Chicago Sports Talk

i was oh so glad to see the sweepiliciousness of this weekend.  i was kinda bummed after last week, i mean, who wants to see their team lose?  and who wants to see them get swept?  and really, who wants to see any of that happen from the cubs?  either way, great matchups both weekends, and in the end 33-33 is fine by me. 

so, like i have said i love interleague play especially the classic.  i love the trash talking, high-5ing, funny shirt wearing, screaming myself dizzy, singing “Let’s go go go White Sox”… and all around electricity that goes on during Sox-Cubs games!  speaking of the shirts though – 2 really stick out in my mind – there was this one guy that had a picture on one side of his shirt with a pic of the trophy with the words “Sox Parade”, and then on the other side there was a pic of 2 guys under a rainbow with the words ” Cubs Parade.”  the other funny shirt I saw had a caption “Animal Cruelty” and had a beefy White Sox player beating a cub (but a bear, not a person) with a bat. 

OH, and by far one of the funniest parts of the weekend was when I walked past the boys bathroom.  ha! gotta love a paragraph that starts out that way. =P  but there were a bunch of dudes standing around and i found out why – there was this lone voice in the boys bathroom singing, “Go Sox Go” over and over again.  oh, if it wasn’t super gross and he wasn’t peeing, and in the boys bathroom i would have given that guy a hi-5!

but getting to the baseball of the weekend because it was about that after all.  i was so super proud of my boyfriend Matt Thornton! and while Boone Logan, Scott Linebrink, and Bobby Jenks aren’t my boyfriends, they all turned in outstanding performances.  although i would have liked to see big Adam Russell.  ALSO – i was happy to see that after Aramis Ramirez decided to go yard i don’t know how many times last week that he was 0-13 this weekend!  wooooo!  and while the cubs had several times to score our bullpen stayed strong and in the end we served those cubbies a piece of humble pie.  you can’t ever count out the WHITE SOX! 

16 runs last night.  wowzers.  that’s how it should be.  last year when the White Sox were slumping, or really began their slump – i was in Philly and PIttsburgh to watch the Phildelphia Phillies and the Pittsburgh Pirates romp on my Sox.  UGH!  it was so horrible.  that is why i am super excited that we beat the crap out of the Pirates yesterday.  i mean at some point it becomes overkill, but i think that all of those 16 runs yesterday were the Sox just blowing off some steam.  and really the Pirates are a team that you just have to beat.  they aren’t very good, and if we beat those kinds of teams then we should be in good shape for the rest of the season. 

what we really need to STOP is the sulking after a bad inning.  our pitchers really need to learn to shake off a bad inning.  even if it ends up that we lose because of the bad inning we need to limit the badness to that one inning and rely on the offense to make up for it.  1/2 of the rest of the team’s job is scoring runs anyway.  you can’t win if you don’t score runs.  word!  GO SOX!

i have been a little frustrated as of late with my white sox. i hate having the minnesota twins AND cleveland indians ahead of us in the standings. not to mention all of the other divisions seem to have much better records than the AL Central. people say it’s because the AL Central is tough this year, but we won’t know until we are done playing with ourselves. whoa, that didn’t come out right. well, you know we have been playing mostly AL Central teams so far. yea yea, you knew what i meant. =P

anyway, it just seems like in the case of the White Sox that things are just not clicking together. we either have good pitching and not so good hitting (or basically nonexistent) or we have tons of runs and the pitchers can’t pitch strikes. actually while we (I) are talking about pitching strikes does anyone notice that in many cases we get a reliever into the game with one purpose and one purpose only and that is to throw strikes? tell me why 9 times out of 10 we throw a first pitch ball, or walk the guy! i think that is just not what relievers are supposed to do. the worst that happens is someone hits a homerun. but really while i don’t want a homer, at least the batter earns that. when we walk people we aren’t even giving ourselves a chance!

either way we have had some unfortunate events and we haven’t been as consistent as i would like, but i know we can win games. we have the stuff! come on white sox! woooo, let’s win some games, even if we have to beat my jon garland this series.

aside from an almost no-hitter and all around great performance by Gavin Floyd we neeed that win yesterday!  if we can sweep them we are right back in first where we belong.  not that losing 6 in a row means we belong in first but our record until then says so.  however i don’t think there is an excuse for not scoring a run at all in a game or being outscored 19-9 on this road trip.  yea, i am sure that Toronto’s pitching was good but you can’t win if you don’t score at least a run.

 i can’t really comment on specifics of the games of this last road trip because i have been out of town and therefore not able to catch a game.  i can comment on yesterday’s game though.  i thought Gavin Floyd did an outstanding job, obviously.  there were a couple of walks that were close and could have gone a different way.  but overall a 1-hitter is not to shabby.  there was not much we could have done to prevent that Joe Mauer hit from dropping.  it was hit hard to the gap and Nick Swisher made a nice attempt to run that ball down.  at least there was no scoring, and i am glad whenever the relievers go after the hitters. 

Jermaine Dye (and well the White Sox as a whole) was all kinds of aggressive in the batter’s box yesterday.  i just knew when JD walked up to the plate in the 6th that there were going to be some fireworks.  and what about Juan Uribe??  he seems to be standing a little more straight up in the box, and maybe the new batting stance is going to change the way he sees pitches.  i mean, i hope he starts to see pitches better because he tends to swing at all the crap and let the cookies fly right by. 

 i can’t end this story without some reference to Nick Swisher’s facial hair.  WTF is my only comment on that.  i guess it is what it is and i’ll take it if it means we win! 

 GO SOX!

It’s April and fans are still optimistic. Both Chicago teams have winning records, as a matter of fact, they have identical records. Can they both reach the playoffs? Yes. Can they both reach the World Series? Yes. A lot has to happen, but look at how good teams do it

The recipe for winning hasn’t changed over the the years. The intangibles help, but except for good luck they’re overrated. Good cubhouse chemistry, rah-rah guys, intense personalities, are all good, if you win. The same intagibles are considered a cancer in the clubhouse if you lose. Good pitching, good defense, timely hitting and avoiding or playing through key injuries add up to championships.

Do the Cubbies have the ingredients? Starting pitching, middle relief and their new closer all look solid. Some of the pitchers are in new roles and aren’t proven. Yet. Time will tell. Defense is a little shaky at times, but can be very impressive at other times. D-Lee is great, Fukudome is solid too. Pinella is good at making a defensive move if a guy doesn’t cut it, so it might seem like someone isn’t clicking early on, but he’ll get it right in the end, guaranteed. The hitters don’t have to pound the ball like they are now, but if D-Lee is consistent, if A. Ramirez stays interested the whole year, and if Soriano goes on the DL for a long time, letting a less selfish guy play, the lineup is strong. And again, trust in Sweet Lou to get it right on offense too.

How about the Chi-Sox? Do they have what it takes? Kenny Williams did another good job in the off season. Pitching? The starters are good, and have the potential to be one of the best. Kenny’s signings of Octavio Dotel and Linebrink are excellent. And Jenks is Jenks. The infield D is one of, if not the best in the A.L.The outfield is solid too. Hitting is timely so far and the big boppers are not even rolling yet.

So let’s get World Serious, and order those World Series tickets now! And then sit back, enjoy the season and wait for the Sox-Cubs battle. We can watch the Sox sip champagne at the end of the series.

So the first two weeks of baseball are in the books, and the White Sox are in first place–long way too go!

I just saw on ESPN this morning that the Tigers literally have the worst statistics in almost every offensive and pitching category. Unbelivable for a team that was to compete for a World Series. Again, though, long season ahead of us.

Joe Crede continues to stay red hot at the plate and leades the MLB with 15 RBIs. My prediction is that if Crede can stay healthy, the White Sox should be atop the VERY competitive AL Central. To me, his glove and bat are critical to White Sox success this year.

So my first game of the year got postponed til June. Not sure if that is a good sign or a bad one.

Friends with better work schedules

So three of my really good friends all have work off today (two of which either don’t have jobs or are about to start a new one)…kinda makes me jealous and realize I might be better off in a better profession. Dave, good luck on the new job…

New lounge discovery

I am normally not a huge fan of fancy places, but I grabbed some drinks at Pops for Champagne on State Street, and I must say the place was pretty fun last Saturday night. What type of place do I normally go to, well…it’s been a couple of years, but I went to the Billy Goat on Friday night!

Paul “Moving Along”

So I have all my stuff finally settled into my new place. Couches, t.v., dishes, towels, etc. etc. etc.–it seems like so much STUFF!!!  House party soon!

so, i’m intrigued by the results of baseball’s first week of the 2008 season. i mean i am obviously most interested in the white sox and what they are up to, but really i’m thinking that this is going to be a good year for baseball! first of all, i like the fact that they keep making the season longer. i love going to sox games and also the fact that they are all in HD! WOO! what i don’t like is that work has decided to be dumb and block my usage of the gameday portion of the white sox website. therefore i have watched about 3 hours total this week of white sox baseball, and the majority of that was while my boys lost to cleveland on wednesday night. so basically i haven’t known what was happening until the games were over and sportscenter was showing me the highlights of the game. ALSO, how awesome is it that detroit hasn’t won a game and they were swept by KC?

can we also talk about bad decisions made in the off season? so everyone who knows me knows how bitter i am at ken williams for trading my jon garland. not only am i super bummed because i always wanted to me mrs. garland…BUT i think he is a really good pitcher. his first game of the season exemplified his talents perfectly. i also don’t think it was a very fair trade. i mean a solid, consistent pitcher for a shortstop? infielders we are not short on, it’s good, solid pitching that can take us through the season. i mean i don’t want to be out of the race before we even start! i know it’s way too early to tell anything, but geez.

If you would have told me that the White Sox would score eight runs on Opening Day facing Indians starting pitcher C.C. Sabathia (5 runs off him), I would have said we were on our way to an easy win. I mean with Buerhle on the mound, who I would consider one of the more reliable pitchers, it should have been a given. However, like so many White Sox opening days, we started off on the wrong foot. Speaking of Buerhle, what happened today!!!??? SEVEN earned runs in 1 2/3 of an inning! The positives are that Jim Thome dropped two home runs–last time a White Sox  player did that you ask??? Try cork-batted, steroid injecting, club house cancer Sammy Sosa in 1991. Another strong offensive statement was that every player besides CF Alexei Ramirez contributed to 13 hits.Thinking back to Opening Days, I remember in 1991 going to the Grand Opening of the ugliest ballpark ever constructed–then New Comiskey Park–and witnessing a  16-0 massacre. The only nice thing about that day you ask…missing school! So at least the White Sox were respectable today, and I can guarantee you one thing: Mark Buerhle’s 37.80 era will improve. SIDE NOTE: Ozzie Guillen is planning to hold an open forum discussion before every series. Not sure if I am digging this Phil Jackson zen-like approach. What happened to the old Ozzie of him being the dictator? 

Hi-oh! so i’m janet and this is my blog. i’ll mostly talk about the white sox here, but i will probably also talk about rugby and my bruises or some big manly girl that knocked me on my ass in that week’s match. i don’t consider myself to be the white sox know-it-all by any means, but i do have wikipedia at my fingertips and i can probably tell you the marital status of 99% of the current and former white sox players off the top of my head.

additionally i am going to go ahead and apologize ahead of time for the inevitable offensive remark that will come from me. when it comes to the white sox and my dislike for the cubs i’m pretty passionate about my views. but please comment on any of my comments, that’s what this is all about!

see ya!

Hey everyone!

Just wanted to give you a quick introduction to my blog on chicagosportstalk.com. If you have any questions about who I am, or why in the world I would be writing this blog, just check my biography.

My main focus of my page will be on baseball, and while I will ridicule the Cubs from time-to-time, writing about the White Sox will be my priority.

So whether you want to talk about certain players, minor league prospects, game experiences or if you just want to rant about how Jimbo’s will be no more….then feel free to do so here.

Fire away!
Paul