Southwest Sider

Okay. Im one of the positive everything going to be fine people, but now my tune is changing a bit. This season isnt quite lost yet and i do believe the sox have another hot stretch in them. My only problem is that you just cant allow KC to own you like this. Cleveland as well, to a lesser extent. KC is the sox daddy right now and if the sox want to win this division, they have to reverse that this year. Its not going to be easy. Kcs confidence against the sox must be sky high now. Sucks to be a sox fan in a situation like this. Embarrassing bury your head in the sand kind of stuff. Theres no way the front office mails in this season so dont expect the sox to sell any assets. Sad, i know, but soon enough the sox will turn it around and give hahn more reason to keep going for it. All in all, i believe this team needs something really good to happen to it especially against KC. A miracle perhaps. Are the sox due for one? Lets hope so.

QUOTE (greg775 @ May 27, 2016 -> 03:21 PM) I appreciate this post and your heartfelt commentary. I do have a question. You are right about Millenials wanting to balance work life and home life and they don't want to work 60-70-80 hours a week like we do. My question is ... how do you handle this now? It's going to be a while before Millenials are in charge of all the companies and can make sure their employees have a lot of free time/vacation time. How do you survive in the interim. I hear law offices are making the Millenials work just as much as the older folks are used to. Are Millenials quitting their jobs once they realize the jobs control their lives completely? This mixing and matching of generations would appear to hurt the Millenials because they will quit or be fired when the old codgers put amzing demands on their time. Your point is well acknowledged. Well, when I am ready to enter the workforce in that capacity I am going to make myself as marketable as possible. I am going to investigate companies that I want to work for (companies with solid values, and yes I know there probably aren't many of them) and relentlessly apply for their jobs. In the meantime, which could potentially be awhile after I graduate, I will retain my excellent retail job to make ends meet. I can't speak for other millenials because my situation is unique. I suppose millenials who absolutely need to have a giant house and all the best toys will need to suck it up and do what it takes to hit the ceiling of their careers. However, I imagine that many millenials can do with less and live a happy life. For me it is not all about being at the top of the food chain and making six figures. If the opportunity cost of achieving such a goal means scarce family time and little leisure/individual time, then I don't think I'd set to achieve such a goal so long as I'm not living in poverty for it.

I am one of those kids who are still stuck at home. I suppose that first I'll explain how my individual situation went down, and then explain why I believe this is occurring and what my final thoughts are on the subject from my millenial point-of-view. My parents split up while I was in middle school. After high school, I could live with my mom rent-free if I went to college. If not, I had to pay some kind of rent. I was pretty much an idiot at those times, and didn't care a lick for school so I dropped out of community college. My father was going through some rough times. I won't go into details but I was able to live there rent-free until I was 20, which I'm sure my mom wasn't very pleased with. Luckily for me I didn't blow off all of high school; only most of it. I had two internships and had classes that built computer repair and networking skills. The second internship turned into a full time job for a little bit after high school until the owner sold the company. I was able to keep my job for awhile, but the writing was on the wall. Around the age of 19, I was laid off. Without a job to speak of, I was pretty much lost into my 20th year. My buddy who was also laid off ended up moving back with his folks a few states away and landed a similar job. He told me they had room for another technician, and I was ready for a change of scenery so I got out on my own! Things were good. Business was booming and after a short adjustment phase at my buddies folks house, we rented a house with our boss and his new wife. This lasted for about a year until things deteriorated rapidly and we had to move back into my buddies parents house. I lived there longer than I had liked, but the job was going south as well and income was becoming tighter and tighter. The hope was to get an apartment, but when I realized the job wasn't going anywhere, I decided to move back to Illinois. Shortly after moving back I landed a retail job with a lot of promise. I started getting full time hours and consistent pay checks so I worked out a rent agreement with my father. This is the point where I could have moved out. I could have paid a bunch more in rent and lived paycheck to paycheck. I could have moved into a big rented party animal house down the street and hated every sober moment of it. But my father had an unused room. I buy my own food. I contribute to household chores and tasks. Finally, I suspect my father would be lonely without me around. The big plus is that I was able to save some money. About a year ago, I started gunning for a managerial position at my job. It would change everything. I would be making considerably more money, and definitely be able to afford an apartment without having to resort to incredible frugality. I'll be honest. I don't indulge myself a lot with material items, but I also want to be able to enjoy some of the money that I slave for. Trips to places like Cedar Point with my girlfriend and visits to my mother (who now lives in Arizona). Nice dinner dates every now and then, Sox games, craft beer, steaks etc. However, I had a realization about the managerial position that completely changed my plan. The first is that the managers in a store work hours that are incredibly demanding physically and mentally. If you've heard of a waterfall schedule, it's kind of like that. An example would be: Tuesday 1PM-11PM Wednesday Noon-10PM Thursday 8AM-6PM Friday 6AM-4PM Saturday 5AM-3PM Sunday Monday Off There are some areas of this schedule that are less than ideal for families, and I am a firm believer that your family is the #1 thing in your life, not work. I don't want my relationship with my girlfriend or my future kids to suffer because I work such a demanding schedule. The second realization was that to become a store manager (the head honcho of the store, who makes much more money and can work whatever schedule they like so long as it is 50 hours per week) was close to an insurmountable task for most managers. The first problem is that almost every manager wants to be a store manager. Competition is all well and good here, but the second problem is that there are simply not enough locations in this company. They only open a couple of locations a year, and it's not like current store managers are in a hurry to retire. I've seen firsthand many amazing regular managers toiling away for 10+ years hoping that their name would be called soon for store manager. However, only one location opened in this region alone last year with none that I know of set to open this year. I realized I didn't want to do that. I didn't want to toil away for 10+ years working my ass off, and I didn't want to put my girlfriend (fiance soon) and future kids through that. Call me a lazy millenial if you wish, but I simply do not view it that way. My girlfriend is finishing up her bachelors and is in the process of deciding whether or not to go for a masters. She will be working some kind of 9-5 job Monday through Friday. My weird managerial schedule just would not jive with hers. So I made the decision to go back to school and continue working part-time at my retail job. I wish I had decided to go back to school earlier; I am 28 years old now. It is what it is, though. The retail job for store employees is actually fantastic. In 5 years I went from $10.50/hour to $17.35/hour. They offer retirement packages so I opted into one awhile ago and have been building it up. These benefits kept me chugging along as a store employee without giving a thought to schooling. Boredom has started to creep in, though, as well as a revitalized urge to continue bettering myself. With some of my savings, I am able to finance my schooling at community college for the time being. Subsidized loans and the American Opportunity Tax Credit help immensly. I also hope to qualify for a Pell Grant next year. I still live at my dads, and I wanted it to be clear and okay with him that while I am going back to school, I will be working less (which should help me qualify for a Pell Grant). We arranged a new rent agreement, and he supports me in my quest for an education. It is certain that after I get my bachelors or maybe even my associates that I will be moving out and getting a place with my girlfriend, and finally stop bothering my father by living with him for so long. Greg, I heard that statistic that you mentioned as well on a newsflash from WDCB 90.9. Despite who or what you may listen to, the statistic is real. I think that a lot of parents are recognizing that the economic landscape of today is not as good as when they were our age, so they give their young adults more leash. Both of my parents never completed college and they were able to buy a house and other nice things. This is just not possible today. In my composition class, I wrote a paper about how I believe many Americans are overworked and in my paper I discuss how the cost of living has risen, productivity has risen and at the same time wages have remained relatively stagnant. At the same time, the rich keep getting richer and wealth inequality continues to worsen, which is another contributing factor. There's a lot of good information here if you care to look: http://www.epi.org/publication/charting-wage-stagnation/ If anyone is interested in reading my paper, I'm rather proud of it and would love to share it with you. Just send me a PM and I'll e-mail you a copy. I can't speak for all millenials, just myself, but I am not going to perpetuate society down that path. I place real value on my free time and I will fight for a society that accepts free time as part of our culture. I surmise that a lot of what is perceived to be "lazy millenials", like those who expect inflated vacation time simply have a different way of viewing life in general, perhaps similar to mine. For sure, as things are now, employers now who are old school are going to hire those who don't want vacation time or inflated free time. That's just how it is right now. If I am correct, and many millenials view things as I do, then eventually society will shift as the millenials become the dominant generation. I think this is a really good thing as I believe that America is trending towards being overworked. Somethings going to have to give, and if it is a generation that all the super hard workers view as lazy, entitled brats that shifts America from overworking themselves to something better for future generations, then I think that is great. I don't want my children to grow up in a country where it is expected to basically live to work. I want them to be able to work hard, get what they deserve for it, and also have enough time for their families and to grow themselves individually.

QUOTE (Nixon @ May 26, 2016 -> 07:14 AM) High Sparrow plot needs to move along, it's been stagnant for too long and they removed too many aspects of it to have it be interesting for this long w/ so little going on. Looks like the Tyrell army makes it to Kings Landing next episode, so hopefully they spend a good 10-15 minutes or whatever and really advance that story. Kings Landing is kind of boring without Baelish, Varys and Tyrion playing politics but I think the aftermath of whatever happens with the Tyrell army and Cersei's new plot should jazz it back up a little bit for many viewers.

This team needs something good to happen.

Boy oh boy. It's getting tough to watch these guys. Day after day, pitchers dominate our lineup and why? Because every pitcher we face is on his game that day? I doubt it. I think it's more likely that the offense simply is not intimidating, and pitchers know that all they have to do to win the game is throw strikes. Whatever this team had in the beginning of the year is gone. I do believe they will definitely go through another stretch where they win a ton of games, but with the good times also come the bad times like what we are seeing now. I'd really like to see a consistent competitive edge with this team, instead of looking like world beaters for awhile to turn into an absolute suckfest.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ May 23, 2016 -> 09:54 PM) RV cost the team at least .5 a run today. Mangers do matter folks. He f***ing manages the 1st game like a real manager the Sox probably win 8-4 and save all the high leverage guys. He f***ing doesn't of course, he tries to steal innings with Duke, and he burns everyone. Now, he leaves in Johnson when he could have left in Latos. f*** RV. LOL at the bolded. Yeah, if Robin managed the game "the right way" (whatever that is), the Sox would have won 7.5 to 6. Or 7 to 5.5. Or 7.25 to 5.75. Or they'd still be losing 5 to 1.5 in this game. Maybe take a chill pill. It's just a game.

Great game to be at. Mostly because of the great weather and great group i was with. And I got onto the beer money show and won a few bucks! So much fun.

Sweet! Got onto the beer money game while tailgating!

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 21, 2016 -> 08:19 AM) Looks like 1975 George Brett, lol...maybe you have a career in graphic design! I wish I could take credit for that image.. it's disgustingly humorous. I can only take credit for attempting to bring some humor to the thread so that fans may laugh now for on page 14 of this thread when the Sox are losing, things won't be as funny.

With enthusiasm and gusto, the man of the day Miguel Gonzalez shall set forth and conquer! Hide your kids, hide your wife.. hide your husbands too! YOU!!! YES YOU WHITE SOX FAN!!! WATCH ME BREAK THE SLUMP!! YOU!!! DAN DUQUETTE!!! STAND STILL WHILST I PROVE TO THAT I SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN RELEASED!! Alas!! Coop HAS fixed 'em! And here we have Danny Duffman, I mean Duffman Duffy. I mean, Danman Duffy. I mean Duffdan Manny. Ah, well, whoever he is, he's going down today!!!! Prepare to be horrified by what you see next.... Someone has a twisted sense of humor there.... Sox Fans:

I'm hoping I can be of use as a slump buster. I wish I could participate and bring positivity to my game thread but I will be working.

Disgust with the losses aside, this team should find some middle ground sooner than later. I think we have two fair assumptions that we can make. The first is that they're not as good as they initially played (.600+ winning percentage), and the second is that they are not as bad as they are playing now. This provides hope that yes, they can go on either another great run or find their way to a middle ground. Some people will argue that they are as bad as they are playing now, but I don't think that's fair. It's a slump, and a pretty ugly one at that but things will turn around. The kicker is that it just sucks watching the slump continue for what seems like forever with each passing day. The other crappy part is that we're in a homestand with KC and Cleveland with still no end in sight for the slump. I'm hoping like everyone else is that last night was rock bottom, because things can only go up from there. I also do want to acknowledge the arguments against the Sox, such as weak starters like Latos, Gonzalez and some pretty bad offensive players as well as what seems like a declining bullpen. These are definitely real issues but all teams in baseball deal with issues like those. It's about how you overcome them. For instance, the Royals were able to overcome using their #6 or #7 (right?) preferred starter last night. Obviously they'd rather have someone else, but they're still able to win the game.

QUOTE (Deadpool @ May 19, 2016 -> 10:14 PM) Too easy. Are you actually Hawk? Tangible Yeah, I probably shouldn't have quoted a dictionary definition. My bad on a terrible straw man situation. Instead, I must disprove that Steve Stone is only one on the broadcast with Hawk that has real or actual baseball thoughts. Well, that is really easy. You may think that Hawk is repetitive or boring with his baseball thoughts, but the truth is is that's just your opinion. I challenge you to listen to a game Hawk broadcasts without your bias, and come back here and tell us all that he is saying nothing relevant about the baseball game. His job for that past umpteen years has been to watch the game of baseball and vocalize baseball thoughts. If he was as you say, "trying to spoil the movie", I seriously doubt he would still have a job with the Sox. He may be biased, and yes, he may be getting old, but his thoughts regarding the games are still relevant. I think you might be just be experiencing confirmation bias, like many folks who are unenthused about Hawk. No offense to you, you have every right to dislike his broadcasts, and I'm not here to change your opinion. All I'm asking is that you keep it real. If you hate Hawk, you hate Hawk. That's fine and you can own it. There's no need to try and justify it to all of us with logical fallacies such as false analogy, composition and division, and circular reasoning. Also, I apologize for straw-manning your post in a weak manner. I should have tried harder in my response and instead opted for the lazy route.

Ive gone out of my to defend the sox during this slump... but youve really got to show up for a game like this. Big crowd, defending champs, and you just get pooped on. KC adjusted midgame and had a plan to attack quintanas curveball. What was the sox plan? Did they adjust? Who knows? The poor crowd at this game was treated to an expensive s*** show and i hope its different when i go to the game on sunday.

Also they needed to stop with the curveballs a long time ago. Theyre entire rally was off of curveballs.

Sox will get some runners in any of the next 3 innings.......but will they score is the question. For their sake i hope its not 2 out runners.

QUOTE (Deadpool @ May 19, 2016 -> 06:22 PM) Steve Stone. The only one with real, tangible baseball thoughts. FYI tan·gi·ble ˈtanjəb(ə)l/ adjective 1. perceptible by touch.

I hate to say it, but maybe we are seeing why Oakland was so willing to part with Lawrie for so little. He did look a lot better earlier this year, so hopefully he can figure it out anyways.

Yeah Melky! Man I thought that was a homer for sure! RBI triple instead will do!

If that doesn't get this team pumped up, nothing will! Attaboy Fraz!

Boy this has been depressing baseball lately. Hopefully they right the ship before they get too close to .500.

Come on Jimmy we need you dude.

QUOTE (Tony @ May 18, 2016 -> 08:09 PM) I've been curious about this for a while, what does hitting that button actually do? I think it starts the 2nd stage of grief. A lot of us are in denial right now (and for good reason, it's only a slump after all). Panic button means anger for more people. Sure, some crazier Sox fans are already at the anger stage, but the panic button means the rest of us are angry. Then comes the trade deadline and bargaining to make us better. And if the Sox still suck there's depression, and by September if they're out of it, acceptance.

QUOTE (ChiSoxFanMike @ May 18, 2016 -> 08:07 PM) Is it time to press the panic button? Not even close. Get swept by KC and I think people can maybe, MAYBE start thinking about that button. (not pressing it though)