The Mighty Mite

Without a doubt, most in the Metro area live in Tampa and the northern suburbs. For those fans it’s a bad trek down to St. Pete especially on weekdays during rush hour with all the bridges having huge traffic jams. Fans in the towns east of the Bay have to travel up to 30 miles out of their way as they have to take I-75 south to 275 and then come back north across the Sunshine Skyway bridge. Actually for me here in Port Charlotte and fans in Bradenton, Sarasota and Venice it will be a longer trip. What the difference in attendance will be is anyone’s guess but the Lightning and the Bucs draw very well in Tampa, my guess the Rays will probably average 5,000 fans more a game with a lot more in the first few years. We take 3-4 cruises a year out of Tampa and we can get to the port which is right next door to Benchmark Arena in less than 90 minutes and it would probably be about 15 minutes more to the new ballpark.

The Rays are my second favorite team, when not watching the Sox I’m watching the Rays.

Good start for the Rays.

Agree, what a contrast with the 2026 White Sox and that sorry cast of characters.

Abreu, the rest of them were a bunch of losers.

I wonder if they thought the same way for the pathetic second half of Kolson.

In the end we just didn’t have the horses to get the job done. We knew this wasn’t a great team as there were just too many holes, no power in the outfield with Braden being called up too early, losing Austin Hays at the beginning of the year hurt, he was a seasoned pro with a decent bat who played very good defense. The starting pitching was always suspect but the relievers did a great job in the second half. We never had a decent back up catcher and with Teel out most of the year we had a lousy catching situation. Enough has been said and written about Venable so I won’t say anything more. Because of these shortcomings I always expected some kind of letdown but to their credit they hung in there until the last 3 games, all in all it was a fun year from a team that I expected to win 75 games tops so in that respect it was a pretty successful season.

Maybe they can lower the mound again like they did in the late 1960s. In MLBs early days there was not a pitchers mound and some pitchers started to experiment having the grounds keeper build a little hill to give them an advantage, there were no rules or regulations until the owners decided to go with a 15 inch high mound which in 1969 was reduced to the current 10 inch height, maybe it’s time to go a 5 inch high mound or even no mound at all. With these monsters now throwing regularly in the high 90s along with insane spin it would seem to me that a change is needed, there is absolutely nothing exciting about a team striking out 19-21 times in a game.

My guess is the White Sox braintrust will go with Quero as the backup as he’s too young to give up on and except for this year has been a pretty decent hitter during his minor league career.

If they think Bonemer is the real deal then my guess is Kolson will be traded for a starting pitcher.

Right on the mark.

The 1983 White Sox led the Majors in runs scored with 800 and only hit 157 homers. Bottom line, while Home Runs are nice and come in handy a good offense needs to be more balanced.

Pope Leo is having surgery this week to have a nodule removed from one of his lungs. I will be praying that everything goes well.

Meidroth took a swing last night that if he hadn't taken the swing would have hit him in the head.

Just a shame the way it ended with winning the first 2 games in the series and then falling flat on our faces in the next 3 but it was the most fun season in a long long time. For me nothing will beat the 1959 and 2005 seasons but when you’re talking pure fun I still think the 1977 Southside Hitmen was the most fun season I’ve experienced as a Sox fan.

I was against the Venable signing from day 1, the guy is still on OJT.

Haven’t you heard that a K is just another out.

And the manager and coaches did nothing about, the game plan was to swing as hard as possible.

If they don’t try it’s because of the owner.

It is what it is, they were an inexperienced young team that played their asses off all year but in the end they weren’t good enough because of a lack of starting pitching and some missing pieces in the lineup. Hopefully those shortcomings can be filled by Getz in the off-season.

All of us down here will be pulling for them.

Not if they continue swinging out of their shoes.

This has to be on the hitting coach who couldn’t or didn’t want the players to change their approach while AB. I have the feeling that it’s the latter.

If the Guards get an insurance run, it’s over.

They were basically a .500 team in the second half. They can contend if Getz can add some pieces.