Southwest Sider

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Jun 23, 2016 -> 08:55 PM) I think Tommen will somehow be spared from the wildfire, only to be killed by the Sand Snakes. Feel like that's how he'll go out in the books and there was an episode earlier this season in which Jamie mentioned them to the small council. I don't think the Dorne storyline is 100% complete just yet. Absolutely. With how abrupt and short their storyline was this season, and how it left them essentially free to plot their revenge against Lannisters, I really think they will show up in some form in episode 10.

Cersei could also go the route of revealing to everyone that Tommen is Jaime's son, not Robert Baratheons and therefore not the true King. This would effectively negate his/high Sparrows rulings. Tommen could then be killed by an angry mob or flee with Cersei? This would work doubly as well for screwing over the Tyrells because now Margaery wouldn't have a claim to the throne. I do believe she is resigned to the fact that Tommen will die, and as such I think it will be easier for her to take matters into her own hands. But I could easily see her trying to flee with Tommen and Qyburn with the power of Zombie Mountain.

If Sansa delays the battle and Ramsay eventually becomes aware of the Vale army, he would instead stay in Winterfell and prepare for a siege. He was probably only so willing to meet in open battle because of his superior numbers. Sansa wanted to tell Jon about the Vale, but for some reason wanted Jon to naturally delay the battle instead of delaying because of the Vale. Perhaps it was because she didn't know if they were really coming, or maybe there really was strategy about it from Sansa's part. I hope we'll find out in the finale.

I'm fine with there not being a final fight scene with Arya and the Waif. What would have been the point of it anyway? It's pitch black in the room after Arya kills the candle. We're not getting night vision Game of Thrones battles and everyone would be even more upset with a pitch black screen and the sounds of a fight. The point is, Arya knew she had an advantage in the pitch black because of her "training" while being blind. The Waif did not and therefore died. Props to Arya for setting up that trap. I will admit the whole her getting stabbed thing is a bit odd. That wound should have been more fatal. Perhaps she was resting for longer than it seemed in the show before the Waif found her. As for the Blackfish going down in a blaze of glory, meh. I could take it or leave it. As soon as he decided to fight he was vastly outnumbered and the fight wouldn't have lasted long anyway. It's kind of pointless to have a scene where Blackfish kills a couple guys and then gets surrounded and killed himself. I would have loved to see him ride north, I'm a fan of the Blackfish, but it wasn't meant to be. RIP Brynden Tully.

So happy for the fans at the game. All those shots of them... they wanted it so bad. Finish it for them.

I would love to be proven wrong, but the Sox just continue to embarrass themselves against divisional opponents and I don't really see that changing aside from the few series the Sox will eventually win. It's been said before and bears repeating: This is not an organization with a winning culture. As much as I'd love to see the Sox right the ship here and win the division or make it to the playoffs, I think that most of us are thinking that Robin and his management team are going to be unable to get this team ready to defeat the Tigers, Indians and Royals. If you can't beat them, you can't make it to the playoffs barring some insane luck. A good team in a tricky slump would have found a way to put their foot down and gone .500 in all the recent games against divisional rivals. Why? Because they are the guys you want to beat. Instead, the Sox have let this slump turn into a death spiral with seemingly no end in sight. I fully believe the team will get hot again, possibly go on another tear and get themselves back into the divisional race, but there is one common denominator that we all dread that has been a theme of the White Sox of recent times: That they will find ways to lose against their main competition. Momentum may or may not be a real thing in sports, but confidence is, and I believe the Sox have given the Indians, Tigers, and Royals all the confidence they will ever need against them. When you couple that with an apparent lack of confidence from the Sox end, it's easy to see that failure is imminent. Obviously, Robin is part of the problem, and it is definitely time for him to go. But who or what else is contributing to the problem? Do KW/RH lack the ability to hold their employees accountable and create a new organizational culture? Do players despise KW and their hatred for him affects their ability to play to their highest potential? Is Don Cooper too set in his ways? What exactly has Todd Steverson and his hitters been trying to do to improve their hitting? What is wrong with the players? Are none of our players strong leaders? I have hundreds of questions! I'd love to eat some nasty crow, but I think the Sox are toast. The arrivals of Chris Sale and Jose Abreu could have rejuvenated the organization, but did not. The hot start of this year was certainly deceiving because we are not used to hot starts. We are used to mid-season hot streaks that bring us close to .500, but not a hot start. It was nice, but has been proven to be nothing more than a regular hot streak just at a different part of the season. Moreover, and bash me all you want for this, but I am DONE with this version of the White Sox. This JR/KW/RH/RV/DC clown show. As a diehard fan, I am ready for significant organizational change and I know I probably will not get it. Unless magic and miracles really can happen, I won't be attending another Sox game this year. We vote with our dollars. Ideally, Jerry finally sells the team and the new owner makes changes across the board. The grass isn't always greener on the other side, but this grass here hasn't been cut in a long time and at least the grass over there will be freshly mowed. If Jerry doesn't sell the team, he needs to launch almost everyone in a management position and surround himself with new people (yeah right). These are dark days for the White Sox and their fans. They are going to lose tons of new baseball fans to the now amazing Cubs organization, revenue will continue to fall as more and more fans reach decisions like mine and there will seemingly always be a complete failure from the owner and his management team to instill a winning culture. I love watching the game of baseball, but if I want to watch bad baseball I'll go see the Kane County Cougars and save a bunch of money. Right now it just completely sucks to be a fan of this organization, but one day things will finally change. I just hope it is sooner rather than later.

QUOTE (shipps @ Jun 10, 2016 -> 09:37 AM) I am not sure. I will hold my breathe when the ball is hit to him because I know even he knows he has to work on that area of his game but I think he may bring it offensively right from jump. For what its worth, it seems like lately a lot of Sox prospects hit pretty decently when initially called up. Then when teams start adjusting they cool off.

This organization should have sold out for Theo Epstein when they had the chance. JRs loyalty is a b****.

QUOTE (soxfan49 @ Jun 8, 2016 -> 09:29 PM) I've never left a baseball game before the 4th inning. Today I did. That stadium was a disaster. Concession stands closed, no energy from the fans, Nationals almost had as many fans as the Sox did, etc. Despicable. My buddy and I got hyped to buy tickets to the game tomorrow over a month ago. Let's just say I am happy we didn't buy the tickets ahead of time.

Well, it's back to ignoring White Sox baseball I guess. Hopefully I'll see you guys soon, because that will mean they are winning again and it's still not too late in the season.

It's like the pitching coach went out there and said "Dude, these guys suck. Just pitch the ball and they will get themselves out." Nothing like getting beat by a guy that a manager is overusing to save his bullpen.

I've stayed reserved enough during this losing streak to keep myself from joining the Fire Robin bandwagon. That being said, if the Sox don't turn it around during these next 12 games then I believe he should be let go. Honestly, if the front office believes that they have a team that can compete with KC, Cleveland and Detroit then their manager should be producing results that are at least .500 against these teams. The team as a unit sucks and as easy as it can be to blame this player or that player, the management team needs to do a better job getting these players minds in the right place and getting them prepared to win baseball games. Sure, Robin presided over that amazing start, but he's also presiding over a terrible collapse that has proven complete ineptitude against divisional opponents not named the Twins. Seriously, let the guy save face a little bit because he's still an epic White Sox legend. It really sucks that Sox fans with more recent memories will only remember him more as a bad manager and less as an awesome baseball player.

What a terrible inning for Saladino...

It's funny how Albers went from one of the best relievers in the game for awhile to seemingly one of the worst. So unreliable now. He is the epitome of this White Sox season. Unbeatable to unbelievably bad.

I really hope this team can turn it around before these divisional games. They don't really need to, but they kind of should if they want to set themselves up for success.

I also want to say that this bullpen need to come together as a unit, lock arms and galvanize themselves. They all suck and they need to step up and say enough is enough. In the mean time, i am indeed burying my head in the sand until things start looking better.

Okay. Im one of the positive everything going to be fine people, but now my tune is changing a bit. This season isnt quite lost yet and i do believe the sox have another hot stretch in them. My only problem is that you just cant allow KC to own you like this. Cleveland as well, to a lesser extent. KC is the sox daddy right now and if the sox want to win this division, they have to reverse that this year. Its not going to be easy. Kcs confidence against the sox must be sky high now. Sucks to be a sox fan in a situation like this. Embarrassing bury your head in the sand kind of stuff. Theres no way the front office mails in this season so dont expect the sox to sell any assets. Sad, i know, but soon enough the sox will turn it around and give hahn more reason to keep going for it. All in all, i believe this team needs something really good to happen to it especially against KC. A miracle perhaps. Are the sox due for one? Lets hope so.

QUOTE (greg775 @ May 27, 2016 -> 03:21 PM) I appreciate this post and your heartfelt commentary. I do have a question. You are right about Millenials wanting to balance work life and home life and they don't want to work 60-70-80 hours a week like we do. My question is ... how do you handle this now? It's going to be a while before Millenials are in charge of all the companies and can make sure their employees have a lot of free time/vacation time. How do you survive in the interim. I hear law offices are making the Millenials work just as much as the older folks are used to. Are Millenials quitting their jobs once they realize the jobs control their lives completely? This mixing and matching of generations would appear to hurt the Millenials because they will quit or be fired when the old codgers put amzing demands on their time. Your point is well acknowledged. Well, when I am ready to enter the workforce in that capacity I am going to make myself as marketable as possible. I am going to investigate companies that I want to work for (companies with solid values, and yes I know there probably aren't many of them) and relentlessly apply for their jobs. In the meantime, which could potentially be awhile after I graduate, I will retain my excellent retail job to make ends meet. I can't speak for other millenials because my situation is unique. I suppose millenials who absolutely need to have a giant house and all the best toys will need to suck it up and do what it takes to hit the ceiling of their careers. However, I imagine that many millenials can do with less and live a happy life. For me it is not all about being at the top of the food chain and making six figures. If the opportunity cost of achieving such a goal means scarce family time and little leisure/individual time, then I don't think I'd set to achieve such a goal so long as I'm not living in poverty for it.

I am one of those kids who are still stuck at home. I suppose that first I'll explain how my individual situation went down, and then explain why I believe this is occurring and what my final thoughts are on the subject from my millenial point-of-view. My parents split up while I was in middle school. After high school, I could live with my mom rent-free if I went to college. If not, I had to pay some kind of rent. I was pretty much an idiot at those times, and didn't care a lick for school so I dropped out of community college. My father was going through some rough times. I won't go into details but I was able to live there rent-free until I was 20, which I'm sure my mom wasn't very pleased with. Luckily for me I didn't blow off all of high school; only most of it. I had two internships and had classes that built computer repair and networking skills. The second internship turned into a full time job for a little bit after high school until the owner sold the company. I was able to keep my job for awhile, but the writing was on the wall. Around the age of 19, I was laid off. Without a job to speak of, I was pretty much lost into my 20th year. My buddy who was also laid off ended up moving back with his folks a few states away and landed a similar job. He told me they had room for another technician, and I was ready for a change of scenery so I got out on my own! Things were good. Business was booming and after a short adjustment phase at my buddies folks house, we rented a house with our boss and his new wife. This lasted for about a year until things deteriorated rapidly and we had to move back into my buddies parents house. I lived there longer than I had liked, but the job was going south as well and income was becoming tighter and tighter. The hope was to get an apartment, but when I realized the job wasn't going anywhere, I decided to move back to Illinois. Shortly after moving back I landed a retail job with a lot of promise. I started getting full time hours and consistent pay checks so I worked out a rent agreement with my father. This is the point where I could have moved out. I could have paid a bunch more in rent and lived paycheck to paycheck. I could have moved into a big rented party animal house down the street and hated every sober moment of it. But my father had an unused room. I buy my own food. I contribute to household chores and tasks. Finally, I suspect my father would be lonely without me around. The big plus is that I was able to save some money. About a year ago, I started gunning for a managerial position at my job. It would change everything. I would be making considerably more money, and definitely be able to afford an apartment without having to resort to incredible frugality. I'll be honest. I don't indulge myself a lot with material items, but I also want to be able to enjoy some of the money that I slave for. Trips to places like Cedar Point with my girlfriend and visits to my mother (who now lives in Arizona). Nice dinner dates every now and then, Sox games, craft beer, steaks etc. However, I had a realization about the managerial position that completely changed my plan. The first is that the managers in a store work hours that are incredibly demanding physically and mentally. If you've heard of a waterfall schedule, it's kind of like that. An example would be: Tuesday 1PM-11PM Wednesday Noon-10PM Thursday 8AM-6PM Friday 6AM-4PM Saturday 5AM-3PM Sunday Monday Off There are some areas of this schedule that are less than ideal for families, and I am a firm believer that your family is the #1 thing in your life, not work. I don't want my relationship with my girlfriend or my future kids to suffer because I work such a demanding schedule. The second realization was that to become a store manager (the head honcho of the store, who makes much more money and can work whatever schedule they like so long as it is 50 hours per week) was close to an insurmountable task for most managers. The first problem is that almost every manager wants to be a store manager. Competition is all well and good here, but the second problem is that there are simply not enough locations in this company. They only open a couple of locations a year, and it's not like current store managers are in a hurry to retire. I've seen firsthand many amazing regular managers toiling away for 10+ years hoping that their name would be called soon for store manager. However, only one location opened in this region alone last year with none that I know of set to open this year. I realized I didn't want to do that. I didn't want to toil away for 10+ years working my ass off, and I didn't want to put my girlfriend (fiance soon) and future kids through that. Call me a lazy millenial if you wish, but I simply do not view it that way. My girlfriend is finishing up her bachelors and is in the process of deciding whether or not to go for a masters. She will be working some kind of 9-5 job Monday through Friday. My weird managerial schedule just would not jive with hers. So I made the decision to go back to school and continue working part-time at my retail job. I wish I had decided to go back to school earlier; I am 28 years old now. It is what it is, though. The retail job for store employees is actually fantastic. In 5 years I went from $10.50/hour to $17.35/hour. They offer retirement packages so I opted into one awhile ago and have been building it up. These benefits kept me chugging along as a store employee without giving a thought to schooling. Boredom has started to creep in, though, as well as a revitalized urge to continue bettering myself. With some of my savings, I am able to finance my schooling at community college for the time being. Subsidized loans and the American Opportunity Tax Credit help immensly. I also hope to qualify for a Pell Grant next year. I still live at my dads, and I wanted it to be clear and okay with him that while I am going back to school, I will be working less (which should help me qualify for a Pell Grant). We arranged a new rent agreement, and he supports me in my quest for an education. It is certain that after I get my bachelors or maybe even my associates that I will be moving out and getting a place with my girlfriend, and finally stop bothering my father by living with him for so long. Greg, I heard that statistic that you mentioned as well on a newsflash from WDCB 90.9. Despite who or what you may listen to, the statistic is real. I think that a lot of parents are recognizing that the economic landscape of today is not as good as when they were our age, so they give their young adults more leash. Both of my parents never completed college and they were able to buy a house and other nice things. This is just not possible today. In my composition class, I wrote a paper about how I believe many Americans are overworked and in my paper I discuss how the cost of living has risen, productivity has risen and at the same time wages have remained relatively stagnant. At the same time, the rich keep getting richer and wealth inequality continues to worsen, which is another contributing factor. There's a lot of good information here if you care to look: http://www.epi.org/publication/charting-wage-stagnation/ If anyone is interested in reading my paper, I'm rather proud of it and would love to share it with you. Just send me a PM and I'll e-mail you a copy. I can't speak for all millenials, just myself, but I am not going to perpetuate society down that path. I place real value on my free time and I will fight for a society that accepts free time as part of our culture. I surmise that a lot of what is perceived to be "lazy millenials", like those who expect inflated vacation time simply have a different way of viewing life in general, perhaps similar to mine. For sure, as things are now, employers now who are old school are going to hire those who don't want vacation time or inflated free time. That's just how it is right now. If I am correct, and many millenials view things as I do, then eventually society will shift as the millenials become the dominant generation. I think this is a really good thing as I believe that America is trending towards being overworked. Somethings going to have to give, and if it is a generation that all the super hard workers view as lazy, entitled brats that shifts America from overworking themselves to something better for future generations, then I think that is great. I don't want my children to grow up in a country where it is expected to basically live to work. I want them to be able to work hard, get what they deserve for it, and also have enough time for their families and to grow themselves individually.

QUOTE (Nixon @ May 26, 2016 -> 07:14 AM) High Sparrow plot needs to move along, it's been stagnant for too long and they removed too many aspects of it to have it be interesting for this long w/ so little going on. Looks like the Tyrell army makes it to Kings Landing next episode, so hopefully they spend a good 10-15 minutes or whatever and really advance that story. Kings Landing is kind of boring without Baelish, Varys and Tyrion playing politics but I think the aftermath of whatever happens with the Tyrell army and Cersei's new plot should jazz it back up a little bit for many viewers.

This team needs something good to happen.

Boy oh boy. It's getting tough to watch these guys. Day after day, pitchers dominate our lineup and why? Because every pitcher we face is on his game that day? I doubt it. I think it's more likely that the offense simply is not intimidating, and pitchers know that all they have to do to win the game is throw strikes. Whatever this team had in the beginning of the year is gone. I do believe they will definitely go through another stretch where they win a ton of games, but with the good times also come the bad times like what we are seeing now. I'd really like to see a consistent competitive edge with this team, instead of looking like world beaters for awhile to turn into an absolute suckfest.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ May 23, 2016 -> 09:54 PM) RV cost the team at least .5 a run today. Mangers do matter folks. He f***ing manages the 1st game like a real manager the Sox probably win 8-4 and save all the high leverage guys. He f***ing doesn't of course, he tries to steal innings with Duke, and he burns everyone. Now, he leaves in Johnson when he could have left in Latos. f*** RV. LOL at the bolded. Yeah, if Robin managed the game "the right way" (whatever that is), the Sox would have won 7.5 to 6. Or 7 to 5.5. Or 7.25 to 5.75. Or they'd still be losing 5 to 1.5 in this game. Maybe take a chill pill. It's just a game.

Great game to be at. Mostly because of the great weather and great group i was with. And I got onto the beer money show and won a few bucks! So much fun.

Sweet! Got onto the beer money game while tailgating!