A little January Madness

College basketball is at its full glory right now, with the teams solidly into conference play.

Right now by far the most convincing team in the country is Illinois. They have taken and beaten every challenger this year. They are really deep and really unselfish. I think their one weakness would be they don't have a take over the game type scorer. But all they do is beat everyone

North Carolina was my favorite coming into this season, and they really haven't disappointed. They had a bad loss early in the season and have looked scary ever sense. The finally did lose at Wake Forest, which is nothing to hang your head about. They have an incredible big three, any of whom can take over a game. Their weakness is depth. If Sean May gets into trouble, the team is in trouble.

Duke has been a mild surprise, having survived graduations and NBA leaps to start out the season 16-0 before getting whipped by a depleted Maryland team. Duke did play a weak schedule preconfrence, and will get proven out if they are for real or pretenders during a brutal ACC confrence run.

Boston College has been a huge surprise, now 18-0. They too have played a pretty weak schedule preconfrence, and their biggest test is Syracuse at home. They miss making the trip up to 'Cuse which is a huge advantage as they try to run the table.

Kentucky is another team that has responded well to players leaving and is 17-2, with one of those defeats coming to a one loss Kansas team in a thriller. Kentucky isn't very deep and I don't think they have a very good tourney team this year. They do play a hell of defensive game though that will give some teams fits.

Syracuse could be another team that makes a tourney run as they have some talent on their roster as well. Having one of the best 1-1 players and one of the best pure shooters in the country will be a big benefit, as it will be to have the wiley Jim Boehiem on the bench.

Kansas is a tough and deep team and could make hay in the tourney as well. They have great talent, but are prone to overlooking teams, losing to a far worse Villanova team, and nearly getting beaten by a bad Nebraska team. Self has got to get these guys mentally ready for the tourney.

There are a lot of other good teams out there, I'll post more as I see somemore of them before the Big Dance

Getting to know you...

2005 will have at least 8 new faces on the Southside of Chicago. While trying to get a grip on the face of the team, I was trying to find a Sox team in history to compare them to.

1983 jumped right off the history books at me. 1983 featured Rudy Law and later on, Julio Cruz at the top of the line up giving the Sox two guys who could fly and handle the bat. The 2005 edition has 2004 leading basestealer Scott Podsednik and Japanese import Tadahito Iguchi giving the Sox 100 SB potential at the top of the order for the first time since 1983.

The middle of the 1983 line up featured some quality power hitters as well. Fisk, Kittle, Walker, "The Bull" Greg Luzinski and Harold Baines put fear into pitchers all over the AL. The 2005 Sox feature future Hall of Famer Frank Thomas, Carl Everett, Jermaine Dye, and AL HR runner up Paul Konerko making pitchers quake in their stirups.

They also have Uribe, A.J. Pierzynski, and Crede to shore up the bottom of the line up in 2005. The 83 team featured guys like Vance Law, Scott Fletcher and Jerry Dybzinski at the bottom of their line up.

Pitching was also a trademark of the Winning Ugly teams. Lamar Hoyt led the way as Cy Young, and was backed up by 20 game winner Rich Dotson, Floyd Bannister, Britt Burns, and Jerry Koosman on a staff that had no pitcher less that 169 innings that year. If it got to the pen, Dennis Lamp and Salome Barajas closed things out with a solid middle relief corps. The 2005 version of the Sox features cult hero Shingo Takatsu at the back of the pen, with Damaso Marte, Hermanson, Politte, Milwaukee aquisition Luis Vizcaino, and Neal Cotts doing the dirty work.

Range and defense were spectacular in 83 and shouldn't be any different in 05. The outfield features an Aaron Rowand who plays CF like he was born doing it, and LF Scott Podsednik who is a former CF himself. In RF Dye provides a Harold Baines like no range, cannon arm presence that had burned the Sox on more than one occasion. At Catcher field general A.J. Pierzynski, will provide a presence not seen since Pudge himself called games behind the plate. The infield will be solid with Crede, Uribe, and Iguchi providing great range and arms, and Paul Konerko digging out everything thrown at him.

All in all I can't wait for April 4th, 2005. This is going to be a fun season on the Southside of Chicago.

Riding the Orient Express

According to some Asian sites, including Yahoo Asia, The Chicago White Sox have indeed signed Tadahito Iguchi to be their starting secondbaseman. They got him at $2.3 million per year for two years.

http://asia.news.yahoo.com/050124/kyodo/d87qer781.html

Message Board thread of the year

For a great laugh, copy and paste this thread into your browser. You can't make up stuff like this.

http://www.soxtalk.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=28818&st=0

Here is the first post that starts it...

"I was thinking about this last night for a while because I normally have crazy shit like this flying through my head and wanted to see what some other people thought.

Is it just me or is the Hamburglar the McDonaldland version of Willie Horton? I mean Big Mac the Constable and Mayor McCheese were both hamburgers, so they should have been in touch with the plight of McDonaldland hamburgers everywhere. They should have pushed for more anti-hamburglarizing legislation. But they didn't.

The Hamburglar was free to run around victimizing defenseless burgers. He was caught numerous times and we was not ever convicted! How brazen do you think that sonofabitch would have been if he did a nickel in federal prison the first time he got busted?

Sorry -- but I just wanted to see if anybody else saw this sort of thing...maybe I do have too much time on my hands."

Great read from the BBC

A top Saudi cleric gave his sermon at the annual Islamic Hajj on the stealing of moderate Islam by the radicals. It is a very facinating read, and its not unlike the hijacking of "Christianity" by some of the right wing wakkos who would have you believe that the killing of abortion doctors and gays is OK by God. To me it is culturally interesting when you get past the stereotypes and soundbytes how alike people really are inside.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4191015.stm

"A top Saudi cleric has urged Muslims to shun militant forms of Islam, as pilgrims carry out one of the final rituals of the Hajj.
Militants were using "misguided" interpretations to justify violence, Mecca's Imam Abdul Rahman Sudeis said.

About 2.5 million pilgrims are hurling stones at pillars in Mina, meant to symbolise the rejection of Satan.

Risks of a stampede are greatest at this stage of the ritual, so facilities have been improved by the authorities.

"Because Muslims strayed from moderation, we are now suffering this dangerous phenomenon of branding people infidels and inciting Muslims to rise against their leaders," said Sheikh Abdul Rahman.

His sermon at the Grand Mosque was dedicated to those Muslims performing the Hajj pilgrimage, many of whom were present.

Saudi Arabia has been at the forefront of a global campaign of violence waged by Islamic extremists inspired by al-Qaeda - with scores of deaths in a string of attacks since May 2003.

Pilgrims were able to began the stoning ceremony early after a special fatwa, or religious edict, was issued to prevent a human crush along the walkways past the pillars.

Thousands started arriving after midnight, rather than after dawn prayers, as used to be the case.

"We were worried about the crowds and we had heard some real horror stories, so we feel much better," said one early arrival, Ahmed Sodikin, from Bandung, Indonesia.

Sudanese pilgrim Jamal Adel praised the Saudi authorities for modifying the traditional rules.

"I'm sure God will accept this. It's in the best interest of all."

Last year, 251 pilgrims were trampled to death at Mina.

New foot bridges with emergency exits have been built and three new pillars have been erected that are wider and taller than ones used previously, so more pilgrims can pelt rocks at the same time.

Pebbles are gathered on the plane of Muzdalifa, between Arafat and Mina
About 10,000 police are expected to patrol the area to ensure the smooth flow of the ritual.

The main flow of pilgrims is expected on Thursday afternoon. They will then will then return to Mecca, about 1.5km (one mile) away, to perform more rituals in the Grand Mosque.

The stoning ceremony recalls the Prophet Abraham's throwing stones at Satan who had tried to dissuade him from sacrificing his son Ishmael, according to Islamic tradition.

The Hajj reached its zenith on Wednesday with pilgrims converging on Mount Arafat for an afternoon of prayer and contemplation of God.

Thursday is celebrated around the Muslim world as Eid al-Adha, the most important religious holiday of the year. Pilgrims will resume the stoning ceremony on Friday and Saturday.

Every able-bodied adult Muslim who can afford to make the trip is obliged to perform the Hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam, once in their lives."

A couple of omissions from Soxfest

25. If you ever get the chance to get the deluxe room at the Hyatt Regency, do so. They have some nice extras, including the tempurpedic matresses on the beds. They are as good as advertised. You honestly can't feel your partners movements in the bed at all.

26. There is a reason Tim Raines's nickname was the "Rock" He wore a short sleeve shirt to the openning ceremonies, and damn were his forearms HUGE! He looked like he could go out and hit a ball 450 feet today.

Soxfest 2005 Review

This was my favorite Soxfest ever. Met a lot of new people, and hung out with a lot of good friends. From beginning to end it was a great time.

Now for some observations

1. Carl Everett is one cool dude. The reputation this guy carries around is total and 100% BS. He was outgoing and accomidating to the fans, even going out of his way to talk to every single person in his autograph lines. Funny story... Carl had just finished signing for me. Now the girl in line behind me has 5 different color splotches in her hair. Carl looked at her and said

"They told me not to sign for the girl with pink and purple in her hair."

Her eyes get really big and tears well up as she said,

"Really?"

In total disbelief.

Carl instantly responded

"No"

As he grabbed her ball and signed it.

Another note on Carl, he looks great. He has lost a lot of weight and was "embarassed" at how he ended up last year. 30-100 isn't out of the question IMO.

2. Kenny Williams has grown up a ton as a GM since he took over in 2001. He made sure to go out of his way to praise Magglio Ordonez, and remind an SRO crowd of people of the contributions that he made during his time on the southside of Chicago, when asked what happened between the Sox and Maggs. He also refused to jump into the negative side of it.

3. Brooks Boyer is a marketing genius. He gets "it" when it comes to selling the Sox. He is working his ass off, and is willing to get help from everyone he possibly can to sell the White Sox. The guy interacts with fans incredibly well, and makes people feel like they are the only people in the room.

4. I think Ken Harrelson is getting alzheimer's disease. Every time he gave a seminar this weekend, he kept repeating the same points over and over and over again. I was ready to kill him if he mentioned how both the Yankees and White Sox hit 242 home runs and didn't win the World Series.

5. Willie Harris is done as a southsider. When both your manager and team spokesperson/longtime announcer trash you while you are sitting on stage, you are on your way out the door. Apparently he can't steal, can't bunt, can't be consistant, and that is just from the people in his organization... Willie should have just stayed home this weekend.

6. Ozzie Guillen Jr. was fasicinating to listen to. Having grown up in the clubhouses of the teams I grew up watching, it was incredible to hear his stories about some of the players and teams I idolized. It was also awesome to hear him describe the Marlins clubhouse as they rallied to beat the Cubs a couple of years back.

7. Aaron Rowand never misses a chance to mention that his wife was a gymnist in college.

8. Ross Gload will sleep on his couch for the rest of his life after describing the way his wife and him hooked up.

"I knew a lot of my teammates had been out with her, and I wanted to find out what I was missing"

9. Ozzie Guillen still has a lot to learn about diplomacy. He delivers some great one liners, but left fans an easy and tantilizing bit of dirt on Carlos Lee that would have been better served not being said. But that is this is Ozzie, and I doubt he will ever change.

10. Penises on someone elses head are very funny. Asking someone to take a picture of yourself with penises on your head is knockdown, drag out funny.

11. Knocking on the door of kids who are drinking at unde age 21, while yelling "Security!" is very funny, and should be tried by all.

12. 7 people do not fit in a Civic, or so I am told.

13. Some people can arrange for fireworks shows, even when it is below zero outside.

14. We got some great deals on Sox merchandise over the weekend. I finally got my road gray jacket. It started at $125 last year, and I bought it for $50.

15. The White Sox pride bracelet fad, and the fad in general, is insane. They must have printed 10,000 of those things.


16. Best wishes and speedy recovery to Jerry Reinsdorf. Even after looking good over the weekend, he ended up having an angioplasty on Sunday.

17. The Big Bar = Big Tabs.

18. Neal Cotts-Freddy Garcia=not a very big autograph line. Garcia had visa problems and couldn't make it to the fest, so Neal Cotts signed alone. Neal's line was literally half of one coral row, while the AJ Pierz/Scott Pod line was about 15 rows.

19. AJ Pierz is going to be a huge fan favorite in Chicago. He has long term connections to the Sox through Ken Harrelson, and big financial motivation to keep his nose clean. He is a guy who loves to win, and will do whatever it takes to make that happen.

20. Tadahito Iguchi to the Sox could very well happen. Kenny Williams didn't deny that something could be in the works, even referring to his under the radar cover story.

21. The White Sox fans treatment of Shingo Takatsu has been heard all of the way back to Japan. Japanese players and fans alike are in awe of the reception that Shingo gets everytime he comes into a game and/or makes a save. This could give the Sox some inroads towards much bigger players.

22. Paul Konerko really wants to stay in Chicago, and is willing to give a hometown discount to stay here.

23. Jermaine Dye's new number. Which as a huge Robin Ventura fan saddens me.

24. Frank Thomas is working his ass off, but probably won't be ready to start the regular season with the Sox. Speedy recover big man!


Well that's all for now. More thoughts if I remember more stuff....

Lunch in Chicago, Financial District Style

One of the great things about working in the Financial District of Chicago is the food. There are tons of great places to eat here. Here are some of my favs.

Mickey's Chicken (formerly Mike's). Home of the gigantic fried chicken strips. For a touch over $5 you get 4 big thick chunks of chicken, a basket of fries, a biscut, and a great sauce for dipping. Without a doubt my favorite place to lunch.

Giordano's. Great deepdish pizza. Make sure you order ahead.

Bacciano's. See above, but they do have pizza by the slice deal after 11am.

Robinson's Ribs. A little pricey for lunch, but they do have a great order of rib tips, and the BBQ sauce is top notch.

The Billy Goat Cafe. Home of the Cheezburgor. Quality place to eat, and if you are a regular they know exactly what you want when you walk in. The chef is a regular rainman, keeping track of long lines of peoples orders without any help.

Peppers. The best greasy cheeseburger downtown, aka the colonblow. It tastes great going down, but man you will pay for it.

Finkle's Deli- The best Deli sandwiches in the Loop. If you stray from the specials, you will pay up to do it.

65 Chinese. They just openned a second location next to the CBOT. They do a great job with my old standby- The tomato/pepper beef. The girls who work in the Union Station location are very friendly and personable.

Gold Coast Dogs. Great Brats and Polish's and very surprisingly incredible cheddar burger. The cheddar burger is made with real runny cheddar cheese and is spectacular. If you are feeling brave and hungry go for the double cheddar burger with bacon. The one draw back is the price. The Brats start at 2.79 and a Polish is 2.99.

Harold's Chicken Shack. A little bit out of the loop, but worth the walk, Harolds has good food and good prices. You can get chicken by the piece or get the 1/4, 1/2, or full chicken deals.

Not sure of the name, but in the Northwest Metra station, they have a bagel place that sells incredible turkey sandwhiches. For $5 you choose your bread and toppings to go with real cooked turkey, and you can request white or dark meat depending on preference. If you get it on French bread, the sandwich alone could almost fill you up. For $1 more, add a side of quality mashed potatoes.

Disgruntled Commuters part 2

Monday one of my fellow commuters brought in a letter to the editor from one of the many NW Indiana newspapers. In it a woman described her horrors of 29 years of commuting on the South Shore trainline into Chicago. All of us were instantly struck by how lame some of her complaints were, as all of us in much shorter periods of time as commuters had seen much worse/stranger/ and more annoying things.

So sure enough the very next day (Tuesday morning) in my usual state of sleep on the 5 am train into work, I and everyone else on my train car gets woke up to hear a cellphone talker saying "Do you want to hear a secret?" loud enough for everyone to hear. Then she procedes to talk about wanting to shoot somebody that she is mad at. This was a 10 minute rant at the top of her lungs so that whoever was on the other side of this call could hear her. Ah you can't beat life on the old South Shore train.

Disgruntled Commuters?

This is from the Michigan City News Disgrace

"No one was injured when a bomb threat was reported at the Carroll Avenue South Shore Station on Friday evening.

Michigan City police arrived at the station at 4:45 p.m. after a caller described a suspicious object as possibly being a bomb.

Police spoke with a train master at the station who pointed to an object made of a white pipe lying on the ground by a garbage container 10 feet from the passenger waiting station.

The train master, who was notified of the object by a conductor, told police he already had evacuated the station area and stopped all incoming trains.

Officers on the scene determined the object appeared to be a homemade potato launcher but decided not to touch it.

At 5 p.m. Michigan City Police called the Porter County Bomb Squad. Police also blocked off traffic from Holliday Street to Carroll Avenue.

The bomb squad arrived at 6:10 p.m. to investigate the object. The squad then sprayed the object, which turned out to be a potato launcher, with a high-powered water cannon. After the potato launcher was destroyed, police cleaned up the debris.

Michigan City Police and the Porter County Bomb Squad were assisted by the ATF and South Shore Transit Police. The FBI also was notified of the investigation."

I wonder how late the guys train was that he felt the need to leave a pipe bomb?

A Very Special Cubs Post

The NY Mets announced Sunday that they have agreed to a 7 year $119 million deal with #1 free agent target Carlos Beltran. The Cubs lost out after only offering 5 years at $75 million. At least the Cubs can take heart after all of the rest of their free agent signings of.. um, uh... well, they did resign Moises Alou right? No? Matt Clement? Shoot. Well they did resign Todd Hollandsworth. At least they still have Sammy Sosa to anchor the OF... Hopefully the Cubs sign Maggs and finish two thirds of their all-ass OF. Maybe Juan Gonzalez is around to finish it?

On the homefront, the kitten got back home Saturday afternoon after being fixed. He has been tired and groggy, but genuinely happy to be home. Hopefully Krash will be back to himself and terrorizing everything in sight very soon.

Other than that, the countdown to Soxfest is on. It begins this Friday, and as usual there is a great level of excitement, looking forward to baseball talk in January, and the gathering of good friend to go with it. We'll be staying at the Hyatt as usual.

Queer Eye for the Southside Team

The off season makeover of the White Sox continues. The White Sox yesterday signed long time Twins nemesis AJ Pierzynski to become their starting Catcher. AJ will provide the Sox with at least two years of a legitimate starting catcher for the first time since maybe the officer Karkovice era. AJ will bring plenty of attitude and moxie to a team that has lacked any really balls for a long time now. And as an extra added bonus, the price was right at $2.25 million for 2005, and the Sox own his arbitration rights for '06.

One more legitimate move might still be in Kenny Williams back pocket, as the Sox have been rumored to be as close as a $580,000 over two years difference of opinion to signing long time Japanese 2B Tadahito Iguchi. With the White Sox disenchantment with Willie Harris completely transparent, the Sox have tried all winter to find another 2B would could fill the #2 roll in the line up, and according to Kenny's scouts, Iguchi fits the bill like a glove.

All in all, the Sox successful off season continues...

Yet Another Winter update

Schools in Michigan City got shut down 2 hours early. My wife was smart enough to wait 45 minutes to leave the school so that all of the teenager would be safely at home or in ditches before she left. It is mostly icy stuff down there, whereas in downtown Chicago it has been snowing pretty hard all day long. It has also been blowing pretty well so far.

Friday will be the day that our kitten turns into a cat in a sense. Krash goes in Friday for a snip and a clip. He is getting fixed and front declawed, and maybe just in time. He decided the other day that Ang wasn't paying enough attention to him, so he decided to jump on her back as she walked by. I guess that is one way to do it.

We are also sitting a little more than a week from Soxfest. The Sox are still active in the rumor mill with them being connected to Ex-Twins Catcher AJ Pierzinski, Japanese 2B Iguchi, and Ex-Giants closer Rob Nen. AJ would be a huge shot in the arm for the Sox at their weakest position IMO. The other two would provide huge depth for the team in 2005. I am excited about the fest as usual, and am looking forward to a good time with friends old and new.

Here Comes the snow again...

Chicago TV is predicting a 6-12" snow fall starting tonight and going into tommorrow. To make it interesting they are saying that some could fall as sleet tommorrow to the south. An ice storm would be a perfect continuation of this strange winter...

What a short strange winter its been...

I have seen a lot of things happen in a winter, just not so many of them in such a short period of time.

Day 1. Michigan City gets buried with 26 inches of snow, the majority of it falling within an 8 hour span. It snowed so hard that is was hard to see the house accross the street at times. The snow cripples the town to the point where they can only clear one lane in each direction on Franklin street, which the 5 lane main north-south street through town.

Days 4-5. Bitter cold sets in, two days before Christmas. Christmas Eve the lows fall to -5 degrees, with the highs struggling to make it above zero. Thankfully we were in Las Vegas for most of this, and just read about it.

Days 8-10. More like early March weather sets in. Temps soar to the middle 50's. Two feet of snow melts in about a three day span, letting the grass show through again like nothing ever happened.

Days 13-14. The torrential downpours hit. On the first and second days of 2005, we got a total of about 3-4 inches of rain. As bad as it sounds, any precipitation you can get in January that isn't snow is a prayer of mine answered. To put it another way, the common rain to snow translation is for every 1 inch of rain, assume 10 inches of snow. We just dodged 2 1/2- 3 feet of snow this weekend.... Maybe 2005 will be my year afterall ;0)