caulfield12

It's one thing if we're trading Viciedo for Alvarez, but they're going to ask for a lot more. With Marte, Polanco and McCutchen (not to mention Travis Snider)....no need for an outfielder. The best we're going to get is Jose Tabata.

Would SOXTALK survive, is the bigger question? And in what form? Would it be the end of an era, or an exciting opportunity to re-brand the site, launch an IPO and do a road show, incorporating millions of new Sox fans from a different region on the country and teaching them about Sox history and fandom, haha? Would WSI try to compete or close up shop? Or figure out still yet undiscovered ways to piss off/alienate future Sox fans somehow?

Where's the EARTH BAND, Roberto?

You'll notice the St. Louis city police and county police (the ones who were removed by Gov. Nixon) split on this issue...and city refused to send any of their officers (well, four were sent for traffic control only) as they disagreed with the tactics/strategy of the county police force, which turned out to be absolutely the correct decision but also will cause a rift between the two departments.

Royals, Dodgers and Cardinals in that order...since I lived in KC for ten years, it's sort of my second home...like someone above mentioned, if you're not anywhere close to Chicago, it's not as important....but if you grew up in the city, it's 90% of being a fan of your hometown team. Depends also if they kept the name White Sox, same uniform scheme, etc. Finally, whether I liked the new ownership group (an Ilitch, Cuban or the Dodgers' ownership group who opened up the checkbook even more)...or they were miserable misers like Loria group and more determined to make profit and sell the team rather than invest in building a winning team and organization.

One baseball executive who attended the meeting, speaking on condition of anonymity to the Associated Press because details of the 4 1/2-hour session were not to be divulged, said Manfred was elected on approximately the sixth ballot. The initial vote was 20-10 for Manfred, three short of the required three-quarters majority. His total increased to 21 on the second ballot and 22 on the third. While teams put written ballots into envelopes, keeping their choices secret, from team official speeches it was evident that the Tampa Bay Rays' Stuart Sternberg and Milwaukee Brewers' Mark Attanasio likely switched their votes, the source said. (interesting that Milwaukee franchise wouldn't be for Selig's choice from the start) Manfred's total dropped to 20, then increased to 22 before a dinner break. He got the needed 23rd vote on the next ballot, apparently from the Washington Nationals. Owners then made the final vote unanimous. The source said that it appeared the Arizona Diamondbacks, Red Sox, Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati Reds, Los Angeles Angels, Oakland Athletics and Toronto Blue Jays had been the final holdouts. "What I said to the owners when I came down after the vote is that I didn't really want to even think about who was on what side of what issue at points in the process," Manfred said, "and that my commitment to the owners was that I would work extremely hard day in and day out to convince all 30 of them that they had made a great decision today." White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf and Toronto president Paul Beeston spoke out strongly against Manfred, the source told the AP. Angels owner Arte Moreno joined Reinsdorf in leading Werner's support. Other teams have said Reinsdorf wanted a commissioner who would take a harsher stance in labor negotiations. "While Rob may not have been my initial choice for commissioner, the conclusion of a very good process was to name Rob as the person best positioned to help baseball endure and grow even stronger for the next generation of fans," Reinsdorf said in a statement. "Today's decision was reached by 30 owners voting separately but speaking, in the end, with one voice." Werner, who made his career as a television executive, was preferred by those who wanted an owner to follow Selig, who was the longtime head of the Brewers when he took over MLB. "I think the last two days have been productive because we've been able to share a number of ideas about the game and how to improve it and modernize it," Werner said. "I think that Rob agrees with many of the ideas that I espoused, and I am very confident that we are going to see some things, such as improved pace of play." Brosnan quit the race when it became apparent he likely had one vote: Cincinnati. "I cared too much about the game and really wanted the process to be as efficient as it could be," he said. www.espn.com

very good article from nytimes.com about the schism taking place between the center, right and far right on law and order vs. a "police/military state out of control"...with Rand Paul trying to take advantage of the moment Views Begin to Shift Among Conservative Leaders http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/15/us/polit...av=lede-package

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/15/opinion/...top-span-region This article makes a lot of sense... 1) Pressure from failure to perform or bring down the house every time as a comedian, where you're only judged by your last performance 2) Threat of Parkinson's diminishing his performance ability/incredible ability to riff and do spontaneous/improv comedy 3) Failure/cancellation of his CBS tv show, which was only done to get out of financial problems 4) Financial problems lead to him having to sell his $35 million mansion, along with pressure on finances from two previous divorces, the most recent one in 2008..."the first word for alimony was actually ALL THE MONEY" 5) Desire to avoid taking paycheck sequel movies like Night at the Museum 3 and Mrs. Doubtfire 2

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/mlb/yasiel...p;vkey=news_mlb

http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/15/living/paren....html?hpt=hp_t1 Conversations about the police between black parents and black sons back to the forefront of national discussion http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/15/us/missouri-....html?hpt=hp_t1 Police officer who shot brown to be named, protests will be allowed for at least 24 hours, state police toning down rhetoric/combat gear/engaging in dialogue and "smiling"

QUOTE (Middle Buffalo @ Aug 14, 2014 -> 10:49 PM) TWTW is just another way of saying someone "refuses to lose." It's been said countless times about guys like Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson ( or fill in the blank) as a way to illustrate that they had something that set them apart from everyone else. Something that made them "winners." I'm not sure why Hawk gets so much heat for TWTW. It's not exactly a new idea. I'm no longer much of a Hawk fan, but I don't think this latest controversy is really much. I'm more offended/embarrassed by the over the top homerism. His evaluations of the Sox are largely useless as a result of trying to sell the product. I'd welcome a little more honesty in that area. Derek Jeter has basically said the same thing...about the over-analysis of number/stats/OPS/WAR taking the fun out the game and still not really measuring what what most accurately reflects a "winning" player and what makes for a JD Drew, Javy or Adam Dunn.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 14, 2014 -> 03:25 PM) Aoki getting hot has saved them; also addition by subtraction with Hosmer out. And Butler. Even Moustakas is hitting the ball better than earlier in the season.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 14, 2014 -> 03:39 PM) But that is part of the beauty of it...there are 162 of these freaking things! The games are on EVERY FREAKING NIGHT practically. I've always thought the beauty of it was you can do other things and still follow the game. You don't have to be focused intently like with football. You turn the game on and enjoy dinner, or read a book, or surf the internet (post on Soxtalk!). If you're at the game, you can enjoy something to eat and drink, have conversations with your friends, enjoy being outdoors on a summer evening. Baseball is a relaxed thing to take in. I don't understand what is wrong with that. And yet most football games only have 3-4 minutes of ACTUAL action.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Aug 14, 2014 -> 02:55 PM) Didn't read the article, but what he said is absolutely wrong. You can dismiss it as being OMG YOU ARE SO SENSITIVE but he talked down to a portion of the Sox fanbase. It's just pointless and stupid. He really needs to go. There's so much adding up at this point. He's flat-out bad at his job. He can't see the game (oh, the ball bounced over the wall?). Everything has to be some grandiose, incorrect point about the game of baseball. He doesn't understand, or dismisses, advanced statistics. Anyone who listened to any of those Wimpy and Stone games know what a non-s***ty broadcast booth can sound like. It was so refreshing to have people call a game, talk about today's game and the sport overall, and leave it at that. It wasn't hard, and every one of those broadcasts was so much better than any Hawk-called game right now. Best suggestion I heard is letting Hawk do home games next year, and that's it. Start to phase out. Blackhawks have already backtracked on playing THE STRIPPER while they're doing the score-the-puck promo. Next, they're probably not going to have the "hot girl" go out there anymore along with the kids and Joe Schmo dude that gets booed for missing. Finally, they're changing the attire of their ice crew to make them a little more conventional/conservative. All responses to the fact that 38% of their fanbase is female and notices these types of things. It's just like the story with Land's End cross-promotion sending out complimentary GQ magazines to women and impressionable young kids with a half-naked model/actress on the front...sometimes you have to THINK first. While GQ isn't exactly porn, I could understand mothers of boys being upset, and then you can also find plenty of women simply citing the obvious inherent objectification of women issue.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 14, 2014 -> 02:51 PM) Oh come on...baseball has trouble attracting younger viewers because of the slow pace. It has very little to do with what Hawk, or Vin or other "old men" say or do. God forbid kids actually have to sit down and think a little. Or take something at a little bit of a slower pace than their video games provide. I don't understand why everything needs to revolve around what "kids today want." Maybe the kids of today are wrong? Maybe the kids of today need to wake up and smell the coffee that the real world doesn't always give them exactly what they want RIGHT NOW? I get it, the kids of today determine where the money of tomorrow is spent, and we all need to please them...but it's really not a great lesson to be teaching them. Actually, lots of young people love to listen to Vin Scully describe a game...so many people bring their radios to Dodgers Stadium just to follow along and listen to his play by play, it's almost eerie. Hawk is certainly not in that league with Scully, Jon Miller, Jerry Coleman, John Rooney, Dave Niehaus, Ernie Harwell, Uecker, etc.

Royals might be a team of destiny. Jarrod Dyson lost a ball in the sun, which ended up allowing 2 runs to score for the A's...and lost the lead, 3-2. Escobar laid down a perfect bunt and Samardzija threw the ball down the line but he was inside the baseline and ruled out instead of ending up on 2nd base. Then Dyson has an 0-2 count in the bottom of the 7th against All-Star Ryan Cook and shot one through the hole to tie it....Aoki (11 RBI's this month) ripped a triple down the line, scoring two more runs. Note: Abad's also been amazing for the A's. Already stranded 21 baserunners this season, something not done since Randy Myers in 1984. He K'ed Gordon, but then Billy Butler hit a single to RCF and Escobar ended up scoring all the way from 1B on a two-out single. So the score is 7-3 in the top of the 8th. At least three 0-2 count RBI's in this series, 7 steals...have beaten the A's now two series in a row, and have won 7 consecutive series, including a couple of four gamers. 16-4 over the last twenty if they win today. The best part for KC. They go on a 9 game road trip to Minnesota (4 games), Colorado (2 games) and Texas (3 games). Three last place teams. Meanwhile, the Tigers have the Mariners and Scherzer just threw today. Wade Davis might be the best middle reliever in all of baseball right now, along with Cook/Abad. 5,300 walk up attendance on the first day of school in Kansas City area for many students.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/hawk-harrelso...-170003256.html They were also ripping him on The Score this morning and saying that he was sexist, an embarrassment, etc.

QUOTE (chisoxfan310 @ Aug 14, 2014 -> 01:38 PM) Haven't read much of this post but since this was posted on a Wednesday, does "next Tuesday" mean the Tuesday after next? I would refer to Tuesday the 19th as "Tuesday". Just want to be clear. The 19th, yes...

Jackie Robinson leading 2-1 early. Now 5-2, bottom of the 2nd.

Pedro Alvarez has 24 K's in 36 career AB's against the Tigers. (6 of 8 times in the current series). Don't think that's the solution when chasing a division rival. Although they don't have the same Verlander and Scherzer's likely to be gone in 2015.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Aug 14, 2014 -> 11:46 AM) But really, how many collisions at the plate were really close plays? It seems to me the vast majority of them where guys who where out by 20 feet only having one option. Make that an automatic out and ejection and go back to playing how the game was played for over 100 years. What if the ball isn't secured in the catcher's mitt...for example, it's a snowcone and sticking out of the top of the mitt? Or he's juggling the ball, etc? Then you're going to have situations where the runner's out if he makes contact with the catcher even though he dropped the ball. Well, I guess that's still better than the last couple of games in SF. Surprised it hasn't happened a LOT more than 9 times already this season. That alone would make me believe the rule's not being applied equally/appropriately by all the crews.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Aug 14, 2014 -> 11:15 AM) Ugh, if Werner gets it I will be sick. But isn't he Reinsdorf's guy? Not a fan of The Cosby Show, lol? 22-8 for Manfred on the 1st vote. Seems to be academic.

Or they're going to have to put a line across the 3B line something like 30 feet from the plate where basically the catcher CAN block the plate unless the runner's in his final 10 yards coming towards home. Even that, it could be tough to call, not unlike offsides in soccer...but it's a start I guess. Highly flawed rule. Some say they just want catchers to get used to the practice of not blocking the plate, and then they'll withdraw the rule again. The thing is, nobody's been really taken out like Buster Posey since that injury in 2011...at least no top-flight catcher.

According to the rule, even if the runner's 75-80 feet away and just rounding 3B, he should automatically be awarded home if the catcher's impeding his straight line to home plate (without the ball). Then it gets even more confusing because a play at home was reversed by this same rule when the catcher was merely tagging home plate for a force out, because of the fact he was blocking the plate (which was kind of irrelevant, since it was a force-out)....and yet even with a force play, doesn't the baserunner deserve the right to have a clear path to reach home plate as quickly as possible?

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Aug 14, 2014 -> 10:43 AM) Dude, do you even read. Nothing of the first part justifies the second actions. Both sides are incredibly wrong in this. Its disgusting how people rationalize that it is okay to effect innocent people and their property, etc. Looting solves nothing, rioting solves nothing. Peaceful protests solve problems and the Cops response to these protests have been terrible but it still doesn't justify the 2nd action. And I'm not saying that is what the majority are doing but two wrongs don't make a right. The problem is if community leaders urge the people to respond with "turn the other cheek" Gandhian/MLK tactics, and they get mowed down by the police, then they risk losing their credibility forever. It's a tough position to be in...try to de-escalate and preach patience. What have the people in situations like this ever received in return? Are they going to increase the African-American presence in the police force, for example? Imagine if an all-white suburban community was patrolled by a 90-95% African-American police force...how long do you think that would last? Why has that never happened? I would guess...never. So why would African-Americans or Mexican-Americans accept the idea that their neighborhood police forces in a variety of diverse areas of the US should be made up with all officers that look nothing like them, and can't relate to them? Is this result any surprise? If you don't have any credibility in a community, a situation like this is just as inevitable as rioting in South Africa when the Boers/de Klerk was in control of an 85-90% African country.