Tade called today to say he had a couple of freebies for tonite’s game. I called CLuke who decided to bring his son Tom down to the Cell. Advanced billing had it as a pitcher’s dual between John Danks & Cliff Lee, and advanced billing didn’t lie. Lee came into the action with a record of 11-1, while Danks would surely have at least ten wins with a little better run support. You’ve got to give CLuke credit, putting his record on the line, with Lee on the hill for the Tribe.
Grady Sizemore tracked down Alexei Ramirez’ Cuban Missile in the 2nd inning with the bases loaded that resulted in a sac fly to put the good guys up 1-0. It stayed that way in part because of Joe Crede flashing the leather and a couple of John Danks pickoffs. Jose, Crede’s brother-in-law, stopped by to say hello, NickyV & I know him from our trip to KC & just before, I called him Josh, my bad. Kelly Shoppach smacked Danks’ first pitch of the 6th inning over the leftfield wall to tie the game at one.
Casey Blake put Cleveland up 2-1 ripping one out to left off Matt Thornton in the top of the 10th, Adam Russell put out the fire. The bottom of the lineup, the heart of the order, would face Indians closer Joe Borowski. JoBo got Crede & Swisher, before Alexei Ramirez sent leftfielder Ben Francisco to the track where Alexei’s drive was just out of the grasp of the leaping Francisco to tie the game at two. It was Ramirez’ third track drive of the game, I thought the homer was too high to go out. I wanted to wear my Alexei Ramirez tee shirt, but I didn’t have one, was gonna buy one Monday night, but didn’t, don’t even know if they have them at the ballpark’s gift shop. Anyway the White Sox weren’t finished as pinch-hitter Dewayne Wise lined a single to right. JoBo threw over to firstbase, I could tell Wise was going on the first pitch, the Indians could not, Dewayne stole second easily on a breaking ball, and scored the winning run when Orlando Cabrera’s base hit fell in front of Sizemore. A streaking Wise beat Sizemore’s throw home.
Desperate times call for desperate measures, I moved into the vacated seats with two outs in the bottom of the 10th, to try to keep the streak going, it now stands at 14 wins in a row with me at the games, Adam Russell picked up his 1st win. Bad timing, Steve left to catch his train at the same time I stepped up.
Almost forgot to mention I saw Erick Robertson (of SimYard fame) and his wife Gwen as I was headed into the game. It was a surprise to see Erick at a Sox game, a free ticket, and a pass to the Stadium Club must’ve inspired him to see the light. Robertson usually goes to watch professional baseball in Japan.
I called Tade when I got home to high five him on the win. Tade gave me another freebie for Wednesday night’s game with C.C. Sabathia taking the hill for possibly the last time for the Tribe.
Teddy, I guess its 15 now. :-) A big “thank you” for buying that round of refreshments on Monday, and also for pointing out Minnie Minoso in the crowd.
And Teddy is a little modest: he has a lot of clout down at Comiskey. Before a pitch, he yelled something like “park it Nick” and Swisher promptly hit a grand slam. :-) Obviously, Mr. Ballgame has the power to have home runs hit on his request.
Finally, Teddy you were right and I was wrong-we got to CC pretty good tonight!
It was fun hanging with you, more often would be better. Thanks for stopping by, especially on FOKS night. Next game I’ll be at is 7/21 versus Texas, hopefully the Sox can win w/o me for awhile. I’m going to a four game road series with CLuke to the Metrodome at the end of the month. LET’S GO WHITE SOX!!!
yo Teddy, Nancy F isn’t there any more is she? What have they done with her cubicle?
Canned music isnt the same.
To respond for Teddy: Nancy Faust’s cubicle is sadly vacant for most games. I believe her agreement states that she plays for day games only, and perhaps some special occasions. They still do play a tape of her rendition of “Hey hey hey, good bye” when the White Sox knock an opposing pitcher out of the game.
She certainly is an enduring (since perhaps the mid to late 1960’s) icon of White Sox baseball. It would be hard to believe there is another organist out there with a longer tenure.
And on the subject of canned tunes: you can’t give a World Series ring to a Muzak machine, can you? :-(
CB,
I’m heartened to hear she at least plays on day games.
TBZ