Undying fan loyalty? Why?

[mrbaseball]

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what defensive statistics are you looking at? the ones i have show konerko, crede and podsednik as three consistently average to below-average defenders

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Any stat that ever showed Crede as a below average defender is a bad stat. This guy has been spectaluar in the field since day one and consistently getting better. Konerko and Uribe have always fielded well regardless of what stathead numbers may indicate although Koneko did seem to field better than ever last year. Uribe in particular has always been airtight defensively. As far a Pods goes replacing Carlos Lee with a speedy CF type in left has to be an upgrade (defensively) but I'm not impressed with Pods in the field at all. He can go get them but loses alot of balls in the sky/sun and has a girlarm.

[crockpot]

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Any stat that ever showed Crede as a below average defender is a bad stat. This guy has been spectaluar in the field since day one and consistently getting better. Konerko and Uribe have always fielded well regardless of what stathead numbers may indicate although Koneko did seem to field better than ever last year. Uribe in particular has always been airtight defensively. As far a Pods goes replacing Carlos Lee with a speedy CF type in left has to be an upgrade (defensively) but I'm not impressed with Pods in the field at all. He can go get them but loses alot of balls in the sky/sun and has a girlarm.

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fielding bible position ranks:
konerko: 32/34 in 2004, 23/34 in 2005
crede: 27/32, 14/32 in 2005
uribe: 15/33 at 2b in 2004, 9/32 at ss in 2005
rowand: 11/32, improved to most valuable defender in all of baseball in 2005
podsednik: 22/32 at cf, 3/30 in lf in 2005

all these players improved substantially in 2005.

baseball prospecuts fielding runs for crede:
2004: -8
2005: +9

every other player in the white sox lineup also improved their fielding runs from 2004 to 2005 (some very substantially), except for dye, who stayed the same.

as someone who watches a lot of sox games, i can confirm that crede looks like a spectacular defender. he makes lots of diving stops. this does not mean that he converts an above average number of balls in play into outs. history is littered with guys who made diving plays all the time because they lack range.

what does it even mean to say that players "field better than stathead types indicate"? these stats are specifically designed to enumerate things that the naked eye does not catch. if you don't disagree with them as an observer, the numbers are not doing their job.

[reachrevolver]

Not to mention that the best team in the AL didn't even make the playoffs last year

[VarlosZ]

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(Actually, one of the better anaologies I've heard on the subject was like a woman constantly returning to her abusive boyfriend. In a sense, sports fans exhbit Stockholm Syndrome).

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I think my Budweiser/Hoegaarden analogy more accurately represents the situation for the vast majority of suffering fans. Do you disagree?

[EvilSmurf]

I'll be honest, I have no geographic connection to any team I love in what you Americans call major sports, I'm Australian.

But I root for the Cowboys in the NFL, I was a huge Emmitt Smith fan, and I still root for the team. I loved them when they were winning superbowls, and I loved them when they were going 5-11. You have no idea how much i would have payed to put a contract on the heads of Jose Cortez and Billy Cundiff this season for example.

I root for the Avalanche in the NHL, because I was a Quebec fan when they were the nords, because I owned NHL 94 and thought Nordiques was a really cool name. I still support the franchise when they moved to Colorado, and I still watch them at every oppurtunity.

I root for Kentucky in college basketball (blame my wife, she's a huge Kentucky fan).

I root for Manchester City in European Soccer (well, the EPL, they've only been in Europe once in a fair while) because when I first got into soccer Manchester City were selling out a 35,000 seat stadium while in English football's 3rd highest division (imagine a class AA baseball team doing that), and I have had a lot of ups and downs (trust me, when you're a City fan you have to get used to ups and downs). Again, if I could turn back time, Robbie Fowler's penalty would have gone in.

Thing is, I love and support these teams as much as any fan who was born in the area (except Kentucky, really, that's the wife's thing).

As to the second part of the question, you can definatley support the club while not supporting the current ownership, think of it as standing up when the president enters the room, even though you don't like Bush43 or whoever the next President is going to be. For example, I think Colorado made a huge mistake in trading for Jose Theodore, but I will still support Jose for as long as he wears the shirt. Just like I supported Steve McManaman while he was playing for Manchester City, even if John Wardle and Kevin Keegan really screwed the pooch making that deal.

[KDawg]

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I root for Manchester City in European Soccer (well, the EPL, they've only been in Europe once in a fair while) because when I first got into soccer Manchester City were selling out a 35,000 seat stadium while in English football's 3rd highest division (imagine a class AA baseball team doing that), and I have had a lot of ups and downs (trust me, when you're a City fan you have to get used to ups and downs). Again, if I could turn back time, Robbie Fowler's penalty would have gone in.



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a fan of high blood pressure and heart attacks aren't you