignored him. Mark

QUOTE (Saufley @ Aug 24, 2015 -> 03:43 PM) That is why a pro like a John McDonough is needed to NOW to run this organization!! But, we all know that will never happen. And McDonough folks grew up a Sox fan in case you don't know. Mark

Making matters even more galling for Sox fans about Wells and Swisher was the fact that as soon as they left the team they started putting up good numbers again. Remember the time Clayton showed up dressed for a game in tennis shoes? Wouldn't put on his spikes??? LOL. Jerry Manuel blew a gasket over that one. Mark

I remember the banner in the outfield, "Washington slept here..." Navarro was pretty disliked and let's not forget Adam Dunn after he publicly told the media that he rarely worked out in the off season (this after having perhaps the worst season statistically in MLB in almost 100 years.) A.J. was loved by Sox fans for his spirit and the fact that he was a damn fine catcher. Article is obviously written by someone who knows very little about the Sox. Mark

It would take a book to really delve into his background and legacy. A very complex individual to be sure. I thought these quotes from my White Sox library would be of some interest: “Eddie and I never discussed how to talk to reporters. We’ve just been ourselves. I always though Jack Kennedy was the kind of person I looked up to in that regard. He always gave the media a fair shake and understood you guys have a job to do. Without responsible people willing to divulge some accurate information, it’s hard to do it right. It was a much better approach then Nixon, who figured the media was his enemy. Doing it Kennedy’s way just makes a lot more sense to me. After all, nobody can buy the kind of advertising Chicago teams get. What other line of work finds newspapers assigning people to follow you around and write about how the business is doing every day? At Balcor, we have to hire a public relations firm to get our names in the paper. When baseball teams get that for free, it makes sense to cooperate.” – Jerry Reinsdorf to Bob Logan. From the book ‘Miracle On 35th Street.’ Pg. 154. Published 1983. “The idea that I must talk to the media in order to know what is going on with our fans or the public is ludicrous. I communicate with fans on an almost daily basis and often hear comments from people on the street and in the ballpark. We have committed a lot of resources to market research each year, whether it is telephone or internet polling, mall intercepts, focus groups or in-park surveys. We believe these surveys are the most impartial way to hear from our fans. I don't think a media interview gives me the same type of insight into what our fans think and feel. Believe me, our fans tell us. They care and they are passionate. I like that about sports. The fact is that I do speak publicly when there is an issue of importance to our fans and to the franchises. I owe that to our fans. But again, I don't really think people want to hear from me or go to the game to see me. I hope not.” – Jerry Reinsdorf quoted on the “official” White Sox web site, www.whitesox.com, August 16, 2004. As with any other individual he's done some remarkable things, some things that make you scratch your head and I'm sure he's done some things he wishes he could do over. (aka as he's publicly admitted regarding the firing of Tony LaRussa and the hiring of Hawk Harrelson as G.M. Mark