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What Can Be Done to Fix the Sox?
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Post by slam761 on Jan 16, 2016 15:09:49 GMT -5
The other day I was able to unbuckle my two-year old daughter from her car seat, unlock my house, carry her upstairs, change her rather full diaper, and lay her down, all while keeping her asleep. Since I'm always told that sports is life then I think I did the hardest thing in sports. Tom Brady, Arnold Palmer, Ted Williams? They don't have sugar on me. I don't know, Arnold Palmer tends to have a lot of sugar...
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Post by fenwaythehardway on Jan 16, 2016 15:13:08 GMT -5
The other day I was able to unbuckle my two-year old daughter from her car seat, unlock my house, carry her upstairs, change her rather full diaper, and lay her down, all while keeping her asleep. Since I'm always told that sports is life then I think I did the hardest thing in sports. Tom Brady, Arnold Palmer, Ted Williams? They don't have sugar on me. LOL, I think the topic was men's sports. I usually don't point it out when a joke isn't funny but in this case I'll make an exception.
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Post by fenwaythehardway on Jan 16, 2016 15:14:54 GMT -5
What is this, National Specious Comparison Week? First of all, the phrase "thing in sports" is usually meant to refer to a single skill, and furthermore, one which is central to the sport, and to succeeding at it. That eliminates a lot of the proposed alternatives. Hitting a receiver 20 yards downfield passes that test (no pun intended). I'm unaware, however, that Tom Brady needed to try to do that 1500 to 2000 times in a series of minor professional leagues, against increasingly tougher competition, before he could do that in the NFL without suffering humiliating failure.Hitting a baseball is so much harder than the other central skills of the major U.S. sports (except pitching, which is second) that it's almost embarrassing to the others. In no other sport do the best college athletes routinely need 2 to 4 more years of minor league experience, without which they would be entirely overmatched in the pros. In no other sport is there even a set of graded minor leagues to progress through, and which attract many elite athletes in lieu of college. Playing baseball objectively has a much more difficult set of skills to master. Other sports involve skills that take thousands of reps to fully develop:
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Post by brianthetaoist on Jan 16, 2016 15:22:23 GMT -5
LOL, I think the topic was men's sports. I usually don't point it out when a joke isn't funny but in this case I'll make an exception. Yeah, me neither, but as a guy who was a single dad for a while, I'll pile on with you on that
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Post by brianthetaoist on Jan 16, 2016 15:33:26 GMT -5
The thing about the "hardest thing to do in sports" is that the base level skill of hitting that is being talked about is against MLB-quality competition. It's rare in sports that this is true. Throwing a football is fairly easy, so you can't call that a hard thing to do. Same with hitting a golf ball. A jump shot's a little harder, but any guy on a playground can do it; I can hit a number of three pointers in a row. But throwing a 20 yard out pattern against an NFL-quality cornerback? Beyond almost all of us. HItting a three pointer with Marcus Smart in my face? Never.
If you define the base skill as "hitting a moving baseball," that's pretty easy. I can do that fairly well every time. But it's the "hitting a baseball thrown by a major league pitcher" that most people are talking about because you literally can't do anything without doing that, and that's incredibly difficult. It's pretty much the only time in sports where the basic offensive maneuver must occur as a reaction to the skill of your opponent.
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Post by ray88h66 on Jan 16, 2016 16:56:20 GMT -5
The other day I was able to unbuckle my two-year old daughter from her car seat, unlock my house, carry her upstairs, change her rather full diaper, and lay her down, all while keeping her asleep. Since I'm always told that sports is life then I think I did the hardest thing in sports. Tom Brady, Arnold Palmer, Ted Williams? They don't have sugar on me. LOL, I think the topic was men's sports. I'm one of the old fools that still think pitchers should have to hit, but even I know this is over the line.
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Post by philsbosoxfan on Jan 16, 2016 21:21:32 GMT -5
I think people are being overly sensitive but that's my opinion. Had I typed something similar to James' statement (which was obviously lighthearted), relative to my two children and had James responded as I did, my feelings wouldn't have been crushed, I would have taken it as a zinger and fired one back.
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gerry
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Post by gerry on Jan 16, 2016 22:34:25 GMT -5
I usually don't point it out when a joke isn't funny but in this case I'll make an exception. Yeah, me neither, but as a guy who was a single dad for a while, I'll pile on with you on that It's 2016 in the USA. Whatever guy isn't practicing that same "end run" without waking up the little one, hasn't developed an important and highly athletic child rearing skill. Even decades ago this was becoming an important skill set in playing the game of life on an even field. In 2016 there are probably advanced metrics on such miraculous feats. Even Pediy or Mookie would have a hard time duplicating this.
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Post by philsbosoxfan on Jan 16, 2016 23:09:03 GMT -5
Don't tell anyone but people have been doing it for thousands of years. My 5 and 7 year old daughters could easily accomplish the same feat. It's called a labor of love and believe it or not, it's not generic to Americans nor to the 4% of humanity rich enough to own a car seat.
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Post by threeifbaerga on Jan 17, 2016 2:29:02 GMT -5
It's 2016 in the USA. Whatever guy isn't practicing that same "end run" without waking up the little one, hasn't developed an important and highly athletic child rearing skill. Even decades ago this was becoming an important skill set in playing the game of life on an even field. In 2016 there are probably advanced metrics on such miraculous feats. Even Pediy or Mookie would have a hard time duplicating this. Right, so maybe it was just a joke?
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gerry
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Post by gerry on Jan 17, 2016 3:37:21 GMT -5
It's 2016 in the USA. Whatever guy isn't practicing that same "end run" without waking up the little one, hasn't developed an important and highly athletic child rearing skill. Even decades ago this was becoming an important skill set in playing the game of life on an even field. In 2016 there are probably advanced metrics on such miraculous feats. Even Pediy or Mookie would have a hard time duplicating this. Right, so maybe it was just a joke? Of course it's a joke. But if 5 year olds can carry an infant to the changing table, clean 'em up and get them to bed without waking them, then I want to meet them. That is definitely Little Big League.
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Post by philsbosoxfan on Jan 17, 2016 4:23:48 GMT -5
Right, so maybe it was just a joke? Of course it's a joke. But if 5 year olds can carry an infant to the changing table, clean 'em up and get them to bed without waking them, then I want to meet them. That is definitely Little Big League. My two daughters regularly take care of our younger nieces and the youngest is almost 6, btw. They'e also tri-lingual, get straight 'A's' in school, sing and dance and can operate the basics of a computer as well as the gas on my motorcycle. We don't have a changing table, we have a floor and blankets and infants pretty much sleep through anything. If those tasks are the most daunting tasks a person has undertaken, heaven forbid a real situation should happen to them. I believe the original comment was intended to be light hearted as was my response.
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gerry
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Post by gerry on Jan 17, 2016 4:36:05 GMT -5
Of course it's a joke. But if 5 year olds can carry an infant to the changing table, clean 'em up and get them to bed without waking them, then I want to meet them. That is definitely Little Big League. My two daughters regularly take care of our younger nieces and the youngest is almost 6, btw. They'e also tri-lingual, get straight 'A's' in school, sing and dance and can operate the basics of a computer as well as the gas on my motorcycle. We don't have a changing table, we have a floor and blankets and infants pretty much sleep through anything. If those tasks are the most daunting tasks a person has undertaken, heaven forbid a real situation should happen to them. I believe the original comment was intended to be light hearted. Very impressive and, IMO, not that common. They must be special kids. Teach them baseball, as they sound likely to break that gender barrier. Add: Many years ago I had a friend wbose girl-child could only fall asleep with daddy driving her around the block. If he couldn't get her out of the car and upstairs without waking her, it was a long night. He was tired a lot.
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Post by philsbosoxfan on Jan 17, 2016 5:07:54 GMT -5
I think it's perspective. This is a third world country and young children become part of the mix at a very early age. All of the classmates of my children are tri-lingual, English, Tagalog, Cebuano (aka Bisaya). They are also a lot more capable of handling more detailed schoolwork than I witnessed in the USA. My youngest is in kinder 2 and can read and comprehend (in three languages), does addition and subtraction, knows her countries and capitols. The eldest is of course more advanced, for example, as a second grader does multiplication and has started in on division and basic geometry. Like South American countries, they graduate at 16. Here, (The Philippines) there is no junior high school, I'm guessing it's the same in most other 3rd world countries. On the other hand, the per capita education rate is among the highest in the world and 16 year old high school graduates test about equally to countries with 18 year old graduates. As far as the computer is concerned, they've been exposed since a very young age. LOL, I have every Barney, Dora, Brainy Baby, Disney Movie, etc, etc, etc ever made. They can also go into the internet, find the Barbie website and play games and take, find and edit pictures in mama's tablet. For the motorcycle, mama prefers the car but daddy and the kids prefer the bike. I'm the school chauffeur and the kids like "motor dancing" (yes, I'm safe when we do it). It's just a matter of exposure. Baseball doesn't exist here. But... This guy just bought some property near our house. I'm not so sure I want my daughters to follow his career path though.
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gerry
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Post by gerry on Jan 17, 2016 16:26:09 GMT -5
The way XB is very smart, speaks several languages. I grew up in Boston but had strong French connections, so had both, and a smattering of Italian. But languaguages were almost mutually exclusive in tribal New England. With more diverse immigration and integration (on ball teams as much as universities and the workplace) that seems to be changing. Hopefully, with the increase of Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese and Middle East languages in the USA, the next generations of Americans will finally make the USA multi-lingual; though as English is pretty universal I hope it remains the foundational language (as Mandarin or Russian are to large land masses).
No baseball in the Philipines, despite American bases and presence? Why not? Surely the natives aren't bothered by the heat and humidity. Pilipinos here in soCal are baseball nuts.
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gerry
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Post by gerry on Jan 17, 2016 17:33:23 GMT -5
Meanwhile, returnimg to the thread, it seems the Sox are fixed for 2016. Any changes now will only serve what already promises to be a contending team following a last place finish. But with the potential of so many players (Hanley, Panda, Shaw, ERod, Kelly, etc) such trades may not even be necessary. But they are there if the Sox need further fixing.
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Post by philsbosoxfan on Jan 17, 2016 21:05:00 GMT -5
I'm pretty sure the Sox are set unless somebody makes them an offer they can't refuse this spring. Unfortunately, as pointed out a million times, we're risking having both Panda and Hanley's presence.
There is no American presence or bases in The Philippines, hasn't been since the 80's. They're in Guam now, an American Territory. We don't even have baseball on TV so I'm guessing the majority of the population doesn't even know what baseball (or American football) is. The big sports here are boxing, largely because of Manny Pacquiao who is pretty much a national hero and basketball (local teams are constantly on TV but they also know the NBA).
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Post by slam761 on Jan 17, 2016 21:47:08 GMT -5
Cafardo suggested the Sox could use David Freese to platoon with Sandoval if he can't find a job as a starter. I don't really see that happening, but it got me thinking, what about Juan Uribe for that kind of role? He killed lefties last year (although his career splits are pretty neutral), he's always been a great defensive 3B, and he'd be decent insurance in case Sandoval is utter garbage again. For whatever it's worth, he can also play 2B, but he's only appeared at SS 5 times since 2011 so I'm guessing that's not really an option.
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gerry
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Post by gerry on Jan 17, 2016 22:14:08 GMT -5
Never mind.
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Post by philsbosoxfan on Jan 17, 2016 22:20:02 GMT -5
Cafardo suggested the Sox could use David Freese to platoon with Sandoval if he can't find a job as a starter. I don't really see that happening, but it got me thinking, what about Juan Uribe for that kind of role? He killed lefties last year (although his career splits are pretty neutral), he's always been a great defensive 3B, and he'd be decent insurance in case Sandoval is utter garbage again. For whatever it's worth, he can also play 2B, but he's only appeared at SS 5 times since 2011 so I'm guessing that's not really an option. That's what Holt is here for. We also have Shaw and Marrero and a host of candidates at AAA at minimum wage. Either should be capable of providing the negative WAR Pablo brought us It should be noted that even with those two (Hanley and Pablo), projections have us as the second strongest team in baseball behind only the Cubs. Every team has questions, I see those as our biggest questions.
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Post by Guidas on Jan 18, 2016 12:08:32 GMT -5
BJ Upton. BJ Upton. BJ Upton.
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Post by fenwaythehardway on Jan 18, 2016 14:54:42 GMT -5
BJ Upton. BJ Upton. BJ Upton. I assume that when you say this, he materializes in front of you and goes 0/4 with three Ks.
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Post by jimed14 on Jan 18, 2016 15:06:42 GMT -5
Trying to figure out if it's a Candyman or Beetlejuice reference.
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Post by ray88h66 on Jan 18, 2016 15:10:54 GMT -5
I just noticed how close the arbitration numbers were between the Sox and Ross. I'm sure that case doesn't go to arbitration. Taz and the team are much farther apart. Hope they work it out, sox haven't gone to a hearing since 2001. I'd just pay the man, he has been over worked for years and should get his iron as Eck would say.
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Post by Guidas on Jan 18, 2016 21:40:44 GMT -5
Trying to figure out if it's a Candyman or Beetlejuice reference. Beetlejuice but good call on Candyman. Looks like Tigers got him. He'd have better numbers in the Fens for 81 games a year than he will in Detroit. And so it goes.
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