Tag Archives: act of nature

May 25, 2011 · 11:51 pm

A new barometer for wackyness. Or: I think we were all delerious by the end of last night’s game.

I blame the White Sox for the fact I was a zombie all day today. If I hadn’t checked twitter before going to bed,I wouldn’t have been up half of the night (with a few other crazy diehards on twitter) watching the Sox beat the Rangers.

In the end, though, I’m glad I stayed up for it. Not only was it a win (and, turned out to be our only win this series), but I think everyone lost their minds a little during the weather delay and came back not quite at full capacity afterwards.

  • Josh Hamilton sliding (head first) in to first. And, second. And, third. IN A ROW.
  • Brent Morel swinging and missing when trying to tag Josh Hamilton out at third – after advancing on a wild pitch – or, a terrible call by the umps, one or the other (depends ify you’re drinking the ChiSox or the Rangers’ kool-aid).
  • Santos tagging David Murphy on the way to first for the second-to-last out of the game and a little drama about the call.
  • Adam Dunn improbably hitting a home run.
  • Juan Pierre manages to steal 2nd base AND successfully bunting.
  • The final out of the game also coming on a controversial score, so AJ tagging the batter with his glove while he trotted out from behind home plate – continuing his mission of making friends wherever he goes.
  • The see-saw score (White Sox – Rangers):
    Top 5th: 4-2
    Bottom 5th: 4-4
    Top 6th: 6-4
    Bottom 6th: 6-5
    Top 7th:7-5
    Bottom 8th:7-6
    Top 9th:8-6
  • Somehow, even after letting in two runs and giving up our 4-2 lead for a 4-4 tie, Tony Pena manages to collect the win, giving Jake Peavy a no-decision. As we already knew, the win/loss/hold/save designations could use a little re-vamping.
  • Lets not forget the runway show that was the path between the ChiSox bullpen and the pitcher’s mound. A different reliever started every inning for the ChiSox. When Santos had to bail out Thonton at the bottom of the 8th, we had used our entire bullpen. It was like the auditon for who is getting the boot out of the bullpen (or, at least down the pecking order) when they go back to a 5-man rotation. Holds for Sale, Crain and Thornton and a save for Santos. I wonder if Willl Ohman feels left out.
  • And, finally, being up with about 18 other diehards on twitter, watching all of these shenanigans unfold, right before our (very delerious) eyes.

Kudos to the very small number of fans who stuck it out at the game last night. Sorry it didn’t go your way (well, not really!), but your enthusiasm kept the momentum swinging, early into the morning. There are probably more than a few kids who didn’t have to go to school today in Arlington.

And, beacuse that recap is approximately the size of a small novel, and posting about Gavin Floyd collecting a loss (especially after a good outing), and also posting about a game that I could not watch, I am going to limit my commentary on today’s game to:

The three hits that Gavin gave up are apparently the smallest number ever given up that resulted in a win at the Rangers ballpark. And, the White Sox continuing to be their own undoing, failing on the run support and grounding into double plays like it is going out of style.

And, finally:

These boys need to get their act together. For my brother’s birthday, I am packing up and taking it on the road and we are catching the two weekend games of this weekend’s series in Toronto! I’m going to be one of the lone fans in black and white this weekend, so I’m going need a little back-up from the field.

Go Sox!

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May 24, 2011 · 10:05 pm

It was a dark and stormy night. Or: I don’t like when my baseball comes with an intermission.

We’re in a rain delay down in Texas.

Actually, it’s not really so much a rain delay as it is “everybody run for cover, Mother Nature is pissed” delay.

Too bad, really. Now that we’re getting a little momentum going (thanks to Carlos Quentin and 2-for-2 with 2 home runs!), having everything grind to a halt before it is an official game is kind of a giant bummer.

However, not to dminish his accomplishments, it feels good to have Carlos Quentin back in the line-up. Welcome back, CQ.

So, I’m flipping back and forth between the rain weather delay and Tampa Bay @ Detroit, where they just brought in Alburquerque into the game at a typical Jesse Cain moment. Top of the 8th, bases loaded, one out. Between this, the top of the 9th when Matt Joyce actually made a dent in the right-field wall with his knee (during a play that should end up all over the highlight reel tonight) and the bottom of the 9th that I caught of Jays @ NYY, there’s drama all over the American League tonight.

And, now, we wait. Probably until tomorrow, but I’ve got another few hours of patience left in me and a big tub of ice cream, so we’ll just have to see how the night unfolds.

(Edited to say: According to those in the know (ie: twitter), there is baseball-sized hail coming down. Stay safe down there, y’all. I think Mother Nature has closed the book on this one.

You can say a lot of things, good and bad, about the 2011 ChiSox season. But, I thnk it would be fair to say that “boring” is not the first thing that comes to mind.

Stay safe in Texas, y’all.)

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May 21, 2011 · 3:28 am

A tough loss to the Dodgers. Or: Blogging after a loss brings out my whiny side.

If, time and again, I can forgive Gavin Floyd for being, well, Gavin Floyd and occasionally forgetting how to pitch, I can forgive Sergio Santos for tonight’s outing (and probably a few more besides) – as painful as it was. It happens to everyone, eventually. It’s going to take more than that for me to start worrying when I see him warming up in the ‘pen. Sometimes, it is just not your day.

Which, yes, tonight’s loss was kind of all-around painful (I guess I have gotten more used to winning lately than I realized. Winning is fun! Can you blame me?), but it also highlighted a few of the things that have been bothering me this season.

Most notably, I am now going to take the opportunity to whine about the thing that is currently bothering me the most. So much so that I don’t even have to think twice about trying to come up with the thing that is currently bothering me the most. :p (The remainder of this post is brought to you by the fact that a friend of mine texted me to inform me that tonight’s game was the free mlb.tv game of the day and I caught the middle 75% of the game at work. Free mlb! A mixed blessing tonight, I think. :) )

Warning: You are about to enter a free-for-all whining zone. Proceed at your own risk.

The pitch counter. Everyone needs to stop looking at the pitch counter. Particularly with the starters. We have a 6-man rotation. We’re not following the rules, SO WHY IS EVERYONE WHO CALLS THE SHOTS MARRIED TO THE PITCH COUNTER? I don’t understand.

Does it matter so much if someone throws 120 pitches when he gets 5 days of rest instead of 4? Pitching is so much a mental game that I just don’t understand when someone is in a groove, throwing well (like tonight, with Humber and then with Crain), that we automatically can’t send them out in the 8th inning? The whole ‘We have a set-up man. We must use him’ mentality. What would happen if the pitcher feels good and wants to go out and finish (more of, if not the whole, job) and the coaches just let him? Now, when everyone in the starting rotation gets an extra day off, is the time to try.

Or, conversely, when (like tonight, with Santos, or Gavin’s start against Oakland last week) nothing is going right and the pitcher’s rhythm is off and things are just basically falling apart, we have to watch the started struggle through 2 or 3 or more rough innings, just because they’re the starter and the should be pitching 6 or so innings or around 100 pitches? What would be so wrong with pulling out one of your long relievers (or, in a real bind, one of your well-rested starters)?

I know that I am probably blowing a lot of hot air, and I know that I know way less about strategy and timing and the ins-and-outs of managing a baseball team than everyone who is involved in the White Sox organization (probably even less than the dude who gets coffee and makes the photocopies, really), but I guess, as an outsider, I don’t understand how we can break convention and have a 6-man starting rotation, but can’t seem to ever think outside of the box when it comes to anything else with the pitching staff.

No comprendo, señores. No comprendo.

And, now I’m done with the whining. My frustrations have been aired and I am ready to move on to bigger and better things tomorrow. My optimism is (mostly) alive and well in the month of May and I still love this team.

Here’s hoping for a fog-free day at The Cell tomorrow.

Go, Sox!

Peace out, y’all.

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April 30, 2011 · 7:08 pm

Okay. Power of positive thinking. Or: Go team, go!

pomspoms.gif Alright. Here we go.

Last chance to salvage a couple of more good memories in April.

It’s windy and wild and generally ominous outside.

It’s hard to not to have pre-emptive similar feelings on the inside as we get started at The Cell.

I’m employing the power of positive thinking and wishing for good defense tonight. I’m not wishing for everything else – I’m wiling to start somewhere.

Tonight’s line up was good on paper when the season started. But, today, it might be pretty shaky.

Alright, here we go.

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April 16, 2011 · 4:41 pm

And, the rain continues to fall. Or: Here we go again.

Well, it seems like the entire east coast is wet, soggy, cold and miserable.

charliebrown-baseball-rain.jpg

Even the games that aren’t delayed or postponed seem to be going on with some less than desirable weather. Not exactly a fun afternoon at the ballpark for anyone east of Chicago today.

They (whoever “they” are) tell me that the Sox are still expected to play starting at the top of the hour. So, maybe we are in for another game like last night. Rain coming down for pretty much the whole game, raging winds, the Halos bundled up in their fleeces, and 2 separate rain delays.

We didn’t play terribly (at least, there was nothing epically terrible to complain about – we were kind of just generally blah) all things considered, but it didn’t work out so well for us yesterday and I’m not all that eager to relive it today.

So, click [here] for a not-quite-family-friendly picture that sums up how I feel about the rain situation today.

So, for the moment, I just finished up the Reds/Pirates game (I hope Juan Francisco can walk off whatever was causing him to hop to first in the bottom of the 8th) and now I’m killing time with Rays/Twins. A roof is looking like a good thing right about now, because no matter what “they” say – the weather looks pretty miserable and I’m not holding my breath.

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