GoRowand33

Bobby Jenks, All-Star berth and the rumors around him, sent me to the therapist office. Doc: Got your message. Sounded important. AG: It is, sort of. Had a mild revelation of sorts. Good things happen when you do your own thinking. I got to thinking about it when I heard Bobby Jenks made the All-Star team. Doc: I've heard of that guy. Plays for the White Sox, right? Bit of a folk tale, isn't he? I've heard some things about him. He's like some kind of mountain man who grew up in some log cabin somewhere. AG: Yeah, something like that. You know I met him about four years ago. Doc: I didn't know that. Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images Jenks leads the AL at the All-Star break with 26 saves. AG: Yeah, I'd heard some things myself. Heard he was a white supremacist, a skinhead. So I went to Spirit Lake, in northern Idaho, where he's from. It's close to this Aryan Nation up there in the mountains. You know, one of those militia-friendly environs. It's one of those places where the Ford pickup truck, with accompanying shotgun rack, long the measure of hillbilly largesse, is the vehicle of choice. Gotta tell you, in the 2 minutes and 15 seconds it took me to pass through Spirit Lake, five such trucks rolled by. Doc: So what did you think of him? AG: Actually, let me tell you the back story first. I met this agent, Matt Sosnick, a Jewish guy from San Francisco. He had heard some things about Jenks, too. He heard the kid was 6-foot-3, 230 pounds, and threw some serious heat, like 100 mph-type stuff. And if he signed him and represented him, Sosnick stood the chance to make some long dough. Sosnick sent the kid a Fed Ex package, but it came back marked "undeliverable." Seems the kid lived too far in the sticks to even get mail. So after that, Sosnick went to Idaho. Like I said, Sosnick had heard the rumors, too. He'd heard he was a skinhead, a drug addict, all kinds of stuff. But Sosnick does his own thinking. So for professional, and of course, personal reasons, Sosnick had to ask: "Are you a white supremacist?" Jenks replied with his own question: "If I was, would I hire a Jew to represent me?" Doc: So I take it none of it was true. AG: Well … Jenks did hire Sosnick and they were together on draft day when the Angels picked Jenks in the fifth round of the 2000 draft. I spoke to this guy named Jack Uhey, a pitching coach for the Angels who convinced the organization to draft him even though Jenks was about as raw as they came. Uhey told me, "You can read between the lines. Bobby needs guidance." Angels manager Mike Scioscia had his own thoughts too. "Bobby Jenks has the highest upside of any young pitcher I've ever seen," he said. Doc: So why didn't he make it with the Angels? AG: Well, there were signs the kid just wasn't getting it. He drank. A lot. While he was in Arkansas in Double-A, he brought beer onto the team bus and when scolded, told Travelers manager Doug Sisson to f--- off. And after a time, Sosnick says Jenks would refer to him as "D.J.," short for "Dirty Jew." Jenks fired Sosnick a while back and has since been through a bunch of agents. Doc: What do you think about Jenks using such terms? Did he ever say anything like that to you? AG: You mean did he call me the "N" word? Doc: Well … AG: Come on. Not even the biggest, most stupid, socially retarded moron is gonna drop the "N" word right off the get. But I base my opinion of Jenks on the day I hung out with Jenks and his wife, Adele, in Little Rock. He invited me to hang out with them and their then 4-month-old daughter, Cuma. When I got lost on the way to the apartment, he called me and politely gave me directions. Doc: You think it was an act? I mean, do you think he was putting on a good show for the sake of publicity? AG: He could have been, I suppose. But when I got there, he didn't set off the radar. Doc: Radar? AG: Yeah, I always know when I'm talking to a racist. There's a feeling I get at the base of my spine. It's when the white person you're talking to does his or her best to mask the translucent vapors of condescension swirling about their heads. Doc: Well, there was no chance of that with this guy, was there? He's the quintessential dumb jock, isn't he? So how could he be condescending? AG: That's true. But it also brings up a good point about racists, too. Doc: No, we don't need to talk about that today. I really want to hear more about Bobby Jenks. AG: No, it's important. See, even if Bobby Jenks was a dyed-in-the-wool, string 'em up by the neck lyncher, he wouldn't bother me at all. I mean, I wouldn't kick it with him or anything. But he wouldn't bother me. Doc: But you absolutely abhor racism. AG: Indeed. I hate educated people with power who are racists. But Bobby Jenks has no power. Doc: OK, I got it. So what did you guys talk about? AG: We talked about life, about his legend, about how he met his wife. First he set me straight about his pedigree. "No, I'm not a skinhead, and no, I'm not a member of the Aryan Nation." He told me he got Adele's attention by pulling up to her Honda Civic and blasting Charlie Daniels' "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" through the back window of his pickup truck. Doc: Charming. Why are you telling me this? AG: Because Jenks and the White Sox are a perfect fit. They're a bunch of people who, for better or worse, tune out the world and do their thing. Ozzie Guillen is clearly a great manager despite having that Andrew Dice Clay thing. At times you don't know whether or not to take him seriously, but you always know he doesn't care what you think. Doc: You respect that, don't you? AG: Yeah, I do. Same applies to Ken Williams, the Sox's general manager. Three years after becoming only the third black GM in baseball, he hires crazy Ozzie. Talk about being your own muse. Then last year, he picks up Jenks off waivers and Jenks is on the hill for the last out of the World Series. Now Jenks is an All-Star. Doc: Yeah, but all of this could have gone another way. In fact, it still can. AG: Oh yeah. Guillen could most certainly self-destruct, Williams could go down with him, and Jenks could drink himself out of the league. Doc: And if that's the case? AG: Gotta ask them. Sure they have their own thoughts. Doc: OK, so bottom line: Where do you stand on Jenks? AG: I don't know if he's smart enough to know that if we do get to know him we won't like him, or he just doesn't give a crap. Alan Grant is a regular contributor to ESPN.com and ESPN The Magazine. He is a former NFL defensive back who played college football at Stanford. _______________________________________________________________________ honestly the worst article I have ever read

QUOTE(DrunkBomber @ Jul 12, 2006 -> 02:49 PM) I emailed the writer of the story yesterday and actualy got a response back: That was a graphic put together by the graphics department. It was not in my story. Thanks, JC This is a lillte rediculous, maybe I should write the graphics department. I mean, dont they have editors there. I know its not that big of a deal, but Im pretty sure they knew what they were doing. I got the same response from him

lets see woke up at 9, went to summer school came back, chillled at my house went to a park and played basketball with some friends came home, chilled went out to dinner for my brothers birthday came home and watched the first round of homerun derby went to play volleyball/nukem with my friends, then went to a friends house and chilled there came home what a day

QUOTE(redandwhite @ Jul 10, 2006 -> 07:22 PM) Berman is the worst announcer in sports. you notice how excited he got when he was introducing Ortiz

Offense: A+ much better than I imagined. Jim Thome having a great year, career years for Crede and Dye, Iguchi doing well Brian Anderson and Uribe are still not great, but we have the best offense in baseball, so they deserve an A+ Starting Pitching: B- overall our starters aren't bad, but there is tons of room for improvement. all of our starters have been inconsistent, which is bad, yet only Garland and Vasquez have truly awful ERA's. I still have faith in Cooper to help even things out Bench: B Cintron and Mackowiak have been pleasant surprises, Ozuna is the best utility guy in the game hands down. Widger has struggled as backup catcher though, and seeing as he can't hit or call a good game for our pitchers that lowers my bench grade Bullpen: B+ sure Politte and Boone Logan have been disasters, but the rest has been good. Cotts and Jenks are still great, Bmac is getting better and matt Thorton has been better than expected Coaching: B we still have not gotten the best out of our team (except for Greg Walker) but we are still winning, so can't complain Overall Grade: B+

QUOTE(NUKE_CLEVELAND @ Jul 9, 2006 -> 07:35 PM) You can go read it in the archive. Its like 120+ pages long though. LOL! awesome

awesome game, wish I had seen the game thread though

I agree, he has to go

QUOTE(bmags @ Jul 6, 2006 -> 10:30 PM) yeah so was i ... fell on deaf ears my friend. did they play spiders for their first encore...i think i knew someone there ... wilco is pretty incredible...one of the top guitarists in the world (nels cline) my favorite songwriter alive (jeff tweedy) and a great drummer (glen k.) next album WITH cline is gonna be grrrrreat. spiders closed the show in the 2nd encore

alright just got home, this is awesome! now the hundreds of votes I cast had a purpose!

lol I got a validation key of "1"

QUOTE(S720 @ Jul 6, 2006 -> 02:53 PM) Man, you are rough! I got this instruction from the ESPN's Milwaukee Brewers' Message Board. See if anyone understand. Even the Brewers fans are opposing AJ. Everyone, let's carry AJ into the Allstar game. um unless someone can change that to vote for AJ thats useless

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Jul 6, 2006 -> 08:36 AM) That 87.2 is misleading. The Sox dole out more comps than just about any MLB team. Those don't get counted in the attendance figure, so sellouts are never 100% full or even 99% full. The actual percentage of capacity number or percentage of tickets sold vs. tickets available number is quite a bit higher. This attendance has really surprised me. I would have thought 2.7 million would be excellent. They will blow that away. It most likely will be above 2.9 million but less than 3 million. The fact that Detroit is playing well helps sell the extra tickets to those games. yea I just got some tickets to see detroit in august and they cost 60$ a ticket because the entire series sold out

QUOTE(LosMediasBlancas @ Jul 5, 2006 -> 04:49 PM) Nice. We expect a FULL review in the morning from you. Have fun! alright the show was incredible. I did not really know what to expect, but in every facet Wilco blew me away last night they played a great setlist, Jeff Tweedy was really funny and they nailed all the performances only minor complaint is that they played 19 songs, while the norm for their past shows has been around 21-22 (but maybe they had some form of summerfest curfew in Milwaukee since they finished playing around 11 20) highlights of show: handshake drugs hummingbird Jeff Tweedy's comments lowlights: bad venue to see a show (small and uncomfortable) f***ing everybody smoked so it smelled really bad

seeing Wilco tonight, so excited

Jon needs to show some major improvement

is there a twins message board I can check out lol, the morneau thing sounds kind of funny

on mlb.com in the voting update article they have a brief thing about message boards being successful at campaigning for players (and it said it has helped the whitesox)

its time to stop worrying It's up to the sox to keep winning, and as long as we can take care of business there is no point in worrying about other teams I doubt our anger at the pitching staff is making it any better, so I'm just going to sit back, relax, and strap it down

hopefully Freddy can not suck tonight

I'm not worried about the Twins as of now because they did their damage against the inferior NL and no way in hell they keep up their winning. also 2 pitchers do not win divisions, so I expect a little trail off there the tigers will almost certainly trail off a little bit, its inevitable over the course of a season, and with a young team that chance increases even more as for our sox, I do see a small bit of concern in our starting pitches, but I have faith in Coop that he can atleast make them all respectable

good ozzie quote: "If you're unhappy play better next year and pick a new manager"

QUOTE(flbob @ Jul 2, 2006 -> 09:39 PM) heh. you invite strangers into your house and look what happens. :7) at least none of us seem to be pissing all over your home. i think i speak for a lot of tigers fans who expect this to now be more the norm for the next few years but don't really, deep down, believe it will last this year. it could last, though, because leyland is really good for this group of guys and because it turns out that rogers may be the most important coach in the organization. the tigers will go through a couple of bad stretches but i don't think it will be because of the starters. i think the defense will settle back to middle of the pack and the bullpen will blow a couple of easy games to finish up second behind chicago but tops in the wc. however, i'm almost always wrong when it comes to my teams. :7) just wait for the new look lions! I mostly agree with you, except that I think some of your young starting pitchers (Verlander) and maybe some others (Bonderman/Maroth) who have no competitive MLB experience whatsoever might have a tough time down the stretch

QUOTE(Felix @ Jul 2, 2006 -> 08:37 PM) I see people here don't actually read the article, but merely read what they want to see. He didn't say that Bobby was mediocre, he said he was mediocre in the minors, which is true. I don't know why he's talking about their minor league performance, but still, at least read it correctly if you are going to criticize it. woops, that was my bad still though, you can't compare innings pitched from a starter-closer and Jens Era is barely higher than Lirianos

haha what dumb snubs I actually agree with most of the manager picks this year but Liriano over Buerhle would be a very convincing case