mmmmmbeeer

QUOTE(The Ginger Kid @ Mar 23, 2006 -> 10:27 PM) Ditto. I think oz is sending a message this week that it's time to get serious - calling out Jenks, sending Iguchi to the 2 hole, leaving Thome in Tucson to get extra AB's. Time to cinch it up and get ready for the season. ozzie knows exactly what he's doing. although i often find myself questioning some of his in-game management moves, he's a master of motivation.

QUOTE(SoxFan1 @ Mar 21, 2006 -> 10:24 PM) Yeah, I have heard of Jade Dragon. There is one in Cal City (like 10 minutes away) called Ink n' Um or something like that. I never checked it out but I will not discount it until I get to see some work from the artists and then check out the price range. How much do you think something like this: would cost? And also, is the pain that bad??? EDIT: Now that I see Jade Dragon's website, I am not digging their stuff too much. I really liek Tattoo City's work. It all depends on the size and if you want color. I'd guess to get one the size of that picture would probably set you back 2 bills with tip to have someone reputable do the work. I couldn't agree more with rock when he says that you have to be extremely picky when picking out the person to do your tat. This is one thing that you should not hesitate to spend an extra $50 if it means having someone you trust tat you. The pain isn't that bad, although I've only got one on my left bicep. It really reminded me of having hot water hitting a sunburn. Just don't psych yourself out too badly beforehand and you'll be fine....it's not that bad of pain. I decided I wanted my tat 4 years before I actually got it. It's unique, meaningful, and very well done (pantera's tat guy in amarillo did it). The people who regret their tats are the dumbasses who get cartoon characters, the trendy s*** (think tribal bands), and tats involving a girlfriend/boyfriend who they later break up with. Looks as if you're looking for something associated with your family and heritage, certainly not something you're going to regret, imo.

QUOTE(SSH2005 @ Mar 21, 2006 -> 06:39 PM) Vizcaino and Marte were pretty much our 10th and 11th relievers last season. Vizcaino pitched 70 innings. Marte pitched 45.1 innings. That's an unfair comparison being there were guys shuffled in and out of the real last bp spots (Walker, Sanders, Shingo, Adkins (49ip/4losses)). Marte is also different being Oz put him in situations for him to regain his confidence. Damaso failed miserably. I just don't see Ozzie doing the same with the new guy being he's NEVER showed any reason to have much confidence in him in a critical situation. Bottom line is, regardless of how ya twist it, thornton will not get many opportunities to blow games. Think of how little of Shingo we saw after he lost the closer's role. That's thornton in a nutshell until/if he gets on track.

QUOTE(Gene Honda Civic @ Mar 21, 2006 -> 06:32 PM) So when a pitcher does well it's because of Cooper, and when a pitcher does poorly it's because he didn't listen and was injured. How long will Thornton take to straighten out? How many game will he cost us in the process? As the 10th or 11th reliever, mopup guy, probably not many.

I don't think there's any mental issues with Thornton. One of the articles yesterday made note of how he would come out of a game and "feel" like he pitched well but yet he would have walked several batters or gave up some damage. This tells me that he's got the confidence, he just lacks the mechanics. He's throwing 96mph heat for balls yet feels that he's pitching the ball the way he's supposed to. That's mechanics and that can be fixed. If you put a bowl of candy in front of a 3 yr old they're going to eat the whole bowl without thinking twice, then wonder why in the hell they got a stomach ache. Whereas if the 3 yr old is told that you can't eat that bowl of candy and get away with it, he'll be good to go....changing mechanics, changing instinct and habit. Absolutely miserable analogy, but hopefully i got my point across.

Contreras's big problem was his control, with walk #'s similar to Thornton. We saw what happened there.

The only thing that concerns me is Brandon's routine. I remember he was up in the booth last spring with Steves Phillips and Stone discussing his pitching style etc. One of the things that he kept repeating was how important his routine was to him. He depended on that 5 day break between starts to prepare himself mentally and, from the sounds of it, his routine was rather strict. Now, this season, he's being asked to drop that routine and completely change his mental approach to pitching. I've got to imagine that this is no easy task for anyone, especially for a 22 year old who claims his routine is a large part of his success. I think Brandon will be fine if he doesn't get bombed too often early in the season. If he can make it through APR with his confidence in tact, he'll be effective in the relief role. If he gets killed he's going to hold quite a bit of resentment towards his new role. I hope that that doesn't happen, we need him.

So if you're Iguchi, you gettin' nervous?

QUOTE(Flash Tizzle @ Mar 17, 2006 -> 06:19 PM) Does everyone watch Malcom In the Middle, or is "lighten up francis" a term I've missed which has been around for a long time? Too many people are saying it. I think that came from Pee Wee's big adventure

I can't believe I'm registered with this party. The ideological shift within the GOP in just the past 10 years is absolutely astounding. Conservatives trumping state laws. nice.

Some really impressive quote work in this thread.

Best intro music to a sitcom, ever.

Similar deal actually happened to my roomate while in the Air Force. Obviously laws differ between the military and the public, but I was still amazed at how everything went down. My roomate was quite skillful at taking someone's military ID and simply changing the last digit of the birth date with a carefully cutout digit from a printed sheet of paper. He would remove the laminate, paste the digit, and relaminate the ID. The things were impeccably done. He wouldn't sell them, just do it as a favor to those who were under 21. I'd say he fixed a total of 7-10 IDs. So one day I'm at work and my first sergeant comes and pulls me away and says we need to take a walk. As we're walking he tells me we're heading over to the OSI office (office of special investigations). I'm freaking out at this point because he tells me nothing about WHY I'm going and there were certainly some other indiscretions I had been involved in that could have warranted the attention of OSI. So I get there and I see a couple of our buddies there and then I'm really freaking out. I go into the office with 3 investigators and they immediately read me my rights. I'm then asked about my roomate, if he's been doing anything suspicious, etc. Finally, after about 5-10 mins of beating around the bush with me sitting there s***ting myself, they come clean on the ID "scandal". They're accusing my roomate of a widespread fake ID business and want to know what I know about it. So I explain that there may have been a couple of date adjustments but certainly never any kind of business and certainly nothing widespread. They kept really pushing this "business side" of the IDs and, apparently understanding that I wasn't going to talk about a "business side", they let me go with my first sergeant. So I head back to the dorm after work and, sure enough, my roomate and a couple of friends are standing outside of our room on the balcony while OSI is going through all of our s***. They found the laminate with cutouts the size of IDs, an xacto knife, a printout of various digits... Great stuff. So it ends up that they gave him a letter of reprimand and about 2 months of community service (as in he doesn't go to work, he goes and works 12 hour days at the s*** plant). Ends up that the one who was running a true "business" had given them my roomates name. Apparently she was actually making pretty good loot selling IDs. She wasn't around much longer and I never did hear what happened to her. I can only assume that she was discharged and may have done some time before being dismissed. Of course, none of this is really relevant to the public example you gave, but I thought I'd share anyway. They could have really jammed up my roomate for forging federal documents. Although his punishment was s***ty (no pun intended), he got off rather easy in my estimation. Seemed as if leniency was a driving force in his punishment.

So are they going to make fun of Isaac or, out of respect for his years with the show, will they just let his hypocrisy slide?

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Mar 8, 2006 -> 12:08 PM) who the hell keeps a player on the bench strickly to be a late-inning defensive replacement at 1B? end of argument

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Mar 4, 2006 -> 05:54 PM) Im still dissapointed with the lack of fundamentals we are showing on defense, and the lack of control by the pitchers. Granted the games dont count. But in some way they do count, and we are getting crushed. They count for NOTHING. They sucked ass last spring too. Pitchers on concentrating on certain aspects of their game. D and O are just getting warm, they're only in what, the 2nd or 3rd week of ST, not even a week's worth of games yet?

Mariano Rivera or A-Rod

It's not like he said Jenks is a fatass, and fatasses don't pitch on my team. He's obviously commenting/answering a question which he handled quite comically, with atleast 2 jokes embedded in the answer, while still getting the point across that, yes, Jenks's weight is a slight concern. He's a big league ballplayer who plays for Ozzie Guillen. He knows Ozzie better than anyone on this board. I doubt Jenks took offense.

I always thought it would be cool to get a Don Cooper jersey.

I can't live without the extra innings package. Through Cox Cable down here in OK it's costs between $130 and $140 for the season, but if you don't want to lay down the cash all at once they'll split the bill equally into 3 payments. Actually that price is based on the "early bird discount" with the regular price being $10-$20 more for the season. This will be my third or fourth year subscribing. In the past I experienced the blackouts on WCIU but last year, for whatever reason, the only games I had blacked out were those played in market (TEX and KC, TEX I just flipped to FOXSPORTS Southwest) and games played on the Fox national broadcast on Saturdays. I'd contemplated the computer based stuff but I enjoy being able to sit back on my couch and catch the game, or being able to cook in the kitchen while watching the game. Plus I can actually see the game as opposed to watching on a small 19" monitor. The mlb radio I had never considered being I want to watch the games, but if radio suits you that would be your most economical choice. I think it's one hell of a deal for the cost. I know that the NFL package, 16 games or whatever, is like $100 more for the season. I believe the NBA package is more expensive as well, with neither package offering nearly as many games as you get on Extra Innings. And besides the pleasure of gettting to catch nearly every Sox game, I really enjoy getting to hear different broadcast teams from around the country. Always interesting to hear other baseball people's perspectives on your team and players. Good stuff.

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Feb 26, 2006 -> 04:59 PM) ^^^^ Not saying Frank is innocent in all this -- far from it -- but it's ironic how, in the days of big paychecks and guys not staying loyal to their teams, Frank is being (and will be) blasted for wanting to stay with the only MLB team he's ever known. He certainly hasn't gone about saying it the right way (and again, I'll use the expression, far from it), but this is dissappointing to see it end this way. In 2008-'09, I want to be celebrating having a new statue in/around US Cellular, along with a new jersey number on the outfield wall. This isn't a good start to that dream... The Sox winning last season sealed Frank's fate. If we were a .500 ballclub Frank would have been invited back. We're trying to defend a championship, hardly the atmosphere to be sentimental to washed up, injured players.

QUOTE(greasywheels121 @ Feb 26, 2006 -> 04:56 PM) I wish it were that easy. We were sounding like the NE Patriots. Everything was about the team, and everything was right. Players were all saying '05 was in the past, and they have to realize that it's a new year, a new prize to go after. However, this is just wrong. I don't want to ignore the fact that Frank's wrong too, but KW isn't right for getting this out in the media either. I think that's exactly the point of Kenny's statements. He is obviously extremely proud of the "team atmosphere" or, as you put it, the NE Patriot attitude, which this team had last season and is taking into this season. KW's point wasn't so much to badmouth Frank's abilities but to highlight the REAL difference between Frank and Thome and why the move had to be made. Jim Thome would NEVER make comments like Frank did today or has in the past. KW reinforced everyone's suspicions that Frank was nothing more than a cancer in the plans KW has for this franchise.

QUOTE(SSH2005 @ Feb 25, 2006 -> 03:03 AM) He's a good option to have at Charlotte if either Konerko or Thome go down, that's for sure. Here are some videos of the homers he hit with the Mariners in 2004: http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/team/player_...layer_id=430944 Dude's definitely got some power. That first upper deck shot was monster.

QUOTE(bmags @ Feb 22, 2006 -> 05:20 PM) could i have the link for this i want to send it to my dad and i couldn't find it on the washington post website... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6021702499.html

"But if a believer demands that I, as a nonbeliever, observe his taboos in the public domain, he is not asking for my respect, but for my submission. And that is incompatible with a secular democracy." I loved this line. Rings true in many situations around the globe.