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The Chicago White Sox FINALLY did it!!! It was a long time coming. There were alot of nay sayers out there, not the least of which was Jay Mariotti. Seems like only yesterday he was predicting gloom & doom on the Southside of Chicago. The Southside of Chicago is the baddest part of town and if you go down there you better just beward of a man named Leroy Brown, oh yeah, & the Chicago White Sox!!!

The last time the White Sox won the World Series was 1917, before the Black Sox Scandal, before the baseball commissioner took it upon himself to gut the ballclub of its stars. Why oh why couldn’t we have a baseball commissioner like Bud Selig who must’ve been better at selling used cars than he is at running MLB??? Somehow I believe Selig would have had to have taken the bets himself to have believed any wrong doing among the Black Sox. Rafael Palmeiro is still the ONLY major league baseball player nailed to the wall for taking steroids, even though just looking at Barry Bonds you’d know he’s been on the juice. But surely I digress…

This is about the White Sox backing in to capture the AL Central Crown. Not really sure how you can back into anything with the 2nd best record in baseball. And even though NOBODY predicted the White Sox for post season play, support for Ozzie Guillen for AL Manager of the Year seems to have disappeared. Not sure I understand why. Eric Wedge seems to have gained momentum, even though the Cleveland Indians might not even make the AL playoffs as a wild card team. Congrats to Ozzie Guillen & his GO GO WHITE SOX!!! Here’s hoping for a CHICAGO WHITE SOX CHAMPIONSHIP!!! GO SOX GO!!!

Nick & I drove 12 hours from Toronto to Chicago a week ago Sunday. The trip wasn’t that bad, even though it was made worse by the fact that I developed some type of upper resp thingy Saturday night (hope I’m not allergic to stripper’s perfume). Monday I extended my baseball trip one more night by going to the Cell to see if the White Sox could win one against the hard charging Ceveland Indians. I wish somebody could get those “naked Ozzie” pictures away from Damaso Marte. The White Sox took the lead in the bottom of the 7th 5-4 after trailing 4-0, but then Ozzie made some bad decisions. Rather than either leaving Neal Cotts in to pitch the top of the 8th or bring in Cliff Politte, Guillen started off with Luis Vizcaino getting Jhonny Peralta before giving way to Marte. Damaso walked the hot hitting Travis Hafner, Victor Martinez got a double, and then Ben Broussard struckout. With the go ahead run on 2nd fastball pitcher Bobby Jenks was brought on to get fastball hitter Aaron Boone, who ripped a two run single off a Jenks’ fastball to give the Tribe the lead. Then Dustin Hermanson gave up an insurance run in the 9th before Bob Wickman set the Sox down for a 7-5 Indian winner. GO SOX GO!!!

Halfway to driving from Pittsburgh to Toronto to see the Bronx Bombers battle the Toronto Blue Jays, Nick checked our tickets. Sure enough the game was a 4:05 start rather a 7:05 PM start, OOPS! We ended up getting to our seats in the 3rd inning. The Yankees had already scored the only run that would be scored that afternoon, not really sure how. Gustavo Chacin of the Blue Jays was matched up against Shawn Chacon for the Yanks, with Chacon coming out on the winning side. The surprise came when Yankee skipper Joe Torre called on Flash Gordon rather than Mariano Rivera to close out the game.

First time to Toronto… The ballpark is a typical indoor facility, felt like a shopping mall. Thus far there have been 47 shootings in Toronto, which has Canadians up in arms. 47 shootings is a good weekend in Chicago. U2 was playing in town, but we had more important things to get to after the game. First we grabbed some Thai food and then checked out a local club. The cover was only $6.00 Canadian, which is almost nothing American. The club was awesome, all the girls were beautiful, and nobody was stuck on themselves. And our parking only cost $3.00 Canadian, which is like why even bother. Got to talking with the parking guy from Iraq, he left in 1992. He was telling me how his 19 year old cousin was recently killed by an Apache helicopter, she was 8 months pregnant, no wonder they’re not having parades for us!

I’m watching a meaningless game on TV between the Washington Nationals and the San Francisco Giants. The Nats are playing alot of their youngsters, namely 20 year old rookie Ryan Zimmerman and 32 year old rookie Rick Short. The long and the short (no pun intended) of it just combined on back to back doubles to knock Giant starter Brett Tomko out of the game. Well anyway the announcers keep talking about Rick Short. Turns out the Elgin, IL native attended Western Illinois University and got his first call up to the show this season, he cried when told he was being called up. Short batted .383, with 35 doubles, 11 HRs, walked 46 times, while only striking out 27 times while playing this year for the New Orleans Zephyrs.

Played an APBA series with Nick Thursday in Cleveland before heading to Pittsburgh for a double header featuring the Buccos versus the Cincinnati Reds. Grabbed a Primanti Brothers Sandwich before the game at PNC, everything’s on it from cole slaw to fries. Then met up with Nick’s cousin Ray & Captain Will who just relocated to Pittsburgh. Zach Duke was going for the Pirates in the opener, but left the game after throwing just 74 pitches. It was his first start since rolling his ankle on the basepaths. It also turned out to be his first loss of his career after a 6-0 start. He trailed 1-0 after four innings of play. The Reds added seven more runs against five Pittsburgh relievers making the final 8-2. Captain Will shook hands with former Pirate & White Sox skipper Chuck Tanner. Under the theory that nobody wins doubleheaders Nick placed a bet on the Buccos in the nite cap. It took a two run rally in the bottom of the 9th after a rain delay to prove that theory as the Pirates split with the Redlegs, winning game #2, 5-4. We all had our rally caps on, Captain Will was shaking his hat like he was making Jiffy Pop Popcorn, whatever it takes. As we were leaving PNC (my favorite ballpark) some guy yells out, “Hey Tedd!” Turns out he’s a Reds fan who remembered me from APBA’s 50th Anniversary Convention a couple of years ago in Lancaster, PA. Joe was still busting me for not winning a game in the tournament with the 1976 Cincinnati Reds. Joe is a big Reds fan and still was all over me for batting Joe Morgan 1st, Johnny Bench 2nd, & Pete Rose 3rd. Small world, huh. After the game we had some fun at a local club. At one point Nick was wondering where I’d gone, but then he looked over to see a pair of long girl legs in the air of where I was and figured I was doing okay.

Scientists have been spying on whether we’ve been washing our hands.  At least if you’re a Braves fan.  The American Society of Microbiology has done a study on whether people wash their hands after going to restroom.  They did this study in many public places including Turner Field. 

The results weren’t encouraging.

 The worst hygiene was at Atlanta’s Turner Field baseball stadium, where 37 percent of men left the bathroom without washing, and 16 percent of the women did.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We arrived in Cleveland to watch the Indians take on the Oakland A’s. The Indians seem to have put it all together just in time to put some serious pressure on my Chicago White Sox. We had a delicious meal at a local bar with Nick’s cousin, the President of the Cleveland Barrons & their GM, and a new good friend. The skies erupted and we got really wet, but luckily we were able to dry off with drinks in the Sky Club, very nice. Even though I’m a big White Sox fan I had to pick up Victor Martinez & Grady Sizemore tee shirts, because they’re on my APBA team. Jake Westbrook lost his perfect game, no hitter, and shutout in the 6th inning. Jay Payton started the rally with a walk, Marco Scutaro followed that up with a basehit, and Nick Swisher belted a bomb to put Oakland up three nothing. The Tribe got the momentum back when Ronnie Belliard launched a three run shot into the leftfield stands to tie the game at three. Belliard put Cleveland up with an RBI single, the Indians went on to win 6-4. Then the team watched as the White Sox blew a lead in KC and lost 10-9 to the Royals. I didn’t find out the Sox had lost till coming home at 3:00 AM. Went to a couple of great clubs in Cleveland, where we saw Ronnie Belliard celebrating at one place. Before heading to bed there was time to check out Steve’s Hot Dog place on 44th, nothing like it!

Our 2nd game in our 2005 baseball trip was between the Minnesota Twins and the Detroit Tigers. After driving from Chicago to Detroit we checked into our motel near Dearborn and headed to the ballpark. We got to the park before the gates opened, which only gave us plenty of reason to stop off for dinner at Leo’s. I had a veggie gyro with fries, very yummy! Picked up a Jeremy Bonderman tee shirt as he’s on my APBA team. Nate Robertson would be the fool on the hill for the Tigers, opposed by Brad Radke. Matthew LeCroy did some yard work for the Twinkies, but it would be Luis Rivas’ three run shot, his 1st of the year, that iced it. Robertson’s 1-7 with a 6.79 ERA in his last ten starts. Final score 9-3 at Comerica Park. After the game we made it to one of my favorite haunts where one of the girls Calindra remembered me from last year. We’re such geeks that we kept looking around the girls to catch glimpses of Baseball Tonite on TV.

Went to Wrigley Field to see the Cubbies battle the Cincinnati Reds Monday night 9/12. While most everybody’s minds seemed to be focused on football with the NFL season opening the day before, Nick & I were getting set for our annual baseball trip. Both of us were dressed in our Cubby blue, which is kinda funny seeing Nick’s a Yankee fan and I’m a White Sox supporter. But on this night I was pulling for Greg Maddux. Maddux needed to win out to get 15 wins this year to keep his streak of 15 win seasons going. We got to our seats in time to see the Reds taking batting practice. Wily Mo Pena was launching ball after ball out onto Waveland Avenue during BP. Nobody must’ve put much into the BP session as Pena was batting 8th in the order. Javier Valentin hit a solo shot off Maddux and then Pena followed it with one of his own to give the Reds a 2-1 lead. Valentin was batting .600 off Greg lifetime, while Wily Mo had a .400 lifetime mark against the former Cy Young Winner. Sure enough Pena added a three run bomb in the top of the 9th to seal the deal, making it 5-1, before the Cubs scored a run in the bottom of the frame to make the final 5-2. It looks like Dusty Baker will juggle his pitching rotation to get Maddux another start in his quest for 15 wins. GO GREG GO!!!

I just found out Luis Gonzalez has won the 2005 Branch Rickey Award for community service.  Luis is on my Twin City Thunderchickens APBA team.  So it’s always nice to hear that a player of mine is good for something more than just playing ball. 

I won’t go into detail what all he did to deserve the award.  You can read the ESPN article yourself.  I did get a kick out of the name of his foundation, Kids Go Gonzo for School.

This makes me 2 for 2.  My APBA firstbasemen Albert Pujols was nominated for the Roberto Clemente award.  I must know how to pick the do-gooders.  Well, I had Kevin Brown for the 2004 season.  But note I traded him after one year.  Must not have done enough community service or something.

Bud Selig will present Gonzo with the award later in November.