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OT: Chicago Baseball 2021

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OT: Chicago Baseball 2021 

Post#1 » by gardenofsound » Wed May 19, 2021 4:15 pm

Well... we're about a quarter of the way into the season. The Sox are in 1st place but recent headlines highlight the buffoonery of an obsolete manager more than the, honestly, incredibly likeable/marketable characters in the clubhouse, led by the Superman/Batman combo of Abreu and Anderson.

Meanwhile, the Cubs are only 2.5 games out of 1st in their division. Kris Bryant has bounced back and should be in the MVP conversation if he keeps it up. Contreras, Baez and Rizzo are also playing pretty well. Starting pitching has been rough but the bats and bullpen are carrying them.

Both teams have the potential to do some damage this year. As a biased Sox fan, I think the entertainment factor on the south side is about as high as I can remember, even with Robert and Jimenez out for an extended period. My only hope is that they don't implode, particularly after the past couple nights between Mercedes and La Russa (with several players coming out in favor of Mercedes' position).
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Re: OT: Chicago Baseball 2021 

Post#2 » by jc23 » Wed May 19, 2021 5:01 pm

Curious how many cubs fans have added the marque network to watch games, i havent.
Be curious, Not judgmental
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Re: OT: Chicago Baseball 2021 

Post#3 » by Dominator83 » Wed May 19, 2021 6:03 pm

Sox should fire La Russa now. First he throws his player under the bus, then doesn't back him after he got hit. He's killing the good vibes there
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Re: OT: Chicago Baseball 2021 

Post#4 » by Leslie Forman » Wed May 19, 2021 7:08 pm

We should consider ourselves lucky that Jerry doesn't actually like basketball.
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Re: OT: Chicago Baseball 2021 

Post#5 » by Jeffster81 » Thu May 20, 2021 12:45 am

Dominater wrote:Sox should fire La Russa now. First he throws his player under the bus, then doesn't back him after he got hit. He's killing the good vibes there


Don't forget players have openly criticized Tony and his handling of this situation. I hated this hire for the WS since the begining. TLR is all about the non fun baseball and the WS roster is all about the fun. This mixture does not mix. TLR is already losing the roster, and at some point will cost the Sox a chance of doing something special.

But hey as long as Reinsdorf has his drinking buddy, that is all that matters. /sarcasm.

Sorry WS fans. As great as the season is shaping up for the WS, TLR is going to blow it.
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Re: OT: Chicago Baseball 2021 

Post#6 » by Chicago-Bull-E » Thu May 20, 2021 12:54 am

Dominater wrote:Sox should fire La Russa now. First he throws his player under the bus, then doesn't back him after he got hit. He's killing the good vibes there


No, the entertainment value of him is too high.

Plus, they’re playing well.
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Re: OT: Chicago Baseball 2021 

Post#7 » by Chicago-Bull-E » Thu May 20, 2021 12:58 am

jc23 wrote:Curious how many cubs fans have added the marque network to watch games, i havent.


It’s so disappointing to see a team like the Cubs, who were made popular with nationwide access through WGN, headed in the exact opposite direction, while the team constricts the budget and ditches high profile players, and putting the team on a platform that greatly restricts how many people can watch them.

**** the Rickets.
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Re: OT: Chicago Baseball 2021 

Post#8 » by CobyWhite0 » Thu May 20, 2021 1:00 am

What's left for old man Tony - telling all his players to "Get off my lawn!!"?

It's almost like Reinsdorf finally got rid of GarPax, only to replace them with the current GarPax of major league managers on his other team.
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Re: OT: Chicago Baseball 2021 

Post#9 » by Jeffster81 » Thu May 20, 2021 1:01 am

Chicago-Bull-E wrote:
Dominater wrote:Sox should fire La Russa now. First he throws his player under the bus, then doesn't back him after he got hit. He's killing the good vibes there


No, the entertainment value of him is too high.

Plus, they’re playing well.


They are entertaining because of the players not because of Drunky the Clown at the helm. If the Sox wanted a manager with baggage, they should have gone after Hinch. TLR is a dinosauar and his style will cost the WS at the worst of times.
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Re: OT: Chicago Baseball 2021 

Post#10 » by Michael Jackson » Thu May 20, 2021 12:37 pm

Chicago-Bull-E wrote:
jc23 wrote:Curious how many cubs fans have added the marque network to watch games, i havent.


It’s so disappointing to see a team like the Cubs, who were made popular with nationwide access through WGN, headed in the exact opposite direction, while the team constricts the budget and ditches high profile players, and putting the team on a platform that greatly restricts how many people can watch them.

**** the Rickets.



The Rickets are all about the business... Not that it is awesome but it is also the nature of the beast. Rickets also brought a World Series home and are still a million times better than Zell.

On a personal note one of my best friends died at Wrigley in a freak accident, Tom came to the visitation and waited in the reception line for over an hour, which was also likely against his lawyers advice. He was incredibly a stand up guy in that situation. Mind you I’m not a Cubs fan exactly but if owners isn’t his town Rickets are not the worst.
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Re: OT: Chicago Baseball 2021 

Post#11 » by CobyWhite0 » Thu May 20, 2021 1:23 pm

Michael Jackson wrote:
Chicago-Bull-E wrote:
jc23 wrote:Curious how many cubs fans have added the marque network to watch games, i havent.


It’s so disappointing to see a team like the Cubs, who were made popular with nationwide access through WGN, headed in the exact opposite direction, while the team constricts the budget and ditches high profile players, and putting the team on a platform that greatly restricts how many people can watch them.

**** the Rickets.



The Rickets are all about the business... Not that it is awesome but it is also the nature of the beast. Rickets also brought a World Series home and are still a million times better than Zell.

On a personal note one of my best friends died at Wrigley in a freak accident, Tom came to the visitation and waited in the reception line for over an hour, which was also likely against his lawyers advice. He was incredibly a stand up guy in that situation. Mind you I’m not a Cubs fan exactly but if owners isn’t his town Rickets are not the worst.


I was a Cubs fan since long before I was born, and even though I hardly watch the games any more, it was still an awesome experience when we finally went to World Series -winning it was just the cherry on top.

I can't really blame the Ricketts family for the current rebuild - they kept that WS team almost completely intact for 4 more seasons, including throwing a crapload of $$$ at Darvish. But they proceeded to lose 4-1 in the NLCS, lose in the Wild Card game, miss the playoffs, and lose 2-0 in last year's Wild Card.

I'm sorry to hear about your friend, it is pretty surprising that Tom would show up for the visitation. That's impressive.
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Re: OT: Chicago Baseball 2021 

Post#12 » by Michael Jackson » Thu May 20, 2021 9:26 pm

CobyWhite0 wrote:
Michael Jackson wrote:
Chicago-Bull-E wrote:
It’s so disappointing to see a team like the Cubs, who were made popular with nationwide access through WGN, headed in the exact opposite direction, while the team constricts the budget and ditches high profile players, and putting the team on a platform that greatly restricts how many people can watch them.

**** the Rickets.



The Rickets are all about the business... Not that it is awesome but it is also the nature of the beast. Rickets also brought a World Series home and are still a million times better than Zell.

On a personal note one of my best friends died at Wrigley in a freak accident, Tom came to the visitation and waited in the reception line for over an hour, which was also likely against his lawyers advice. He was incredibly a stand up guy in that situation. Mind you I’m not a Cubs fan exactly but if owners isn’t his town Rickets are not the worst.


I was a Cubs fan since long before I was born, and even though I hardly watch the games any more, it was still an awesome experience when we finally went to World Series -winning it was just the cherry on top.

I can't really blame the Ricketts family for the current rebuild - they kept that WS team almost completely intact for 4 more seasons, including throwing a crapload of $$$ at Darvish. But they proceeded to lose 4-1 in the NLCS, lose in the Wild Card game, miss the playoffs, and lose 2-0 in last year's Wild Card.

I'm sorry to hear about your friend, it is pretty surprising that Tom would show up for the visitation. That's impressive.



I was born into a diehard Cub family. I had the back sheep about me because I was just old enough to to grasp the 1983 winning ugly sox and loved Carlton Fisk. I also was enamored with the 1984 Cubs. We lived by and were friends with Chet Lemon and Jerry Harriston too so that added to my Sox love. On the Cubs side my mom was an insane diehard. My best friend owned the first rooftop also, so I spent a lot of time there. I was always a contrarian though so I ended up having a slight favor to the sox. I really really hated the Sell years because he gave zero f's about the fans and simply ran the club as a money maker and it angered me more than Jerry for some unknown reason. Just where I was personality wise. My sister loved Ron Cey, and our neighbor was a scout for the Dodgers, and he was the guy who scouted Cey, so Ron would come by and bioy did that make my sister the happiest camper... She is the best sports fan in the family though. She sat me down and told me how important drafting Jordan was when he got drafted and that I had to watch him.

Yeah my friends accident was an absolute tragedy, it made the news and I think Tom went simply because he really did care. Not only was he absolutely respectful, he was very kindly to everyone who came up and talked to him while in line. It impressed me you can get a sense of a person seeing them interact with people for an hour and he was literally in line with us the whole time. Now my friend who had the rooftop was in negations with the Ricketts even though he ended up selling to another party... I guess he was pretty decent to deal with in a business sense too, just wasn't the highest offer.

They stuck to their word initially gutting the team and building it up to be a competitor and held onto the team longer than Jerry would have IMHO. Far from the worst owners. I hate the marque network, but I also understand the business side of it. I think one of the Cubs major problems though was after they won, they lost their identity, they were no longer the lovable losers and then were expected to compete every year with a new generation of fans who didn't really know what long suffering was. My old man was born in 1924... He knew what long suffering was LOL
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Re: OT: Chicago Baseball 2021 

Post#13 » by CobyWhite0 » Thu May 20, 2021 10:59 pm

Michael Jackson wrote:
CobyWhite0 wrote:
Michael Jackson wrote:

The Rickets are all about the business... Not that it is awesome but it is also the nature of the beast. Rickets also brought a World Series home and are still a million times better than Zell.

On a personal note one of my best friends died at Wrigley in a freak accident, Tom came to the visitation and waited in the reception line for over an hour, which was also likely against his lawyers advice. He was incredibly a stand up guy in that situation. Mind you I’m not a Cubs fan exactly but if owners isn’t his town Rickets are not the worst.


I was a Cubs fan since long before I was born, and even though I hardly watch the games any more, it was still an awesome experience when we finally went to World Series -winning it was just the cherry on top.

I can't really blame the Ricketts family for the current rebuild - they kept that WS team almost completely intact for 4 more seasons, including throwing a crapload of $$$ at Darvish. But they proceeded to lose 4-1 in the NLCS, lose in the Wild Card game, miss the playoffs, and lose 2-0 in last year's Wild Card.

I'm sorry to hear about your friend, it is pretty surprising that Tom would show up for the visitation. That's impressive.



I was born into a diehard Cub family. I had the back sheep about me because I was just old enough to to grasp the 1983 winning ugly sox and loved Carlton Fisk. I also was enamored with the 1984 Cubs. We lived by and were friends with Chet Lemon and Jerry Harriston too so that added to my Sox love. On the Cubs side my mom was an insane diehard. My best friend owned the first rooftop also, so I spent a lot of time there. I was always a contrarian though so I ended up having a slight favor to the sox. I really really hated the Sell years because he gave zero f's about the fans and simply ran the club as a money maker and it angered me more than Jerry for some unknown reason. Just where I was personality wise. My sister loved Ron Cey, and our neighbor was a scout for the Dodgers, and he was the guy who scouted Cey, so Ron would come by and bioy did that make my sister the happiest camper... She is the best sports fan in the family though. She sat me down and told me how important drafting Jordan was when he got drafted and that I had to watch him.

Yeah my friends accident was an absolute tragedy, it made the news and I think Tom went simply because he really did care. Not only was he absolutely respectful, he was very kindly to everyone who came up and talked to him while in line. It impressed me you can get a sense of a person seeing them interact with people for an hour and he was literally in line with us the whole time. Now my friend who had the rooftop was in negations with the Ricketts even though he ended up selling to another party... I guess he was pretty decent to deal with in a business sense too, just wasn't the highest offer.

They stuck to their word initially gutting the team and building it up to be a competitor and held onto the team longer than Jerry would have IMHO. Far from the worst owners. I hate the marque network, but I also understand the business side of it. I think one of the Cubs major problems though was after they won, they lost their identity, they were no longer the lovable losers and then were expected to compete every year with a new generation of fans who didn't really know what long suffering was. My old man was born in 1924... He knew what long suffering was LOL


That's an amazing personal story, just wow.

I certainly understand the Marquee Network, and while I've read that a lot of people don't have access to it, I know it's available on DirecTV if you pay for the package with all of the Regional Sports Networks. My grandma was born in 1921 and my dad in 1943, so she never saw them win and he didn't remember 1945. He has the Extra Innings package and still watches each and every game.

And I think you're 100% correct, young fans can't possibly appreciate the WS win nearly as much as the old-timers, just because. I watched the WS with my dad, and he and I weren't even the least bit disappointed when it was 3-1 and we looked to be completely out of it, because just getting there meant everything.
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Re: OT: Chicago Baseball 2021 

Post#14 » by Leslie Forman » Fri May 28, 2021 2:53 am

Why is Jerry the way that he is?

Read on Twitter
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Re: OT: Chicago Baseball 2021 

Post#15 » by Susan » Fri May 28, 2021 4:24 am

Leslie Forman wrote:Why is Jerry the way that he is?

Read on Twitter


DId you see the follow up story?

Fans voiced their anger with the move on social media, leading the team to reach out to Micele’s family. The Sox have now promised to print a replica sign for her family, but one won’t be going up in the ballpark.

La Russa had a space in the ballpark in his honor long before being rehired as the team’s manager this year. It was moved, however, to the spot that honored Micele.


“They told my mother that they threw the sign out,” Soto said. “It was really disheartening. It meant a lot to our family. Every time we’d go to a game we’d take a picture in front of it.”

The White Sox organization released a statement on the flap Thursday, saying “a space that had been named after La Russa for many seasons was relocated to the current area on the 100 level.”


ya, we'll give ya a replica to make it better. It's still gunna be a shrine to TLR.
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Re: OT: Chicago Baseball 2021 

Post#16 » by Dresden » Fri May 28, 2021 3:21 pm

Cubs are in first place! (or tied). Didn't see that coming. they looked like a last place team the first month of the season. Amazing what adding a few guys that actually make contact and don't strike out all the time can do for your productivity. Now the whole team is starting to hit (sans Heyward).

I still don't think they're a great ballclub. Probably will finish slightly over .500. But at least they aren't miserable either.
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Re: OT: Chicago Baseball 2021 

Post#17 » by Dresden » Fri May 28, 2021 3:23 pm

As for LaRussa- I don't follow the Sox that closely, but I thought he was 100% correct in disciplining Mercedes for hitting when he was given the take sign. At some point, you have to put the team ahead of yourself. And Mercedes apparently couldn't see that.
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Re: OT: Chicago Baseball 2021 

Post#18 » by nitetrain8603 » Fri May 28, 2021 10:18 pm

Dresden wrote:As for LaRussa- I don't follow the Sox that closely, but I thought he was 100% correct in disciplining Mercedes for hitting when he was given the take sign. At some point, you have to put the team ahead of yourself. And Mercedes apparently couldn't see that.


Disagree. It's professional sports. Keep your foot on the gas at all times. But what made it worse was the fact that LaRussa was okay with his player being thrown at and seemingly cares more about old rules than his own players.

Oh, and dedicating a drinking area to a guy who just got in trouble with a DUI that they tried to hide is in poor taste. Add the fact that the concession lady still works there and they wouldn't even give her the sign that honored her.

Jerry has gotten really really tonedeaf.
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Re: OT: Chicago Baseball 2021 

Post#19 » by Leslie Forman » Sat May 29, 2021 12:11 am

Dresden wrote:As for LaRussa- I don't follow the Sox that closely, but I thought he was 100% correct in disciplining Mercedes for hitting when he was given the take sign. At some point, you have to put the team ahead of yourself. And Mercedes apparently couldn't see that.

Getting the team more runs isn't helping them?

This ain't tee ball. If these old idiots care so much, they should push for a mercy rule. Yet, they don't.
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Re: OT: Chicago Baseball 2021 

Post#20 » by CjayC » Sat May 29, 2021 2:03 am

Leslie Forman wrote:Why is Jerry the way that he is?

Read on Twitter


I'm friends with her great grandson. Him and his cousin were just on NBC a few days ago. He says they wish they would've at least got the sign back to show the family something cool in the future.

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