Drew

That's what you get when Lisa Dergan is your trainer, Sco-Po.

Sosa's a hot dog who got what was coming to him. I think that if we all laughed at Sammy, it would be more fitting.

I don't hate the Cubs, I just think most of their fans have been lobotomized. Seriously. I was at Dodger Stadium when the Cubs were in town and saw the game where Rafael Furcal knocked Derrek Lee out of the game (and the next eight or so weeks) with a wrist injury. The Cubs went onto win a sloppy game riddled with errors and poor pitching from both sides but all the Cub fans could do was cheer 'Chi-Town Kicks Ass!' on the hour-long wait to get out of the parking lot. First, I hate it when people call it Chi-Town. Second, you just lost your best player for a couple of months. Third, you won a game that the Kane County Cougars could have won.

I think it'd be good form for the Sox' front office to send a thank you on company letterhead. The CSO is a world-class organization and as a fellow denizen of the city, they're a neighbor. I wouldn't be surprised if it actually did happen and that someone from the White Sox didn't know about it. But it's obvious to me that this blogger is looking for something to be pissed off about. The arts community does not capture the public interest the way sporting events do. I'm aware of this, as I spent much of my time as a Visual Communications major publicly ridiculing my school's administration for doling out full-ride scholarships to basketball and baseball players who couldn't post records better than 1-24, while each art major was only getting about a grand, tops.

I think that by using Erstad as the starter and Anderson on the bench--or more accurately not using--it's the worst of both worlds. First, because in a late-inning pressure situation I would want Erstad over BA as a pinch hitter. Second, because Anderson is rotting in the dugout with hardly any playing time at all and he is the best defensive OF on the team. I think that batting him 8th with a little protection from someone like Uribe, Crede, or Iguchi would at least get him some better pitches to hit. Erstad is not the butcher in CF that Mackowiak was last year, but this is the second year in a row Ozzie is stunting the growth of Brian Anderson to play someone that didn't outperform him in ST. Attitude or not, he should be putting his best team out on the field, not punishing people he's decided he doesn't like.

I grew up in the suburbs and remember watching a lot of Cub games on WGN after school. That was because the White Sox were in the AL West and the games in Seattle, Oakland, and Anaheim didn't start until 9-ish CT. In other words, past the bedtime of a second- and third-grader. And those were the ones that made it to WFLD. A lot of them were on SportsVision, and for much of my growing up we didn't have cable. Most kids I knew growing up were Cub fans, but it didn't seem like any of us really cared about any sort of rivalry, but our dads got into some smack-talk. But I just remember that I loved baseball and would watch any game I could. And being the shrimpy kid in little league that didn't hit well enough to play corner infield and wasn't strong enough for shortstop, my only shot at averting the solitary confinement known as right field was at second base. So I admired Ryne Sandberg, because at that time he was the best there was. Or at least he was better than Julio Cruz, Tim Heulett, and Fred Manrique put together. When I moved to Lincoln Park in my early 20s, it was a Cub, Cub world. We weren't far removed from the 'magical' summer of '98 and the home run chase, so my Sox cap was kind of like the mark of Cain. But if you think that was bad, try wearing it in Minneapolis. I spent a year living there. Of course that was when the Sox couldn't do anything right in the Dome, so I got mostly laughing and pointing on my trips to Mall of America. Not so fast, Bubba--I'm not the one with the mullet. Out in LA, some people recoil when it came out I was from Chicago and not a Cub fan although most want to know what it was like seeing the World Series from the stands. And they soften when they find out that my NL team has long been the Dodgers.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Apr 12, 2007 -> 12:38 PM) Old Comiskey was great. I love Geddy, but I think he's wrong about the new park. I don't think he's been there since any of the renovations. His least favorite is Skydome and he's a Blue Jays season ticketholder right behind home. Rush in Tinley Sept 8. The new album May 1 is supposed to be awesome. Even Rolling Stone is handing them backhanded compliments. Old Comiskey is where I really learned to love the game of baseball at a very young age. When my family moved to Kansas City when I was around kindergarten-age, I found the antiseptic newness of Royals Stadium very unsettling. I was glad I had the chance to see games there, but in retrospect the place was a dump. And the whitewashing it had, the only way I ever laid eyes on it, made it look like a giant Pepperidge Farm coconut layer cake.

Baseball people I love to hate: Johan Santana and Grady Sizemore, because I'd really love to see them in silver and black. Torii Hunter. Went out of his way to stiff-arm Jamie Burke on a play that wasn't even close. If that wasn't deliberate, tell me what is. And he was a Sox killer for a long, long time. Alex Rodriguez. The Hamlet of sports. Seems that everything out of his mouth is media posturing self-pity. It's hard to have pity on someone who makes $25M a year for playing a game, especially when they always seem to be looking for validation. Manny Ramirez. You make $20M per annum. Find a barber and a tailor, and put forth some effort once in a while. Vicente Padilla. Headhunter. Spineless POS won't talk to the press, either. Kelvim Escobar. Crybaby. Shea Hillenbrand. Whiny Bitch. Derek Lowe. See Hillenbrand. Gary Sheffield. Prick. Roger Clemens. Asshole. Kenny Rogers. There's the beating-up-the-cameraman thing, the pine-tar thing, but before that he was just a plain old asshole. Barry Bonds. Perjurious asshole. Dan Iassognia. Most inconsistent strike zone in any level of baseball. Should be barred from home plate. Eric Cooper. If there's an umpire who favors the Yankees more, I haven't seen him. Scott Boras, Jay Mariotti, and George Steinbrenner. Do I really need to explain these? People I don't like but are good as comedic foils: Carlos Zambrano and Kerry Wood. Too easy to make fun of.

QUOTE(knightni @ Apr 12, 2007 -> 12:25 AM) Jack Parkman As long as he's not higher than The Duke. That guy threw at his own kid in a father-son game.

Paulie Kong with loaded base:

Way to waste a leadoff walk.

Nice f***ing throw, Scotty.

89 MPH fastball? Bobby must be on the Freddy Garcia diet.

Hawk Harrelson is no Harry Caray.

QUOTE(southsideirish @ Apr 4, 2007 -> 02:09 PM) Dude, you have to know how to bunt. Runner on 2nd, no outs, not a middle of the order guy, that is what you do. You move the runner over and get him in. YOU HAVE TO KNOW HOW TO BUNT. SHould have been runner on 3rd with 1 out, sacrifice fly/base hit gets him in. Gooch screwed up. That's what I said when I said 'been too long.'

QUOTE(southsideirish @ Apr 4, 2007 -> 02:04 PM) Can we send Iguchi down and get a new 2baseman? He is really pissing me off. ALCS, Game 3. Resulted in the first run of the game. Still, been too long. Let him swing the bat, he's had a good day.

QUOTE(JohnCangelosi @ Apr 4, 2007 -> 01:59 PM) I think we have a new nominee for best inning pitched by a Sox pitcher ;-) If he does that in the postseason, yes.

HOLY EL DUQUE!

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Mar 15, 2007 -> 12:32 PM) Their beer vendors seem to come by every 5 mins or so too, which is nice. Great food, cheap, nice park with good sight lines, High Life on tap. I love Miller Park. Went there to see a Brewers/Twins game a few years ago. Saw Scott Podsednik hit a triple, which due to Lew Ford's throwing error was an inside-the-park home run.

QUOTE(barnes @ Mar 10, 2007 -> 10:44 PM) Going to have to agree with Flash Tizzle. Where do you guys buy jerseys usually? I've seen some decent replicas with "authentic" lettering on eBay for under $100, but nothing aside from the standard home & away... and some of these are missing the away sleeve patch. The official shops seem way too expensive for something that I could spill beer on. Ideas? Where the team gets theirs done--Grandstand. I feel like if I am going to spend the amount of money to get a jersey, I'm going to go all out and get what's on the field. If I spill beer on it, it's what detergent and dry cleaning is for. I have a road gray Pierzynski authentic jersey, cost about $190 after shipping--quicker and cheaper than MLB.com. Had it in about 3 weeks. The replica jerseys aren't made as well, and that's an understatement. They lack the trim and finishing, they cut a lot of corners. For example, they don't have any sleeve patches and some of them don't have the trim around the sleeves that the authentics do. The stitching isn't as quality, the fabric snags if you breathe on it wrong. Even if you get the authentic two-color numbering instead of the one-color schmaltz MLB.com peddles, you may as well get it right the first time with an authentic and all the bells and whistles instead of replacing it more than once. found this at Mitchell & Ness. Beautiful jersey, would appreciate the spartan-chic of the road gray Fox a lot more if I grew up a Nellie Fox fan--but he was before my time. What I love from '59 is the wool jacket: If that's a little rich for you, I understand. In that case, I'd take what a replica would run and blow it on a stack of vintage t-shirts.

Harry Caray was the worst. Eating while on the mic, Segueing into one-sided tangents with Arnie Harris, and if you were listening on the radio, you would have no clue what was going on--"There's a high drive and--oh, no! That's really going to cost them." Cub fans liked Harry Caray because he was a much older and senile version of themselves, but just as much as a drunk idiot.

What the media doesn't want you to know is that A.J. Pierzynski isn't half as easy a target as Michael Barrett or Carlos Zambrano.

My dad is a Creative Director for a Chicago ad agency, and did a spot featuring Bill Clement a couple of years back as the NHL strike was brewing. They got to talking hockey, and Clement's words were something to the effect of Bill Wirtz being a complete idiot, and how ESPN would love to come in to an Original 6 city with a media market the size of Chicago, but not for what Dollar Bill is putting on the ice these days. I still break out the Roenick CCM jersey I have from c. 1995, and remember the days of yore when the Hawks put competitive teams on the ice.

QUOTE(YASNY @ Feb 19, 2007 -> 01:56 AM) Sutton is in the Hall. He never was the "best" at his position. In fact, I never considered him great. He was good, but never great. But Don Sutton had longevity. In 22 seasons, he made it to the All-Star Game only four times and never won a Cy Young award. However, he won 324 games and put in an impressive string of 200+ inning seasons. He was a consistently above-average pitcher, spent his career at that level. Then, of course, the park comparisons--Sutton spent half his career pitching in Chavez Ravine, best pitcher's park in the modern era. Buehrle pitches to DHs in a hitter's paradise. Buehrle has put together four out of five full seasons in the bigs on par with Sutton's career. If Mark Buehrle has another decade and a half in him of 15-or-so win seasons and can keep his ERA in the 3s and 4s, he could have a similar trajectory ending in Cooperstown. It shows that you don't need to be Sandy Koufax or Johan Santana if you can put together a couple of decades' worth of solid seasons. Don't get me wrong, though--those are ifs the size of icebergs.