Thursday, November 12, 2009

Billy Pierce

Frequent readers here over the years know how strongly I feel about the great Billy Pierce and that it is a crime the little left-hander is not in the HOF. 

Read this interesting story about the Top 15 pitchers sadly left out of baseball's shrine.

Click here and read about Pierce and Tommy John.

Home Run Derby

Ozzie is in Venezuela this week for his country's annual Home Run Derby (no, not to hit, to watch).

Before he left, he joked to me:

"There will be all of these great hitters there, Abreu, Cabrera, and Carlos Zambrano will win the thing."

Sox Pride

The White Sox did buy a Spanish-language billboard, featuring Ozzie, on the outfield wall of the ballpark in Caracas.  Let me see if I can find a photo of it ...

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Glendale Calling

Here is the White Sox spring training schedule for next March:click here

See if This Works

A cool piece done by our design service crew:

Monday, October 26, 2009

Happy Anniversary

Four years ago today, White Sox fans, October 26, 2005 ...

Sorry, that posted kinda large, but maybe that's appropriate (and I don't know how to make it smaller)

SoxFest 2010

Hotel room packages/tickets went on sale this morning at 10 am and sales were brisk.  Interest already is strong for January's event (January 22-24 to be exact).

You can only order at whitesox.com. Click here.

2-For-2

The great Gordon Beckham claimed his second rookie award today when he was named the MLBPA's 2009 Player's Choice Outstanding AL Rookie. Voting for this award, like that of the Sporting News, is by MLB players.

Each winner receives $20K to donate to a worthy charity.  Word is that Gordon is splitting his award between a charity that fights Parkinson's and The Joyce Thome Foundation.

Ozzie and the World Series

I'm off tomorrow to NYC to join manager Ozzie Guillen and the FOX crew for the 2009 World Series.

Ozzie joined Joe Buck, Tim McCarver and Ed Goren of FOX today for a conference call promoting the series and Ozzie's role in the pre and postgame coverage.

Among his comments:

Ozzie on possibly cursing on air: Don't worry. We have a bet. I'm going to win a lot of money.  
 
Ozzie on the World Series: This could be one of the best. Both teams have speed, power and pitching. 

More Ozzie on the World Series telecast: I only curse and say bad stuff about my team.  
      
Guillen: It's going to be fun. I'll do my best and be myself. I'll talk about what I know. The only thing I know in life is baseball.  
   
More Guillen: Ratings will be up in Venezuela, Columbia and Puerto Rico with people tuning in to watch!  
 
Ozzie Guillen on his FOX World Series gig: It's a great opportunity to work with a group who has been doing the World Series for so long.

Ozzie on instant replay: I think you have to trust the umps. I don't think we need to move anything right now."

Ozzie on the Game 1 starters: I have seen them a lot.  They have different ways of competing.  CC is better than he was in the past.  Lee was having trouble one year, went to AAA, came back and was amazing.  These two have grown up so fast.

Dayan Viciedo

FYI, Arizona Fall League devotees, White Sox player development staff decided to cut Dayan Viciedo's AFL season short due to tendinitis in his elbow (not considered serious in any way). Brent Morel is taking his place.

 

Thursday, October 15, 2009

SoxFest Packages on Sale Oct 26

Mark your calendar.  SoxFest room and ticket packages go on sale at 10 am Monday, October 26, only via whitesox.com.

Saturday/Sunday and individual-day passes will go on sale in the future.  As SoxFest veterans know, the very best way to enjoy the weekend is to get a two-night stay at the Palmer House Hilton.  That way, you get exclusive access on Friday night.

 

 

Tuesday, October 12 (I think), 2009

Arizona Fall League Begins

Play starts today in the Arizona Fall League and seven White Sox are on the Peoria Javelinas. OF Jordan Danks, 3B Dayan Viciedo and INF CJ Retherford (Hawk's favorite) are the position players, while the Javelina pitching staff includes Justin Cassel, Sergio Santos, Jacob Rasner and Matt Long.

If you want to follow the Arizona Fall League on twitter, try @MLBazFallLeague

Handicappers

You are not.

A quick read through your postseason baseball picks shows we may not have a winner of this winter's prize.

Stay tuned, though.

Videotape

For those who asked, I am trying to track down a video tape of KW's Second City appearance Friday night.

 

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Congratulations

To the Minnesota Twins on capturing the AL Central title in dramatic fashion last night with a 6-5 win over the Tigers.

As a baseball fan, I love the first days of the Division Series, with up to three great baseball games a day.  For me, it's like the first games of the NCAA college basketball tournament, only better, because the games generally are better, more compelling.  The only thing that is better is when the White Sox are playing in October. Getting better but still not over it yet ...

Mr. Hilarious

OK, so they are not words that automatically go together, but try "Ken Williams" and "improv comedy" in the same sentence. The Sox GM is helping out a very worthy local cause, Gilda's House, by appearing in an improv show this Friday night. For information and to see who else is appearing, click here.

Postseason Brackets

Readers, submit your picks for this postseason.  Post your winners of each matchup, DS through WS.  When the dust settles after the World Series, we'll crown a champion in some appropriate way.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Thanks

My personal thanks and appreciation to all White Sox fans for a terrific season in 2009.  Thanks for attending, watching, listening, reading, tweeting, following and basically, offering your passion to this team. While the season was frustrating on many counts, I do love this game because even in years where a team falls short of winning a division, baseball offers such great moments: Mark Buehrle's Perfect Game (and DW's catch), President Obama taking the mound at the All-Star Game in St. Louis wearing a Sox jacket and the emergence of Gordon Beckham as a feel-good star of the future. Maybe it's the way the season ended, but I wish we could start 2010 right now ... I can't wait to see Jake Peavy, MB, John Danks and Gavin Floyd (plus whomever) take the mound each day next summer.

I'd love to hear from you all about any of your own personal moments/highlights from the season and maybe what has you fired up -- assuming you are -- about 2010. I'd love to read your replies.

Today

Regardless of who you cheer for or follow, you have to love the drama, excitement and tension of a one-game playoff.  I'm looking forward to watching today's game from Minneapolis.  Who are you cheering for and why? And which team do you think will capture this winner-take-all contest?

Let me know your thoughts ...

 

So as we sit and watch Game 1 of the Twins-Tigers DH today, which team do you want to see win the American League Central (if it's not the White Sox)?

Sunday, September 27, 2009

What A Difference A Year Makes

Driving into the ballpark this morning, I thought of how different the end of 2009 felt from last year at this time when we were finishing a crucial weekend series with a game looming on Monday with the Tigers and a possible playoff-game for that Tuesday.  Granted we still have a week of road games to conclude this year, but it just really struck me this morning how much I missed the excitement, energy and adrenaline we all experienced in 2008.  Perhaps by missing out on it in 2009, we'll appreciate it even more in 2010!

Excitement

I am pleased by the number of Sox fans I speak to who already are excited about the 2010 season in the sense that they look forward to seeing Jake Peavy pitch every five days and are excited about how good our rotation will be.  Certainly we need to figure out why the middle of our lineup struggled so much for most of 2009 (especially the second half) and recreating your bullpen is an annual challenge for every team in baseball, but I do think people are excited.  I'd like to hear how you all feel as we start to close the book on 09 and look for 10.

No Football

Just to be clear, my television is not tuned to football this morning!  I actually watched the United States (with White Sox reps Kirk Champion, Ehren Wassermann, Lucas Harrell and Josh Kroger) win a gold medal at the IBAF World Championships in Italy, beating the Cubans.

I texted my congrats to Champ, who replied that our guys really stepped up and that he really missed buffalo wings!

Ah, I told him, in reply, I am sure the Chianti is tremendous, so everything balances out.

 

Friday, September 25, 2009

Tonight's Lineup

Pods7, Beckham 5, AJ 2, PK 3, Ramirez 6, JD 9, Q dh, Getz 4, Rios 8. Peavy pitching.

Just Saying

If you happened by Bolingbrook Golf Course on Thursday -- very, very early on Thursday -- you might have seen the links grudge match to end all grudge matches: Harold Baines (unbeaten all summer) and Kevin Hickey vs. your correspondent and Mark Salas.

Well, by the end of the morning round -- we teed off in the dark and into the fog -- Salas was dancing a jig ("I saw that," Baines noted) and we did not have to play the 18th hole.

"Go ahead and celebrate," Baines told Salas, "You just went 1-20."

"Yeah, but it's good to go out on top, a champion," Salas replied.

Because of a 10:30 am outing, we decided we needed to tee off at 6:30 am.  Only problem was, none of us Einsteins thought about whether the sun would be up by then! Add in the fog, and the first hole was played in utter darkness, low visibility and silence (we were the only ones out there).

Four hours later, a new champion had been crowned.

God save the king.

Pregame

Prior to batting practice, Jerry Reinsdorf presented Mark Buehrle with a specially commissioned ring to commemorate his Perfect Game this July (and he gave Buehrle a second ring for Mark's dad). The team also presented Mark with a specially designed display case (done by our great in-house designer Gareth Breunlin) that included hand-written notes from his teammates and color copies of newspapers from around the country from July 24.