SB Nation User Blog: Chiburb

Not Everyone Slobbers Silver's Knob!

Chiburb — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:07:24 -0000

Not Everyone Slobbers Silver's Knob!

The right wing can't stand him:

NS: Would you consider yourself well-informed
JZ: I’d consider myself extremely well-informed.

NS: Who are the two senators from South Dakota
JZ: Thune and, uh, Johnson.

NS: Very good. South Carolina?
JZ: Go fuck yourself. I'm done with this interview if you're going to ask me stupid questions like that. Obviously I know who Lindsay Graham is.

NS: Well, since you’re running a website calling people misinformed, I’d like to see if -- there are certain things you’ve said that I would consider misinformed.
JZ: Misinformed? You're a piece of work! You are never going to have the guts to post a representative transcript on your website! I thought you actually ran a legitimate website!

NS: Thank you, have a good day.
JZ: Go fuck yourself.

Another "Slob Silver's Knob" article...

Chiburb — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 17:15:40 -0000

Another "Slob Silver's Knob" article...

With which I couldn't agree more:

Snip:

Still, I'm terribly impressed by the way FiveThirtyEight.com is working this balance between raw data and anecdotal reportage, doing each as fully and as fairly as possible, and putting themselves out there by making predictions with conviction. Silver's taken the site to acclaim behind the strength of his statistical analysis, but the site deserves kudoes to their commitment to following the election on the road. Both on the balance sheet and on the trail, FiveThirtyEight has done a superlative job at making sense of this election, in ways that have far surpassed the traditional media.

Call Me UnAmerican...

Chiburb — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 14:25:24 -0000

Or maybe just old, but I have a confession to make:

I'm not watching the World Series, and while "pulling" for the Rays, don't much care if Philly pulls an upset.

My wife and daughters would be the first to tell you that Baseball, along with Shawn Phillips' music, rank about equally with my affection for them. That is, they've often wondered if perhaps while number 1 on the charts they weren't really number(s) 3 in my heart.

Likely it's a function of age, but where I used to care enough to know the entire rosters of even NL teams, I'm not sure I could even tell you every manager's name. Where the talents/holes of AL benchwarmers and Loogies were obvious to me (though admittedly often without the stats to prove such things), I now only pay attention to the AL Central in such detail.

Obviously I still follow the White Sox with the passion that I used to have for Baseball; that hasn't waned and may actually be more intense. But I think I may be turning into former Illinois Senator Everett Dirksen who said (paraphrased):

"When I was a young man first elected to the House, I wanted to save the world. By the time I was first elected to the Senate I realized I couldn't save the world and instead focused on saving the United States. During my second term in the Senate my efforts were solely on saving Illinois. And now that I'm retiring, all I care about is saving the Indiana Dunes".

Baseball to AL Central to White Sox. Like I said, I'm not watching the World Series.

1967 White Sox Replay?

Chiburb — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 16:09:27 -0000

I remember it only too well:

Their future in Chicago was cloudy, but going into the last five games of the season, the Sox were in great shape. They were in second place, one game behind Minnesota, in a virtual tie with Boston, and ½ game ahead of fourth place Detroit. They were scheduled to play two games against the lowly Kansas City Athletics, who wouldn't be in Kansas City much longer, and three against the equally lowly Washington Senators, who wouldn't be in Washington much longer. Two of the contending teams--Boston and Minnesota--played each other twice on the last weekend. If anyone had a break in the schedule, it was the White Sox.

Needless (probably) to say, the Sox were swept by KC when we had our 2 best pitchers starting (Peters and Horlen). Then:

As they headed home for the final series of the year, Chicago now had to sweep the three game set with Washington to have even a remote chance of going to the Series. Also the Twins would to have to split their games with Boston, or the Red Sox would have to take two. Additionally, Detroit had to lose one of their final four games to California. 2 Twins wins or one Sox loss made everything academic. The Sox had been on the verge of making Chicago baseball history. Now they were on the verge of elimination.

That elimination came in the first game. Washington 1, Sox 0.

After the defeat, Stanky let Sox critics have it again. He said the team could walk away with their heads held high. To a large extent, he was right. Unlike several future Sox teams, the 1967 Sox were overachievers. But lack of support or respect from the fans or the media had nothing to do with the Sox collapse in the last week of the season. In three "must" games, the Sox mustered up only two runs against two bad teams. Their best pitchers were beaten, but it is impossible to win with no run production. The once bright hopes of a World Series went the same way as the Sox hitting.

The three losses against the Senators and A's have to go down as the most heartbreaking in Sox history. After lecturing the media following the 1-0 loss, the tough Eddie Stanky walked out of the room with tears rolling down his cheeks. The sentiment was easy to understand.

The '67 Sox just didn't have the overall talent to win a pennant.

Most of the above prose courtesy of:

http://whitesoxinteractive.com/History&Glory/1967c.htm

Baseball Analysts Look At The White Sox

Chiburb — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 16:40:56 -0000

Baseball Analysts Look At The White Sox

The White Sox do it all pretty well, and there are some excellent macro signs for the club as well. Alexei Ramirez, now the team's full-time second baseman, is slugging .515 and shows no signs of slowing down. With Ian Kinsler out for the remainder of the season, no AL team will trot out a better player at the position. Also coming around is Paul Konerko. He has battled injuries and horrendous BABIP luck all season long but he has reverted to form of late, posting a .293/.446/.561 line thus far in August. Oh and in case you haven't noticed, Carlos Quentin has outperformed Eric Byrnes this season (oops). The offense should continue to pound the ball.

There are those out there who believe that the pitching staff has been getting it done with smoke and mirrors. But they look about right to me. However lucky you think Gavin Floyd has been, and yes he has been lucky, take a look at Javier Vazquez. The man is second in the AL in strikeouts, his K/BB figure is in the top-10 as well and yet he sits with a 4.34 ERA. He has been lights out in August, though, so his higher profile stats should begin to come in line with his peripherals. John Danks continues to dazzle, Mark Buehrle is solid, and the bullpen, led by a resurgent Matt Thornton, is excellent as well.

My letter to the Sun-Times. Don't know where he came from, but if we never see Cowley again that's...

Chiburb — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 13:14:49 -0000

My letter to the Sun-Times. Don't know where he came from, but if we never see Cowley again that's fine.

Mr. Tucker,

Just a quick note to thank you for today’s recap of last night’s Sox game. It’s the first time in a long time that a game story told a tale of what actually happened on the field! No drama, no gossip, no @#$%-stirring or controversy, just the facts as they happened. In fact, I couldn’t believe I was reading the Sun-Times.

Thanks again, keep up the good work!

Linky love:

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/whitesox/1114424,CST-SPT-sox19.article

Assuming Death Is Not An Option

Chiburb — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 19:34:24 -0000

Assuming Death Is Not An Option

Eric Zorn asks the readers of his blog (Chicago Tribune) to take this poll:

Cub fans: Would you rather the team make it to the World Series this year and lose to the White Sox, or not make the World Series at all?

Therefore my question, which I'll ask of Sox fans just to be fair: Is it better to make it to the World Series and lose to a dreaded rival, or lose in the playoffs and hope for better luck next year?

If I HAD to make this unpleasant choice....
I'm a Cub fan: I'd rather make the World Series and lose to the Sox
I'm a Cub fan: I'd rather NOT make the World Series if it meant losing to the Sox
I'm a Sox fan: I'd rather make the World Series and lose to the Cubs
I'm a Sox fan: I'd rather NOT make the World Series if it meant losing to the Cubs
I'm a fan of BOTH teams, so it's all good. :-)

Compare and Contrast

Chiburb — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 13:06:17 -0000

Compare and Contrast

Where do YOU go for actual information on the White Sox?

From Cowley's game recap in the Sun-Times:

When asked about his slow start and the roller coaster ride he's been on with his new team, he responded, ''I'm finally enjoying the ride. Through all the trials I went through, I think it made me a better person and a better player.''

From Jim at Sox Machine:

Swisher finished this past month with a line of .315/.402/.630, and nearly doubled his RBI (23) and homer (7) totals in June alone. Basically this confirms our most optimistic set of hopes, that:

No. 1: This kind of thing happens to him once in a while. In the prior post, I had mentioned his two-month slump of 2006. He's rebounded better this time around, posting a 1.000-plus OPS one month after instead of two.

No. 2: He had to have one of the worst runs of luck imaginable. He's maintaining a career-best line drive rate, but only lately has his batting average on balls in play began to rise at a commensurate level.

Swisher has also reminded Sox fans what it looks like to have a first baseman with some semblance of range. He showed creativity Monday night, diving and knocking down a ball near the coaching box, then recovering in time to flip the ball to Gavin Floyd. Paul Konerko and his one-topple range wouldn't have even touched the grounder to begin with.

Meanwhile, the other offseason outfield possibilities have all fallen back to earth to varying degrees after hot starts. Kosuke Fukudome is the best of them, having settled comfortably at an .800 OPS over the last two months after a blazing April. Meanwhile, Aaron Rowand finished the month with a .618 OPS and Torii Hunter has seen his OPS tumble from .878 in April to .762 in May to .672 in June.

Carlin On Baseball VS. Football

Chiburb — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 13:08:35 -0000

Carlin On Baseball VS. Football

Pardon the link to the Sun-Times, but it's to Roeper (who is a Sox fan).

I always loved Carlin's routine about the difference between the friendly game of baseball and the forbidding, roughneck game of football:

"Football has hitting, clipping, spearing, piling on, personal fouls, late hitting and unnecessary roughness. Baseball has the sacrifice.

"In football, the object is for the quarterback, also know as the field general, to be on target with his aerial assault . . . with short bullet passes and long bombs. . . .

"In baseball the object is to go home, and be safe! I'll be safe at home."

He was the voice of the counterculture, and he was one of the 10 best stand-up comedians of all-time.

Letter to the Editor of the Year

Chiburb — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 13:40:52 -0000

Today's Chicago Sun-Times:

How to be a journalist

In the midst of decreased circulation and massive layoffs in the newspaper industry, it's nice to see at least one journalist has managed to secure his position. The Sun-Times announcement today that Jay Mariotti agreed to a new multiyear contract with the Sun-Times sends a clear message to aspiring journalists.

That's right kids, if you call people names, demand that sports figures be fired, threaten to sue TV announcers, change the targets of your venom based on the prevailing wind, and tell the world that you are the only member of your own newspaper's sports department who tells the truth, then you too will have job security. Sarcasm sells.

Tim Gannon, La Grange

(3rd letter: http://www.suntimes.com/news/commentary/letters/1015458,CST-EDT-vox20.article)