Youk Of The Nation

I'm torn on Dice-K. Sometimes he infuriates me (most of the time), but then he shows these flashes of brilliance that make me love him. It's frustrating. I wouldn't mind if they resigned him for peanuts, but I suspect there will be a team out there willing to sign him for decent money, probably a team like the Pirates or Nationals who are just beginning to play good baseball. He'll end up with one of those two, Arizona, or Colorado.

I merged two threads about the same subject this morning. We didn't need two threads dedicated to speculation about whether or not the owners are planning on selling the team. As far as conversation, the reason it is hard to follow is because the threads have been merged after having already run for a while. It would be much easier to follow if people posted in existing threads instead of creating new ones every time they wanted to say that "Today was a good day for the Sox" or "Where do we go from here?" There is a "2012 Red Sox" thread and a "2013 Red Sox" thread for discussion, not to mention a thread for anything related to the recent major trade, and threads for other stuff. If there is a separate discussion for every single thought that someone wants to post, you end up with a full page of topics, all with less than 30 or 40 posts, and things get pushed to page 2. Then someone wants to talk about something, doesn't see the thread for it because it is on page 2, and starts yet another thread. Look long and hard at the first page of the TalkSox forum when you want to say something. If there is a thread already there which covers your topic, add it to that instead of creating a new one.

Because the Sox don't play them very often.

It seems no matter how bleak things may appear, you can always count on the Royals to suck.

Well, I see the positive atmosphere created by the trade lasted a good long while.

Beer and chicken nuggets?

Jacko, you too. Just back off and ignore it or I'm going to cover all of your stethoscope earbuds with ghost chile juice.

You know, with a few exceptions (sometimes I try to get in a really good dig at jacko, because he's such an easy target), we generally try to ignore his Sox-related posts. If they are valid, we respond. If they aren't, we might roll our eyes. What most of us don't do, however, is follow him from thread to thread and attack him every single time he makes a post. Okay, you don't like him. We all know how you feel now. Let it go. Ignore him. All you do when you act like this is draw attention to his posts. Yankees fans thrive on negative attention, like misbehaving children or Rush Limbaugh.

Sigh. Yeah, I can see how this could be interpreted as prepping for a sale. It wouldn't be all that surprising if they did sell the team. I don't honestly care all that much about who owns the team, as long as they care. Sometimes it has almost seemed as if Henry didn't care anymore. If the Sox got new owners who acted like the new group that bought the Dodgers or whatever, all the better.

Orange Juiced did, about three minutes before that.

Plus, the Cubs are the Cubs, so really, what chance do they have?

But seriously, what about Lou Piniella. We all know he wouldn't take crap from anyone.

Joe Torre! Don Zimmer! Eric Wedge!

Lou Piniella!

Hey jacko, there are like four or five more active Sox threads where you haven't said "the Sox won't be very good next year". Why don't you go let us know in those threads too?

"Put it on the booooooard, uh-yes!" "He gone!" "Stretch!" "Get foul!" I don't mind guys being obvious fans of the teams they announce for, but he takes it to a whole new level. His voice is incredibly annoying. Remember his meltdown a couple weeks ago? I'm shocked that he hasn't lost it yet and started berating another team during broadcasts.

Hawk Harrelson, Michael Kay, and John Sterling? Do you also enjoy rinsing your ears out with sulfuric acid, or do you just pour flesh-eating bacteria straight in there and let them go to town while you listen to Suzyn Waldman get her shrew on?

Yeah, with the unmistakable air of looking down on them for doing it. Way to work the 'beer and chicken' in there on top of it, because god knows that hasn't been beaten to death yet.

Hmm, No Gamethread mojo, I don't believe we have ever tried that. I wonder...

I had to go ass-to-mouth with your sister just because she wouldn't shut up. I know how it feels to be compelled to do something distasteful to make a point. Be strong, my friend, you did the right thing.

Yeah, and if that's what they wanted to do, that's what they wanted to do. My great-uncle died last year. He was a great guy, I loved him like he was another grandfather. When he died, his funeral was set to be a full on Catholic religious-hoopla service. I personally did not want to sit through it, just to listen to a priest drone on about my uncle. Nor did I want to stare down at his completely stiff and artificially "beautified" corpse. So I bought a bottle of his favorite liquor, drove out to the abandoned beach house he used to own on Long Island Sound, and poured the bottle into the sand near where he used to fish. Then I went to a bar, and if I recall correctly, I had chicken tenders and beer. Some people deal with grief in different ways. Why do we have to attack these guys for not participating in a ritual that they didn't want to participate in? If Theo Epsteins' kid (I don't know if he has kids) had their bar mitzvah, should the Christian players be assaulted for not attending because they didnt want to? Trying to impose your own moral values on the personal lives of players is just wrong.

Im questioning the people here who seem to think that they know exactly why the players didn't show up. Because they are disrespectful, they don't care, they're spoiled brats or whatever. The truth is that if they didn't go, each of them had their reason. They obviously knew about it, so the fact that they chose not to attend means that they had a reason for not attending, and it's their own business what that reason was, whether it was because they don't like funerals or they wanted to watch reruns of CSI. They shouldn't be ripped on for not going.

What I would like to know is how many players attended his birthday party.

And you do? Are you a Red Sox player?

Yeah, Castiglione is great. I prefer baseball on the radio, in large part because of Joe.