Opening Day in the Books

The White Sox opened up the season with a hard fought 3-2 defeat yesterday in Arlington. John Danks took the ball for the Sox and threw a nice game. Ian Kinsler burned him a couple of times which led to two runs. Addison Reed and Matt Thornton threw well out of the bullpen as the Sox limited the powerful Rangers lineup to 3 runs.

Of course, that wasn't good enough. The Sox outhit the Rangers 8-6, but couldn't a a big one as they went 0-7 with RISP. Brent Morel wins the goat of the game award as he went 0-4 with the golden sombrero, an error, a pop up he could have had near the camera well and he booted a sure double play ball, having to settle for only getting the out at first. The missed opportunity ended up costing the Sox the game winning run. It really couldn't have been a worse day for Morel.

On the bright side, the Sox last opened their season in Texas in 2000. They weren't highly regarded that year either and got beat 10-4. That team ended up being pretty darn good as they went on to win the AL Central divison. Maybe history can repeat itself.

Random Musings:

* Lets take another look at the Adam Dunn bomb. He looked good at the plate today, also drawing a walk and lining out hard to first. I would like to warn though, that Dunn had a better game on opening day last season, so lets not all proclaim he's back yet.

* The White Sox signed Kip Wells to a contract. Wells attended the exhibition game against Houston as a fan and convinced Don Cooper to let him throw a bullpen session. Wells was hitting 93 MPH and was signed to a minor league deal. He's going to extended spring training. Wells was a first round pick in 1998 for the Sox. He was pretty highly touted at the time, and I actually got to see his Major League debut in Detroit at Tiger Stadium back in 1999. Wells and the Sox won the game 6-2, and I thought we had a pretty good pitcher on our hands. After a couple of disappointing seasons he was traded to the Pirates for Todd Ritchie and was an afterthought until now. Here is hoping he can help out a little bit. I'm a sucker for a feel good story every now and then.

* Frank Thomas has signed on to be part of White Sox broadcasts again this season. Now that Big Hurt Beer is up and running, Big Frank is coming back to the studio to join Bill Melton and Chuck Garfien for White Sox pre and post game live. Frank will also write a mailbag for CSNChicago.com and will also do his Big Hurt TV segment.

* Former White Sox Carlos Lee hit the 350th home run of his career today. It was a towering shot over the train thingy in Houston. I remember being at the Cell for his first one, which happened to come in his first at bat on May 7th, 1999 against Tom Candiotti and the A's. I guess I'm getting old because this and the Kip Wells game doesn't seem to be all that long ago.

* Adam Dunn and Lee hit some bombs today, but none were more impressive than my man Yoenis Cespedes' shot off of Justin Vargas. Watch this one fly. I'm obviously still not over losing out on getting this guy.

* Last week, I ran my yearly predictions post. I included a google document that a few people decided to fill out. Here are the results. Five of the six division winners I picked out won the majority of the vote: Yankees, Tigers, Angels, Phillies and Reds. The Giants were picked to win the NL West in the community ballot, I had the Diamondbacks.

* Game two of the season features Jake Peavy, who has been saying is pain and injury free for the first time since he's been in a Sox uniform taking on playoff sensation Derek Holland. It will be interesting to see how the Sox fare against a lefty.

* I can't wait until the home opener on Friday the 13th! Opening Day isn't as exciting when it happens on the road in my opinion.