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Starting White Sox shortstop Juan Uribe’s wife went into labor with the couple’s 4th child. As a result Alex Cintron got a chance to be the hero. And come through he did, with a three run blast in the bottom of the 8th off Fernando Rodney to turn defeat into victory, 4-3 Good Guys over the Tigers. Cintron said he figured Rodney out, “He was throwing fastball, changeup, fastball, changeup, so I sat on a fastball”. Alex, a switch hitter, was batting lefthanded for the first time in the game, he hooked a line drive over the RF fence, it was his first with the Sox. Jenks came on for a 1-2-3 9th inning to save it for Brandon McCarthy, who pitched two scoreless.

After the game Teddy Ballgame & Nicky V took the Red Line El to 95th where Jocko picked them up, enroute to Harvey, to see some girls, pay them some money (a dollar at a time), and give the Devil his due on 6-6-6. We thought about playing six games of APBA Baseball (66 is the best diceroll in APBA), but decided to see the girlies instead. A bad night in Harvey, beats a good night just about anywhere else. Speaking of 6-6-6, did you see where the ANGELS spanked the DEVIL Rays? The scheduler had to have scheduled them to play each other on 6-6-6 on purpose.

I was hoping I’d be able to write how Northwestern had won, and I can write Northwestern had one, but it’s as in had one hit. Arizona pitcher Alicia Holowell retired the first twelve batters before Jamie Dotson picked up a leadoff 5th inning single, it would be their only hit of the game. The Purple Wildcats hit six homers in their first three games of the playoffs.

Cinderella is hoping the stroke of midnight isn’t coming anytime too soon. Fans from eliminated teams have adopted the underdog Wildcats as their new favorite, record crowds are rooting for them. This is the first time NU has made it to the series, while Arizona has won the title six times since 1991. Let’s see if they can do any better with their backs against the wall.

Northwestern’s Women’s softball team has made it to the NCAA Championship series by beating UCLA over the weekend. NU’s Wildcats (50-13) will play the Arizona Wildcats (52-11) in the best of a three game series. Tammy Williams and Garland Cooper hit back to back jacks in the 8th inning of a tied game, giving NU the win over UCLA 3-1. Junior ace Eileen Canney improved her record to 26-7 beating the number one ranked Bruins (50-9) for the 2nd time this season, she allowed six hits and struckout six.

LET’S GO PURPLE WILDCATS!!!

In the 7th inning of his 57th game Rickie Weeks committed his 20th error of the season at secondbase. The Milwaukee Brewers need to find a solution. Weeks is just three games passed being on a 60 error pace for the season, but seems to be picking up his pace lately with two a game on both Friday & Sunday so he might reach 60 by year’s end. Moving Rickie to CF might be the answer, although the Brew Crew has Brady Clark playing center. Clark is hitting .290 and is a solid defender. As a White Sox fan I have a possible solution, trade Clark to the Chisox for Brandon McCarthy. Since trading Aaron Rowand to the Phillies for Jim Thome, Chicago has been playing without a centerfielder. Brian Anderson’s hitting in the .160s & Rob Mackowiak can’t cover the ground. This trade would help both teams. I’m not saying I don’t like Anderson’s and/or McCarthy’s future, but for the White Sox the future is now. Brandon McCarthy is not cutting it in the bullpen and would step right into Milwaukee’s rotation. Clark would solve the White Sox centerfield problem. Anderson would get his confidence back in the minors. And Rickie Weeks would begin his journey as a major league centerfielder.

Tadahito Iguchi

The White Sox scored a 4th inning TD against the Texas Rangers Saturday night and hung on for an 8-6 win. Bobby Jenks relieved Matt Thornton with the bases loaded, two outs in the top of the 8th, the Sox up by two, and Mark DeRosa at the plate. Tadahito Iguchi went up on his tiptoes to turn at least a game tying line drive into an inning ending out. It turned out to be the difference as a crowd of 38,697 (including Teddy Ballgame) enjoyed the postgame fireworks show.

LET’S GO WHITE SOX!!!

Brady Clark – CF

Took the El to the Cell, it was an amazing night for baseball, what could be better! Waiting for the gates to open there were beautiful girls in feathers dancing. Lemme splain, it was Latin Music night, these beautifully feathered girls were hired to dance to salsa music as part of the festivities, life is good!

Met up with CLuke & his family in the CF stands, after munching down a Garden burger, fries, some corn, and washing it down with a Dew. It’s been awhile since I’ve been among the crowd at the ballpark on the Southside. It was also insurance night at the Cell, CLuke works for an insurance company, but not as a salesman, thank God! Lemme tell you from experience, having an insurance salesman as a friend just can’t happen, they have no friends, only potential clients. There was this guy sitting behind us who was eating peanuts, he chose to eat the shell (I’m a shell eater as well), his girlfriend was compelled to tell him how this wasn’t the proper way to eat peanuts, and the shells are dirty. Why do women feel compelled to control men down to how to eat their peanuts? And why do men allow women to control them, ironic that nuts would be involved, it’d be even more ironic if balls were involved, but no balls makes a statement as well. Maybe that’s why I’m not hooked up, things that make you go, HMMM.

Jon Garland was pitching a pretty good game, 3-2 lead into the 7th, brought on Jeff Nelson, and the game was tied after he faced one batter. Jim Thome was sitting this one out with a strained hammy, so now don’t only we not have a centerfielder or middle relief, we also don’t have the BIG bat we got for Aaron Rowand (still a good deal in my book). The bottom of the White Sox order was Ross Gload (.148), Juan Uribe (.208), & Brian Anderson (.164), not exactly murderers row. Why don’t they just start Anderson off with two strikes to speed the game along? With two outs, man on 1st, the game tied, and Brian at the plate, the skipper had to do something. Ozzie sent up Rob Mackowiak to pinch hit, a long flyball to center was just a little short of giving the Good Guys the lead. It didn’t take the Rangers long to realize the Sox had no centerfielder, as Rob’s effort to impersonate one just wasn’t fooling anyone. Mackowiak caught Jason Botts’ fly, Mc Carthy walked Kinsler, BIG BAD Bobby Jenks was summoned, but Gary Matthews Jr knew what to do. He hit a deep drive to, where else, CENTERFIELD! Of course it was a put them ahead for good double, 4-3 Texas. It was like deja vu all over again, as the night before any other centerfielder in baseball would have caught a ball in center that went for a triple.

There just is no way of hiding it any longer Mackowiak CAN’T play centerfield and Anderson CAN’T hit! Kenny Williams needs to make like Monty Hall & Let’s Make a Deal! Maybe we could get Brady Clark from the Milwaukee Brewers and they could move their centerfielder Rickie Weeks (18th error already) away from secondbase? Or possibly we could trade with the totally confused Tampa Bay Devil Rays? Could Colorado’s Cory Sullivan be had? Possibly Laynce Nix? Where is Timo Perez? Maybe I’m getting a little desperate. Maybe I didn’t realize just how good Aaron Rowand was out there. Anyway something needs to be done, ANYTHING!

The White Sox also need to address their need for middle relief, but that’s a story for another day. Can’t solve all the world’s problems in one day, then what would I do tomorrow? Seriously it’s a beautiful day for a ballgame, think I’ll take another trip to the Cell. Tell you all about it when I get back, I’m bringing my glove just in case Ozzie wants to put me in the game, I CAN PLAY CENTERFIELD!

LET’S GO WHITE SOX!!!

Tuesday is MLB’s annual First-Year Player Draft.  Pitchers tend to dominate the hot prospects this year so expect to see a lot of hurlers picked in the first round. 

Here is the drafting order:

1. Royals
2. Rockies
3. Devil Rays
4. Pirates
5. Mariners
6. Tigers
7. Dodgers
8. Reds
9. Orioles
10. Giants
11. Diamondbacks
12. Rangers
13. Cubs
14. Blue Jays
15. Nationals
16. Brewers
17. Padres
18. Phillies
19. Marlins
20. Twins
21. Yankees
22. Nationals
23. Astros
24. Braves
25. Angels
26. Dodgers
27. Red Sox
28. Red Sox
29. White Sox
30. Cardinals

Who will KC’s #1 be?  Royals blog The Pinetar Rag says at this time it’s up in the air. 

Footnotes from 2005:  Justin Upton was the first player chosen in the 2005 draft.  Ryan Zimmerman, picked 4th in the 2005 draft by the Nats, was first to reach the majors from last year’s draft when he appeared in a game September 1.

A couple of nights ago Scott Sauerbeck was arrested. It seems as though he was the passenger in his car, being driven by a drunken female companion, at 4:30 AM, when a police car observed the vehicle being driven erratically. They avoided the police, pulled into a driveway, got out of the car, and hid in some bushes. That’s when the person who owns the bushes where they’d chosen to play hide-&-seek called the police. Sauerbeck was arrested for allowing a drunk woman to drive his car and there were a few other charges. Scott, who’s married, apologized to his Cleveland Indian teammates for his alleged wrong doings. But now for the kicker, he pleaded NOT GUILTY to the charges! Then why the apology? I guess the moral of the story is, deny, deny, deny.

Bob Waller was Harry Caray’s first TV sidekick with the Chicago White Sox. Believe it or not Caray was just on the radio for the Sox in 1971 & 1972, Jack Drees & Bud Kelly were in the TV booth. Not only that, the White Sox flagship radio station was WTAQ out of LaGrange. The White Sox just switched over to channel 44 in 1973, before that they were on channel 32. Both of these channels were UHF, which was a not a good thing back in the day. There were two types of UHF antenae, neither were capable of drawing in a clear signal. There was the rabbit ear and the circular antenae. You’d go up to your TV, hold the antenae just right, let go to go sitdown, and the fuzziness would return. It was maddening.

I can’t even remember my name today, let alone the details of what I’m doing day-to-day, but I still remember Bob Waller on his last broadcast at the end of the 1974 season.

Chuck Tanner had tried everything to get this ballclub to win, but in the end it just wasn’t enough as the Sox finished 4th in the Western Division with an 80-80 record. This despite the fact the White Sox got productive seasons out of Dick Allen (32 HRs), Ken Henderson (95 RBIs), rookie SS Bucky Dent, workhorse knuckleballer Wilbur Wood (42 starts, 320 IP, 20-19 record), & Jim Kaat (21-13). The White Sox also featured promising youngsters like Jorge Orta (23), Brian Downing (23), Lamar Johnson (23), 22 year old Jerry Hairston Sr, and a superstar on the horizon in 20 year old Nyls Nyman. There was also some promise out on the hill with 24 year old Bart Johnson (10-4 in 18 starts), and a 22 year old bullpen righty/lefty combo of Goose Gossage & Terry Forster. This team also featured veterans Stan Bahnsen, Ron Santo, Bill Melton, & Carlos May. My favorites were Tony Muser and Ed Herrmann.

Bill Melton and Carlos May were slackers is what Waller had to say. He went on to say they just didn’t care about winning and were content not to hustle. Bob said these two players were the reason the White Sox didn’t do better. As a fan it was refreshing to see somebody with the guts to say what was happening on the field. Of course Bob Waller’s days with the White Sox were finished, but it was nice to see him resurface with the A’s the following season.

No, Jerry Hairston Jr isn’t high fiving his Cub teammates on being traded to the first place Texas Rangers for Phil Nevin. What does this trade mean? Does it mean DLee might not be coming back anytime too soon? Does it mean the Cubs may not need four secondbasemen after all?

Phil Nevin will fill in at firstbase for the injured DLee, interesting this deal was made after DLee’s cast came off. Nevin drove in more than 100 runs three times in his career, all for the Padres, his best season coming in 2001 when he launched 41 homers and drove in 126. Phil hit a game winning home run off Huston Street on May 25th.

Don’t really know where Hairston fits in with Texas. Ian Kinsler is the Rangers everyday secondbaseman and Gary Matthews Jr plays CF, with Brad Wilkerson in LF, and Kevin Mench in RF.