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QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 10, 2016 -> 09:21 AM) And for most of Chicago, they won't be able to watch the game at all, because the teams network won't be picked up by most TV providers in Chicago. Remember Comcast has zero incentive to pick up the network as it is competition. Look at LA and Houston's numbers for great examples. The Cubs will be on millions less TVs if they start their own network. I'm not completely disagreeing with you. It could be a massive failure. I'm just saying people are much more willing to pay for TV now than they were in 1981.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 9, 2016 -> 04:07 PM) With social media there are more ways than ever to follow a baseball game in real time without needing to pay for it. In fact the trend has long been towards chord cutting. But to actually watch the game live, you typically have to pay for it. Whether it's cable, a satellite provider, mlb.tv, etc... Back then paying for any type of TV was unheard of. Sportsvision wasn't really a bad idea, it was just a few years too early.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 9, 2016 -> 09:45 AM) So if the old theory that SportsVision destroyed the White Sox is true, a standalone cable network should destroy the Cubs, right? Even places like LA can't their network into the mass audience, and seeing as Comcast isn't going to help them in Chicago because they have deals with the rest of the teams in Chicago (exept for the Bears), it shouldn't see a full viewing audience. It's certainly a possibility. But I think the biggest problem with SportsVision is that people simply weren't used to paying for any TV channels. These days there are multiple ways to pay to see an MLB game broadcast and many don't think twice about it.

QUOTE (WilliamTell @ Feb 9, 2016 -> 12:07 PM) I don't think it's official. When I checked a few weeks ago when the story came out, that Deadpool account didn't have many followers. Now the account is near 10,000 followers. I'm actually more offended that someone started a petition to make a PG-13 rated film. Are parents today that afraid of telling their kids "no"?

I remember when I bowled in HS. I was happy if I shot 250 for a single game. Local HS Kid has 252 average He is the grandson of John Sommer who is in the USBC HOF and is part of an ownership group that owns nearly all the bowling centers in the Rockford area. So he has a pretty good pedigree and quite a bit of access to all the equipment and practice that he could ever want. I'm guessing you may see this kid on TV someday. What's interesting is that I also know one of his teammates named Brandon. I've watched him and his younger brother bowl on Saturday mornings with my daughter for many years. I thought he was pretty good with a 223 average. I had no idea there was another kid in the area that was that much better.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 4, 2016 -> 11:08 AM) It makes me feel old to think an entire generation of Sox fans is growing up not having been to a game there. IIRC, I'm not that much younger than you and I never made it to the old ballpark.

QUOTE (knightni @ Feb 3, 2016 -> 03:32 PM) Chipper Jones ARod (If eligible) Josh Hamilton (outside chance) Adrian Gonzalez Joe Mauer (outside chance) David Price (outside) Stephen Strasburg (outside) Bryce Harper (outside) That's 8 (possibilities) in 20+ years.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Feb 3, 2016 -> 09:20 AM) The MLB draft is as a big a crap shoot as any tanking in the MLB does not work. This. Just looking back at the last few HOF classes, the only player drafted #1 overall was Griffey Jr. The only other player drafted in the top 10 was Frank Thomas. Looking through a handful of recent drafts, there are a ton of names in the top ten of each year that never made much of an impact in MLB.

Had one of my worst nights in a really long time. My high game was a 175. I think the other 2 were 173 and 165. For some odd reason the left lane was just giving me fits all night long. First game I started out strike, open, strike, open, strike. I was getting tons of splits and couldn't even pick up my easy spares. Luckily my teammates held me up and we won 2 games plus series. The one game we lost was only by 2 lousy pins. My average dropped down to 192. I'm still doing great on my Sunday night league though. I have a 203 average there.

They did an animated series in the early 90's. I think for the most part, TV shows based off movies don't do real well. Fargo seems to be one of the few exceptions.

My average is up to 193 in my Tuesday night league. Bowling 2x a week has actually seemed to help me. I'm averaging 200 in my other league but we are only 3 weeks in. I should have had a 600 series last night but my shoe started sticking on the right lane only for some odd reason and I couldn't even pick up a spare for the first 3 or 4 frames. I think I ended up in the 580 - 590 range. One of my teammates got a new ball over the summer and is obsessed with how much it's suppose to hook. It's a top of the line $200+ ball but he hasn't been happy with it all year long. He insists that it should hook more than it does. When he throws it normally, it does hook, but not a whole lot. With his natural throw he doesn't get a whole lot of lift or a lot of RPMs either. I'm about the same way though. I don't care how much it hooks, as long as it hits the pocket. A lot of times though, he'll throw without his thumb in the ball. Then he gets a ton of lift and RPMs and can make it hook from gutter to gutter. He's supposed to go in sometime this week and have the pro shop guy look at it. I typically don't like having a real big hook because they can be so hard to control. For the most part, I line up on the leftmost dot and shoot for the third arrow on the right.

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Jan 27, 2016 -> 10:20 AM) You should be able to buy directly from the manufacturer, online, etc. That's something Tesla has been fighting for a few years now. States keep passing laws to prevent it. http://www.engadget.com/2014/07/17/tesla-motors-us-sales/

I haven't been since 2006 so it may have changed but I've gotten photographs with a few players while they were signing. They had signs up saying you weren't supposed to but they generally looked the other way if the player was ok with it. Frank Thomas was especially accommodating. My friend, my wife and I all got separate pics with him.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 08:54 AM) I don't buy that for a second. First off that same magic didn't happen here, second that magic didn't disappear when he left. I think having Harry, combined with being owned by a major newspaper along with being aired all season long on a superstation all across the country created the perfect storm for them. Add in a few things like the Sosa/McGuire homerun chase, a handful of playoff appearances (including 2 in back to back years) and anniversaries of all sorts that meant "this is the year" Harry's death, 100 years, BTTF, etc... it's not hard to figure out how they've kept the attendance up year after year.

QUOTE (BrianAnderson @ Jan 20, 2016 -> 02:55 PM) My point is regardless of what they drew in the 70's and 80's that area has been completely revitalized. All neighborhoods from Old Town to Wrigleyville and West to Roscoe Village, etc. are thriving. As long as they are, the Cubs have a giant, wealthy, entertainment seeking demographic within 5 miles of Wrigley. Sox demographic just doesn't fit around the ballpark. Sure a few thousand maybe. But time to move the product to the burbs where you can take advantage of the family demographic. They'll have a nice leg up in creating a family stadium/atmosphere. Just will never happen under Jerry's watch. Winning trumps location.

I seem to remember Coop making these same basic comments on the radio last year.

QUOTE (BrianAnderson @ Jan 20, 2016 -> 12:49 PM) Wow. I didn't figure it was that bad.. Let's face it. We're the diehards of the diehards on this board. We'll go wherever they play. However, people like my father or many friends of mine just won't simply make the trip. They have kids and tasks to do. Taking 2+ hours RT to drive on a Wednesday isn't happening. That leaves a few weekend games a year they go to. The other team draws on a large Northside population. We can argue to the cows come home, but even I, end up going to more Cubs games a year than Sox. (Probably 12 Cubs games, 10 Sox or so each year). How? Why? I get free tickets (never paid to get into Wrigley), and also I can walk or take 2 min cab to a game. Same for when its over. Very nice to leave the ballpark in the Top 8, and be in bed by the Top 9. We'll never win that crowd over. We can however win over the suburb crowd who is looking for somewhat of the same comfort. First of all, it's not fair to compare the attendance of the Cubs to pretty much any other team in baseball. Or pretty much any other sport for that matter. For a long time they were the one exception to the rule of winning = attendance. 20+ years of being owned by a national newspaper that can put rose-colored glasses on every single headline it writes while dogging the intercity competition has that affect. There's no other way to explain 3 million people going out to see a team lose almost 100 games. Secondly, don't by into the myth that Wrigley field has always sold-out. There was a time back in the 70's where they literally closed off the entire upper deck. It hasn't changed locations since then. Until last year (when they made the playoffs) their attendance had been steadily dropping since 2008 (their last playoff appearance).

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jan 20, 2016 -> 11:33 AM) Welp...in the market for a car (unexpectedly). Our 2005 Pilot got rear ended and now damage has totaled the vehicle out (thankfully everyone was okay). Rec actually happened about a month ago but insurance has been a drag as other drive has been lying (thankfully police report called her out for such). Either way, was curious to see if anyone here happens to have a Sonata Hybrid (I've done the research, but curious in case anyone here happens to own one of the Hybrids). We are leaning towards getting the 2016 hybrid limited (was amazed at the bargains they got on those things). I actually was figuring I'd buy the all new pilot or highlander (our other vehicle is the previous generation Hybrid) but after seeing the cost of the Sonota decided we'd go a bit more economical and fuel efficient for our 2nd driver (knowing we have the bigger car for weekends / kid hauling). I have a 2012 Sonata but not the hybrid. I bought it brand-new with 70 miles on the odometer. I've got around 135,000 miles on it now and (knock on wood) it's been basically problem free. The only money we've put into has been routine maintenance. Tires, brakes, oil changes, etc... My only complaint is that it seems to burn out the bulbs for headlights at a higher than average rate. I'm certainly considering another one in a few years so I don't think you'll be disappointed. The 10 year/100,000 mile warranty is nice too. Most of the others I looked at (at the time) were only 5 year/60,000 miles.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Jan 20, 2016 -> 10:03 AM) So our first school cancellation of the year was today. 3½ inches of snow. Worst thing is that it came on the worst possible day for my wife. She works 6:30pm-7:00am 3 nights/week at a hospital, and the normal routine is I leave for work as soon as she gets home, she stays up until the kids are off to school, and then sleeps while the kids are at school. She works again tonight, so just staying up until I get home isn't an option, and I have things going on at work today that I couldn't miss so I couldn't just call in. She's having to leave the 7 and 6 year old mostly unsupervised while she sleeps, setting an alarm every 90-120 minutes to get up and check on them. My wife did that quite a bit when our kids were little and we had no babysitter for one reason or another. Barney and Teletubby videos, N64 games and lots of barbie dolls typically kept them entertained. They knew to stay inside and not try to cook anything on the stove themselves. We had schools close around here yesterday not because of any snow, but because they couldn't get the buses started.

QUOTE (BrianAnderson @ Jan 20, 2016 -> 09:17 AM) You'll always have a very LARGE majority of Chicagoland that aren't really "fans". Meaning I know enough people who were Sox fans in 05-06 and are Cubs fans in 2014-2015. People want entertainment. If that entertainment is a ballpark 20 mins from their home, then that's what they'll take. And what do the Sox in 05-06 have in common with the Cubs in 2014-2015? Hint: It's not about the location.

QUOTE (soxfan2014 @ Jan 20, 2016 -> 09:14 AM) Baby steps...let's first manage to get to ONE play off series at this point. Well of course that's the start. But they've done that a few times. Then they follow them up with a few 2nd or 3rd place finishes and all the excitement that was built up goes away again. It's going to take time and consistent winning to really make a difference. Being in first place for "most of the season" just doesn't cut it.

I shot a 649 last night and we still only won a single game. The second and third games the other team had 890 and 902. That's tough to beat. The women on the other team had averages in the 130 - 140 range and they both had 170+ games. We are still in first but our lead is slipping. I think our lead is down to 7 games now. Although I do have my average up to a 192.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 20, 2016 -> 08:10 AM) Win a playoff series or 3, you will get a bump the next season. There's the key. Now if they could only manage to figure out how to do that two years in a row.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jan 19, 2016 -> 03:49 PM) And it's also why the Cubs being good is bad for the Sox franchise, as the casual Chicago fan right now is definitely going to spend their money on Cubs games/merchandise as opposed to the Sox. It's truly amazing how little Sox merchandise is available at the local mall as opposed to Cubs stuff. QUOTE (IowaSoxFan @ Jan 19, 2016 -> 03:56 PM) I will extend that to where I live four hours away from Chicago, though we are considered "in market" there is virtually no Sox gear at any of the local stores, while there is plenty of stuff for the Cubs, Cardinals, Twins, Yankess, and Royals in that order. The Sox fanbase has an identity problem in the city, I think mostly because they took a good deal to build the stadium in a bad spot when there were better options. And nationally the Sox fanbase is pretty small relative to that of other teams. QUOTE (Dunt @ Jan 19, 2016 -> 03:58 PM) Walked into Dick's to look for some Sox gear around Christmas and they had 1 rack of Sox stuff as opposed to whole sections for the Cubs and Blackhawks. It's been that way for many years around me. I know there are certain stores I can go to and find Sox stuff, but I also know of a lot more stores that will display Cubs stuff over Sox stuff 10 to 1. I think the people that order the stuff for the stores are simply Cubs fans because there is no rhyme or reason to it.