cwsox Posted July 28, 2004 Share Posted July 28, 2004 A lot of folks are proclaiming themselves just so overwhelmed because gasp we have a three game losing streak happening! oh the horror, the pain. In the 50s we finished first once, second about 9 times, and lost in the world series. Surviving that is what makes a generation of Sox fans. In the 60s we finished second once by 1 game and once lost a four way pennant race on the last weekend. We never finished first, Surviving that is what makes a generation of Sox fans. In the 70s we began with going 56-106. Not many here would have survived that. We never finished first. In our best seasaon, the 77 Hit Men, we finished third. Surviving that is what makes a generation of Sox fans. In the 1980s we finished first once and had some dreadful teams as well and lost one team to drugs that should have been a contender. Surviving that is what makes a generation of Sox fans. In the 1990s we finished first twice and got a new ballpark and saw an awesome hitting season from Albert Belle, two MVP seasons from Frank, a Cy Young winner, manager of the year winner, and some fans cried when our owner suggested we were out of it when we were 3.5 games back on July 31. What is wrong with our owner, people asked. In the 2000s we finished first once, had a manager of the year winner, never finished lower than second, are 2.5 games back on July 27, and people can't bear the pain. This is where we separate the Sox fans, and make another generation of Sox fans, and separate the Sox fans from the ... hmm, wimps is too strong, maybe the image is of Blanche DuBois in Streetcar Named Desire who would just faint whenever she had to deal with something. So we are separating the real Sox fans from the Blanche DuBois, those who take out their sachets frm the sleeves and wipe ther brows and say, "oh, I just can't take this, this is too much" and faint away. Baseball is life. Sometimes it ain't pretty. If a three game losing streak in a division title race is too much to bear, by all means, faint, or go the ledge and jump because you don't have it in you to be a Sox fan. Hell, the Sox are a team that threw a world series. What about being a Sox fan is supposed to be easy? Jean Shepherd said if he had to choose five people to charge up a hill in a suicidal mission to take the enemy position he would choose five Sox fans because they have faced death every day and lived. Either line up with Jean Shepherd to charge up that hill into the face of the enemy or faint away with Blanche DuBois. The choice is one for each of us to make, the answer is within. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Pasqua's Rec Specs Posted July 28, 2004 Share Posted July 28, 2004 Thats a nice post but i never knew being a sox fan meant everything was hunky doory all the time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwsox Posted July 28, 2004 Author Share Posted July 28, 2004 Thats a nice post but i never knew being a sox fan meant everything was hunky doory all the time no its not far from it, we take pride in our adversity and don't faint out when times get rough more Jean Shepherd quotes: If Chicago is the city of broad shoulders, then Northwest Indiana is it's broad rear end! The White Sox were so bad when I was a kid that I can remember sitting at the kitchen table and seeing my Old Man reading the sports page. On the front I vividly remember seeing in big block letters...WHITE SOX's APPLING HITS 450 FOOT FOUL BALL Being a White Sox fan meant measuring victory in terms of defeat. A 6-5 defeat was a good day. A big rally was Wally Moses doubling down the right- field line. the exatc Jean Shepard quote I was paraphrasing above: If I was ever ordered to storm a pillbox, going to shear, sudden, and utterly certain death, and told to pick my platoon, I would pick White Sox fans. I would pick Sox Fans because they have known death every day of their lives--and it holds no terror for them anymore. then there is the great Bart Giamatti quote: "It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops. Today, October 2, a Sunday of rain and broken branches and leaf-clogged drains and slick streets, it stopped, and summer was gone. . . . It breaks my heart because it was meant to, because it was meant to foster in me again the illusion that there was something abiding, some pattern and some impulse that could come together to make a reality that would resist the corrosion; and because, after it had fostered again that most hungered-for illusion, the game was meant to stop, and betray precisely what it promised." and Jean Shepherd narrated Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Pasqua's Rec Specs Posted July 28, 2004 Share Posted July 28, 2004 I see, thats a good one Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YASNY Posted July 28, 2004 Share Posted July 28, 2004 cwsox .... That was awesome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshPR Posted July 28, 2004 Share Posted July 28, 2004 A lot of folks are proclaiming themselves just so overwhelmed because gasp we have a three game losing streak happening! oh the horror, the pain. In the 50s we finished first once, second about 9 times, and lost in the world series. Surviving that is what makes a generation of Sox fans. In the 60s we finished second once by 1 game and once lost a four way pennant race on the last weekend. We never finished first, Surviving that is what makes a generation of Sox fans. In the 70s we began with going 56-106. Not many here would have survived that. We never finished first. In our best seasaon, the 77 Hit Men, we finished third. Surviving that is what makes a generation of Sox fans. In the 1980s we finished first once and had some dreadful teams as well and lost one team to drugs that should have been a contender. Surviving that is what makes a generation of Sox fans. In the 1990s we finished first twice and got a new ballpark and saw an awesome hitting season from Albert Belle, two MVP seasons from Frank, a Cy Young winner, manager of the year winner, and some fans cried when our owner suggested we were out of it when we were 3.5 games back on July 31. What is wrong with our owner, people asked. In the 2000s we finished first once, had a manager of the year winner, never finished lower than second, are 2.5 games back on July 27, and people can't bear the pain. This is where we separate the Sox fans, and make another generation of Sox fans, and separate the Sox fans from the ... hmm, wimps is too strong, maybe the image is of Blanche DuBois in Streetcar Named Desire who would just faint whenever she had to deal with something. So we are separating the real Sox fans from the Blanche DuBois, those who take out their sachets frm the sleeves and wipe ther brows and say, "oh, I just can't take this, this is too much" and faint away. Baseball is life. Sometimes it ain't pretty. If a three game losing streak in a division title race is too much to bear, by all means, faint, or go the ledge and jump because you don't have it in you to be a Sox fan. Hell, the Sox are a team that threw a world series. What about being a Sox fan is supposed to be easy? Jean Shepherd said if he had to choose five people to charge up a hill in a suicidal mission to take the enemy position he would choose five Sox fans because they have faced death every day and lived. Either line up with Jean Shepherd to charge up that hill into the face of the enemy or faint away with Blanche DuBois. The choice is one for each of us to make, the answer is within. Finished 3rd in 2001 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwsox Posted July 28, 2004 Author Share Posted July 28, 2004 corerection noted and appreciated Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlaSoxxJim Posted July 28, 2004 Share Posted July 28, 2004 Shep was great. His Birthday was Mondiy IIRC, according to Garrison Keillor on Writer's Almanac. In the 70s we began with going 56-106. Not many here would have survived that. We never finished first. In our best seasaon, the 77 Hit Men, we finished third. Surviving that is what makes a generation of Sox fans. In the 1980s we finished first once and had some dreadful teams as well and lost one team to drugs that should have been a contender. Surviving that is what makes a generation of Sox fans. Yeah, that pretty much sums up my indoctrination. My Dad still grumbles about the 1967 down-to-the-wire lost cause as well. Lucky for him we were living in Hawaii by the end of the season while he went to grad school. Experiencing that last weekend first-hand would probably have made my Mom a Widow. Of course, accepting the reality that being a Sox Fan is a bitter pill sometimes is a far cry from being complacent about it. Delusion that losing can somehow be lovable is the affliction of the lemmings on the other side of town. Sadly, if you're an owner, that means we have little patience as far as pouring money into a lousy team re fans in the seats at the games. We still have the games reloigiously - on the TV, on the radio, at the bar..., and when they lose for the umpteenth time we say 'yeah, they suck this year.' But we go back for more the next day, the next year the next season... That is OUR affliction. But a 3-game skid, less than 3 games back with two months left is NOT EVEN CLOSE to that 'yeah we suck' point of quiet resolve. I had to suffer through the Twins FSN broadcast yesterday (made all the worse because of quips like "Jamie Burke couldn't make the lineup today because he is being reassembled in a hanger at Midway Airport...") because Extra Innings doesn't get the WCIU games. But they said we have flip-flopped leads in Central 13 or 14 times this year. I'd rather we were 10+ games up too, but we'll probably flip-flop a few more times before it's done. After today's WIN (Esty, I'm looking in your direction!) we don't see the Twins for more than a month. We can forget about their infuriating habit of playing above their level and hope that their tough back end of the schedule catches up to them and - more importantly - the Sox do what they're capable of doing against our weaker division rivals. In all likelihood the last 6 games against Minny will be the deciding matches for both clubs. No Frank and no Magglio sucks for sure, and that may end up costing us the year in large part. But that's where we are and it is what it is. 60 games left. Let's play them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Lopez Ghost (old) Posted July 28, 2004 Share Posted July 28, 2004 In the 1980s we finished first once and had some dreadful teams as well and lost one team to drugs that should have been a contender. CWS, I've been around for 54 years of this, but this is the first I've heard that we lost one season to drugs. Could you provide some specifics about this? I know Ron LeFlore had some rumors going on - is that what you're referring to? Or 1984, the year that should have been? Spill, please. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwsox Posted July 28, 2004 Author Share Posted July 28, 2004 CWS, I've been around for 54 years of this, but this is the first I've heard that we lost one season to drugs. Could you provide some specifics about this? I know Ron LeFlore had some rumors going on - is that what you're referring to? Or 1984, the year that should have been? Spill, please. 84 season I was not in the clubhouse of course but from what I heard from people who were, and given some folks' later histories I don't doubt it, cocaine was the drug of choice for a number of our players. Where have you gone Dewey Lamar... 84 was a good year for white yuppie coke use. They were just part of the demographic coming off a division title. not that the Sox were alone. not wholesome reading Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwsox Posted July 28, 2004 Author Share Posted July 28, 2004 My Dad still grumbles about the 1967 down-to-the-wire lost cause as well. Lucky for him we were living in Hawaii 1967: Boston wins the pennent, Yaz hits 301 and wins the AL batting title. 1968: Four way race: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YASNY Posted July 29, 2004 Share Posted July 29, 2004 1967: Boston wins the pennent, Yaz hits 301 and wins the AL batting title. 1968: Four way race: Wasn't '67 the year of the 4 way race, and in '68 we totally sucked? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwsox Posted July 29, 2004 Author Share Posted July 29, 2004 Wasn't '67 the year of the 4 way race, and in '68 we totally sucked? on recount you may be right I reversed them in my mind, and I apologise gonna ban myself for such a stupid mistake Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlaSoxxJim Posted July 29, 2004 Share Posted July 29, 2004 on recount you may be right I reversed them in my mind, and I apologise gonna ban myself for such a stupid mistake Thanks for the self-correction cw - I was about to call Dad up and tell me he's been wrong on his '67 tale of woe all these years. His memory is not great (and it has nothing to do with getting older), so I wouldn't have been surprised. Here's a capsule of the last weekend of 1967 by Dan Helpingstine - author of "Through Hope and Despair" - from WSI: In the last weekend of 1967 season, the White Sox needed a three game sweep of the lowly Washington Senators if they were going to have any chance of getting to the Series. With a man in scoring position in the first, Valentine popped one up in foul territory on the first base side. Sox first baseman Tommy McCraw gave chase and seemed to have it in his sights. But the ball landed in a photographer's bay just out reach. The bay had normally not been there; it had been installed to accommodate NBC cameras in the event of a Chicago World Series. Getting new life, Valentine singled in a run. It turned out to be the only run of the game. With the loss, the Sox were eliminated from the pennant race. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southsider2k5 Posted July 29, 2004 Share Posted July 29, 2004 Here's a capsule of the last weekend of 1967 by Dan Helpingstine - author of "Through Hope and Despair" - from WSI: Great, great book. It is a must have for all Sox fans. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlaSoxxJim Posted July 29, 2004 Share Posted July 29, 2004 Great, great book. It is a must have for all Sox fans. I bought that one, Park, Life, and the Kalas '59 book for my Dad the last three Christmases. Now I just have to "borrow" them when he's not looking... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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