"I have an odd confession to make. I have listened to Chicago White Sox games in Baghdad.

 

Through the entire blazing summer, amid the violence and political turmoil that The New York Times sent me to Iraq to cover, the play by play of a comparatively trivial drama crackled in my room via Internet radio as the local White Sox announcers, John Rooney and Ed Farmer, charted the team's quick rise and near collapse in the regular season.

 

In my room, within a secure compound on the banks of the Tigris River, the weirdness of juggling those two story lines came home to me in July, when the Sox were playing Detroit after sweeping a four-game series in Cleveland. The Sunnis had walked out of talks on the national constitution, sectarian strife rippled across the country, and Casey Blake, the Indians' right fielder, had said after the sweep that the White Sox were no better than the Indians.

 

Hubris like Blake's did not sit well with Farmer, the color man and former journeyman relief pitcher who grew up in Illinois...

 

Great story from a great newspaper.

Great story from a great newspaper.

 

Former, yes. Latter, eh . . . .

 

Thanks for the great story though. Nice read.