The End of the Big Lie

[Look at Ray Ray Run]

1 hour ago, The Kids Can Play said:

Excellent post and you really nailed it! We all as Sox fans feel the same pain as you described.

I know it would never happen, but it's sad and tragic that Jerry isn't forced to read all these comments, or required to sit at a town hall meeting and let angry loyal and hurt Sox fans vent to him.

It's the egregiousness of their dishonesty and disdain for fans that drives me crazy.

Bill Wirtz hated fans and told em to f off. He didn't spend one minute pretending he cared about anything but him. That's much less offensive.

Sox leadership tries to blame fans negativity for failure. Rick Hahn has literally blamed a tweet for a trade falling through. The Sox tell you they're doing all these great things and then they pull the rug out from under you. Every time.

Edited April 27, 2023 by Look at Ray Ray Run

[Lip Man 1]

1 hour ago, The Kids Can Play said:

Excellent post and you really nailed it! We all as Sox fans feel the same pain as you described.

I know it would never happen, but it's sad and tragic that Jerry isn't forced to read all these comments, or required to sit at a town hall meeting and let angry loyal and hurt Sox fans vent to him.

It happened at Sox fantasy camp before the 2004 season. Ed Herrmann was there and told me Bill Melton had to step in as fans were getting physical with JR. Ken Rosenthal wrote about it when he was writing for The Sporting News as well.

Edited April 27, 2023 by Lip Man 1

[Look at Ray Ray Run]

26 minutes ago, FourEyesShottenhoffer said:

Signing Alonso and Jay was a greater indication of incompetence than failing to sign Machado imo. I prefer the Rays approach of putting together the strongest forty man possible rather than paying for a single superstar player. Considering the construction of the team, targeting Machado over Harper was stupid as well

Even the rays have given out a 9 figure deal.

[LittleHurtCG]

You get an A on your term paper. Good use of primary sources to back up your claims. I hope you will consider enrolling in White Sox Angst and Frustration 102 next semester. 

[chitownsportsfan]

I'm either happy for you or sad that happened...

Nah, good post. I feel bad for any young parent that wants to get their kids into sports and the baseball team being the White Sox. Most of us were lucky enough to at least enjoy some good, entertaining Sox teams in our youth. Anybody under 15 or so has had two decent years and a ton of s%*#, and that's unlikely to change anytime soon.

[The Kids Can Play]

35 minutes ago, Lip Man 1 said:

It happened at Sox fantasy camp before the 2004 season. Ed Herrmann was there and told me Bill Melton had to step in as fans were getting physical with JR. Ken Rosenthal wrote about it when he was writing for The Sporting News as well.

Well there you go...we now know why Jerry avoids the media and fans. My absolute hatred for Jerry just keeps escalating to new levels. 

[LittleHurtCG]

1 hour ago, JoshPR said:

Cause the machado thing was just a smoke screen, to say hey we tried and got a seat at the table but ol jerry was never gonna fork out that much dough. That's why they didn't even try Harper. Hahn thinks he can fool everybody he things fans are stupid. That's what I can't stand about that mother fucker.

I really hope something leaks out about what really went down with the Machado negotations one day.  I agree that it was all a dog and pony show and there was never any intention of signing him at anything close to market rate. I'm sure the Sox offered something like 150 million over 7 years but that's like me offering 700K on a lake front mansion in Winnetka. 

[Dick Allen]

1 hour ago, Lip Man 1 said:

It happened at Sox fantasy camp before the 2004 season. Ed Herrmann was there and told me Bill Melton had to step in as fans were getting physical with JR. Ken Rosenthal wrote about it when he was writing for The Sporting News as well.

JR actually used to show up at Soxfest. I don't think he did any seminars, but he would be walking around.

[Dick Allen]

1 hour ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

It's the egregiousness of their dishonesty and disdain for fans that drives me crazy.

Bill Wirtz hated fans and told em to f off. He didn't spend one minute pretending he cared about anything but him. That's much less offensive.

Sox leadership tries to blame fans negativity for failure. Rick Hahn has literally blamed a tweet for a trade falling through. The Sox tell you they're doing all these great things and then they pull the rug out from under you. Every time.

The funny thing about Rick blaming a tweet for a trade falling through is the person who tweeted it either got the info from Rick or one of his lackeys. 

[Bob Sacamano]

2 hours ago, chitownsportsfan said:

I'm either happy for you or sad that happened...

Nah, good post. I feel bad for any young parent that wants to get their kids into sports and the baseball team being the White Sox. Most of us were lucky enough to at least enjoy some good, entertaining Sox teams in our youth. Anybody under 15 or so has had two decent years and a ton of s%*#, and that's unlikely to change anytime soon.

Being 32, we did have some pretty good seasons earlier in my (and I'm sure others) life. I probably really started to like the sport around 1999/2000. No, they never really made it to the playoffs but at least most seasons they were competitive. Even if they usually faded in the second half.

[soxrwhite]

I've been around for some terrible years ( some excellent ones too). I guess maybe the let down of high expectations, kinda like 1984 makes it seem worse. However this year just feels worse. I don't see emotion in the players faces after flailing away at a pitch low and outside. With very few exceptions I get the feeling it's all fine with them. What's the big deal? We are in America and rich. What could be better?

[chitownsportsfan]

7 minutes ago, soxrwhite said:

I've been around for some terrible years ( some excellent ones too). I guess maybe the let down of high expectations, kinda like 1984 makes it seem worse. However this year just feels worse. I don't see emotion in the players faces after flailing away at a pitch low and outside. With very few exceptions I get the feeling it's all fine with them. What's the big deal? We are in America and rich. What could be better?

I mean I know we like to assume all these guys are happy because they are well paid and big leaguers but nobody, no matter how well paid, enjoys a miserable work environment. Losing sucks. These guys are hyper competitive, that's how they got to MLB. Losing to them means they are failing, at least to 9/10, regardless of what the check each month says on the front.

There's no leadership. You traded away the clubhouse leader in Abreu, and Grifol? LOL, that dude couldn't lead a group of boy scouts it appears. Leadership isn't really that big of a deal until s%*# hits the fan. Well, it's hit the fan now. These is a bad team, but it's not a 110 loss bad team like they have been playing. Leaders would be able to regulate the emotional state of the clubhouse in a situation like this and get everybody pulling in the same direction again. But we don't have any, so I'd expect things to remain about how they are.

[greg775]

8 hours ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

The Big Lie is Over

              At that time, fans were all in.

I enjoyed the article except for that line. As you may recall I was SO against the tank/rebuild I either got banned for 6 months on here (or maybe that was for something else) or got accused of being a major troll cause I was obsessed with my anger at the tank/rebuild. I loved Sale and loved the Buehrle years and having a true ace around. ... I can't remember any other fans on here who agreed with me but perhaps there were a handful at best. NO TANKING! NO TOTAL REBUILDING. The reason? The guys you acquire in the draft more often than not will be busts. And the studs acquired in the deals were mainly busts ostenibly because we have BAD scouting.

Please let's fire everybody and start over the traditional way. Pretend we're an expansion franchise and go from there with new GM,scouts and of course owner.

[MEANS]

wait, greg was against the rebuild? 

[The Grinder]

IIRC didn't WFLD TV want to sue the SOx in maybe 1988 to void their contract as nobody was watching them on TV? Gotta wonder if same will happen this year

[Dick Allen]

32 minutes ago, The Grinder said:

IIRC didn't WFLD TV want to sue the SOx in maybe 1988 to void their contract as nobody was watching them on TV? Gotta wonder if same will happen this year

No, because the Bulls and Hawks own the other parts and nobody wants to watch them either.

[Lip Man 1]

45 minutes ago, The Grinder said:

IIRC didn't WFLD TV want to sue the SOx in maybe 1988 to void their contract as nobody was watching them on TV? Gotta wonder if same will happen this year

I can't remember anything along these lines but from a radio standpoint the Sox were so bad in 1968, 69 and 70 that when the radio deal ended with (I think) WCFL no mainstream station in Chicago wanted them. In 71 and 72 the Sox were broadcast on a number of low powered radio stations around the area. The main basis were located in Evanston and LaGrange.

Thanks to Dick Allen and their success in 1972, the got a new deal with a mainstream station for 1973 WMAQ (I think) 

 

 

[The Grinder]

I pasted from wikipedia page below, sorry Im not hi tech enough to do it any other way, point is JR didnt care even back then

In October 1988, the station filed a lawsuit against the White Sox club to terminate its television contract with the team, which was set to last through 1991, accusing team owners Jerry Reinsdorf and Eddie Einhorn of "gutting and stripmining the [...] team of salary investment, player quality and fan goodwill", which resulted in a decline in viewership for the games and profit losses for the station on the contract (WFLD's profits from the telecasts slid from $1.5 million profit in 1985 to a loss of $1.4 million in 1988, resulting in the rights fees costing four times more than the accrued revenue; ratings during that three-year period also dropped from a 5.1 share in 1985 to a 1.7 in August 1988) as well as breached advertising agreements with the Chicagoland Dodge Dealers consortium.

[The Grinder]

1 hour ago, Lip Man 1 said:

I can't remember anything along these lines but from a radio standpoint the Sox were so bad in 1968, 69 and 70 that when the radio deal ended with (I think) WCFL no mainstream station in Chicago wanted them. In 71 and 72 the Sox were broadcast on a number of low powered radio stations around the area. The main basis were located in Evanston and LaGrange.

Thanks to Dick Allen and their success in 1972, the got a new deal with a mainstream station for 1973 WMAQ (I think) 

 

 

Living in rural NW Illinois back then and trying to pull in the game on the radio was super challenging, my Dad bought some gizmo that plugged into the wall outlet, it acted as a antena, it was about 5 inches high and was looked like a cylinder. It helped a bit but kinda sucked. So I do recall those early days of Harry Carey on some obscure radio station whos call letters I dont remember