RibbieRubarb

I support anyone here to feel bad about this team. This is a bad team. You should be critical of their motivations on and off the field. But there is a fine line with being a realistic, critical fan and one that says "Go to Hell" Heck, I, myself, am responsible for one the widely publicized acts of fan rebellion against White Sox mediocrity in 1998 with my friend Rob. I was ESPN and interviewed on The Score for my actions. Many called me a bad fan. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/baseball/...9/twins_chisox/ Look I am very critical of this team, but I am portrayed as an enabler because I do not subscribe to mob mentality of Fire Everyone, Trade everyone and the team can go to hell. Such extreme negativity is not healthy as a sports fan because it is not realistic. You love this team...why else would be here. You love this team...why else would it get you mad. But sometimes you need to think logically and promote intelligent discourse on the problem. You just cannot say "Ozzie is the WORST manager in baseball and Kenny Williams is the WORST GM!" That's just not true...but if you beleive that. State why...just don't leave blanket statements out there. Look...saying "Ozzie is the BEST manager in baseball" is just as bad. It is also not true. There is a balance when talking about baseball. It is not just extreme negative or postive...it is always in the middle. Baseball is not about perfection...so there will be good and bad with every pitch, play, game, and player. It's up to YOU to see both sides to establish the proper perspective. I think that's what people like me and others are trying to promote on this message board. Balance. Not: "Go to Hell White Sox...This team is the WORST" or "They will Turn it around and win it all in 2007, I know it!" Show you displeasure by not buying tickets. Thats fine. If you do buy tickets you have the right to "Boo" at bad plays. Thats fine. Be reasonable and think. We love this team. I love this team. Lets trade who we need to trade. Let's sign who we need to sign. Let's give Ozze and Kenny the chance they deserve to turn this aorund next year.

QUOTE(caulfield12 @ Jun 25, 2007 -> 03:40 AM) Dear Sir, What else will we have to write about for the remainder of the season, pray tell, especially if no trades are made and the composition and age of this team doesn't dramatically change? I'm not bashing Guillen, you see that nearly everyday in the local and national press. Nothing about Greg Walker, Aaron Rowand or Scott BorASS. The current ownership group brought us a WS championship finally, kudos. Should they be willing to spend $125 million? What is a reasonable expectation of Sox fans who have rewarded the team in 05/06/07 with their hard-earned money? I don't know, but you can't expect the majority of reasonable fans to pay exorbidant prices for parking, concessions and tickets, even more for "premiere" teams. They're going to have to go back to deep ticket discounting...the period of Sox tickets being scalped has come and gone, and no new paradigm has been established. As always, win or perish. I do have a problem with KW/JR if they're not willing to pay MB $75 million for 5 years...because he is worth 50% more than Contreras or Vazquez with what he brings to the organization. Heck, you could argue he and Konerko are the most important and have no arguments. I think everyone has a problem paying Vazquez (Contreras I'm fine with due to the 05 and first half 06 seasons he put up), Uribe, Pods, Cintron, Mackowiak, etc., around $25 million. Look at the Randy Johnson to the Astros, AJ to the Giants or Colon to the Expos for three trades that exemplify what we're looking for. You just have to rely on your scouting and cross-checking and pray to god you get the right 2-3 players (a pitcher and two position prospects hopefully, especially middle infielders and outfielders). Dear Sir, There are plenty of other threads on this site that deal with Kenny Williams, Trades and Mark. Surely, this could have been added to one of those. P.S. Sorry, for calling you Shirley.

From the Department of Redunancy Department comes another thread giving space to bash Kenny Williams or White Sox ownership.

Young, reliable and durable is the kind of pitcher you invest in. I wouldn't compare him to Maddux...but I think we should re-sign Mark.

See!!! This is an example of being extremely postitive...Just like those of you who are extremely negative. See how silly it looks!!!

I think I say this on behalf on most of the people here when I say... If you tell your team to "Go To Hell" you can jump on the next bandwagon passing by because 2005 was wasted on the likes of you.

QUOTE(Greg The Bull Luzinski @ Jun 24, 2007 -> 06:14 PM) That's interesting. I wonder who needs a decent hitting, poor defense 2B? I don't know who needs that person...But I thought this thread was about Iguchi.

QUOTE(fathom @ Jun 23, 2007 -> 08:04 PM) http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sp...-home-headlines Some very strong comments by Pods. It's a good thing Ozzie likes him. An interesting tibbit in that same article: Scouting update The Sox's streak of 17 consecutive years without a top 10 pick in the amateur draft is in jeopardy with their current slide. This goes to show how competitive the White Sox organization has been for almost 20 years! But no...fire everybody, right?? Or should we trust them to rebuild for next year?

QUOTE(WhiteSoxfan1986 @ Jun 23, 2007 -> 03:58 PM) By far the lowest point of the season. The same dogs*** hitting, not to mention some bad managing. Instead of always blaming Ozzie...can you tell me specifically to what you are referring??? QUOTE(DonnyDevito @ Jun 23, 2007 -> 03:36 PM) the Sox have given up on the season, so should you. Then I don't expect to see you around until the off-season. Have a good summer!

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ Jun 22, 2007 -> 05:53 PM) Not only have I not seen a Sox team this bad, I've never seen one close to this bad. And that's in a 15 year span. This also might be as bad as I've ever seen our minor league system. And yet people still defend KW, why? We are in a legit position to finish in 5th place. First, maybe after you've watched a few more years of baseball you'll know why... But since we don't have that time...As a GM he has never had a losing season and he has a World Championship ring. He deserves the chance to turn the team around for next year. THATS WHY!!!!!

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ Jun 22, 2007 -> 05:52 PM) There better be many, many more firings before this year is out. Nobody should be safe. This team has not had a below .500 season since 1999. Since 1990, they finished in 1st or 2nd place 14 out of 17 years with one world championship (the other three years in third place). Minnesota can't claim that, Detroit can't claim that and Cleveland, even with their division titles and no WS Championships, can't claim that kind of record. We have had a great run. You should be proud of this organization. They have always been competitive. There needs to be changes made in scouting and the players on the field, but not the mass firings you are hoping for. Sorry. That doesn't make any sense.

New pic of Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones on the set of Indy IV getting ready to yell at kids to get the hell of his lawn! Photo by Steven Spielberg

Were your parents big Love Boat fans? Seriously... How much do you rely on the Catcher calling pitches? Do you prefer to decide what pitches to throw, a nice balance between you and the catcher, or whatever finger he puts down, you throw?

QUOTE(CubKilla @ Jun 21, 2007 -> 12:12 PM) To all you high and mighty's out there, you know damn well race would be a HUGE factor if this was a black passenger beaten by a white mob. Sharpton and Jackson would see to it. But, seeing as the mob was black and the victim hispanic, don't expect any "righteous" outcry from the 2 aforementioned. not mighty...just high

:sosasucks :sosasucks :sosasucks

QUOTE(Controlled Chaos @ Jun 21, 2007 -> 10:57 AM) To me it does. 21st Century is calling...pick up.

QUOTE(VAfan @ Jun 21, 2007 -> 08:21 AM) Ask yourselves this: How did we go from having a bunch of sluggers in 2001-2004 and getting continuosly beat by the "less talented" Minnesota Twins, to copying them and beating them at their own "TEAM" game in 2005, to going back to the disfunctional squad we have now? One trade I think was disastrous for "team" was the one for Javier Vazquez. Not only did we give up our best outfield prospect in Chris Young -- a player we could desperately use today -- but we put a decidedly mediocre pitcher who had never helped us win anything at the front of the line for team money. His $10 million/year annual money would have been far better spent split between re-signing Mark Buehrle and Jermaine Dye, two TEAM guys who are now just marking their time until they are shown the door. Another trade I think has turned out extremely bad was sending Aaron Rowand away to Philly. As I've reflected on this, one of the strengths of that 2005 team was that, while we may not have had any superstars, we also didn't have any weak links, at least once Joe Crede and Juan Uribe started tearing the cover off the ball late in the year. By dumping Rowand for Thome, we added offensive production in the middle, but at the cost of sending out a home-grown tough guy who would run through a wall (literally) to win, and at the cost of putting an automatic out in the lineup. If we wanted Thome, could we have sent Anderson or some other guys instead? Two more moves that have been bad for team cohesion was wasting money to sign Pods and Erstad for a year. These guys are worthless. Either put competent veterans into these slots or save the money (add it to the re-sign Buehrle/Dye/Iguchi kitty) and rotate the kids (Anderson/Sweeney/Owens/Terrero/Fields/etc.) until a couple of them step up and start playing. One of the things that keeps the Twins playing like a team is that they promote from within, adding pieces from outside only when necessary (or when they can rob the Giants, like in the Pierzynski trade). At this point, there is no hope of putting Humpty-Dumpty back together again. KW should trade off all the pieces ala Florida and get back the best guys he can in return. The problem is that we don't have a single position player we can rebuild around. Dye is our best player, but this year has shown that investing in him long-term would be risky. I think he has 2-3 more great years in him, but there's a chance he might not. Konerko is the only guy signed long term, but we've seen that he's not terribly reliable himself. Thome will be fine to keep as long as his contract runs, but he's not worth re-upping. Every other position player on the roster should be moved, with the exception of Josh Fields. We need more guys like Josh Fields. As far as starting pitching goes, I would try to rebuild around Garland and Danks. I would trade Buehrle now, and Vazquez and Contreras in the offseason. Everyone in the bullpen except Bobby Jenks would go. It is a depressing scene to see a World Series champion disintegrate so completely, so quickly. But now that it's becoming more apparent why it disintegrated, the way forward toward rebuilding is also clearer. You make some good points, but... How do you know what Philly would have accepted in the Thome deal? They wanted a MLB ready centerfielder to which you say Anderson isn't. So why would Philly have taken Anderson + prospects for Thome? The Twins were able to trade a player with AJ's caliber because they had Joe Mauer waiting in the wings... How did they get a Joe Mauer? The averaged 90+ loses thoughout the 90s and early 2000. The Sox? Stayed competitive thought the decades. Lower draft picks. Be careful what you wish for...you want the Sox to trade everyone and rebuild then you give up the right to moan about bad play and low attendence while the "young kids" develop. This includes not getting big name free agents.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Jun 20, 2007 -> 11:17 AM) Plushie sex>>Robot sex You know it!!!

QUOTE(sox4lifeinPA @ Jun 19, 2007 -> 05:26 PM) after 700 years of doing what he was built for..... he'll discover what he was meant for?? robot sex???? for kids??? wtf? /crossing fingers for robot sex!!!

QUOTE(thedoctor @ Jun 19, 2007 -> 02:41 PM) for a real kick, try guiness with a shot of captain morgan in it. damn tasty. Or with a shot of blackcurrant liquor. The head of the Guinness with turn purple. We do that on Halloween.

Beautiful and heartwarming trailer for next year's Pixar film WALL-E. According to Pixar chief John Lasseter: WALL-E is the story about the last little robot on Earth. He is a robot that his programming was to help clean up. You see, it's set way in the future. Through consumerism, rampant, unchecked consumerism, the Earth was covered with trash. And to clean up, everyone had to leave Earth and set in place millions of these little robots that went around to clean up the trash and make Earth habitable again. Well, the cleanup program failed with the exception of this one little robot and he's left on Earth doing his duty all alone. But it's not a story about science fiction. It's a love story, because, you see, WALL-E falls in love with [Eve], a robot from a probe that comes down to check on Earth, and she's left there to check on and see how things are going and he absolutely falls in love with her.

QUOTE(Milkman delivers @ Jun 19, 2007 -> 02:04 PM) The stuff is just so damn filling. I drink in order to reach a goal. That goal is to get drunk. I just can't do it with Guinness. Ya ain't doin it right, lad. One of the drunkest nights I ever had was thanks to the dark goodness. We were in London and at a pub called O'Neill's located off of Bedford. Anyway, it was live Irish music night and our sweetheart of a barmaid kept the Guiness flowing all night. We never had to ask for a refill. She was pouring while dancing too and never let the pint overflow. After a dozen or so pints later we stumbled through Covent Garden and back to the Hotel...singing and dancing. Ah, we felt like Peter O'Toole and Richard Harris after a performance in the glory days of British Theatre. Come to think of it...I think I stepped over Richard Harris on my way out. Nice guy.

QUOTE(FlaSoxxJim @ Jun 19, 2007 -> 12:52 PM) Aaaarrgghh!!! You're all like Pod People who have replaced all the human beings with taste buds. Don't worry I'm here with you. There is nothing I enjoy more than the smooth, hearty taste of a pint of Guinness. It is a meal in itself. The best pint I ever had was in Galway, Ireland. It was at Murphy's bar in High Street. The pour was perfect and the head was so thick we floated a dime on the top. Ahhhh. I have to say though the Guinness brewery is a disappointment to visit. Oh, you think its Disney for Drunks...but it isn't. You never tour the actual brewery. Nope, you just go though a museum about the history of Guinness. Then they give you two tickets. Each for a free half-pint. But the bartender at the end of the tour, which is located near the gift-shop (wink-wink), pours the drink so fast they are terrible. In Chicago, I recommend the Grafton or the Red Lion pubs for the best pour.

QUOTE(Steff @ Jun 19, 2007 -> 12:20 PM) Bad fan...

QUOTE(fathom @ Jun 19, 2007 -> 12:10 PM) Trust me, I'm not sitting around hoping that Dontrelle no-hits us tonight, etc. It's more like how I was unable to watch the games from this past wknd, but when I went and checked the score and saw we lost, I wasn't even mad. It was more like "oh well, at least this will speed up the fire sale". Man I was feeling the same thing this weekend.