Swingandalongonetoleft

QUOTE (Stev-o @ Jan 27, 2015 -> 02:24 PM) Picking a catcher out of the Sox' 5 candidates is like picking the "tallest midget". None of them are any damn good. I actually really like how they went out and signed 15 guys to compete for the spot. The thought is one of them is bound to stick- and for a backup role, I think they could have done worse. I think Soto gets it for the defense, but I wouldn't mind it if one of the others win it. It was mentioned that Nieto could be an eventual long term solution. Are they really entertaining the idea of Nieto as permanent primary catcher?

"They could have played with soap for balls and beat us." -Dwayne Allen and the truth

QUOTE (Tex @ Jan 21, 2015 -> 06:43 AM) I am really starting to dislike our "every Vet is a heroic figure" and can't be criticized culture we currently have. This was a nice thing to wake up to and read, almost like a nice hot cup of coffee on a chilly morning, except in words.

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ Jan 19, 2015 -> 07:26 AM) My question is why are Sox fans offended? Ricketts was talking at Cubs Convention with Cubs fans and made a joke. First of all, the attendance problem is real and true. Second, it's an innocuous joke. Sox fans would get a similar kick out of a joke told by KW at the Cubs expense if the circumstances were similar. This. The amount of butthurt in this thread is unbelievable.

QUOTE (Leonard Zelig @ Jan 13, 2015 -> 04:39 PM) It will be really cool when Buehrle and Sale go in the same year. This. Buehrle's career is hilarious. I wouldn't be surprised if he retired next year, but I also wouldn't be surprised if he had two more stints on the Sox. I think HOF is a stretch, but I look forward to attending his statue ceremony one day at the Cell. Thomas and Buehrle are 1 and 1a to me when it comes to favorite Sox.

Dunn never struck me as someone that eventually comes back in some coaching role. I could see Konerko or Pierzynski back to do that eventually. Jose Valentin and Darrin Erstad already do it in some form for the Padres and Nebraska.

QUOTE (TaylorStSox @ Jan 9, 2015 -> 09:50 AM) I really don't get the fascination with Snowpiercer. It's a movie that's right up my alley (post apocalyptic scifi), but I don't even think it's good, let alone in the top 10. The entire movie is just a monotone mess to me. Chris Evans also does nothing for me. I saw this about a month ago without ever having heard of it before- Amazon suggested it. By no means was it bad, but I didn't think it was anything to write home about. I was surprised to see that it was held in such high regard. Another movie that Amazon recommended recently was The Signal. I enjoyed this one much more than Snowpiercer (even though it was very predictable).

QUOTE (WilliamTell @ Jan 10, 2015 -> 09:03 PM) Carolina's returner Brenton Bersin looks like he should be in the Asgaardian army fighting along Thor's side. Bifröst is still broken, so returning kicks for Carolina is good way to kill time.

Bulls*** call. What was he supposed to do to avoid the kicker, stop in mid-air and fly sideways?

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jan 9, 2015 -> 11:37 AM) So the woman suspect escaped. wtf I'm still trying to figure out how the Charlie shooters managed to stay on the run until now. The office shooting portion of Wednesday's attack took about 10 minutes by itself. Prior to that, they managed to stumble into the wrong address. Afterwards, they calmly drove off, but not before going out of their way to shoot the injured police officer. I'm not an expert in dealing with people walking around shooting things with an AK-47, but wouldn't those 10-15 minutes be enough for police in a city like Paris to get into position to at least follow the car as it drove off?

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Jan 7, 2015 -> 11:01 PM) idiot Ok... Are we going to disregard the fact that the intended audience of the occasional b**** slap by Charlie Hebdo are a pack of unreasonable and violent bandits who have proven time and time again that they won't hesitate to use violence, and again, have already done so against this particular magazine? They see things differently. Politicians over here won't even blink when they find their way into various forms of satire. I think based on occurrences in the past 5 years alone it could be deduced that certain groups see things very differently. People keep saying that it was a f***ing cartoon, and yeah, it is to many of us here; but their values are different than ours. s***ting on those values isn't going to end well most of the time.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jan 7, 2015 -> 09:40 PM) Uh, no the victims are the 12 murdered over a cartoon. QUOTE (Swingandalongonetoleft @ Jan 7, 2015 -> 09:07 PM) ...after already having their office firebombed in response to publishing content they knew damn well would offend and likely draw a reaction from the especially strict minority in the crowd, and continuing to troll them as recently as one hour before the attack, well, if someone decides that they want to play a game of chicken with an oncoming freight train and loses- sympathy is one of the last things I'd feel... Going to the zoo and accidentally falling into the lion exhibit is different from going to the zoo and willingly hopping the fence into the lion exhibit. I'd also compare it to someone smoking 3 packs a day knowing full well the danger of doing so, and then magically ending up with terminal lung cancer.

There is no defending what happened today. It's cowardly, and it's on the same page as Nazism in the Big Book of S--t. That said, after already having their office firebombed in response to publishing content they knew damn well would offend and likely draw a reaction from the especially strict minority in the crowd, and continuing to troll them as recently as one hour before the attack, well, if someone decides that they want to play a game of chicken with an oncoming freight train and loses- sympathy is one of the last things I'd feel (and even then, most of it would be for the family and for the engineer in the cabin that was powerless to stop it and had to watch it from the best seat in the house). The victims here are the other 99.9% of the world's Muslim population who have already been lumped in with these scum outliers for a while now, and for anyone fortunate enough to live in the free world.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Dec 31, 2014 -> 08:35 AM) Meanwhile, the NYPD isn't exactly covering themselves in glory right now. From turning the funeral of a slain fellow officer into a petty protest to a work slowdown that's meant to demonstrate....something?, they're only making themselves look silly. From the NYT Turning the funerals of 2 murdered officers into a protest against the mayor is IMO a nice example of the mentality that is a part of the problem. This is just as petty as a lot of the s*** coming from the other side.

Like him or not, he's on the Sox Mt. Rushmore from the most memorable era in Sox history. 56 and 12 should be retired as well. I know Ozzie hate is cool, though, so yeah, maybe they should start issuing it to non-roster invitees and bat-boys. Better yet; maybe they can retroactively change Toby Hall's number to 13 and then retire it, but with only Toby Hall's name attached to get the point across.

The cherry on top of a bad year for aviation. Sadly, I think this ends up being a repeat of Air France 447.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Dec 23, 2014 -> 07:55 AM) So they fear it was taken over by hackers, does that mean that a plane can be completely remote controlled? Because that part seems a bit farfetched. I don't think the ability to do that exists at the moment, but I do recall reading something a year or two back about a demonstration at a security expo/conference that had certain systems found on commercial airliners remotely hacked via smart phone. None of them enabled direct control of the place (so no giant drone with people on it), but one of the systems accessed is called ACARS, and it's purpose is to electronically communicate flight information and technical data to the ground via text. This system was used to help determine where to start searching for MH370 - it transmitted data to Rolls Royce or Boeing (or both). They looked at when data stopped coming in, factored in the amount of fuel on-board, took into account that the plane didn't pop back up on ground radar (meaning it headed out to sea), and came up with a general area of where to look. One problem is that the rate of fuel burn changes with altitude, so without knowing MH370's altitude and airspeed, that area is huge. I would imagine that if ACARS could be broken into, it would be used to send bogus data, or to stop transmitting data entirely. Ideally, the Airbusses (Airbii?) and Boeings of the world would have payed good attention to this, and engineered any weak spot that could allow this from their designs. They probably did, but I doubt that would dissuade a lot of the hacker types from trying again. I don't know the intricacies of systems/software on a commercial airliner, maybe there is something I am overlooking. That said, with the infuriating insistence of making anything and everything imaginable "smart", it wouldn't surprise me if someone could hack into this bottle of water sitting on my desk in the not too distant future.

QUOTE (CWSpalehoseCWS @ Dec 19, 2014 -> 03:54 PM) I'd rather let L. Garcia play than him. He'll be too busy coming out of the Pen to do that.

QUOTE (bmags @ Dec 17, 2014 -> 05:52 PM) How stupid, solves nothing. Unless their purpose is to shut him down to avoid an injury (which would be the cherry on top of this s*** Sundae), I agree. Have him come back healthy for camp with the added bonus of being able to see what Clausen can bring. If that end ups being nothing, then maybe it will be addressed in the Draft. Unless there is a trade brewing, there is no way this is the end of Cutler on the Bears. This season isn't all on Cutler, but it's no surprise that he's being singled out for it alongside the awful Head Coach and the GM who hired him. A lot of Bear fans seem to have been relishing the opportunity to do this since the year he got here. It wouldn't shock me if the benching is partly to shut Bear fans up.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Dec 16, 2014 -> 11:59 AM) The Smoking Gun identifies "Witness 40," details her history of false reports/claims, bipolar disorder, racism and how she repeatedly changed her story and her account of what happened during grand jury testimony and admitted that parts of her account were based on what she read in the news. That's rich. Am I correct in assuming that with the Grand Jury's decision having already been made, this doesn't affect anything other than perhaps some perjury charges thrown at this woman (if even that)? I could almost smell the stale cigarette smoke and bat-s*** craziness through the monitor. I wonder how many teeth she has?

The beginning of this Lester presser sounds like an Oscar acceptance speech.

Not what I was expecting to see when I logged in on soxtalk on a boring saturday night.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Dec 10, 2014 -> 01:28 AM) Gomes on the Cubs will only make me hate him more. Seconded. The Crown Prince of idiots. Probably makes Swisher look like high society. A cardboard cutout of Jonny Gomes, held by Jonny Gomes, whilst wearing a tank top with a caricature of Jonny Gomes on it

I went to sleep not quite sure what to think about the Robertson signing. It makes more sense to me now. Very sorry to see Semien go, but this development was an unexpected treat.