The Beast

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Jun 7, 2016 -> 10:41 PM) I see Shields start tomorrow to be critical in that if he can deliver a win it might jumpstart these guys. I can see a trade for Jay Bruce being possible but offense hasn't been the worse problem we have had Lots of games were critical before the sweeps started happening. Thanks, Texas!

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jun 7, 2016 -> 10:37 PM) If nothing gets done after another Shields implosion and former two-time prospect Gio Gonzalez throws a no-hitter and the Royals sweep them again at USCF... What would it actually take? Will Carlos Sanchez be recalled to hit 5th and DH tomorrow? Maybe if they get a runner on and no outs, the next guy HAS to bunt to move the runner over. Then they have to drive them in. Last guy to drive a run in gets smacked upside the head.

QUOTE (hi8is @ Jun 7, 2016 -> 10:34 PM) Sure. Derek Jeter, Ivan Rodriguez, Troy Percivlle, and Michael Jackson are all kicking down the door from their primes begging teams to give em a shot. Wait. Maybe that list isn't so accurate. I'll have to check with my sources again before you take me at my word. Antonio Alfonseca. Rafael Palmeiro. Wavin' Wally Johnson. Harold Baines. That midget from when pictures were black and white. Pablo Ozuna.

QUOTE (kitekrazy @ Jun 7, 2016 -> 10:33 PM) I never understood the foolish rule you had to be a fan of your local team. People would suggest that to Sox fans I'm sure. It would really suck watching the Sox move out of Illinois and win somewhere else. I'd be a Sox fan but not like I am as they are in Chicago.

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Jun 7, 2016 -> 10:32 PM) Courtney Hawkins. Jared Mitchell. Jon Rauch. That other Murphy who retired. Bobby Howry.

Little Nicky Delmonico to the rescue! Maybe if he hits and they win the team won't completely relocate! On a serious note, will they move the team elsewhere? God I hope not, then I'd have to be a Cubs fan.

I saw two on and no out. The optimistic side said we could get a run, the realistic side said, who cares - they'll find a way to f*** it up. The old teams we had before we started to suck in 2009 at least hit doubles and home runs. I would give anything for Ordonez or Konerko in their primes to be on team right now. But no...we have to watch Saladino make two errors at short, the bullpen issue free passes and our offense come up empty. This Shields trade doesn't do s*** if they don't start winning and playing like competitors. Blow it up and actually fire someone - KW, Hahn or RV...just to say "maybe we need to go in another direction." My god...corpseball sucks to watch!

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ Jun 7, 2016 -> 10:15 PM) Desmond also came with a draft pick... Who cares? We will probably draft Jared Mitchell again so I would have taken Desmond.

While I'm on a roll and we continue to suck ass, can anyone f***ing explain why Cubs fans show up in their gear at the Cell?

f*** off White Sox. The slide continues and your b**** asses continue to suck. Go get a paycheck while we watch bad baseball and wait for the team to move when JR passes. I'm sick of watching a team get a lead, lose it and get beat. Jeez.

Let's start winning some games in the division!

QUOTE (Jerksticks @ Jun 2, 2016 -> 07:37 PM) In a more macro take I look at it like this: Manufacturing jobs WAY gone in general. Most agree. Therefore the need for low management, entry levels is gone. Going to the office jobs WAY down in general with the increase in internet & technological efficiency. Don't need unskilled dudes at desks as much really. Sales jobs WAY down due to tech improvements. Less local mom&pop shops due to Walmarts, obamacare. $15/hr will destroy mom&pop for good. Obliterate. He gone. 40hr weeks are becoming more non-existent in lower-end, entry-level positions. More people/less hours is the skyrocketing business model in no-skill, entry-level arenas. And of course it is. Why offer unaffordable benefits to the replaceable. Higher costs of living coupled with lower wages equals stay at home. More competition to join the trades now since all the above jobs are gone or becoming less fruitful-available. Add on top of that a skyrocketing population. Maybe I'm off on some of this but the fact that nobody has anything interesting or skillful to put on the resumes I look at paints a bleak picture to me. Resumes are full of people trying to twist common things into skills. Being skilled gets you a good job. Having an unskilled degree, might as well flip burgers. This is why I feel it is necessary to go back and get a degree in healthcare or something. The boomers will always need care and there will always be insurance flowing. Physical therapy, occupational therapy and nursing are all hot fields. I wish I could say the same about a business person at a hospital serving as the administrator and having that same job security, though.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ May 31, 2016 -> 06:32 AM) There is absolutely no market that offers more upside than a split Chicago. Montreal is probably the closest thing and MLB will likely be adding a team there anyways when they expand to 32 teams in the not too distant future. I'm not sure where this idea comes from that our franchise would be better off moving, but the notion is pure garbage. I can't think of one - some person wrote that Portland would be a good idea, I don't think it would. I do think that a new owner would really help the Sox, but I wonder if they'd want to keep the team at the Cell, in the suburbs or move out of Illinois. Financially, I doubt the state has enough revenue to help pick up the tab to build another stadium in the suburbs, even though I would love the Chicago White Sox of Oakbrook.

QUOTE (Lip Man 1 @ May 30, 2016 -> 09:50 PM) If you think the situation is bad now (and it is) just wait till the Cubs start their own TV network in three years. Mark How so? I'm not familiar with TV deals outside of the fact that they create revenue.

I guess we will have to wait until the end of the year to see the changes. I would love to see Renteria get a chance now but I don't think that's going to solve anything. Kenny Williams getting fired and JR selling the team would help, but I honestly think the Sox will move in the next ten years. I went to the Cubs game today because of my fiancé and can't see the Sox competing and staying afloat financially even though deep down I hope they do and get families to the park since that's where I think they can compete with the Cubs. Do you guys think we need to worry about a move?

Time to dump Ventura and get some experience after the season.

Do it. EJ sucks and you're trading a teenager. So what if they get some salary added on the books?

He plays in the NL? Trayce Thompson is an outfielder, we need an infielder. Fine with the trade, they have bigger issues than trading him. Like a closer that blows a HUGE lead?!?

QUOTE (South Sider @ May 27, 2016 -> 11:37 AM) 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. I am at work at lunch and would love to respond to this later after I read your paper. Please send when you're able to. Great post!

This is definitely an interesting thread. Let me start out by saying that I moved out when I was 24 to be close to my job downtown and rent an apartment in Chicago, like most other suburban kids do. I am one of five kids and am the longest tenured kid living on their own in Chicago. I graduated in 2011 with a BA in Business Administration/Management from a private school in Iowa. I had gone to a public school in Illinois for two years and transferred home after I felt lost in what I wanted to study and do with my life. My grades were fine, but I didn't know what to study. I went from Marketing to Secondary Education in English to Corporate Communications and then decided to study business. I decided that I no longer wanted to be an English teacher (I am not much for literature but am good at writing), didn't want to be a sports journalist or a broadcaster, as I was told I wouldn't be able to make the kind of living I wanted in those professions and really, I couldn't see myself living the life of a reporter. I was fortunate to transfer home and go to one of the best community colleges in Illinois for a semester and take some business courses while I checked into different schools. The private school where my brothers went to in Iowa had offered me a scholarship to go to school and another scholarship to work on campus in the sports information department. I had a better time at that school than I did at the public school in Illinois and aced my grades to the point where I still graduated in 4 years. I landed an internship with the St. Louis Rams that didn't pay (my graduation money paid for a hotel to live in for three months) and determined that working in sports wasn't for me and then decided to go try PR and marketing. I had two internships while living at home, one at a PR agency and the other in marketing for a start up. The PR internship landed me a job at the start up I was doing marketing for and I made a little over minimum wage for a year while living at home. I decided that I didn't want to pitch to the media, write site copy or SEO for a living so I got a job at an EAP company administering FMLA. I worked there for three years and got promoted once, but left after I hit the ceiling and wasn't promoted to an actual client service position. I made about $40K when I left and was able to live downtown in a few different apartments. I had one roommate to start, then three other roommates (one eventually was my fiance) and I now live with my fiance. I am extremely frugal and sometimes I don't go out on the weekends and stay in. We also go to the store weekly and only eat out on a Friday or Saturday. I now work in insurance and make more than before and overall, I am happy with my position (even though I have had thoughts about helping people as opposed to working in a cubicle all day). I am now getting married next July (paying for a lot of it) and am moving to the suburbs while renting an apartment and trying to decide if I need to immediately get a car (we'd live by the train and she has one) and if I want to go back to school. The reason I am telling this story is because this is from the perspective of someone who had their undergraduate degree paid for. I lived with my parents for a little over a year after I graduated and they started charging me rent when I got a full-time job with benefits. My parents were happy that I took charge and moved out because I did what I said I would do - move out by the time I was 25. They have paid for graduate degrees for my siblings (a few who have lived at home) BUT my siblings have to pay them back for that and they pay for their bills, cars and help out at home. The other sibling and I are the only ones who are living on their own, but my sister had lived on her own and is now becoming a teacher and my other brother is doing the same thing. It's just going to take some time because of the amount of full-time teaching jobs there are in Illinois right now...my fiance was lucky to just land a full-time one in the suburbs. My other brother just graduated in a hot medical field and will be able to support himself. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I think it's okay to have people from my generation (the "entitled" millenials...not all of us are), live at home as long as they are doing something to better themselves and get a job to move on their own. Illinois' economy is rough for teachers and a lot of people and jobs are leaving. So of course there will be people my age, younger and older living at home. If I did it all over again, I would have gone to the community college for 1-2 years and then went to a better school so that I could find something more career focused. I'd also add that a lot of jobs from trade schools and associate degrees in the medical field allows people to earn more out of their program than some college graduates. Looking back now I guess it was a good idea to get a business degree, but I think it would still have benefitted me to get a degree that enhanced my skills, which I felt something in journalism could do. I'd probably just use those skills towards a different career like marketing since I had no intention to be a reporter. It's also interesting that so many people go and get graduate degrees but they may never pay off, which is why I am not sure if getting an MBA or a Health Administration degree is worth it right now. If anything, I am probably going to take it a course at a time and do my master's slowly, so that I don't have what people call a BA or the new high school diploma. Anyway, sorry for the rambling but I figured I would share this.

The White Sox are like strippers, they tease you just enough to get excited, only to leave you disappointed in the end.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ May 24, 2016 -> 10:43 PM) I don't think the Sox players have quit at all. I think some fans have quit because they think the season is one series even one game long. Tge reaction is just ceaxlzt at times. We play 162 games and will struggle at times.begat builds character and a team. Hahn knows what we need extravl and will work on it. I haven't quit (I'm just pissed) but they've lost lots of series in a row...making tomorrow a huge game!

What happened to the days when they could get players like Dye, Konerko, Ordonez, Lee and Thomas who could jack one? I hope they draft a hitter this year and scout better for position players. I'm tired of all of the failures, lots of other teams get it right, why can't the Sox?

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 24, 2016 -> 10:14 PM) Spanky, I'm not sure that's called for, lol... They're still in 1st by 1 1/2 games. I don't think anyone expected to run away with the AL Central. It's not called for but it makes me feel better, lol...they better start acting like they want to contend.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 24, 2016 -> 10:10 PM) Offense has so many holes right now. There is nothing on the bench that can help, as do you really want to see Sands vs Kluber? No, I want to see Navarro versus Kluber and Avila riding the bench until he learns to hit again.