Exile in Wrigleyville

Time flies

It didn't occur to me that Thursday was the first anniversary of the White Sox clinching the 2005 World Series in Houston till the afternoon, when one of my co-workers said, "Happy anniversary," to me. It took me a second, but then I got it.

I guess I haven't allowed myself to look back in the last few weeks, because I've been planning to watch the six games available on the commemorative edition DVD set after the baseball season is complete. (Those games are: the clinchers of the series against the Red Sox and Angels and the four World Series games.) I did think about last season for a few moments Wednesday night, because I walked through the intersection of LaSalle and Wacker on the way to meet some friends for a beer. I'll always think of the rally when I walk through that intersection.

All the emotions about that day a year ago come back in a flood when I read the post that I wrote after Game 4. It's occurred to me, looking back at that post, and a short one that I wrote after Game 3, that I never really wrote about the actual games. I plan to do that, with quotes from the game notes that I took the first time, when I watch the DVDs over the next few weeks. I've been waiting till the end of the season to tear off the plastic on that DVD set. No matter who prevails in the World Series, it won't be long now. Pretty soon, FOX will stop showing A.J. Pierzynski jumping into the arms of Bobby Jenks, replacing them with a similar scene involving Tigers or Cardinals. That's OK. I'll be able to watch Pierzynski and Jenks as often as I want to.

(Music to write by, "And This Is Our Music," Brian Jonestown Massacre.)

Old and new

First off, my apologies for taking three weeks between posts after launching this new home for EIW. I've been extraordinarily busy the last month. I appreciate your indulgence. Second, this is just a quick post to get back into the swing of things. I'm hoping I'll be like a shooter in basketball who has missed a few shots to start the game and this post is like getting to the line for a couple of free throws -- make 'em, and the shooter sometimes gets on a roll.

A few weeks ago, baseball-reference.com released its 2006 update, adding the statistics of the regular season to one of the most useful sites on the web. I have sponsored a handful of pages on bb-ref, but I was down to just two: Mark Buehrle and Ed Farmer. I let sponsorships of Neal Cotts, Aaron Rowand and Juan Uribe lapse this summer and one of José Valentín in 2005. Over time, the pages become more expensive if you keep sponsoring them, much like real players do as they accrue service time, or they leave the Sox, like Valentín. So I was looking forward not only to the updated stats, but also to the pages of players who made their debuts during the 2006 season. In particular, I was interested in Sox rookie third baseman Josh Fields. Now, I wasn't willing to pay the $200 price tag to sponsor the site for a year that was initially posted there. So I waited. I wrote Fields's name on a calendar so I would remember to check it Monday, knowing that it would be down to $10 -- the prices count down at $10 per day until someone pays to sponsor the page. Thankfully, no one beat me to his page.

I wanted to support bb-ref more than just $10. I wanted, too, to sponsor a page that makes a nod toward the early Sox teams that I cheered for. I started with the 1977 South Side Hit Men page, but I barely remember that team, truthfully. The 1978 White Sox were the first team that I was able to follow in any detail. I found a player on that team who was perfect for my purposes -- Thad Bosley. Bosley was the star of the first game that I attended, so of course, he was my favorite player for a while. Coincidentally, for a North Side Sox fan, Bosley made his way to the Cubs and probably had the best season or two of his career with them. I remember looking his page up a couple of years ago, and a Cubs fan sponsored his page. I'm glad to have the opportunity to sponsor it now.

Why I'm here

When I titled this entry, I didn't think it would be such a tough question to answer. I mean, ultimately, I'm here because as a six-year-old living in the near north suburbs, I somehow latched on to the Chicago White Sox. I'm sure the great season the 1977 South Side Hitmen were having had something to do with it, but no one in my family really remembers. The big dash of stubbornness that I inherited from my father explains why I remained a White Sox fan even as everyone around me went for the Cubs in 1984.

In a more direct way, I'm here because, after two years and eight months of writing a White Sox blog on my own, the burden of trying to write enough to make it worthwhile for readers to check out my blog overwhelmed me. I'm lucky that I have a good friend and fine blogger like Jim willing to take me in and let me be a part of Sox Machine. With that burden of flying solo now lifted off me, I hope that I'll be able to resume writing more in-depth articles about the White Sox -- where they've been and where they're headed. I hope you'll take the time to read my posts, intermittent though they may be.

Who I'm rooting for

The Oakland A's are easily my favorite team among the eight teams that qualified for the playoffs this season. The biggest reason is that Frank Thomas bats clean-up for the A's. I was so happy this afternoon as I followed along during Oakland's 3-2 win over the Twins. Thomas hit a pair of solo home runs, one in the second and one in the ninth, that proved the difference in the game. The ninth-inning home run gave the A's a 3-1 lead and provided the cushion that Oakland closer Huston Street needed in the bottom of the ninth.

I want Thomas to have a great time of it in the playoffs this year. He wasn't able to play for the White Sox last postseason, and too many people focus solely on his struggles in the 2000 American League Division Series loss to the Seattle Mariners (0-for-9 with four walks) and forget what he did in the 1993 AL Championship Series (.353/.593/.529 with 10 walks). I want him to have the chance to squelch the nonsense talk that the White Sox won last year becaue he wasn't playing. The 2005 Sox had their best offensive stretch of the season when Thomas played. As for the team's past failures, it sure as hell wasn't Frank Thomas's fault that the White Sox employed a manager like Terry Bevington during some of Thomas's most productive years in the mid-1990s or that the team ran through an awful collection of fifth starters in 2003 that killed their chances to overtake the Twins.

Speaking of Minnesota, that's another good reason to root for the A's. I liked the Twins fans that I met in Minneapolis when I went there in 2004, but the Twins fans who come to the Cell are a different breed: loud, obnoxious, cocky. I told a friend who grew up in the Boston area and loves the Red Sox that I would root for any team against the Twins, including the Yankees. I'm sure he wasn't too happy to read that in an email from me, but that's how much I dislike Twins fans. I have a fairly positive view of the Yankees, actually, as I really enjoyed the three games I saw at Yankee Stadium last year. The fans there were outstanding -- friendly, good baseball fans who were a lot more welcoming of a guy walking around in a White Sox jersey and cap than I expected. I probably would still root for the Tigers against the Yankees if I thought the Tigers had a prayer of winning that series. I found most of the Tigers fans who came to the Cell this year to be good fans, fun to be around and not obnoxious. I wish I had more optimism for their chances, but Tuesday night's 8-4 win by the Yankees is what I expect this series to look like.

In the National League, I'm rooting for the San Diego Padres. For one, the Padres have never won the World Series, while the other three NL playoff teams all won the Series in the 1980s. Two, I met some great Padres fans through Baseball Think Factory about a year and a half ago, and I'd love to see their team deliver for them the way the Sox delivered for us last year. Well, unless the Padres play Frank Thomas and the A's. The Padres dropped the first game of their series against St. Louis, 5-1. I have nothing against the Los Angels Dodgers or Cardinals. I have nothing for them, either, although I do enjoy watching Greg Maddux and Albert Pujols. As for the New York Mets, I don't really have anything against them, either, and they even employ one of my favorite former White Sox, Orland "El Duque" Hernández (who injured his calf Tuesday and may miss his expected start in Wednesday's series opener). The only thing is, I know a Mets fan who would never stop talking about it if the Mets won, so I'll be rooting against them. Unless they face the Twins.