Bananarchy

QUOTE (JUSTgottaBELIEVE @ Oct 19, 2015 -> 11:57 AM) convenient No one expects (or, in my case, cares) the Cubs to be in the playoffs when they plan a vacation in October. QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Oct 19, 2015 -> 11:58 AM) Damn. AustinIllini Voldemort-ing it up in here. Summoned by name. But yeah, he wins. Granted, that's if it was wine from vineyards. We went with Sonoma. It was a lot of fun and not quite as crazy as Napa.

QUOTE (JUSTgottaBELIEVE @ Oct 19, 2015 -> 11:48 AM) Why is it that guys like Jordan4life and AustinIllini disappear from these threads when the Cubs start losing? I was in San Francisco drinking wine, hiking and not thinking about the children on this board nor the imminent implosion of the Cubs. "People called me out for wearing a White Sox jacket!" Of course they did! The White Sox are terrible. It's Bears season.

QUOTE (OmarComing25 @ Oct 15, 2015 -> 01:25 PM) Average age of the Cubs: 28.3, they are actually the 11th oldest team in the MLB this year. If the Mets win tonight they'll be younger, with an average age of 27.9. The Sox are actually the 9th youngest team in the MLB, at 27.7. Correct, I was referring to starters.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Oct 15, 2015 -> 12:39 PM) Is anyone else as sick of Eddie Vedder as I am? Ten and Vs. were good. Vitalogy was okay. Everything since is just meh.

QUOTE (Soxfest @ Oct 15, 2015 -> 12:03 PM) He is Mr. Cubbie Chubby post after post after post. I'm assuming you just cloud your judgement with blind fanaticism. I suggest you get over the Cubs. There is no comp to a team that gets the the LCS with an average player age of under 25 years old. The George Bret Royals, the Big Red machine of the 1970s come close, but they were significantly older on average. The Cubs are going to be good for a long time. For your own mental and emotional faculties, I suggest you get over it real quick.

This board is going to be ten years of misery. The Cubs are going to win for a long time. They're way ahead of schedule.

This would be such a Kenny move. That's why I hate it.

QUOTE (OmarComing25 @ Oct 14, 2015 -> 10:24 PM) Despite the playoff series win the sports radio talk this week so far has been mostly about the Bears. Agreed. The Bears are the undisputed kings of Chicago. A Bears Super Bowl victory now would be bigger than the Cubs or the Blackhawks in Chicago

QUOTE (OmarComing25 @ Oct 14, 2015 -> 10:21 AM) Cubs have also averaged 85 losses a season over the last 35 years, and despite that were still able to consistently draw fans. What other team has cracked their model?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 14, 2015 -> 08:59 AM) Except it does for a franchise that you are actively rooting for right now. It's been said before but the Cubs are an anomaly. There is statistical evidence that suggests that the Cubs are the only team which draws in correlation with the price of beer, not wins and losses.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Oct 14, 2015 -> 10:13 AM) My friend moved to Chicago a year ago and is acting like she's waited a lifetime. Her boyfriend moved THREE WEEKS AGO and is acting like it. They've both told me this feels more like 03 than 07 or 08. What the f***. God, they're like Blackhawk fans.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 14, 2015 -> 06:59 AM) I'd rather have a stadium full of loyal fans, than an empty stadium. That is way better in terms of being able to put a quality product on the field year after year. It makes it easier to sustain success and recover from failure. Flailing year after to year to capture the "casual fans" is exact how we have managed for years now. The casual fans only need to look north to see what "disservice" they do to their baseball club. Right, but no strategy works when you team is consistently awful.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Oct 14, 2015 -> 12:45 AM) I'll only say two things. Bandwagon fans of any "hot" or trendy/popular team in ANY sport suck. Doesn't matter if it's Florida Gulf Coast, Butler, VCU, George Mason or the Cubs/Astros/Royals/Mets. Two, the biggest problem with the current Cubs' resurgence is that will take almost all of the air out of the atmosphere for the Sox...90% of the coverage will go to the Cubs. We will be lucky to get 2-3 days of favorable coverage between now and Spring Training, IF we actually do something significant in terms of trades or free agent acquisitions. There are only so many column inches in a newspaper or minutes available on a broadcast. It will be almost like the White Sox don't exist, their scores or an Abreu/Sale highlight will get thrown in at the very end just to be "fair" and inclusive, but nothing short of a playoff run will get them any attention. Not even bringing back Ozzie Guillen as manager. Well, maybe if Mike Ditka was named manager of the Sox, haha. Going from a 60/40 split, or 2/3rd's:1/3rd versus 90:10 is going to really hurt this offseason, and we're already hurting as it is...it's like rubbing salt in the wounds, that the Cubs are doing (successfully) the same thing we haven't done until it was way too late (assuming we are actually planning to get younger instead of more veteran hitters). But the formula is so simple. Make a splash in the postseason, draft well, and when the season starts win baseball games. Don't worry about the Cubs.

QUOTE (kitekrazy @ Oct 13, 2015 -> 11:03 PM) I feel there is a pattern that this team has little luck getting production out of veteran NL players. Get them while they are young. The last thing they need is to get another pitcher. I loved the Fulmer pick, but I am a little concerned this team can't develop fielding talent. The WAR statistics for developed fielders under Williams are staggeringly bad.

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Oct 13, 2015 -> 08:57 PM) Times have changed. Media is different now. If the Sox were advancing to the ALCS, I guarantee you Chicago news stations would interrupt their programs to cover it. Good post. I remember it like it was yesterday. It was huge. The problem was, it was really pre social network and it was immediately after the 2004 Red Sox team. But every station was covering it.

QUOTE (Jerksticks @ Oct 13, 2015 -> 10:49 PM) Whoa whoa. The Shark and Laroche flops came outa nowhere. I imagine we'll all be impressed again this offseason. Avi not taking a step forward was a major blow too. Feel bad for Rick that he has more work to do than he should. I feel bad for Rick because he's under Kenny's thumb. I'm getting impatient with the inaction in the managerial front, however.

QUOTE (kitekrazy @ Oct 13, 2015 -> 10:45 PM) Great post. A moderator here doesn't seem to understand this. Thanks. The mods have been nothing but fair to me, and I appreciate that. It just makes me sad that being unhappy about the last 9 years of White Sox baseball and the direction of the organization and admiring what the Cubs have done leads to us being called "Cubbie fan", "Cub fan", or "troll".

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ Oct 13, 2015 -> 10:31 PM) Well we had a pretty busy offseason last season. How did that work out. We need to build this the right way. Wasting draft picks and playing the reload game every year is going to hamstring this organization into a perennial 75-83 win organization. I'm not sure how many more playoff wins the Royals, Astros, and Cubs need before this board and the Sox organization figure out the formula.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Oct 13, 2015 -> 08:27 PM) I'll agree with Tex. This idea of "die-hard" fans looking down their noses at or not embracing the importance of the casual/bandwagon fans is something the White Sox simply can't afford to overlook. Sure, there's the tried and true 80/20 rule....that 80% of the revenues (in terms of season tickets/attendance) comes from the same 20% of your fan base. Definitely, the White Sox have their work cut out for them retaining those season ticket holders (especially the ones who dropped out and then bought back in this past off-season) but also doing whatever they can to get fans out to sample the product with the likelihood of basically every Cubs' game next year being a sellout before the season even starts. That means there will be a lot of casual fans who are shut out of the Cubs' ticket market (availability/expense) and the White Sox will have an opportunity to take advantage if they play their cards right in terms of marketing approach. God knows how many casual/bandwagon fans were driven away by WSI back in the day. Even here at SoxTalk, we can be pretty tough on newcomers/younger fans...with the internet, sometimes we just don't realize how discouraging it is when you're trying to support your favorite team or simply expressing an interest or asking a question and you get attacked for it. Granted, MOST message boards posters have pretty thick skins, but certainly not all (especially younger fans/teenagers). Great post, but it's too bad this board ridicules people for supporting the Cubs for whatever reason. In reality, we're better off encouraging baseball discussion instead of calling people "f***ing idiots" for being happy for the Cubs. For example: QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Oct 9, 2015 -> 10:56 PM) I'm going to come out and say it, but if you claim to be a true Sox fan and are cheering for the Cubs this postseason then you are a f***ing idiot. Our beloved franchise has always been the ugly step-child of the Chicago sports scene and a Cubs World Series victory would make us even more irreverent. Go ahead and come up with some lame excuse on why it's ok to cheer for them, but you are literally rooting against the well-being of your own franchise. There is no good that comes to the Sox from the Cubs winning the World Series, none whatsoever. It's absolutely disgusting how many "Sox fans" I know are jumping on this bandwagon and it's even worse how many members on this site, a forum that is home to some of the most die-hard Sox fans in the world, are pro-Cubs right now. Not only is the post complete garbage (There is enough support from both sides of town to support two successful teams), it's not a good look for the White Sox fanbase and it's not a good look for this board. A number of us love the game and love the White Sox and don't need to justify who we support and what we watch otherwise. I'm here to discuss the White Sox (no matter how abysmal they look) and the rest of baseball with people from similar upbringings and interests. We should not ever question the White Sox fandom of a person because we are not to judge.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Oct 13, 2015 -> 07:37 PM) I'm not rooting for the Cubs, but man the hate in the air in this thread is thick, I can barely see. It got better a little further in, honestly. Overall, it's electric baseball, regardless.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Oct 13, 2015 -> 07:12 PM) What's Matt Harvey's availability, assuming the Mets win tonight? I would assume he's fine. He's an idiot, but he's fine. I just don't like innings limits.

QUOTE (fathom @ Oct 13, 2015 -> 07:08 PM) Anything that gets kids to sit still for 30 minutes is golden The thing is, it has the Pixar-type quality where it's really geared for adults even though it's clearly a bunch of puppets.

QUOTE (daa84 @ Oct 13, 2015 -> 07:06 PM) that may be the worst 100 win team I've ever seen. Probably not that close either Agreed. That was just an awful display.

QUOTE (soxfan2014 @ Oct 13, 2015 -> 07:06 PM) Is that Muppets show really good? It's not bad. If you like the Muppets, it's good. I'm just happy they're back in the public eye since like 2011

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Oct 13, 2015 -> 07:04 PM) The bears are bigger then the cubs regardless. Radio was dominated about bears winning yesterday rather then the cubs. Football is king. I would argue Bears followed by Blackhawks/Cubs