Greatest Chicago Sports Day Ever (even though it wasn't)

Sox Record: 7-6

Place in the A.L. Central and Games back: Second? Tied for first? Did the Royals lose? Did the Indians score a lot of runs again? Oh yeah, the Tigers are doing okay too. I should start caring soon...

Most annoying person in the Sox organization: The Forkball that Jose Contreras used to throw. I miss that forkball. It used to get batters out. Now it Contreras doesn't even throw it and that leads to the other team scoring a lot of runs. The Sox are 0-3 when Contreras starts, 7-3 when he doesn't.

Member of the White Sox I love the most at the moment: Octavio Dotel who asked President Obama for a hug at the White House yesterday. Cute or something along those lines. But more importantly, how cool is it that Obama is a White Sox fan? This has to give the Sox nearly as much cred as when they switched to black in the early '90s and became the hat of choice for West Coast Rappers and the amazing "Good Guys Wear Black" ad campaign (I'm still waiting for Wade to break out a "Good Guys Wear Black" shirt).

Number of awkward moments between Hawk and Stone: All I want to know is if Hawk met Obama.

Rhetorical Question of the Day: It took years, but one of the worst relieve pitchers in White Sox history is now, probably, gone forever. Mike MacDougal was all but released today . You have to figure some team will sign up if for no other reason than he can throw a baseball very very fast. MacDougal's greatest contribution to the White Sox was his nick name given to him by fans: The Arsonist. Ozzie wouldn't bring Mike in to put out fires, he'd put him in to start 'em.

Thoughts on the most bizarre between innings promo ever: Much has been said about Saturday being the greatest day in Chicago sports history , and honestly it was the greatest non-championship day in Chicago sports in my lifetime (the Cubs winning prevents it from entering the Greatest Day Ever conversation). I caught parts of all four games. The Sox looked the best, the Cubs the worst on Saturday. But let's break it down:

Bulls - On Sunday morning, Rev. Cleophus James asked his West Side congregation if they saw the light. And for the first time in over ten years, the congregation yelled back, "YES!" And the light was Derrick Rose.

I don't care what anyone says, that was the greatest rookie performance in the playoffs ever. No hyperbole. It was. End of discussion. Boston couldn't stop him and every time the Celtics looked like the would get the fans back in the game, Rose would score in .4 seconds to shut them up. He wasn't good. He was great.

I was at about an 8 for the Derrick Rose Era on Friday night. Now I'm at a 10. I'm excited just thinking about Wade, Rose, Thomas, and Deng out there, bustin' their butts, driving to the hoop, blockin' shots, all that good stuff 18 months from now. Even if the Bulls loses this series, and at this point Celtic fans have to be worried, I'm beyond pumped for the Rose Era.

Cubs - Honestly, how did the Cards not win this game? I watched more of this one than I wanted and every time it looked like the Cards would blow it up, the Cubs would some how put a stop to the bleeding and come back to tie it. And yes, I dropped a few F-bombs directed at members of the St. Louis Cardinals during the afternoon.

The Sox - The after thought of the day, they were up big and never really looked back. I was more interested in the Blackhawks game.

Blackhawks - Falling in love with a player is a magical thing. As a child I loved Carlton Fisk even attempting to mimic his insane on deck circle routine. I fell for El Duque in New Haven, CT. My love for St. Carlos began after I saw him swing a bat in the second game of the season. With Buehrle it's been a steady love... with all that said, after his second goal I told Jonathan Toews that I loved him. He responded as I thought he would, very serious look on his face as he went back to the bench.

I'm not sure how the Hawks won on Saturday. They were out played in the first. And then all of a sudden they cut the lead in half with Toews' first goal of the game seconds into the second period. Then the Hawks tied it up. Then they took the lead when Toews put home his second later in the period. AND THERE WAS MUSIC AND WONDERFUL ROSES THEY TELL ME... I mean I'm at the point with Toews that I went over to iTunes* and downloaded Chuck Berry's "Go Johnny Go." Yes, Toews and I are at that point in our relationship. It's beautiful I tell you. I love how he plays, he's not big, but he goes to the net like a racists on his/her way to a tea party. It's beautiful to watch and it only makes me love the kid from the 'Peg more.

*Does anyone else think that Bush once kicked around the idea of renaming Iraq to... iRack?

Sox... and Blackhawks

Sox Record: 4-4

Place in the A.L. Central and Games back: They're behind the Royals. More importantly, the Tribe is(are?) now 2-7. The A.L. Central is gonna be wide open unless someone goes on a 10-1 stretch.

Most annoying person in the Sox organization: No one is annoying me at the moment. Ozzie is pushing it with his "lets have guys who can't hit or walk lead off!" revolving door. And Konerko's non-sucky start has me not disliking him. And Brian Anderson only annoys me because Sox fans think he's the second coming of Micky Mantle (I was going to say Willie Mays be we all know you cannot compare black players to white players in baseball, basketball, or quarterbacks).

Member of the White Sox I love the most at the moment: Jermaine Dye. Congrats to him on his 300th home run. He also set the record for the most consecutive times an outfielder hits the cutoff man with his 1,439th successful to the cutoff man from right field. Seriously, this is the most over looked aspect of Dye's game and just one of the 472 reasons why it's a joy to watch him play baseball. He never seems to miss the cut off man. And after watching Carlos Lee and Magglio in the early part of the decade miss the cutoff man at least once a game, Dye's job in right field over the last four plus years has been an absolute joy.

Number of awkward moments between Hawk and Stone: None that I've caught. I think this booth will some how work if only because Stone used to work with Harry Carey, and I don't care if you're the biggest Hawk hater in the world (and I'm up there), Carey was a 100 times worse those last few years he was on air. And Stonie didn't kill him, so Hawk has that going for him.

Rhetorical Question of the Day: With the Blackhawks, probably the #2 team in my heart*, starting the playoffs tomorrow; I'm going to start a new section here on this fine little White Sox blog...

Thoughts on the most bizarre between innings promo ever: No not the Connie's Pizza race (they changed it after fifteen years of the stoned sausage pizza running in a race against a strung out cheese pizza and happy to be there pepperoni pizza). It started last year when for reasons that no one can explain, the Hawks had a promo between innings at Sox games. The beauty of this promo was it started with a Thome home run, which turned into Towes and Kane finding a baseball at the UC, they shoot the ball!?!, and all of a sudden Nick Swisher is making a fake catch at the wall robbing them of a home run? It really made no sense, but the best part was the game they had where fans had to shoot a baseball using a hockey stick five feet into a net while some poor college intern had to dress in a goalie uniform and cheer them on. But here was the best part of the promo... no one EVER made it. Seriously, it at the 20 or so games I went to, not once did the fan score a goal. Apparently this is the hardest thing to do in life.

So with that in mind, from here on out, comments on the Hawks will go here. And I'm pumped for tomorrow.

* Despite me not really ever thinking about the Bears during down time, I seem to get quite emtional during Bears games. Fist pumps, jumming up and down and other cliche things that you see guys do in Best Buy commercials. I have no clue what my physical reactions will be as the Hawks start the playoffs against the Flames.

After the First Home Strech of the Year...

Sox Record: 3-3

Place in the A.L. Central and Games back: Not sure... the Tribe was 0-5 on Sunday morning that made me happy. However, they won yesterday which is a bummer.

Person with the Sox player I hate the most at the moment: No one at the moment. A two game winning steak will do that.

Member of the White Sox I love the most at the moment: I shouldn't say this out loud, but Brent Lillibridge. I was at the game on Saturday, and he walked to lead off the game. This was a shocking development because other than the 3-6 hitters, no one on the Sox are allowed to walk. But there was Lillibridge walking to lead off the game. Then he didn't suck at second base. Then he walked again. And stole a base. And I was like, woah, this guy seems like he's a decent ballplayer, you know one of those guys that you can hide in your line up at the 9 spot or something. Of course, it was at this point that I saw on SouthSideSox that Lillibridge stinks, doesn't hit, doesn't walk, and enjoys striking out . So even though I shouldn't like Brent Lillibridge and his two walk performance on Saturday will probably be his last two walk day with the Sox, I love him at the moment.

Rhetorical Question of the Day: Today is Cubs opening day. Not that I care, but it's always a silly day because half of Chicago takes the day off work and acts like it is New Years Eve/St. Patrick's Day. I call it MoronFest. Not that Cub fans are morons, there are a lot of very smart, good baseball fans that root for the Cubs. But sadly for them, the Trib turned Wrigley Field into a Frat Bar in the 80s and things have gone down hill for the good Cub fans ever since. Now if the team stinks, 40,000 tickets have been sold even if no one shows up in September. And if the team is good it's hard to get tickets and root for the team you like... thus the stadium is filled with annoying late 20s Big Ten graduates. But it's raining today, so Cubs Opening Day appears that it will be moved back a day.

The Sox are in Detroit (there may be more Tiger fans at Wrigley than Detroit tomorrow btw) playing this afternoon. I assume it's opening day for the Tigers, but I'm not sure and I don't feel like looking it up. All I know is that Floyd is on the mound for the Sox and even after 35 good Floyd starts, I don't trust him. And I'm a trustful person. However, the rain here in Chicago has me worried that the Sox won't play today, which sort of bums me out.

Your 2009 Chicago White Sox!

We are three games in to the White Sox season and I haven't written a word. I've been thinking about just running turning this blog into a "Year in the life of a White Sox fan" blog. And seeing that I could talk about the Sox for about twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week... as every good Chicagoan asks them self, "Why not?".

So this blog has new life. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it. I'm not sure how it will look. It might die in three weeks. It might be more fun than reading South Side Sox and e-mailing other insane Sox fans about the Sox. I'm going to take it easy. And if it lives, then I'll turn it into something cool. Maybe.

Currently it is just short of 3p.m. And thanks to my wonderful work situation, I am able to take it the day game/rubber match between the Sox and the Royals. At this moment I hate the Chicago White Sox. This is a common emotion in my life. And to be more specific, I hate myself for letting the Sox rule my mood more than I hate the White Sox. It's a 0-0 game, they've scored a total of 4 runs in 25 innings, and there is nothing I dislike more than teams that don't even have base runners.

But more on the Sox as the season goes along. For now, I'll have a running template that I'll fill out whenever I throw one of these up.

Be well.

Sox Record: 1-1

Place in the A.L. Central and Games back: Who cares.

Person with the Sox player I hate the most at the moment: Mike MacDougal (however, this is like saying I don't like the Ayatollah), so I'll take Carlos "Oh fer de season" Quintin. This is fair, but they way baseball works.

Member of the White Sox I love the most at the moment: Matt Thornton

Rhetorical Question of the Day: Does Paul Konerko even have warning track power at this point?