jamesdiego

I’ve seen this argued before that the Dems and Republicans both voted for it and are equally responsible. That to me is a complete whitewash of history and a load of bullshit. Cheney was making trips everyday to pressure the CIA to link Iraq/ Saddam to Al Qaeda. And to make up more and note outrageous claims about WMD’s. Uranium from Africa nonsense. The entirety of Colon Powell’s speech at the UN was bullshit and lies. The Bush administration lied to Congress as well as to the American people about WMD’s. Many Democrats certainly could have had a stronger backbone and stood up to the administration more and questioned the claims. But they were also getting fed lies as well about the hyped up threat level. Bush mentioned a mushroom cloud at his state of the union speech. There was all kinds of propaganda pushed by the neocons. The authorization passed by Congress was according to the Bush administration only necessary to pressure Saddam to let inspectors in/ give up the supposed weapons. We could have used some more Bernie’s in there standing up against it for sure. But to try and claim both sides are responsible for that war is nonsense. I was overseas in the military during the run up. My buddy in the Air Force told me a full year before the war started that it was a certain we were invading and there will be war, before much of the UN discussions with trying to get inspectors in Iraq to prevent war according to the Bush administration. And far before the authorization from Congress. We were moving so much supplies, tanks, humvees, weapons through Europe toward the Middle East that they made up their minds long before to invade They didn’t just stumble or listen to the evidence from the CIA. They themselves forged and shaped that evidence to suit their agenda. They knew there was no threat from Saddam against us, he was contained. There was no real evidence of WMD’s, no Al Qaeda link with Saddam. We still don’t even know Why the fuck they even invaded, never had an official investigation into it. Which I blame the Dems for not holding them accountable when they came into power. What is it an estimated 300k Iraqis were killed, 4 thousand of our boys. Many more of ours forever wounded mentally and physically. Some 22 veterans killing themselves every single day, which of course many are Iraq Vets. Not to get pissed at you, more frustrated with this line of thinking and giving the Bush administration a free pass. You did say they use the time in office to obtain wealth but then look at the no bid contracts to Cheney’s old company Halliburton. In my opinion the Bush people are war criminals and belong in prison. Trump and his cronies are disgusting for many other reasons. But both administrations are vile to the core.

Suddenly I’m all for LaRussa if that’s what it takes for Jerry to open up the wallet. Would prefer many other younger candidates but it is what it is, at least it’s anybody but Ricky. I’m not too worried about Tony being against players kneeling. At the end of the day it’s Jerry’s organization and he along with Kenny/ Hahn are not all of a sudden going to say Timmy/ Jose are not allowed to kneel and to keep quit. I imagine that might’ve already been discussed and hashed out with Tony.

I would think TLR would get a talking to that banning people from kneeling would be a no no in this organization. I can’t see any way possible that that view would fly with Kenny. And I would think Hahn and Jerry would back him up on that. There’s just no going back on that because it will really create some tension with TA and many on the team who support him. Didn’t Timmy only kneel on opening day anyways? Seems like something that could hopefully prevent any TLR hire in the first, if he’s not able to evolve his views.

What were the other bad decisions that Hahn was responsible for down the stretch? Did he instruct Ricky to put in Rodon at the end of the game against the Indians? Did he do the same for Ruiz? And was it also Hahn’s call to have Rodon pitch in game 3? I wasn’t in favor of Bummer being inserted so early in game 3 when he’s used to being a late inning guy, was that a Hahn move as well? I also didn’t agree with Bummer getting pulled when he did, and I didn’t agree with Heuer getting pulled when he did. It looked like fire chief Ricky running around in a panic trying to put the fire out. I did not like Foster coming in with the bases loaded of course But I would understand if the order of pitchers in game 3 was a collective decision. Though doesn’t make too much sense to me that it would be Hahn’s call alone. Did Hahn make the lineup’s? A Suntimes article had their source say Ricky and Cooper were pushed back a bit against the metrics in their decisions. That was telling me that Ricky was pushing to let his gut be make decisions. I want to know who’s idea it really was to put Edwin in the 5 hole all season and game 2.

How did Hahn fuck up down the stretch? By not making a trade for a starting pitcher?

I’d take a droid manager over Ricky. LaRussa here didn’t really say he’d the the analytics into account. Just gave a blanket statement that there’s too much analytics and not enough quantifying the analytics of what’s in a guys noggin, his heart, and most importantly in his guts. Had a little “only I have the secret and power to win the correct way” feeling to his words. And that he can win more games with any team doing it his correct way. Ease back on the ego trip a little bit there Tony. Seems like the game has passed him by. I wouldn’t mind him managing another team and eating my popcorn watching how that shit goes.

That sounds like an amazing story with the veterinarian. Was the vet doc already involved in baseball and working for LaRussa for awhile before running his analytics department? “I gotta guy who used to work with stocks and good with those numbers, lemme give him a call”

Thanks for the info. With Jirschele not an option for that double Manager tandem then the duo manager idea doesn’t make sense to me at all. Love AJ, but can’t make him a manager. He needs to run a minor league team for at least a couple years and see how that goes. See if his players do actually like playing for AJ or if they instead do a mutiny against him. Could go either way.

TLR is definitely not my first choice, but him in tandem with Jirschele is intriguing. Jirschele is far too young for this team. But having TLR around for a couple years seems like not a terrible idea. I still prefer Hinch

You’re preaching to the choir about Jerrys record, which I’ve never been afraid to criticize. Though I’m happy and respect the job they did on the rebuild, and relieved/ very happy they have moved on from Renteria/ Cooper, so have no interest to complain about Jerry’s past failures (yes, there are many). I wasn’t around for the LaRussa days so I don’t know details or info from newspapers or radio back then. But I’m fairly confident Jerry didn’t just make Hawk the GM to grab headlines. He must’ve just been buying the bullshit Hawk was slinging about ideas on what he would do to run the franchise and make it better. You know, great ideas like Fisk in the outfield. Lol If LaRussa did resist Hawk brilliant ideas for change, the proper reasoning is not to then let Hawk fire him, but the correct reasoning looking back was to fire Hawk to prevent losing LaRussa. The Sox might’ve looked a little moronic like you said firing Hawk before LaRussa. But the Sox looked far more moronic in letting their announcer/ faux GM to fire their manager to satisfy his ego, to just fire said faux GM months later. Both Jerry and Hawk seem to be in agreement that he had no business being in the front office and it was a mistake. And Hawk regrets firing the hall of fame manager. So in my eyes there’s no point in defending Hawks moronic dislike for LaRussa in the late 80’s if Hawk himself has even evolved to fully realizing he was the idiot It is interesting wondering just how the Sox would have done with LaRussa at the helm long term. Maybe they are able to push past the Jays in 93? To bad we didn’t get a chance to see.

I think some of the players themselves were probably dumbfounded by some of Ricky’s decisions. That is a guess, but I believe some have to feel that way. They care about winning and see zero problems on the horizon from whoever the Sox would choose. Having resentments or anger does nothing fur the team, and these guys are roundly team players and will be all in.

Hasn’t Hawks decision to fire LaRussa back in the day been largely panned as a terrible mistake by just about everyone? Even by Hawk who I remember while announcing talking very fondly about LaRussa and speaking of his huge regret in firing him. At least that is what I believe I remember him saying, I could be off some. But it sounded like Hawk was calling himself an idiot over the decision. Its also Jerry’s biggest regret in allowing it to happen, according to him. And did that decision help decides Hawks own firing? I could care less what caused Hawk to fire him back then, Hawk himself seems to agree. Though I agree with your overall assessment that LaRussa is not the right man for the job now.

Yea, that’s the one. I can’t even read that again. Fuck those three guys in my book. And fuck that New York reporter to wrote a smear article about the victim, which seemed to push her over the edge to commit suicide. That was disgusting. The Sox should have separated and washed hands of him before the season started. I was thinking about making a thread on it but didn’t want to take away any good vibes happening this season. Personally, for an organization to profess so much about caring about social justice issues, they sure didn’t care too much about this woman. It’s disappointing. The whole thing puts Hinch and cheating in perspective for me. There are far worse things that baseball professionals have done. And have gotten away with right here in our organization.

Ozzie didn’t just quit on the team the last two days. That guy was creating drama in the media most of that year. It was an absolute shit show of a managerial job that year with his out of control ego running rampant needing to create drama all the time. I think all teams (besides the Marlins) looked at that season and said “no thanks” for us. Albert Belle had his cork bat incident against us of all teams. And then we signed him to a big contract. Did any of the old timers who have a problem with Hinch also had a problem with Belle with his corked bat? When the Astros cheating happened at the time I would definitely have said F those guys and would have never wanted any of them to be with the organization But when Springers name had popped up for free agent possibilities I didn’t bat an eye I definitely would want him Do people who don’t want Hinch at all costs also absolutely don’t want Springer? As others said in a perfect world we would hire a guy with an unblemished record But there’s many imperfect people in this world. And many have done far worse offenses. I have a far bigger issue with the Sox having Daryl Boston as a coach after reading that long article last year giving details on a rape he was accused of in the 90’s. There was no trial but hearing her story had me pretty convinced, and was gut wrenching learning her end.

This is fantastic news! I guess I was right that they were at least debating Ricky’s performance and status as our manager. Thank you Jerry, Kenny and Hahn for maki the correct and wise decision for the organization and fans. It makes sense to move on. They have a possible champion here and Ricky proved he was in over his head. He was given his shot fair and square and failed. I wonder and think it’s probable that if Ricky completely followed the analytics in his lineups and bullpen moves, he would still be the manager. He wanted it his way and now his way is showing him out the door. He might not be given another manager job again. The front office put too much effort into building this team to entrust it in the hands of someone like Ricky. Especially at Jerrys age, who knows when he’ll pass and ownership will change and more than likely front office change over as well. Might as well go for it all. And it’s nice they rejected Ozzie so those rumors can be put to bed forever.