ZoomSlowik

I don't really see where that hit him personally.

Crede rips a double, but A.J. out at the plate. God that sucks.

That ball was crushed! Way to go Jermaine!

QUOTE(Gene Honda Civic @ Sep 15, 2005 -> 01:30 PM) Do people actually care about this? Is there a less sexy crown than the SB champ? Who the F cares. Just win. Quit making outs on the bases.

I think we need to institute a new team rule: whenever Mark Sweeney comes up to the plate, hit him right in the ass.

LOL, it looks like there's about a dozen people in the stands.

They really got crushed in some of those games. Had they already clinched, thus playing a AAA team?

QUOTE(robinventura23 @ Sep 15, 2005 -> 12:48 PM) How about this scenario: The Indians handle the Royals the way good teams are supposed to and sweep them. The Twins handle us the way they usually have in the second half and sweep us. Monday night's game is the biggest of year with the Sox leading the division by 1 1/2 games. Just saying. We're gonna lose to the Royals today too? Cause that's how you added it up. You guys are really assuming the worst. We've generally done okay against lesser competition outside of that one brutal stretch early in August. We're not doing that poorly right now outside of the series against the Angels. Plus we're scoring some runs fairly consistently in these games, something everyone seems to panick about. Granted our starting pitching needs to get a little more consistent, but with no more Texas or Anaheim on the schedule, that should happen.

I personally had no luck, but that's because I was a dumbass and tried it by phone. That never works. My dad got 4 for game 3 in like Sec 539, row 11. He could have had tickets for game one, but he was in shortly after noon and was already past the bend in the upperdeck. I'm just going the internet route next time since I can use at least two computers with ease. We might get lucky, some people at my Dad's office have four season tickets about 20 rows up between the Sox dugout and the plate, and the woman in charge seems to like my Dad (already gave us tickets for the Cubs series). God, that would be sweet.

Well guys, excuse me for not getting worried yet. They've still got a 5 game lead, and everything left is against beatable teams (except maybe when Santana pitches). Detroit has been brutal of late and the Twins have been about .500 for a while. All we gotta do is not get smoked by Cleveland and we should be all right. I'm confident that we can go at least .500 the rest of the way, which would make it very tough for Cleveland.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Sep 15, 2005 -> 11:54 AM) That only counts if our lead is not down to 2 or 3 by the time we meet Cleveland...in other words, we have to get the job done against Minny and K.C. today in order for that to be the case. Not really. If it's 3, they have to sweep us to force a playoff. If it's 2, then they have to sweep us to win. If they win two of three with that lead, they'd only gain one game and still lose the division. If it's 1 game, they still win with a sweep, they tie and force a playoff if they take two of three, and they obviously lose if they take one or none. So basically, if it's 3 games going in they'd have to win 4 in a row including the playoff, if it's two they have to win 3 in a row. If it's one, then they'd either have to win 3 in a row or 3 of 4 including a playoff. Edit- I misunderstood, you're referring to this Cleveland series coming up, not the last one. You're really assuming the worst here. If we win two of four leading up and Cleveland sweeps KC, we'd lose a game and a half. That's a reasonable expectation (win today and one against the Twins). We'd have a 3 1/2 lead going in, then a 4 1/2 if we take two of three, 5 1/2 with a sweep.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Sep 15, 2005 -> 11:37 AM) All this, however, is predicated on us not letting the Indians gain any more ground before we play them. In other words, we actually have to win today and play well against Minnesota this weekend, otherwise, it could be a lot closer than this before we even meet the Indians. Okay, let's even assume that we lose a game in the standings before then, meaning we'd be up 4 or 4 1/2. We'd still be at 5 or 5 1/2 meaning roughly the same situation would exist. They have to get the lead down to 2 at worst to have a shot at winning the division, and they really need to get it down to 1 before the series, otherwise they have to sweep us.

It's conceivable that the last series against Cleveland won't mean anything though. If we still have a 4 game lead or more, then we could play the Birmingham team and it wouldn't matter. If we take 2 of 3 or sweep Cleveland in the series starting this Monday, it would be difficult for Cleveland to have a real shot because we'll probably be up 5 or 6 games. This means they would have to gain 2 or 3 in less than two weeks. Even then, if they cut the lead to 3 they'd have to sweep us just to force a playoff. If they cut it to 2, they'd have to sweep to win or take 2 of 3 to force a playoff.

QUOTE(CWSOX45 @ Sep 15, 2005 -> 11:30 AM) Sure last night sucked, but I thought I'd share this with everyone. As of right now here are the current AL Central Standings White Sox (13) 88 56 .611 - Cleveland 84 62 .575 5.0 The Indians are currently 5.0 games back of the White Sox, and have 16 games left against the Royals, Devil Rays, and us. Meanwhile we have 18 games left against the Royals, Detroit, Minnesota and Cleveland. Let's just say that the White Sox go 9-9 in those 18 games, which I can see happening. There record would then stand at 97-65. With 16 games remaining, in order to catch the White Sox the Indiands have to go 13-3. That makes me feel a little bit better, even though Cleveland has the weakest teams in the league to beat up on, I still think the White Sox can go 9-9. It basically comes down to our six games, if we win 4 of 6 the division is ours. CWSOX45 I don't even think we have to do that much. If we take 2 of 3 against them the first series, that would leave them 6 out with about two weeks to go. That would mean to even make it possible to win the division, they'd have to gain at least three games before the last series, and even then they'd have to sweep us.

Are the Indians really any better than they were earlier in the season? I'm going to say no. They've had a very favorable schedule since the All-Star break, when they were 47-42. The teams they've played and their record against them during that span. Chicago White Sox- 0 wins, 4 losses Kansas City Royals- 5 wins, 2 losses Seattle Mariners- 5 wins, 2 losses Oakland A's- 3 wins, 3 losses New York Yankees- 2 wins, 1 loss Detroit Tigers- 9 wins, 1 loss Tampa Bay Devil Rays- 5 wins, 2 losses Texas Rangers- 2 wins, 1 loss Baltimore Orioles- 3 wins, 0 losses Toronto Blue Jays- 2 wins, 1 loss Minnesota Twins- 4 wins, 2 losses They're not exactly beating up on the great teams of the world. Notice an abscence of games against the Red Sox and Angels, getting crushed by us, a mediocre set of series against the A's, and one good series against the Yankees. They've beat teams that they are supposed to, but there aren't a whole lot of big games in there. Is the better play recently really an improvement, or a result of a favorable schedule when compared to our nightmarish August schedule? I'm leaning towards the latter, although we'll see when we play.

Some of mine are better than others, so I'll start out with a couple of my best ones. We all had a typical Tuesday night. By that I mean wine night at Clyborne with all of us coming back absolutely blasted. A bunch of the guys on the floor were hanging out in the lounge at a late hour of night (not exactly sure when). Suddenly we hear one of the guys a couple of doors down going absolutely ballistic. Apparently the guy who lives next door to him was really hammered, and he made the mistake of leaving his door open. The guy from next door staggered into his room, dropped his pants, and starting peeing on his desk. Personally I don't think this would have been anywhere near as funny if it had been his desk or his roommate's desk. Imagine someone you only sort of know wandering into your romm at 2 in the morning and taking a leak on your desk. I still crack up when I tell the story. There was another incident that was similar. One of the guys has a somewhat low alcohol tolerance and ends up passed out in bed at least every other week. His roommate is a much more prodigious drinker, and although he doesn't get absolutely blitzed often, he's had some bad ones. In one of those incidents, he ended up passed out in the hallway surrounded by small glasses of water with shaving cream on his pillow. In this story, he walks into his room late at night. The lighter drinker sleeps on the lower bunk, and while the heavier drinker was getting ready to go to sleep, he promptly pissed right on his roommate. The last one involves me. I don't drink that often, but I typically drink in large quantities when I do. This usually leads to one of two things: me being extremely lethargic and sleepy, or me being very loud and goofy. Obviously the latter is more entertaining, and it occurred on my 20th birthday. I hung out at a friend's apartment a lot that year, and some of his friends from home came down that weekend. I brought a bottle of tequila, some sweet and sour mix, and some blue curacao with the intent of making margaritas. Instead, I ended up doing double shots of tequila frequently while they all encouraged me. We started at about 7:30 and were planning on going to the bars after about 2 hours. By then the tequila was gone (mostly my doing) and the other guys were desperate enough to drink the other crap straight. At this point I could barely walk, but I still managed to stagger to the bar with minor incident (I ran into a light pole, and one of those little stone structures along the street that don't seem to serve a purpose). However, I was wearing a shirt that said "I put out on the first date, but no big b****es" after a few rounds. Upon entering the bar I basically fell on the poor woman taking cover, then sat there in a coma at the table for a while (my friends kept shoving drinks under my face). All the sudden I jumped up and virtually ran to the bathroom for obvious purposes. On my way back, the guys found what had to be the three fattest chicks in the bar to dance with me, which got awkward after they saw my shirt. Later, while hanging out back at their apartment, I managed to snort a shot of margarita mix for some unknown reason, say numerous beligerant and inane things that I can't remember, and eventually fall off of the chair because I couldn't hold myself up anymore. I simply lie there on the floor because I didn't have the energy to get up. While there, they poured most of the sweet and sour mix in my hair and sprayed me with febreeze so I wouldn't smell like booze. I woke up in the same spot the next morning.

. Classic!

The Bears have been f***ing up the first round picks for quite some time. I can't tell you how many times I was groaning after their pick in the last ten years, which is roughly how long I've been following the Bears. Let's just review a bit... 1995- Rashaan Salaam. Didn't look that bad at the time, but just a few of the guys that went after him: Derrick Brooks, Ty Law, Korey Stringer (pretty good before his tragic death) 1996- Walt Harris. Again, didn't look all that bad at the time, although I had never heard of him. Passed on: Marvin Harrison, Eric Moulds, Ray Lewis 1997- Traded pick to Seattle for Rick Mirer. Not sure which pick it was, but Seattle took Shawn Springs #3 and Walter Jones #6. Ouch. 1998- Curtis Enis. Brutal pick, I was screaming at the radio when they made this one. Passed on: Randy Moss, Tra Thomas, Takeo Spikes, Greg Ellis. 1999- started with the #7 pick, traded down for Cade McNown. Again, was screaming at the radio. Champ Bailey would not have been there if the trade had not happened because Washington was #6 and wanted him bad. However, they could have taken Jevon Kearse, Chris McAlister, or Daunte Culpepper. 2000- Brian Urlacher. The one pick I really liked. About the only guy behind him I would have wanted is Shaun Alexander, and that's a close call. 2001- David Terell. I was indifferent on this pick. Considering who was there, I thought it was a decent pick at the time. However, I really wanted them to do anything they could to get Tomlinson (who I saw destroy my poor Wildcats ). Passed on Dan Morgan, Marcus Stroud, Casey Hampton, Nate Clements, Duece McAllister. 2002- Marc Columbo. Hard to blame them too much since it was a late pick, but I still hated it. Still could have had Clinton Portis or Deion Branch. 2003- Traded down from #4 to get Haynes and Grossman. Again, very pissed, as I wanted Terrence Newman or Leftwich. Also could have had Suggs or Polamalu, or if they had some balls after the trade, Willis McGahee. 2004- Tommie Harris. Can't complain, although Kevin Jones might have been nice. 2005- Benson. I said it a while ago, I would have rather had Williams or Williams. We'll see. 2 good first round picks (jury out on 1, but not looking good after his holdout so far) is not acceptable, and is a major reason that our offense sucks, since it is very difficult to find a franchise type quarterback or runningback outside of the first round (two good QB's I can think of, a couple of more RB's but the majority still went in the first round). If they had some guts they would have taken super-talented guys like Moss or McGahee, or possibly traded up to get Tomlinson. But they seem to go for the safe pick too much, and look at the results.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't stand Mike North. He's obnoxious and rarely offers any good insights about anything. I find it wholy depressing that someone in my desired field of employment can go from running a hot dog stand to having a massive multi-year contract. I'm pretty sure I would still have more sports knowledge than North if I were in a coma, but I'm having some trouble getting started. I'll be seriously pissed if he gets the open spot.

A little over 12 hours til tailgating at NU-NIU starts. Can't wait!

Palmer. He's got more weapons at his disposal than Carr and a better offensive line. Plus Palmer had a much better second half of the season than Carr, who actually had a dropoff. That tells me that Palmer is getting closer to becoming a solid QB.

QUOTE(Brian @ Sep 6, 2005 -> 05:03 PM) I get the tie breaker cuz my name is alphabetically in front of yours. Which is BS since I beat you on the tie-breakers. Who cares anyways, it's early.

Records are approximated and are done without looking at schedules. AFC East- New England- 11-5 New York Jets- 10-6* Buffalo Bills- 8-8 Miami- 4-12 AFC North- Ravens- 9-7 Steelers- 9-7* Cincinnati- 7-9 Cleveland- 4-12 AFC South- Indianapolis- 12-4 Jacksonville- 9-7 Houston- 7-9 Tennesee- 4-12 AFC West- Kansas City- 10-6 Denver- 8-8 San Diego- 7-9 Oakland- 4-12 NFC East- Philadelphia- 11-5 Dallas- 9-7* Washington- 7-9 New York Giants- 6-10 NFC North- Minnesota- 9-7 Detroit- 8-8 Chicago- 6-10 Green Bay- 5-11 NFC South- Carolina- 10-6 Atlanta- 9-7* Tampa Bay- 6-10 New Orleans- 5-11 NFC West- Seattle- 9-7 St. Louis- 8-8 Arizona- 7-9 San Francisco- 2-11 Wildcard- Ravens over Jets, Steelers over Chiefs, Minnesota over Dallas, Atlanta over Seattle Division- Colts over Steelers, Patriots over Ravens, Eagles over Atlanta, Carolina over Minnesota Conference Championships- Colts over Patriots (they finally win in the dome), Eagles over Carolina Super Bowl- Colts over Eagles MVP- Peyton Manning Coach of the Year- John Fox Offensive Player of the Year- Peyton Manning Defensive Player of the Year- Dwight Freeney Offensive Rookie of the Year- Cadillac Williams Defensive Rookie of the Year- Derrick Johnson

You're tied with me though.

QUOTE(SoxFan101 @ Sep 5, 2005 -> 02:52 PM) You do know if it wasnt for a blown call that even Lion fans will admit we would be 6-10.... you dont think with all those upgrades we cant win 2 more games... keep in mind we did win 3 with Krenzel a lower draft pick than Orton with a lot less potential. You can't make assumptions that they will automatically finish with a better record than they did last year. This is a different season with different opponents and different rosters around the league. A team doesn't necessarily do better the next season when they have more experience and a better roster because breaks can change from year to year. The Bears probably shouldn't have beaten GB or Minnesota last year, and at the beginning of the year we probably wouldn't have thought we'd beat Tennessee. On the other hand, we probably thought we'd beat Washington, Houston and Dallas. I've said it many times, but I don't see a massive turnaround coming. I'll be happy to put my money where my mouth is and make a sig bet with someone that the Bears won't finish over .500. There's a reason that I haven't seen a magazine or group of experts pick them over 25th yet.