Pardon my recovery time...

I had the pleasure of personally watching Edwin Jackson make what just might be the best strut in baseball out to the mound multiple times yesterday. The day was foggy but the result was clear: Jackson has some great stuff. He went 8 full innings striking out 13 and walking only Ray. The Rays offense has been pretty anemic since the season began but that doesn’t make the outing any less impressive. With only 1 run allowed, the offense didn’t have to work too hard. That’s not to say that they didn’t do their share. Despite Adam Dunn’s best efforts to talk himself back into the starting lineup, the Sox opened up the season on the South Side by scoring a pair in the first against David Price sans their DH. Contributions came from enough places that Carlos Quentin decided he could relax a little bit. He took a walk and got plunked (the first of many I’m sure) en route to a hitless day.

I know I put the caveat out about the offense and the competition that we were facing. It looks like pulling off a pair of wins in Cleveland might not be as easy as it seemed.

In related news, the Sox will face an officially Manny-less Rays within minutes of this writing. After failing his 2nd MLB drug test, ManRam has opted to retire rather than facing the music, which comes in the form of a 100 game suspension. It’s a little bit sad to see the Manny show depart from baseball. His hitting obviously dwindled over the last couple of years but a lot could be said of his entertainment value. To think that he and Pedro Martinez were on the same team for a stretch seems a little surreal while looking back. Those are 2 characters that really never got too old for me to watch.

No time for BBQ

It’s been 24 innings since we last spoke. That was the longest 2 game series I’ve ever seen. If I remember correctly our last visit to KC in 2010 involved multiple extra inning games as well. So many Arthur Bryant reservations wasted.

Tuesday night’s game made me a little sick to watch, and I’m not the only one. After an instant hit attack against Luke Hochever, the Sox hitters decided to take it easy for the evening, and the bullpen got jealous. Allowing the suddenly hard hitting Royals to edge back in and win their 4th consecutive game in the final at-bat.

Today was more of the same, but a bit of a reversal as the Royals jumped out to the early league that Carlos Quentin went ahead and ruined. Have I mentioned that Carlos may be back? A timely double forced the game into extras yet again until Brent Morel, smart guy that he is, decided he’d had enough and was ready to bring the party back to Chicago.

A split in Kansas City isn’t exactly inspired baseball, but momentum is there for the start of the home season. We luck out a bit in the 4 game series with the Rays as Evan Longoria, who is pretty clearly their best player, is going to miss the entire series with a strained oblique. Couple that with a squad that is sporting an 0-5 record and it’s clear that the confidence level isn’t exactly at its peak. We do have the unfortunate experience as a team (though quite fortunate as spectators) of facing David Price in the opener. I’m hoping for many more bombs, much less bunting and I’d welcome 4 more W’s with open arms.

For you kind folks heading to watch the season officially start here in Chicago, I’ll see you there. To the rest, sit back, relax and strap it down. White Sox baseball is coming your way.

The wrong trifecta

Do you like triple plays? Sure, we all do. Almost on cue from my comments yesterday, a bunt was called for in a situation that I don’t think called for it, with disastrous results. Alexei Ramirez failed to execute on a bunt summoned to move the runners from 1st and 2nd over and the Indians were able to turn it into a triple play. Obviously this is the very extreme worst case result of a batter “giving himself up,” but it only reinforces the stupidity of the act in the first place. If you’ve got the talent to swing the bat, just do it. We’ve got a lineup full of professional hitters, they may as well be able to go ahead and do that. Enough went wrong today that you can’t really hang the loss on it, but it’s certainly not something you like to achieve regularly.

Speaking of went wrong, Will Ohman has managed to slide seamlessly into the role of Scott Linebrink. It’s a pretty impressive move, really. To figure out your role within a team that quickly will save you plenty of awkward "feel out" time. While the other newcomers aren’t quite sure who to sit next to on the flights, who to engage in serious conversation and who the best guy to challenge to an Xbox battle is, Ohman is already well aware of those answers. Nobody, nobody and nobody.

While yesterday I tried to slow the praise of the hit parade by pointing to competition. Today I’ll try to temper the negativity by pointing at sample size. The hitting will come to earth, and eventually we won’t all cringe the moment we see Ohman start stretching in the bullpen. I’m sure he is a very nice fella that the rest of the team just loves to play video games with.

A huge plus out of today was John Danks. Outside of serving up a long ball to Orlando Cabrera in the 6th, he looked excellent striking out 8 while only walking 1. If there were any questions about a pitcher's ability to perform with a toothache, they were surely answered today.

That said, 2 out of 3 every series will put us right where we want to be. Now it’s off to KC for a quick set against the, ahem, first place Kansas City Royals. Mostly I’m looking forward to hearing Hawk repeatedly butcher pronunciation of Kila Ka’aihue.

2

No, that was not my submission for the “guess the attendance” game at Progressive field today. 2 as in the second game of the year, the second day of raking, the second day of giving up more runs than we probably should have while still keeping in line for the win. Having listened to game 1 on the radio, today was my first actual look at the 2011 squad. As nice as it was to watch the mashing continue, seeing the empty seats far outnumber the filled ones in Cleveland drove home a very important fact. This is Cleveland. Nonetheless, I was impressed with the way each and every one of the Sox players swung the bat today.

A plus: More Carlos Quentin. Not only did he make solid contact, he made solid contact to right center. That’s the Carlos stroke that we need to be seeing on a regular basis. He keeps taking pitches that way with authority and he then has the freedom to yank 400 footers to straightaway left from time to time.

A minus: Brent Morel had a small hiccup. Well, 2 hiccups as it will show up in the stat sheet. He had some trouble with a play at third and then in an effort to make up for it sailed one over Konerko’s head earning him 2 quick errors. That’s not the play I’m referring to, though. And actually, it’s not really Morel’s hiccup. It belongs to Ozzie. With runners on 1st and 2nd Ozzie called for Brent to lay down a sacrifice bunt, which he failed to execute on, resulting at a force out of Pierzynski at 3rd base. It makes absolutely no sense to bunt in that situation. To me it was just a chance for the skipper to make sure that the new kid will do what he wants, and maybe that’s an important point to make to him. However everybody on the team is swinging the bat very well right now. For what reason would you take the bat out of any of their hands? Rarely is a bunt actually worth anything. It’s worth less for every little bit the hitter is more capable than Mario Mendoza. This was a bit of an issue in the past when the same thing was constantly being asked of Gordon Beckham hitting out of the 2 hole. I’d like to see slumps NOT get jump started out of the dugout.

Let’s keep the swinging going and take a break from the mistake by the lake.

Well that went well

The last time the Sox opened up the year in Cleveland, Jose Contreras’ wife decided to wait until that morning to hit him with divorce papers. Being the emotionally sensitive fella that he is, it was a little bit of a struggle for him to keep his personal life from affecting his game. I’m not trying to make any commentary on women being intentionally vindictive (I think my lovely fiancé would take issue with that), simply offering a possibility as to why the day didn’t go so well. In fact, the season didn’t go so well after that. The 2007 season pretty much followed the example of game 1 and the Sox turned in their worst season in recent memory. It goes without saying that this Opening Day went much better. Right out of the gates the Sox dared Hawk to drop the “don’t stop now boys…” as much as was humanly possible as Fausto Carmona and company had 2 TDs dropped on them in fairly rapid fashion. We saw what we can only hope is a return to TCQ, as the bearded one provided 5 RBIs and a long ball on a 4 for 5 day. The other Sox homerun came from Adam Dunn, who is probably the player we were next most eager to see homer. Every starter not named Rios got on the board, but considering the way he kept us afloat early last season, it’s certainly something we should be willing to forgive. All of that happened before the wheels threatened to come off. On a cold April afternoon, when pitchers are expected to be their best, the Sox staff played down to the competition. Buehrle went a few strong innings before having a little trouble, but once the bullpen entered it was open season for the Indians. After giving back a touchdown, the ship was righted and we came away with the win.

I have mixed emotions from the game. It was Opening Day. Opening Day sets the tone for the season. You would think just for the fans, but it seems the team is influenced as well. In 2007, a terrible start led to a terrible season. In 2005 a 1-0 game led to a season in which we overachieved behind strong pitching, winning more than our share of 1 run games. In 2008 we won ugly and managed to take the division in the same manner. If today is any indication, we’ve got a wild ride in front of us, with a lot of ugly games ending with a tally in the “W” column.

If any of you are like me, and I like to think you are, having today in the books is enough. I had a hard time not taking every person I encountered by the shoulders, shaking them with glee exclaiming, “it’s opening day! It all starts today!” The way I see it, we all walked down the street today smiling at strangers, and that’s the way I like it.

The Extra 2% (or How I Learned to Stop Fake Blogging and Start a Fake Book Review)

Jonah Keri’s The Extra 2%: How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major Baseball Team from Worst to First is at face value, the story of how the Tampa Bay Rays overcame the huge spending deficit they face aligned in the same division as the Red Sox and Yankees to claim their first World Series appearance (not to mention winning season) in franchise history. In order to tell that story, many layers have to be peeled back. It wasn’t an accident and the Rays didn’t just get lucky (well, not entirely). A seemingly plain shift in the standings does in fact require an entire book to explain.

Building a baseball team starts early. It’s a long process to build a winner and Keri does an excellent job of starting at the beginning. Not just the start of their winning, not just the start of the current management regime or even the start of the Devil Rays. By beginning I mean from the beginning stages of the Tampa area vying for a Major League Team. He even delves into how Chicago's questionable political integrity helped to get Tropicana Field was built years before they had anybody to play there after Jerry Reinsdorf and company threatened to move the White Sox down to Florida if money wasn’t received to build a replacement for the aging Comiskey Park. Obviously, that never happened, after some crafty Daley influenced and Governor Thompson executed "clockwork". It was an interesting road to acquisition, including many more false positives, that must have been absolutely heartbreaking for baseball fans of the area longing for a local rooting interest.

Save for some fairly high draft picks inherited by the previous ownerships terrible finishes, the real story of the current Rays, post twilight-ing Wade Boggs, Fred McGriff and Jose Canseco types, doesn’t begin until the new ownership group took over the cellar dwelling team. Armed with the knowledge imparted over the course of their various successful Wall Street careers, the group found new innovative and cost efficient ways to evaluate talent in order to acquire undervalued quality players through the draft, international signings and careful perusal of the scrap heap. Taking their time and doing it the right way, they were able to build a team that would not only be able to compete for one year, but maintain that level of competition for years to come.

The book’s main takeaway, aside an extreme sense of relief at the White Sox not being in the AL East, is the huge role that economics and MLB politics play in the sport. In order to thrive, a team really must have things covered from all angles.

It’s a baseball book that is not bogged down with stats to turn off the more casual fan, while opening them up to viewing the game from a non-traditional angle. For the serious baseball head, it glimpses into aspects of the game that may have not been previously explored in detail. For me personally, it created a great curiosity in the economics of the game that go beyond just salary amounts.


On a very related note, alongside the blog there is now a list of some of my favorite baseball related books. The Sox have off days people, so go read one!

The Contest

Paul Lukas at ESPN’s UNI WATCH has published an article featuring the story of how those super hip White Sox uniforms of my childhood came into being. It’s kind of funny because I was just talking the other day about how they arrived via a fan contest. Anyway, the article goes into some detail, and I recommend the read.

It got me thinking of my uniform preference. I’ve always attributed the place the mid-eighties uniforms hold in my heart to pure timing. It was during those years that I first started to form my taste for baseball. Naturally those unis call to mind the cliché memories of innocent youth complete with a Cub hatred that hadn’t yet fully formed, despite my already existent south side preference. I don’t think my age group is unique in a fondness for the white, blue and red S-O-X double knits. Anyone alive at the time, regardless of age, had to have felt a huge wave of relief just to see the collared jobs go away. There is no doubt that the pullovers worn from 82 until about 86 are my favorites. Rounding out my top 3, though, are two more looks that were worn over the years that create pretty much my entire fanhood.

The diagonal S-O-X is easy to identify with. It’s a resurrected logo that we’ve been varying on since the early 1950’s. We've been sporting it in black, white and sometimes gray since 1991 and still rock it today. It also represents the 2005 World Series winning team, which surely makes it look a bit better to Sox fans. One might refer to it as our “classic” look. They’re simple, they’re easy on the eyes and carry a feeling of tradition.

It’s hard to say when the cursive lettering started showing up with the red and blue color scheme. I say this because the WhiteSox.com Uniform History has decided for some strange reason to pretend they didn’t exist. My memory, though respectable, doesn’t go back in enough detail to recall an exact year for the change. The seasons in question, though being worn around by not terribly impressive Sox teams, excepting the 1990 squad, are also a look that I just identify with childhood, and therefore appreciate.

An honorable mention to these 70’s uniforms. Kind of just because this picture of Dick Allen is pretty awesome.