greg775

Yes, the 2005 Sox will forever be known as chokers, but in reality they’ll have been a good team that forgot how to play great. That wouldn’t be a disaster. It would be a disaster but only in baseball terms. If we blow the lead and don't win the division we will be included in some of the biggest collapse mentions in the history of the game. If the team wants to live with that, then get swept in the Twinkiedome fellas.

Carl certainly has sucked. I hope he can get hot in the Twinkiedome and the rest of the way. Get your head out of your ass, Carl, take a couple pitches and stroke the ball all over the field like Coco Crisp is doing!!!

I still say we need Frank in the dugout. Or Fisk. He'd be even better, but he works for the Bosox I believe. We need some karma for we are in deep doo doo.

I've repeated since the trading deadline past July 31st Williams would receive blame, as unfair as it may sound, for failing to add a valuable offensive player at the deadline. Great point Flash Tizzle. Those of you who wanted a deal sure were right. I did not want a deal, falling for the chemistry crud, and I was wrong. We definitely needed a spark. I know KW couldn't really make a deal without giving up too many valuable prospects, but ... I kind of wish Oz would have kept playing Anderson in retrospect after that two homer game of his. It seems we needed one pitching spark (McCarthy) and one hitting spark (Anderson, borchard) and because we didn't make a deal, got neither. Now I hate the fact no matter what we do it fails. We bring in Jenks instead of Hermy, we'll lose. We bring in Hermy, we'll lose. We take out Fred after six, Viz will get rocked; we leave Fred in, he'll get rocked. It's Murphy's Law right now.

I love the premise of this post but it means nothing cause like many said the lead is gone in a couple days if this trend continues.

If Cleveland takes over first at all this year I'll leave sox talk forever.. I think you will be leaving sox talk. Hope not. Hope we stay in front. I can't believe Moronotti's column today didn't focus more on our wilting. He only wrote about being second fiddle to the Cubs. Weird. I can't believe the columnists aren't smelling blood.

He's the damn pitching coach and you are complaining about the innings. Why aren't you blaming the pitching coach??

I can honestly say I don't even want to think about it and won't. Too depressing. I will not pick a date. It's been totally depressing to just want the baseball season to end with us on top by a half game. Usually the thought of baseball season ending is utterly depressing.

Still a nice #3 pitcher on this staff I can't think who Nos. 1 and 2 are ahead of him right now. Mark has sucked of late but so has pretty much everybody on the squad. I don't blame him any more than the other starters.

If it's a problem then Coop should speak up. I thought in all the interviews he acts like it's his staff, etc. If there's been a problem and Coop has watched quietly then he should be fired. p.s. If what you say is true, the Cards haven't had much of a problem with their staff.

just hang on and hope the ride's a fun one Good advice; great advice. I just can't believe we are imploding like this.

Yet some people still refuse to even consider that Ozzie might be somewhat to blame for our starting pitchers tanking. What does Oz do regarding his pitchers that any manager in America would not do?? Fathom maybe we'll blow the lead and you'll get the wish and Oz will quit. Who do you think will be any better in handling pitching? It's not like Ozzie is reinventing baseball.

Nice song, poem. Baseball is not life; but it is the best sport there is. And if we blow this lead and don't make the playoffs it will have to affect how we look at every other season. If a 15-game lead on Aug. 1 is not safe, how can any great efforts in April May and June be taken seriously in the future?

I love Oz's quotes. We suck. He knows it. You know it. I know it. Can we make the playoffs? Doubtful. Like you all said Cleveland is simply going to rout the Royals; those games will be over by mid-game. We on the other hand will be lucky to win one in Minn. Ouch.

Likely they scratch a win out in Minnesota and Cleveland sweeps KC... so 2.5 game lead going into the series against Cleveland with Cleveland hot as hell and Sox stumbling over themselves.... lead may be gone by Wed. So sad, but so true. Bye bye White Sox we hate to see you go.

I'm just saying we have to do something. It's slip, slip, slipping away and we are helpless to stop it.

We are officially starting to blow the lead after tonight's collapse. For the first time it seriously looks like the Tribe is gonna pass us by. So we need to get Frank to dress for the rest of the season and be bench coach, morale booster or some such thing. We need Frank in the dugout for moral support or to help Oz kick some butt. We can't let this magical season slip away without a fight.

One other thing. In case no one noticed, the slipping lead is mostly due to Cleveland's stellar play, not our downfall. Oh we've noticed Cleveland. We also noticed while they are beating A's 2 of 3, we lost to KC at home one game and lost to them again Wed after scoring 9 runs. We are in trouble. Face facts. We all want us to win and think we can win; but the team is showing no signs of playing good ball like we did earlier in the year.

By the Chicago Tribune KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- With an American League Central title within reach, manager Ozzie Guillen met with 14 veteran players before Wednesday night's game to stress the importance of playing well down the stretch. "I told them, 'Let's pick it up,'" Guillen said. The meeting lasted about 30 minutes and carried into the Sox's batting practice session. Guillen briefly explained the status of embattled left-handed reliever Damaso Marte to his players and said the veterans fully supported whatever decision was made on Marte, who hasn't been with the team since being sent home Sunday for arriving late to the ballpark. --Yuk, the vets didn't pick it up and we lost. Another bad sign is this, read the first 3 graphs KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Kansas City manager Buddy Bell knew it had been a long time since the Royals back from a deficit entering the ninth inning. “I knew it was over 100 games,” Bell said. “We’d get close, but not over the hum The Royals rallied with three runs in the ninth to defeat the Chicago White Sox 10-9 Wednesday night, snapping a franchise-record 102-game losing streak in which they trailed after eight innings. The last time they won with a deficit entering the ninth was Aug. 31, 2004, against Detroit. “It is nice to break that streak,” said Mark Teahen, who scored the winning run. “I’m definitely enjoying it.” Angel Berroa’s double drove in the tying run, and Jermaine Dye’s fielding error allowed Teahen to score the winner. Chicago lost for just the fourth time in 17 games against Kansas City this season, and had its AL Central lead cut to five games over the Cleveland Indians — the smallest lead for the White Sox since before play on June 16. “The grass is a little wet,” Dye said of his error. “I was trying to cut the ball off and give us a chance to hold the runners.” White Sox closer Dustin Hermanson (1-4) blew his fourth save in 38 chances. “I made some mistakes and paid for it,” he said. Hermanson, who has been bothered by a sore lower back, did not pitch on Tuesday as manager Ozzie Guillen opted to leave Bobby Jenks in for a two-inning save. “Obviously, every time we have a lead in the ninth inning I want to be in there,” Hermanson said. “I think they are trying to help me, not overuse me. I think they’re doing the right thing, trying to take care of me, trying to protect me.” White Sox starter Freddy Garcia gave up seven earned runs and nine hits in 5 1-3 innings. “When you score nine runs, you should have a win,” Guillen said. “We pitched poorly. Freddy pitched really, really poorly. We have to look ourselves in the mirror and pitch better.” Matt Stairs started the rally with a one-out single. Emil Brown and Teahen followed with consecutive singles to score pinch-runner Chip Ambres. Berroa then doubled to right to bring in Brown with the tying run, and Teahen scored when Dye had trouble picking up the ball. “My job is to keep running until he (third base coach Luis Silverio) stops me,” Teahen said. “I don’t know what happened with the ball in right field.” Said Stairs: “Finally, we took advantage of the other’s teams mistake instead of them taking advantage of our mistakes. That’s probably our nicest win of the year. Hermanson has done especially well closing games. To sneak in there and take a game with some clutch hits is nice.” Chris Demaria (1-0) pitched a scoreless ninth to pick up his first career victory. The Royals jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first on Mike Sweeney’s two-run homer and Teahen’s RBI single. The White Sox took the lead with a six-run third. Tadahito Iguchi hit a three-run homer, Dye had a sacrifice fly and Juan Uribe added a two-run shot. Uribe is hitting a major league-best .465 in September, with six home runs, 13 RBIs and 12 runs scored. Kansas City closed the gap to 6-4 in the bottom of the inning. Terrence Long led off with a single, advanced to third on Stairs’ single and scored on Freddy Garcia’s wild pitch. Carl Everett had an RBI single in the fourth and Joe Crede hit a two-run homer in the fifth to stretch Chicago’s lead to 9-4, but Garcia let the Royals back in the game. “I’m just really disappointed on how I pitched,” Garcia said. “I should pitch better. It was a terrible start.” Stairs had a sacrifice fly in the fifth, and the Royals scored two more runs in the seventh. Berroa led off with a triple and scored when left fielder Podsednik had trouble picking it up. Andres Blanco tripled with one out and scored on Aaron Guiel’s sacrifice fly. Rookie left-hander J.P. Howell, who held Chicago to two hits and two runs over six innings in a victory last Thursday, allowed six runs on seven hits in just three innings. Notes: Sweeney has 35 doubles, the most by a Royals player since Carlos Beltran hit 44 in 2002. Sweeney hit his 20th home run, the sixth time in his career to reach that mark. ... Iguchi’s 62 RBIs, 42 extra-base hits and 29 multi-hit games rank second among AL rookies. He leads AL rookies with 200 total bases.

Could we have gotten Pods without giving up Caballo? I wish we had one more bat like Lee or Maggs rite now. Though I do love Posednik and his spark.

Fathom, you are amazing. Freddie our highest paid pitcher has to go six fricking innings. Blame the players! You want him to play the relief game that early? Maybe so but Freddie was pathetic. I really truly believe he should donate tonight's salary 100,000 or whatever it is to Hurricane Relief. He can't win with 9 runs when we need a win with Cleveland never losing! disgrace.

Everett, Dye, AJ, Crede, etc., our lineup just isn't very good. That's why it's amazing we get 9 and lose. It's a sign that we are really really in deep s***. We are not sharp on the mound and on the field and without that we are cooked. I wish somebody would step up and save our ass. Everett is the logical choice to lead. What's his problem? I thought he was the great clubhouse guy. WE NEED FRANK BACK.

If Minnie takes care of us this weekend, the race could be tied by next Tuesday.

I don't understand why Freddie failed us tonight. He knows his last outing sucked and we needed him. He got all that run support. Why are these guys not playing like they did earlier in the season? It's supposed to be time to step up. Thanks to the Trib for printing our magic number in June. It's a marathon of a season and right now we are going nowhere fast. Freddie should be fined for tonight's game. Donate tonight's salary to Hurridcane Relief. I'm sure he made about 40,000 minimum tonight.

I wish we hadn't won 1 zillion games in a row early and built a 15 game lead because it is not fun simply trying to hang on.