All good things must end

So the Sox went out last night and scored 7 runs for Mark Buehrle against a really tough Rich Harden... and lost. Defense and bad pitching were the big let downs last night, as were a couple of close calls that went the A's way. So the 8 game winning streak is history, and they close out with a day game today. The Sox now stand at 16-5 with still the best record in baseball. Friday they come home off of their 8 game road trip, to face the Tigers and Royals.

Nuking 'buster

With the Democrats holding up 10 judicial nominations, the Republicans have floated the idea of making the filibuster endable by only 51 votes in the Senate. Currently it sits at 60 votes which means no one party can control the agenda on the floor right now.

It has been funny to hear the Dems and their mouthpieces screaming about the evil republicans, and the conservatives screaming about the obstructionists. Not too long ago the shoe was on the other foot, and whaddya know, the parties were saying the exact opposite things. God I hate politicians sometimes.

Here are some fun links, I will concentrate on the other side of things, as the media has been all too generous to point out the Republicians switch on this, now we will see the Dems flip-flop

Leahy, Feingold, and Schumer on filibusters and Judicial nominations

The New York Times changes its position on the filibuster, now that Liberals aren't running Congress anymore. Also the Dems were the ones in 1975 who led the chanrge, which reduced the threshhold for ending a filibuster from 67 to 60 votes.

Robert Byrd led at least 4 votes to change the end of a filibuster from 60 votes to 51 votes

Democrats proposed totally ending the filibuster while Clinton was President, and were the only 19 votes for it

Just keep winning, just keep winning...

So the Sox make it 3 straight series sweeps with another come from behind, one run win against the KC Royals. This has been an incredible run, especially when you consider the 3-6 hitters have been automatic outs for a great majority of this 7 game winning streak. This victory also added to the 7 straight series victories this year (being every series they have played this year).

Now we get another real test with a trip to Oakland. The Sox have had one winning year out there since 1998 (2000) going a combined 8-25 over that stretch. They open tonight with Garland against Zito, and then have the marquee match up Tuesday with Mark Buehrle going against young pheonom Rich Harden.

The Sox sit at a 104 year best 15-4 after 19 games. If the Sox can go out with a 52.5 winning percentage the rest of the season, they will win 90 games on the year. That ought to be pretty close to winning the division, and might also put them in wild card contention if the division proves to be tougher than that.

Back to Back Sweepage

Well it seems as long as the Sox only play two games against a team, they might never lose again. They get back to back series sweeps against the Twins at home, and up at Detroit. The finale from Comerica Park was a one run winner again, and saw the Sox record in one run games pushed to 7-1 on the season. Shingo Takatsu also came on to pitch a perfect 8 pitch bottom of the ninth to put it away. Now the Sox go on to Kansas City for a 3 game series, before heading out to the left coast to Oakland.

Fun Pope facts, Impress your friends

Some fun facts...

-Ratzinger was the oldest cardinal to be named pope since Clement XII, who was also 78 when he became pope in 1730.

-He is the first German pope since Victor II (1055-1057).

-His choice of name seemed intriguing because the last Pope Benedict, who reigned from 1914 to 1922, subtly repudiated the strict Vatican orthodoxy practiced under his predecessor Pius X, said former Vatican diplomat John-Peter Pham.

Benedict XV also tried in vain to end World War I, opened the Vatican to international diplomacy and sent so much wartime aid to Turkey that Istanbul erected a statue to him, he said.

-It was only the third time in a century that a pope had been chosen on the second day of a conclave.

-It was one of the fastest elections in the past century: Pope Pius XII was elected in 1939 in three ballots on one day, while Pope John Paul I was elected in 1978 in four ballots in one day. John Paul II's successor was elected after either four or five ballots over two days.

-Ratzinger served John Paul II since 1981 as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In that position, he has disciplined church dissidents and upheld church policy against attempts by liberals for reforms.

-Ratzinger won a two-thirds majority or at least 77 votes to become pope.

-The 20th century's eight conclaves lasted from two to five days, with the average just over three days.

"Habemus papam"

We have a new Pope.

78 year old Cardinal Josef Ratzinger of Germany was elected on the 4th balloting at the Papal Conclave in Rome. It was the fastest election of a Pope in at least 100 years.

Ratzinger was introduced to the crowds at St Peters' Square as Pope Benedict XVI. Ratzinger had served Pope John Paul II since 1980, and was the Dean of the College of Cardinals. Also in his backround is that he is considered very conservative, going as far as to say the American press was exaggerating the sexual abuse claims against the preisthood, and he was responsible for the disiplicing of higher up memebers of the church when problems arose. One more interesting tidbit, after having Pope JP2 who had fought against the Nazi's in WWII, Ratzinger takes over after being a member of Hitler's Youth.

It will be interesting to see if Benedict 16 can even hold a candle to the legacy that he takes over for.

It was 20 years ago today...

Paul McCartney concert dates have been announced. Tickets go one sale in Chicago this Saturday.

MCCARTNEY RETURNS TO ROCK WITH 'US'

Tickets for Paul McCartney’s ‘US’ Tour go on sale beginning Saturday, April 23rd. Check local listing for details. For more information about ‘US’ please go to www.paulmccartney.com

Dates City Venues

Friday, September 16th Miami American Airlines Arena
Saturday, September 17th Tampa St. Pete Times Forum
Tuesday, September 20th Atlanta Philips Arena
Thursday, September 22nd Philadelphia Wachovia Center
Monday, September 26th Boston FleetCenter
Friday, September 30th New York Madison Square Garden
Saturday, October 1st New York Madison Square Garden
Saturday, October 8th Washington DC MCI Center
Monday, October 10th Toronto Air Canada Centre
Friday, October 14th Detroit The Palace
Tuesday, October 18th Chicago United Center
Saturday, October 22nd Columbus Value City Arena
Sunday, October 23rd Milwaukee Bradley Center
Wednesday, October 26th St. Paul Xcel Energy Center
Thursday, October 27th Des Moines Wells Fargo Arena
Sunday, October 30th Omaha Qwest Center
Tuesday, November 1st Denver The Pepsi Center
Thursday, November 3rd Seattle KeyArena
Friday, November 4th Portland Rose Garden
Monday, November 7th San Jose HP Pavilion
Friday, November 11th Anaheim Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim
Wednesday, November 16th Sacramento ARCO Arena
Saturday, November 19th Houston Toyota Center
Sunday, November 20th Dallas American Airlines Center
Wednesday, November 23rd Phoenix Glendale Arena
Friday, November 25th Las Vegas MGM Grand Garden Arena
Saturday, November 26th Las Vegas MGM Grand Garden Arena
Tuesday, November 29th Los Angeles STAPLES Center

wwlwwlwwlwwl

Anyone see a pattern here? The Sox again win the first two game of a series, only to lose on the last day of the set. This time the Mariners were the Sox foil as Jon Garland and Mark Buehrle had back to back incredible outings. Garland went 6 1/3 perfect innings, and Buehrle got a career high 12 Ks in a complete game 3 hitter. Then we came to Sunday with Freddy Garcia who was 10-0 in day games since 2003, and then he promptly got shelled.

So now the Sox are sitting at 8-4 tied with the Twins for first place.

Off and running

It has been a great start so far for the southsiders. They are 6-2 out of the gate, playing against the Twins and Indians, with only 3 of those games coming at home. They go for the sweep today with El Duque on the mound against Sox-killa Scott Elarton.

The Sox record is amazing as they have been virtually non-exisistant on the offensive side of things. The pitching has carried the team with 7 quality starts in 9 outings. The Sox are only hitting .240 as a team through the first 8 games, only has a .265 OBP (they have drawn 10 walks in 8 games) and an OPS of .644. There numbers with RISP have been even more ugly. The Sox are hitting .208 with RISP, along with .228 OBP, .250 SLG, and .478 OPS. With RISP they have 13 Ks vs 10 hits. It is incredible that they have found a way to win 6 games. Last year this team might have been 2-6 at best with this kind of offense.

John Kerry, supergenius

Turns out dueling supergeniuses John Kerry and Dick Lugar might have blown the cover of an undercover CIA agent. The first part of intelligence is keeping a secret, John.

Interesting to note that besides Drudge the only US site to pick this up was the San Francisco Chronicle. Other investigative stalwarts that picked up this story include Yahoo-Asia, The Guardian-UK, Scotland on Sunday, and Dummocrats.

Intelligence for Dummies 101

New additions to the blog

Well I finally looked into it and figured out how to add clickable links to the side panels of this site. I added some of my personal favorites, including links to Paul McCartney's message board, a great site on the Beatles and their music, a great conservative economists blog, a board for NW Indiana, a couple of links to White Sox related boards, (including our pick to click contest), and a couple of really cool pro athletes sites that I have met.

I would like to say if anyone has any other cool sites to recommend, I would love to see them. Email me or leave a comment with the site.

New show and a movie

Usually I am not much of a movie person, but I caught "Death to Smoochy" on Comedy Central over the weekend, and it was right up my alley. Robin Williams plays a disgraced, bribe-taking kids show host (Rainbow Randolph), who gets busted for his activities. Then he spends the rest of the movie trying to exact revenge on his replacement Smoochy. Throw in some mafiaoso type folks trying to muscle in on a cut of the profits and watch the hilarity ensue. I was very entertained by this movie, and would recommend it to anyone who is near as demented as I am.

Also worth watching is the new NBC show "The Office". Apparently this is an American version of an old BBC show, but I love it. This show is like Office Space meets Arrested Development. I laughed like crazy the whole show. Honestly it ranks up there with Arrested Development and Scrubs as two of the funniest shows on network TV today. The Office is on Tuesday nights at 8:30 CST.

Old School post

Literally going back to my old school...

Top 8 exciting things to do at Manchester College.

8. Tornado Watch
7. Drink excessively and often
6. Slamming doors in backround
5. Rotating the crops from the back 40 to the front 40
4. Make snow penis's
3. Quantititave Analysis of Economics and Business
2. Nintendo Techmo Super Bowl
1. Driving 36 in a 30 mph zone

The Good and the Ugly

Yesterday sucked for baseball and was pretty cool on the baby front.

The Sox blew a 3 run ninth inning lead and lost by 6 in extras on getaway day. Shingo got squeezed, and then servered up 3 fat ones to tie the game. Meanwhile Ozzie had used up the pen, and had no one fresh for extra innings. Fast Forward to the 11th where Catcher Chris Widger was warming in the pen, as Luis Vizcaino gave up 6 runs. Sox lost 11-5 and drop to 2-1 overall.

We also got another ultrasound done yesterday and got more good news. The baby has doubled in size in a day under two weeks. It is now 2.93 cms (about an inch and a quarter) and the heartrate is about 170 bpm. The neat thing was that we actually got to see the baby move around. It was the first time we got to see that, which was really exciting.

Updates

So it looks like I have gotten a little lazy with writing lately....

Anyway

Opening day was a blast. The weather was the best it has been in years, and the pitching was just as impressive. Ace Mark Buehrle pitched 8 innings of two hit ball, and cult hero Shingo Takatsu came in to close out a 3 up 3 down 9th inning. Tribe hurler Jake Westbrook was just as impressive as the Sox scored the winning run on a kick by Omar succesor Johny Perralta.

The Sox are now 2-0, after their 4 run 9th off of Jenny Craig reject Bob Wickman. He hung a couple of fat ones to Konerko and Dye and paid about 800 plus feet worth of costs for it. The pitching has looked great both days with the Sox only yielding 3 earned runs over the two games.

The exhibition game in Milwaukee was a good time as well. The Sox ended up losing 7-6 but they made things interesting with a big 9th inning rally. The loss was offset by plenty of free drinks and food, plus the best view in the house from a suite right behind home plate.

The NCAA final 4 nite was a little boring with both Illinois and North Carolina recording blow outs, but the final game did not disappoint. UNC got off to a big lead, but the Illini made it interesting in their typical fashion. ManChild Sean May was the big difference in the game, reeking havoc on both ends of the floor. He almost singlehandedly fouled out the entire Illinois frontline, but for some reason Roy Williams quit feeding him, and the Illini got back in it. Luther Head had two incredible looks at the basket late, but couldn't get either of them to fall while shooting to reach over time. All in all the big dance was the best I have seen in years.