Steve Stone not returning to the booth next season???

[Dick Allen]

A snippet from Jim O'Donnell's sports media column in the Daily Herald. It would be interesting if Stone fled JR and went to his crosstown rivals after telling everyone just how much better he is than anyone:

 

Why are there so many rumors flying around the White Sox broadcast scheme for 2020? It goes beyond Ed Farmer's health. (Tweet-intense Steve Stone would be an intriguing "get" for the Cubs Marquee Sports Network.)

 

 

Edited October 10, 2019 by Dick Allen

[Black_Jack29]

4 hours ago, WBWSF said:

Stone is smart enough to know that the White Sox are his last stop in his broadcasting career. At his age he wouldn't be hired by anybody else.

Stoney is doing way better at 72 than Hawk was at that age. He's the best color guy in the game and many teams would love to have him.

 

[ChiliIrishHammock24]

6 hours ago, Sarava said:

Wow, so now we're whiners if we want them to sign Gerrit Cole? 

No, I took that to mean as long as the Sox spend a ton of money, don't complain that it wasn't all spent on one guy.

[Ducksnort]

3 hours ago, soxfan49 said:

AJ Pierzynski

 

3 hours ago, soxfan49 said:

AJ Pierzynski

If Stony left, I would LOVE to have AJ in the booth. He would be more of a homer than Hawk though lol

[flavum]

I highly doubt AJ wants to be in the travel grind again unless he’s in uniform managing. 40 flights and 90+ nights in hotels to talk about the White Sox...I don’t see him interested in that after the amount of money he made.

[Balta1701]

3 hours ago, tray said:

Fans seldom acknowledge the role that luck plays in every aspect of the sport, including with player drafts, trades. personnel decisions and player contracts.   Meanwhile,  Monday morning quarterbacking by fans is such an easy pastime.   At the end of the day baseball is a game  with a lot of luck involved as the Ricketts found out this year. Cubs tanked like 10 games in a row at the end of the year.  Who woulda thunk it?

And bad luck is why there are 0 teams that have won 300+ games over the past 3 seasons, it's just flat out impossible to have that kind of sustained success through bad luck.

[Soxfest]

Disappointed Stone has become apologist for JR, he has changed a lot last 3 years.

Edited October 10, 2019 by Soxfest

[TheFutureIsNear]

Yeah if Stone is going to be on his high horse questioning why fans are upset and apologizing for this shitty ownership group he can stay away. Being a company man to a failing company doesn’t even make sense. 

[Sarava]

7 hours ago, ChiliIrishHammock24 said:

No, I took that to mean as long as the Sox spend a ton of money, don't complain that it wasn't all spent on one guy.

OK....but what the Sox really need is a TOR starter, not a #3 starter. But I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps they will target an arm via trade.

[ChiliIrishHammock24]

6 hours ago, Sarava said:

OK....but what the Sox really need is a TOR starter, not a #3 starter. But I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps they will target an arm via trade.

Well, they got 2 shots to get a TOR in Cole and Strasburg. And then if you are looking at the trade market, maybe some names like Sonny Gray, Marco Gonzales, or Joe Musgrove would be available as #2-#3 type starters to give us depth. 

[Chicago White Sox]

4 hours ago, ChiliIrishHammock24 said:

Well, they got 2 shots to get a TOR in Cole and Strasburg. And then if you are looking at the trade market, maybe some names like Sonny Gray, Marco Gonzales, or Joe Musgrove would be available as #2-#3 type starters to give us depth. 

Why trade for one of those three guys when Wheeler is just as good / better and will only cost a draft pick?

[NWINFan]

21 hours ago, Black_Jack29 said:

Stoney is doing way better at 72 than Hawk was at that age. He's the best color guy in the game and many teams would love to have him.

 

Stone is a good color man, no doubt about it. The guy knows the game inside and out. As a team spokesman? Not so hot.

Edited October 11, 2019 by NWINFan

[Black_Jack29]

3 hours ago, NWINFan said:

Stone is a good color man, no doubt about it. The guy knows the game inside and out. As a team spokesman? Not so hot.

He's doing the front office PR stuff that Hawk used to do. "I love Robin Ventura LIKE A SON. But he's not an $8 million per year player."

Sad, but it seems necessary to keep one's job while working for JR.

[Look at Ray Ray Run]

14 minutes ago, Black_Jack29 said:

He's doing the front office PR stuff that Hawk used to do. "I love Robin Ventura LIKE A SON. But he's not an $8 million per year player."

Sad, but it seems necessary to keep one's job while working for JR.

Or maybe, just maybe, they feel he's a good boss and they represent that feeling in public amidst backlash? That would be pretty normal in most of the business world.

[chitownsportsfan]

14 minutes ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

Or maybe, just maybe, they feel he's a good boss and they represent that feeling in public amidst backlash? That would be pretty normal in most of the business world.

Stone can talk up the White Sox and his boss all he fucking wants.  But keep the fans' names out of it.  I really don't need the team I root for telling me how ignorant I am when I can see in plain site that they are a bottom 1/3 org success wise over most of my adult life.

[Black_Jack29]

4 minutes ago, chitownsportsfan said:

Stone can talk up the White Sox and his boss all he fucking wants.  But keep the fans' names out of it.  I really don't need the team I root for telling me how ignorant I am when I can see in plain site that they are a bottom 1/3 org success wise over most of my adult life.

Yeah, when the mouthpieces for the organization call out the fans, it's either an explicit order from the top or implicitly understood as what the top wants.

Given its thin skin, I think that it would be best for this organization to significantly cut back on its verbal interaction with fans. I haven't listened to the postgame shows in a few years, but remember the absolute idiocy that Chris Rongy had to deal with when they went to the phones. And he would eventually (and understandably) get frustrated and push back. It wasn't a good look for either the fans or the organization.

[NWINFan]

35 minutes ago, Black_Jack29 said:

Yeah, when the mouthpieces for the organization call out the fans, it's either an explicit order from the top or implicitly understood as what the top wants.

Given its thin skin, I think that it would be best for this organization to significantly cut back on its verbal interaction with fans. I haven't listened to the postgame shows in a few years, but remember the absolute idiocy that Chris Rongy had to deal with when they went to the phones. And he would eventually (and understandably) get frustrated and push back. It wasn't a good look for either the fans or the organization.

Many times fans are no angels, and I can't stand some of the idiocy. The troubling thing is that the relationship between the fans and this organization has been bad from the start. The angry sides feed on each other, and there has been a constant bad and negative aura around the team. The atmosphere was rancid after the White Flag Trade and has never really recovered.

Both sides don't understand each other. I never thought Reinsdorf and Einhorn got a good feeling of where the fans were coming from, and sometimes fans thought the organization could spend money like Steinbrenner. Some fans also didn't realize that baseball economics were changing when the Reinsdorf-Einhorn group bought the team. The organization didn't understand how frustrated the fans were by the losing and how cynical they had become.

At this point, there needs to be some kind of peace-making. Fans need to accept this organization for what it is because it won't change. The organization should realize that there are still many loyal White Sox fans who only want the team to win on a consistent basis. But the organization needs to take the lead. These public squabbles have been going on for nearly 40 years, and they are counter-productive. The team still struggles at the gate, and the fan base continues to erode. This crap has to stop. That is, if the organization truly wants to have a bright future for the franchise. 

Right now I am totally frustrated by the fact that the same mistakes are being made. Tell Stone to stick with the color and let's move on.

 

[chitownsportsfan]

4 minutes ago, NWINFan said:

Many times fans are no angels, and I can't stand some of the idiocy. The troubling thing is that the relationship between the fans and this organization has been bad from the start. The angry sides feed on each other, and there has been a constant bad and negative aura around the team. The atmosphere was rancid after the White Flag Trade and has never really recovered.

Both sides don't understand each other. I never thought Reinsdorf and Einhorn got a good feeling of where the fans were coming from, and sometimes fans thought the organization could spend money like Steinbrenner. Some fans also didn't realize that baseball economics were changing when the Reinsdorf-Einhorn group bought the team. The organization didn't understand how frustrated the fans were by the losing and how cynical they had become.

At this point, there needs to be some kind of peace-making. Fans need to accept this organization for what it is because it won't change. The organization should realize that there are still many loyal White Sox fans who only want the team to win on a consistent basis. But the organization needs to take the lead. These public squabbles have been going on for nearly 40 years, and they are counter-productive. The team still struggles at the gate, and the fan base continues to erode. This crap has to stop. That is, if the organization truly wants to have a bright future for the franchise. 

Right now I am totally frustrated by the fact that the same mistakes are being made. Tell Stone to stick with the color and let's move on.

 

Just win baby.  You can call me a shit licking turd every day of the week in return for a consistent division contending squad.

[Black_Jack29]

1 hour ago, NWINFan said:

Many times fans are no angels, and I can't stand some of the idiocy. The troubling thing is that the relationship between the fans and this organization has been bad from the start. The angry sides feed on each other, and there has been a constant bad and negative aura around the team. The atmosphere was rancid after the White Flag Trade and has never really recovered.

Both sides don't understand each other. I never thought Reinsdorf and Einhorn got a good feeling of where the fans were coming from, and sometimes fans thought the organization could spend money like Steinbrenner. Some fans also didn't realize that baseball economics were changing when the Reinsdorf-Einhorn group bought the team. The organization didn't understand how frustrated the fans were by the losing and how cynical they had become.

At this point, there needs to be some kind of peace-making. Fans need to accept this organization for what it is because it won't change. The organization should realize that there are still many loyal White Sox fans who only want the team to win on a consistent basis. But the organization needs to take the lead. These public squabbles have been going on for nearly 40 years, and they are counter-productive. The team still struggles at the gate, and the fan base continues to erode. This crap has to stop. That is, if the organization truly wants to have a bright future for the franchise. 

Right now I am totally frustrated by the fact that the same mistakes are being made. Tell Stone to stick with the color and let's move on.

 

Reinsdorf and Einhorn were awful with fans from the get-go. And most of the organization's struggles with fans are self-inflicted.

That said, the Sox are what they are and, as you mentioned, the Sox higher-ups need to stop punching down and fans would do themselves a service if they decided to either accept the organization for what they are or walk away. That's pretty much what I've done. I'm competitive, I want to win, and I get frustrated when the Sox fail to make the playoffs or fail to spend what they need to spend to remain competitive. But I also understand the reality of the way that JR runs the team and that the Sox are not going to spend their way into perennial contention in the way that the Yankees, Dodgers, and Red Sox do. There are going to be down years and I'm OK with that... provided that they do what they need to do to get back into contention. And a certain baseline level of frustration with and b****ing about any sports franchise is fine... but I think that too many Sox fans take it to a level that's psychologically unhealthy. If you wouldn't let your wife or significant other lie to and betray you the way that JR does, why would you choose to stay with JR and his team?

One thing I've noticed over the years about Cubs and Cardinals fans – fans of organizations that have greatly differing levels of baseball competence, historically speaking – is that there's a culture of being a Cubs or Cardinals fan that they enjoy. That's what I try to do with the Sox. The Sox get my attention and emotional investment at times like this when I'm excited about them. When things go south, I stop paying attention, but I don't hold grudges. The powers-that-be on 35th and Shields need to try to create that type of culture. I'm not sure if it'll ever be possible with the current ownership, but that's their only way to long-term viability.

Edited October 11, 2019 by Black_Jack29

[Look at Ray Ray Run]

Guys this may be breaking news to you.... but fans are assholes - especially on twitter. Horrible things are said. You can tell them to get thicker skin, but you're absolving fans of their actions by doing that.

Steve Stone isn't speaking to rationally frustrated fans; he's speaking to the lunatics that say terrible things and take it far too far because of a game.

It's similar to how people used to tell athletes that they're paid a lot of money so it gives fans the right to berate and say horrible things to them while they're in the field. Its nonsense. Don't act like a child and an asshole and people won't treat you like one in response.

[Balta1701]

9 minutes ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

Guys this may be breaking news to you.... but fans are assholes - especially on twitter. Horrible things are said. You can tell them to get thicker skin, but you're absolving fans of their actions by doing that.

Steve Stone isn't speaking to rationally frustrated fans; he's speaking to the lunatics that say terrible things and take it far too far because of a game.

It's similar to how people used to tell athletes that they're paid a lot of money so it gives fans the right to berate and say horrible things to them while they're in the field. Its nonsense. Don't act like a child and an asshole and people won't treat you like one in response.

Plus, it's not like Steve Stone is supposed to be a highly paid professional, he's basically just a twitter troll anyway so why should you expect better from him?

[Look at Ray Ray Run]

2 minutes ago, Balta1701 said:

Plus, it's not like Steve Stone is supposed to be a highly paid professional, he's basically just a twitter troll anyway so why should you expect better from him?

I'd also like to add that Reinsdorf being Jewish has led to a lot of horrible anti-semitic stuff being thrown out there on twitter and social media about him. 

People getting defensive and supporting someone they respect after something like that is completely reasonable as well. It's really at the forefront of the money conversations.

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

33 minutes ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

Guys this may be breaking news to you.... but fans are assholes - especially on twitter. Horrible things are said. You can tell them to get thicker skin, but you're absolving fans of their actions by doing that.

Steve Stone isn't speaking to rationally frustrated fans; he's speaking to the lunatics that say terrible things and take it far too far because of a game.

It's similar to how people used to tell athletes that they're paid a lot of money so it gives fans the right to berate and say horrible things to them while they're in the field. Its nonsense. Don't act like a child and an asshole and people won't treat you like one in response.

I have to agree with this. There might be 5% of all Sox fans who know the organization, it's history , it's current history, players, strengths,weaknesses.coaches and minor leagues well enough ,without including any personal biases like age etc. to have a fair, informed opinion. And really not even that well informed because you are not on the inside.

All that being said since most fans are ignorant of all these things and you know it why spend time criticizing them and just chalk it up to fans being fans (meatballs) and not even talk about them except to praise them . If you don't have anything nice to say about the fans , say nothing at all. But being that you want to sell tickets you better stick to saying only nice things.

[Black_Jack29]

43 minutes ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

Guys this may be breaking news to you.... but fans are assholes - especially on twitter. Horrible things are said. You can tell them to get thicker skin, but you're absolving fans of their actions by doing that.

Steve Stone isn't speaking to rationally frustrated fans; he's speaking to the lunatics that say terrible things and take it far too far because of a game.

It's similar to how people used to tell athletes that they're paid a lot of money so it gives fans the right to berate and say horrible things to them while they're in the field. Its nonsense. Don't act like a child and an asshole and people won't treat you like one in response.

 

33 minutes ago, Balta1701 said:

Plus, it's not like Steve Stone is supposed to be a highly paid professional, he's basically just a twitter troll anyway so why should you expect better from him?

You're both right.

[NWINFan]

2 hours ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

Guys this may be breaking news to you.... but fans are assholes - especially on twitter. Horrible things are said. You can tell them to get thicker skin, but you're absolving fans of their actions by doing that.

Steve Stone isn't speaking to rationally frustrated fans; he's speaking to the lunatics that say terrible things and take it far too far because of a game.

It's similar to how people used to tell athletes that they're paid a lot of money so it gives fans the right to berate and say horrible things to them while they're in the field. Its nonsense. Don't act like a child and an asshole and people won't treat you like one in response.

I agree with you even though I think that many are not assholes. And nasty things are said on this board. My point is that Stone doesn't really say who he is speaking to, and you can alienate many well-meaning fans. I also don't think calling out fans when you have seven losing seasons in a row is getting you anywhere, and it hasn't gotten the White Sox anywhere during the past 40 years. 

Also the White Sox have a major league arrogance about them. That doesn't get them anywhere, either.

It goes without saying that having a civilized dialogue would help. I wrote Stone some time ago. There was no profanity or name-calling. I even wrote that it was from one gentleman to another. I didn't like what he did, but there was no need to get personal. I just didn't agree with him.  I'd say the same things to his face, and I would do it in a respectful way. But there are times when I think the Sox believe something is owed to them, and I don't buy that.

Bottom line is that things need to change, and I don't think winning will solve everything. But  I agree with you on another thing: Twitter is just plain horrible.  But your first sentence is awfully sarcastic.

Edited October 11, 2019 by NWINFan