Drew

QUOTE(whitesox1976 @ Feb 16, 2007 -> 06:09 PM) I didn't like the new ST hats at first but since all the teams are pretty much the same, I don't think there too bad. I think they're ridiculous. Piping, gusseting, superfluous outlining...rape and pillage of one of the best neo-classic cap designs past or present. I'm staunchly purist. Nothing's better than a New Era 5950.

Danks and Massett is pretty damn good for a guy who's not Cy Young.

I've been told my first game was sometime in the summer of the South Side Hitmen, 1977. I was mere months old, but was told I awoke for a Harold Baines walk-off home run. When we moved to KC for dad's job in '82, going to Royals games--many of my earliest cognizant memories of going to games--I remember even as a kindergartener thinking the lack of history at Royals Stadium and the brand-new franchise that called it home were seriously unsettling. But to this day, one of my most favorite players is George Brett. When we moved back a year later, the Winning Ugly Sox were the perfect homecoming. I keep score. This past year, I actually designed and had a season-long scorebook, and designed a leather cover. I gave two away as Christmas gifts to my dad and my brother, and kept the third.

My roommate and I are having a Super Bowl party at our place in Burbank. Projector, 5.1 sound, ribs and Portillo's beef. BYOB. PM me with your email address if you would like an Evite.

KCRW's "Good Food."

IIRC, tickets are relatively inexpensive and easy to come by, although I haven't been to ST in several years.

World Series. The first year I remember following football was the '85 Bears. It never got as good as it did that year. For me, life was a bat-and-ball world. I grew up and came of age feeling that the World Series were for other teams in other cities.

...you can buy a bottle of Stag's Leap Cabernet at a gas station. ...your favorite Mexican eatery has wheels. ...you spend 10 minutes getting somewhere and 90 getting out of the parking lot. ...any food item with the word 'California' means 'with avocado.' ...you have a prescription to buy pot legally.

A book is a copout, she wants to learn from you. If she wants to get really heady about it, I suppose you could pick her up a copy of Baseball Between the Numbers or Moneyball, in which case--that's hot.

QUOTE(bmags @ Jan 16, 2007 -> 08:20 AM) i stopped reading after the first page and this has nothing to do with the argument over whether this is a football town, because it is. BUt i do find it amazing how people have forgotten how popular the hawks were in the early to mid nineties. I used to be able to list the entire 94 hawks team, and yet i can barely remember most of the 94 bears season. The UC used to be packed even after it was decided it was a remarkably disappointing experience coming from Chicago stadium to the UC. What Wirts has done to that franchise is so saddening. I don't watch the hawks, and i don't know s*** about the hawks anymore. And that is his fault, entirely. btw, does anyone remember that paper "the blue line". Oh man i used to love that. The Blackhawks had, IIRC, the longest streak in professional sports of making the postseason for something like 27 straight years. That's incredible. And as far back as I can remember, the Blackhawks were the toughest ticket in town until the Bulls started winning. It's saddening and maddening what Dollar Bill is doing to that franchise, letting it rust in the harbor. Overtly lying to fans and letting Roenick get away as well as the rest of the nucleus of those great teams of the early 90s that were only one or two pieces away from a Stanley Cup and getting nothing for them, not pulling the trigger on free agents that could really help, instead signing journeyman third-liners that score 42 points in a good year. I lived and breathed Blackhawk hockey from the mid-80s through college, and I can name maybe four players on this year's team. When I lived in Minneapolis, I got into following the Gophers and the Wild, the year they went to the Conference Finals against Anaheim. But I still wear my Roenick jersey when I'm feeling nostalgic.

QUOTE(Balance @ Dec 21, 2006 -> 10:27 AM) Here's one more vote for football. I think it's clear that while the Sox-Cubs rivalry is a wonderful part of Chicago's identity, we're all Bears fans. I think the rivalry is retarded.

I remember a Little League field trip to Old Comiskey, we got to go out on the field during BP. Steve Carlton pitched his 5,000th inning that day with the Sox, and we all stood. It's not every day you get to see a Hall of Famer pitch, and within a couple of years I saw Tom Seaver and Lefty. We went onto the field that day during BP, it was surreal. I also had a chance to do the same at Wrigley, took fielding clinics with Chris Speier, got game-calling tips from Jody Davis, and found out that Steve Stone was a total prick, but it wasn't the same as the hallowed Old Comiskey.

"It Ain't Me, Babe" --Johnny Cash & June Carter

I wrote this blog post around '05 postseason time and revised it a little since: Why Sox? Because the American League is in my blood. My father was born Detroit, reared in Fort Wayne, Indiana a Tiger fan. A brief sojourn in Kansas City from where my mother hails was when I made acquaintance with the Royals and one of my favorite players to this day, George Brett. But the antiseptic modernity of Royals Stadium and the team's nacent history was unsettling, even in my kindergarten mind. When we moved back to Chicago in the summer of 1983, the Winning Ugly Sox were the perfect homecoming. Getting out of the car after that long trip through Iowa's vast nothingness, a housewarming gift from dad was waiting on the back of my door--a heather gray t-shirt with repeated lines of "White Sox" and a mesh-back home cap. I put them on at my own press conference in that bare bedroom, picked up at the trading deadline from Kansas City. Save about a season's worth of adolescent indiscretion, I've been a White Sox fan for life. I grew up in Chicagoland and much of my coming of age in the 80s was spent without cable TV, which meant a great many Sox games weren't viewable to me. The few that made it to WFLD were often past bedtime. But the Cubs were on WGN, usually after school. I watched dozens of Cub games, not because I was a fan of theirs, but because I simply couldn't get enough of the game. In Little League, second base was what I aspired to. Not enough power for the corner infield positions, not enough range for shortstop, sick and tired of picking dandelions in right field. When I chased down Jimmy Goodwin's flare into shallow right for the winning out of the season opener at Dryden Park in 1986, I wasn't pretending to be Tim Huelett--I was channeling Ryne Sandberg, because he was the best there was. There was no rivalry, only a bat and a ball, our neighborhood festooned in Cubby blue but for the Sox bastion of South Sixth. Watching the Cubs at Wrigley a couple of times a season wasn't the same as the exploding scoreboard under the lights and Nancy Faust's flights of fancy. I suppose it was because my parents didn't take months-old me with them to Wrigley. That was the summer of the South Side Hitmen, 1977, and the story goes that I awoke to a Harold Baines walk-off at my first game. The Cub caps and t-shirts given lovingly by my paternal relatives don't have the same gravity as that first Sox cap and tee, or that navy cotton zip-up jacket with "WHITE SOX" on the back that I wore between first and second grade, the one that grew covered with assorted patches over the years. Then again, that's most likely because Ribbie and Roobarb stomped my Cubs cap into a puddle of tobacco juice when I made the mistake of wearing it to a game on the South Side. I was only six, but should have known better to take a backpack of goodies from mom to the game, within which the wrong cap was inside. They smelled the granola bars and it was all over. She knew what she was doing after all.

Alison Lohman Giada de Laurentiis Alexis Bledell. I flirted with her last summer at a boulangerie in Old Pas and didn't even know who she was at the time.

Loretta Lynn Ella Fitzgerald Nina Simone The Ditty Bops The Murmurs Liz Phair Mazzy Star Kim Lenz 8 1/2 Souvenirs

I was there for his four-outs-from perfect game. Easy to admire, easy to hate on, but there was no '05 without Sweaty Freddy.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Dec 3, 2006 -> 04:40 PM) Yet Crede has only hit 25+HRs once in his career and has never knocked in 100. Crede will be 29 next season and has yet to produce a 25/100 season. Where as Rodriguez has already had 10 count them 10/seasons of atleast 35/110 as well as 10 seasons with 15+ SB. A-Rod has also had 5 years with a 1.000+ OPS, even the most optimistic Joe Crede fans have said that Crede will likely never top a .900 OPS during any season of his career because he's just not an OBP type of player. Crede likely has 2 seasons left with the Sox if they don't intend to trade him, after that they'll recieve a couple draft picks and have to find a new thirdbaseman. Garcia is also likely gone after this season if not traded before then. So it's 2 seasons of "bad-back" Crede and 1 season of Garcia or 4 years of Alex Rodriguez at possibly a cheaper price $$ wise than Crede. I would make that deal in a second, I'm not so sure the Yankees would however. I didn't say I disagreed with trading Freddy and Crede, I don't know if I want to deal them for A-Rod.

Joe Crede is likely a 25-100 guy who is an elite fielder in the American League and one we probably won't be able to afford to resign because of Scott Boras. Is A-Rod worth that plus a proven starting pitcher? I don't think so. I'm all for trading if it would help, but this is a lot better for the Yankees than it is for us.

I wouldn't.

Eckstein benefits greatly from playing in the NL, where he has been an All-Star and World Series MVP. He was merely average as an Angel, in spite of his work ethic and hustle.

Presumably the Adobe app you downloaded was Acrobat Reader. Basically, I create PDFs one of two ways: Using a graphics app like Illustrator, Photoshop, or InDesign, or with a printer extension when the PDF conversion isn't supported in the app. I'm a Mac guy, but the apps I use are all cross-platform.

QUOTE(kramer99 @ Dec 2, 2006 -> 01:00 PM) I think he may have his facts wrong. Kind of like when he said the White Sox were close to a deal with Soriano.

I would have put Freddy's at "The $20 Sack Pyramid" by Dr. Dre.

Where would he pitch in our bullpen? I think that there will be a team willing to roll the dice and has a vacancy in the closer or setup spot.