A week ago yesterday I attended my second Blog night hosted by Scott Reifert and the Chicago White Sox. Scott is the vp of communications for the team and has run his blog Inside the White Sox since the 2005 season. That first season I was on there a lot talking Sox. Then they went and won the whole dang thing and the traffic shot up (bringing the quality of discussion down in my humble opinion) which lead to my full-time participation at South Side Sox.

  I meant to get this down earlier, since Blog night the Sox have had a perfect game from Buehrle, a losing series at Detroit and at Minnesota(despite Buehrle being perfect through 5.2). The Sox have struggled defensively in the outfield costing them at least a game vs. both AL Central contenders. But you already knew that.

  Back to reality for Scott Podsednik, .272 avg, .681 OPS, 3 SB, 4 CS so far this month.

  This post isn't about the week that was, its about the event that was last week.

  So sit back relax and strap it down. White Sox baseball coming your way.

  First of all, blog night is a great deal. The tickets were $20 even and they come with all kinds of perks. They give you a blog night t-shirt, a media guide, a 2009 yearbook, a copy of the current White Sox magazine, and this year they even had cookies! Twenty bones well spent right there.  Never mind the lower level seat and the fact you get to talk to some of the higher ups in the organization.

  You meet in the media center where they do the post game interviews with Ozzie and the players. The fans attending the event sit out where the press normally would and get to lob questions at the esteemed guests. In 2008 the line up was Scott Riefert, Steve Stone, Moose Skowron and assistant GM Rick Hahn. I have nothing but the utmost respect for Steve Stone, I feel like he understands the game better than almost anyone I can think of. Moose Skowron pulls no punches and is a down to earth baseball historian. This is a tough act to follow. 

  In 2009 we got Ron Kittle in the place of Moose. Now I enjoy this guy, he was the minister in my wedding as a matter of fact(Moose acting as witness) but he said something that sort of rubbed me the wrong way. His belief is that the Sox will never have a rivalry like that of the Yankees and the Red Sox, not even with the Cubs and his reasoning was because Boston/NY goes back to the early 1900s. I saw Reifert cringe with this, probably because he was thinking the same thing as me. The Sox beat the Cubs in the World Series in 1906! No one brought this up. He went on to say that Ricky Henderson dogged it in his opinion and should have won more MVPs. Its my belief he should have won more MVPs anyway, but whatever. Next up was Rick Hahn, which is a great way to get the pulse of the franchise and I really enjoyed listening to him both years. Its only a matter of time before some other club steals him away to run their franchise and the Sox will be weaker because of it. The highlight of his Q&A was when someone asked him how long until Josh Fields was off his three year board. He was stymied and had to laugh saying that was brutal side stepping the question. There were several cheer leader types in attendance so the big talking point was Brian Anderson and why he was wronged. No mention of his 2 for 40 lifetime with the bases loaded performance or his career .225 average. There wasnt a lot of hard hitting questions if any at all.

  The final guest was the chairman himself, Jerry Reinsdorf. He seemed to be a pretty down to earth guy and talked candidly with the crowd. He was genuinely touched when talking about 2005. He mentioned all the Sox decorations on grave stones and got in a little shot how it was nice to win before 'the other guys'. The event fell on my brothers birthday so I had a little buzz heading in, but I managed to stammer my way through a question about the possibility of adding payroll and JR assured me that the Sox were players on the trade front who felt they had a chance to win it all this year.

We ducked out on the group photo so we could get a bite and a brew and still catch the first pitch. Plus, I dont really feel like a part of that group. Im more of a lurker at Inside the White Sox, not much of a participant. It was a great time, the game was cruising along behind a solid start by Richard, and then Jenks took a crap in my cereal. No big deal, I fully expect him to bounce back and remain a solid closer from here on out. The division is wide open two days before the trade deadline and I cant wait to watch how it plays out.

Go Sox.