Growing up in small town Virginia has always made it difficult to be a baseball fan.  With no team quite close enough to call your own, you search as a kid for someone or something to help guide your decision.  Would it be those St. Louis Cardinals that my father called his own?  No thanks.  Could it be the geographically closest Baltimore Orioles and their squeaky clean Cal Ripken Jr.  Not a chance.  Then of course I would take the easy route and fall in love with those early 90's Braves who seemed to play on TBS every night.  I couldn't stand them.  So as a youngster growing up I was drawn to the overwhelming size, strength, and pure hitting talent that Frank Thomas brought to the table.  He was enough to get me to pay attention, and once I started watching, I fell in love with the Chicago White Sox.

                    Despite almost NEVER getting to see actual games because WGN showed mainly Cubs games, I grew up loving the White Sox.  Through the years it hasn't always been easy, hell more often than not it's been hard.  However, I never lost faith because as I got older I knew that the one thing I could always count on was the Big Hurt hitting .300 and depositing at least 30 HR in the seats.  Sure the latter years saw that average dip and the attitude spike, but he was my guy.  Scratch that, he was the White Sox' guy.  The face of a franchise that I was proud of and to this day am still proud of.  I could sit here and ramble on and on about his Hall of Fame worth statistics, his monumental home runs, the countless memories growing up and just being in awe of the Hurt.  I am forever thankful that Frank was around for 2005 despite being injured much of the year.

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                     To me Frank Thomas is the face of the Sox organization bar none.  There will always be older fans who will talk about Aparicio, Baines, or Shoeless Joe and they all will have their points.  2 MVP awards and 500 home runs speaks volumes for where he should stand in this city.  This is why I feel like it's time for Kenny Williams to do the right thing.  Thomas has yet to officially retire and something tells me he is going to give it one more go this spring.  Unfortunately I believe his time has come.  If this is officially going to be the end for Frank Thomas and no one signs him before the end of the spring then it is Kenny Williams place to make things right.  Reinsdorf and Williams should swallow their pride, take back the barbs that were thrown by both sides during Frank's departure.  The White Sox owe it to themselves, Frank, and most importantly fans like me to sign Thomas to a one day contract so that he can officially retire a member of my beloved White Sox.  If not for the Big Hurt I would probably never have visited the Cell and more than likely would be a Braves fan writing about how great Javier Vazquez is.

Link (I hope I did this right, I'm new at computers)

 

Here are some pictures that I felt complemented this story nicely, I hope you agree (I'm just typing words to fulfill the 75 word minimum which I think is some marxist healthcare regulation horseshit)

 

Oh you look fabulous

 

Throwback jersey makes Denard a happy boy

 

 

I'm sure someone posted this stuff before it was even official and this news is old but whatever, go stick it

Poll

How does this make you feel

• You da man
• FNS
• I enjoy the company of cats, what of it
• I will kill the next bitch who gives me shit about her laundry
• Fangraphs, it exists
• Haha, you're an old Jew, OPOS

  50 votes | Results

via multimedia.onlineathens.com

UGA honored Beckham after the first quarter at the UGA v. Auburn for his 2 Rookie of the Year awards.

 

The shirt Beckham is wearing is in support of Chance Veazey. He is a freshman at UGA, and was coming in expected to be a big time contributor to the UGA baseball team. He batted close to .450 in high school. A few weeks ago, Veazey was in an accident while leaving the student learning center. His scooter slid into the car that pulled out in front of him. He is now paralyzed from the waist down.

It is nice to see that Beckham is keeping up with his former team, and showing support like that. Where some players getting the kind of attention and money Beckham is would come back wearing some fancy designer suit, Beckham is not above sporting a t-shirt. The amount of support for Veazey has been incredible, and its nice to see the savior join in. If only he really could perform a miracle here.

 

oh, and please keep Veazey in your thoughts. He is strong and fighting hard to walk again, but he still needs any and all support he can get!

The White Sox are interested in Adrian Gonzalez.

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The Arizona Fall League is winding down.  The Peoria Javelinas, for whom White Sox prospects play, have clinched their division so they'll be hosting the championship game on Saturday November 21.  The game will be live on MLB network at 1:30 pm and also will be streamed on mlb.com.

If you're looking for an easy way to follow the stats of all the winter ballas, mlb.com has created a site for each team's players.  Link to White Sox here.  As previously discussed, there isn't much outside the AFL other than Clevelan Santeliz and Jon Link (and now Jhonny Nunez).  But if you want to know how Phil Rogers favorite Stefan Gartrell or new acquisition Alejandro De Aza are doing in the Dominican Winter League, you won't be wasting a lot of time combing through various team sites.

Prospect list season is upon us.  Kevin Goldstein at Baseball Prospectus will be publishing his this week.

I remember hearing about this during my impressionable years while playing in high school. I was never much of a pitcher, but I've had my moments. I get called to make my first start. Gave up 4 bombs in the second inning, and moved back to my position at second. Took a hot grounder to the nose and there was no bad hop...just straight in and out of my mitt and right up in the face. Who knows, things may have been different if I woulda dropped a hit of acid instead of smokin the Wednesday Weed before the game???

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2009/11/figgins-too-expensive-for-white-sox-podsednik-talks-heat-up.html

Really frustrating knowing that a team that is right there on the verge of taking control of a division for a couple of years not going out and getting at least one big free agent signing. Kenny already said that hes going to wait until close to spring training to look at the DH position to get a bargain deal which was fine with me until I read this post on mlbtraderumors. Podsednik gave us a good year last year but still gave us headaches with his defense and awful base running.

If we trade Jenks I don't see how we couldnt afford Figgins. I don't mind Teahen in the outfield but putting him at 3rd is a bad idea. We could look at WAR and all that but getting Figgins gives us our leadoff hitter and a great defensive 3rd baseman. That's what the Sox are looking for right, leadoff hitter and becoming better defensively. Figgins, a bargain DH, and a relief pitcher isn't asking for to much. With the staring rotation we have, I mean look at the possible lineup:

3B- Figgins
2B- Beckham
RF- Quentin
DH- ?Thome...whoever (bargain price veteran)
1B- Konerko
C- Pierzynski
CF- Rios
LF- Teahen
SS- Ramirez

With rotation set and looking like one of the better one's in the league and with that lineup, if we could get a reliable bullpen arm maybe in a Jenks trade, we would be set. Just reading that they won't sign a big free agent really is disappointing. We have no expensive bench players, we trade Jenks, Linebrink is sadly our most expensive bullpen arm, Thorton is 2.25 million but thats a bargain. This roster would still be alot less then 2008 payroll, plus look at 2011, Konerko and AJ will probably be gone. We have AJ's replacement already in Flowers who we have under control for awhile and will be cheap and with Konerko we either resign for cheaper or put Viciedo or another option there. Plus this whole defensive idea, Pods in left, Teahen at 3rd is awful. Figgins at 3rd, Teahen in the outfield is much better.

Not happy about the way Kennys "talking" about this offseason so far, hopefully it is what it is, talk, we all know Ken loves suprising us good or bad. We'll see but right now it's frustrating.

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Sunday, November 8, 2009

The ignorants who censor us

The Cuban Insider reporting inside Cuba

Every October reminds me of the phrase associated with this month. October stands for “World Series”. This article is for those like me who have fought agaisnt the censorship in order to keep alive the dream of watching MLB.

Since I was born, there have been no transmision of any Major Leagues games in Cuba. The newspapers do not cover National League games. The TV play by play announcers have never called a home run in the American League. No Media outlet have published the stats for a MLB season. There have not been any reference anywhere in the Media about the World Series Champion in more than four decades. This has been going on for too long. It is an absurd aberration, but it is reality.

During the WBC I and II, the Cuban Media made sporadic and despective references about MLB. The Communist media uses the euphemism term “the so called Major Leagues” to refer to MLB. The Cuban authorities pretend to forge a doubt in Cuban people minds about the mere existence of MLB. They have been living in denial for all these years. However, their quest falls short. I am sure they even lose their sleep trying to block any news about MLB.

Every year, some Cuban fans manage to circumvent the censorship in order to watch our favorite MLB teams and players. We employ many unconventional methods and resources to watch a MLB games. Even the French philosopher, mathematician, physicist, and writer, René Descartes, could not match our inventions. Therefore, blocking access to blogs, web sites and emails is a lost cause for those who have the power and use it to censor.

Cubans were following MLB baseball anyway we could. A few friends are willing to share information among each other so we could be informed about the World Series. Baseball is our national pastime too.

I do not know if we are fighting another battle against our demons or simply against those who prohibit us the pleasure of watching Major League games. It is absurd in order to watch the Yankees in the 21st Century, Cubans have to make illegal satelite dishes anyway we can and avoid being caught. The World Series started in the last week in October. A few lucky Cubans like me are enjoying the World Series joyfully.

Greetings from one of the Old Habana City parks, Cuba
http://cubanballplayers.blogspot.com/2009/11/ignorants-who-censor-us.html  

 

 

 

Q: Where the hell did this ridiculous nickname come from?

A: Mully and Hanley

 

Q: Why is Bacon not a funny nickname?

A: Mully and Hanley

 

Q: What the hell does Bacon have to do with Gordon Beckham?

A: ?

 

Bacon is really becoming an obnoxious nickname for many reasons. First off, some loudmouth moron and a stuttering buffoon on the score tagged our savior with this nickname. Secondly, this nickname has apparently caught steam... I have seen numerous SSS posters refer to Gordon as "bacon" to my dismay. Why? Bacon is a fatty protein used for many dishes. Beckham is a lean mean right center hitting machine. No correlation there.Lastly,  I don't get it, stop using it. Peace.

Fox Sports adds Guillen to booth

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/baseball/mlb/10/21/guillen.fox/index.html

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