Stinkin' Indians

We lost.

In extra innings.

How did we get there? Let's recap.

The game started out fairly well. BHB (Big Hairy Balls, in case you may have forgotten, nickname for pitcher Gavin Floyd) was facing the Indians' ace, Justin Masterson. BHB would go on to pitch for 6 innings, giving up 2 runs, 5 hits, 3 walks, and striking out 7 Indians. Not a bad way to start off your first game of the season. However, it was a no-decision.





But the hero of the game for my side was none other than my boy Carlos Quentin.



















Carlos put most of the White Sox's points on the board with a drawn walk in the 4th to score Juan Pierre, and then later on, Carlos had his first HR of the season-a 2-run bombshell in the 7th to put the Sox up 3-2.

However, none of this was enough to stop the Indians. They tied in the 8th, and this sent the game into extra innings. In the 11th, the Indians scored 2 runs and won. JJ Putz got the loss, and was rightfully mobbed for it (actually, this is an old picture from his days in Seattle, but I just had to bring it out).


Get it? Blood and Putz!

*ducks as head of lettuce comes flying out of computer screen*

*missed by rotten tomatoes*

*bottle of salad dressing*

**Dammit! Where did all these rotten vegetables come from?!**


Anyway...


Despite losing their opening series for the 5th straight time in a row, the fellas at my favorite recap site South Side Sox had a MS Paint face-off. Here are some of their works. Link to site to see the rest will be provided at the end of the exhibit.

First up: Andruw Jones
















Nice...

Next: JD 2010

























Sorry JD-I couldn't resist. You're unemployed and sitting at home while we're all playing baseball. If you wanted to keep playing, you shoulda took up that offer from the Cubs...

Batting third: BA and Southpaw



















I know, it's gay, but BA was fun while he was here in Chicago. The bars on Rush St. in Chicago loved it when he came. Your patronage will be missed (your playing, not so much!)

Hitting cleanup: a MODEST BHB pic of Gavin Floyd

















Not bad, eh?

Finally: Steve Stone "Pony"



















DO NOT BE ALARMED BY THIS DISTURBING PHOTO!! Steve Stone is a broadcaster for the Chicago White Sox, right alongside the famous Hawk Harrelson.

For more fun MS paint pix of the White Sox, go HERE

That's all for tonight folks!

GO WHITE SOX!!!
tamtam

good-bye BA

has this been a busy weekend in the white sox nation!


first, we almost get swept by the tigers-no thanks to our once-untouchable closer bobby jenks. that fat dustmop blew TWO saves in the series! 1 is already bad enough, but TWO?! what is wrong with that guy? my dad speculates that jenks is hurt, but he's trying to play through the pain. well if jenks really truly is hurt, take him out and put d'oh-tel in as the closer, for now.


second, and here's the bombshell, kenny williams makes a shocking trade. in comes journeyman mark kotsay, out goes none other than the ladies' man himself, brian "BA" anderson. one of the bloggers on my widget hoped that the red sox can fix up BA where the white sox couldn't-including teaching him to be more patient at the plate.




good-bye, BA. you've served your time here in chicago well. you will be missed on rush street (well, maybe carlos can fill in for you over there. i hear he's a big ladies' man too), if not by the fans themselves. hope the "honey's" in boston are just as nice as the "honey's" over here.




as for mark kotsay-i say, welcome to chicago. i hope that your stay here is pleasant, and productive.


this is kind of off-the-wall, but if my memory serves me right, kotsay used to be one of the religious ballplayers. basically, he used to cross himself before going up to bat. he's not the only one-a bunch of other ballplayers are like that (on my boys in black-and-white, its aj, carlos, and pitchers carrasco, d'oh-tel, and another one who's name i can't think of right now). i know for sure that he used to cross himself before batting when he played in oakland, but whether he kept that up, i don't know. the TV networks aren't too keen on showing religious players in the act. my whole point with this is that certain player have certain at-bat (or, in the case of pitchers, before their first pitch) quirks that i notice and remember. some are unique (like nomar's glove routine, and papi ortiz's spitting clap), and some are distinctive (like players crossing themselves). but when some of them fall off my radar for a while, and then resurface, i have to wonder if anything's changed. in case you're wondering, i don't have a problem with religious ballplayers. i believe that their job as ballplayers takes precident over anything they do.


good night everyone. im going to bed.


GO WHITE SOX!!!
tamtam

up and down

hello!

our homestand was absolutely miserable. after contreras got us our win, we dropped the next 2 games to the tigers. 1 of those games, as it fell, was an extra-inning affair (we lost it in, i think, the 15th). it would have been worse if we'd lost yesterday, but through some miracle, we managed to win. what happened was that gavin floyd and his BHB got the call to start. BHB pitched pretty well, and by time he'd left in the 8th, the score was 3-1 in favor of the white sox. scott linebrink did setup and bobby jenks (who's been struggling lately) was called in to close. with 2 outs, he gives up a 2-run homerun to curtis granderson in the top of the 9th.

yeah, not cool.

come the bottom of the 9th, tigers closer joel zumaya was called up to finish this game and take it into extra innings. from his first pitch, the white sox had grabbed him by the balls and didnt let go till the game was over. zoomie loaded up the bases (his first pitch was a double by BA), and it was none other than podsie-pan who brought in the winning run on a single. podsie, who is notorious for not coming through in the clutch, raised his batting average a little bit by bringing in BA. the final score was 4-3 in favor of the white sox.

today, my boys went north to milwaukee, otherwise known as beer city, to play the brewers. thought the game is currently in progress with the sox winning 2-0 in the top of the 6th (runs scored in the 2nd by alexei and aj, respectively), it has been a strange game. in the first inning, podsie-pan got caught too far off the bag by jeff suppan, the pitcher who has no range of motion. but aside from that, it must be a full moon or something cuz the officiating crew seems more than a little lost. in the 4th inning, podsie stole 2nd, but was called out cuz he went off the bag. on the replay, it didnt look like that was the case (at least as far as i could tell). also, in the 3rd, there was another controversial call. one of the milwaukee players, i dont remember his name, tried to lay a bunt, and it landed in the dirt right in front of the plate. i thought it was fair, cuz for what little official rules i know about MLB, i know that in the infield, anywhere between the white lines, its fair. it would have been a double play, but the refs ruled it foul. naturally, i screamed at the tv screen that the refs needed their eyes checked.

breaking news! clayton richard was pulled in the bottom of the 6th after overthrowing josh fields to land beer city's own beloved tattooed fatass, prince fielder, at 1st. pidgeon-toed octavio d'oh-tel comes in to pitch, and gives up a double to milwaukee's corey hart. fielder scores (who knew that fatass could run so fast!). milwaukee leads 2-1. hey, there's a reason we in chicago call him "d'oh-tel".

speaking of "d'oh!", guess who's getting walked just now? yep, jason kendall. i know the fine folks at "more hardball" recently dedicated an entry to this fella.

breaking news! hart scores after pitcher jeff suppan singles. it was supposed to be a popup, but alexei and podsie had a chicago cubs moment where the ball dropped between them (the cubs are famous for this). kendall just scored after mcgehee singles. brewers lead 3-2.

will this inning ever end?

finally its over. i'll be back later once the game is over for any final thoughts.

GO WHITE SOX!!!
tamtam

royal flush

hey hey!!

the white sox topped off a rewarding roadtrip by sweeping, yes-SWEEPING, the kansas city royals. the first game was on friday, and we ass-raped the royals 11-7. unfortunately, this game was on cable, and therefore i did not catch it.

the next game was yesterday. for this game, it was mark buehrle who got the call to start. also for this game, MLB had the teams bring out the throwback uniforms. let me just say that the old royals uniforms (then called "monarchs") looked pretty freakin' gay. i mean, it was like something right out of "the natural" or "field of dreams". the royals' hats looked like someone had put a bowl on your head and glued a dark, straight bill to it. at least the sox had dark uniforms with white pinstripes. dark colors will always be fashionable.

but enough about the crappy uniforms and onto a more serious matter, such as BASEBALL!!! the sox had a good game. they were leading 3-1 at 1 point, but then buehrle gave up a 2-run home run to tie the game at 3. luckly, jim thome hit an RBI double in the 9th that put us up 5-3. bobby jenks and that dustmop beard of his came out and got the save for us. take note, however, that i did not watch the game in its entirity. my mom made me go walking with her (something about me needing "exercise"), so i missed most of the game, but i caught the end!

today's game i was sure to catch in its entirity. it was a monster pitching matchup: john danks the miracle man vs. the lone royals ace, zack "grienkydinks" greinke. however, the pitching on both sides was less than spectacular on both sides. grienkydinks gave up 1 run in the 1st, and blew a 4-1 lead. miracle man, on the other hand, couldn't find the strike zone and had to rely on the offense to make up for his lack of control. the score would have been much higher, but our defense did a good job of getting the ball to where it needed to be FAST. alexei ramirez, who earlier in the game lost a ball in the sun and further extended a bad inning, made up for his error by catching everything that went his way. paulie also was looking young as he scooped a ball up outta the dirt to catch a royals runner by a hair. after miracle man was relieved of duty, pidgeon-toed octavio d'oh-tel took over for the next 2 innings, setting the tone for matt thornton and scott linebrink. grienkydinks continued to pitch until the 7th, even though he'd gone over the 100 pitches mark. i remarked to my dad that because grienke was the ace, the royals were gonna keep him in there until his arm fell off. we finally took the lead in the 9th after royals reliever juan cruz failed to keep our guys' bats in check. BA, who came in on a pinch-run, made the most awesome slide home. he just dove into home plate, missing the catchers glove, and might have gone head-over-heels if he kept sliding long enough. we sweep the royals with a final score of 7-4. grienke did not get his win; mission accomplished.

tomorrow, that fat tub-o-lard bartolo colon gets the start against the A's. fatso's last game was pretty impressive, and while the A's have my former fan-flame nomar garciaparra (i loved him in boston) on the team, this should be an easy series. nomar's too old to do any serious damage, and as far as i can tell, the A's are nothing to write home about. plus, its the start of a 12-game homestand for us. can you smell another sweep? or is all those burgers that fatso's swiping from the buffet table?

whatever, tubby. just get us our damn win tomorrow!

GO WHITE SOX!!!

tamtam

pound for pound

hi-ho, hi-ho, its off to work i go...well, until i can actually find a real job, i'll consider this my source of employment. well, journalism is technically a career, regardless of what you write about. any shmo who is literate and has access to a computer or any other means of distributing their work can be a journalist, and never once set foot in journalism school.

oh boy did we give the angels a POUNDING last night! my boy hit a double that brought in 2 runs in the first, we scored another run after that, and when i looked at the score yesterday, we were up 13-3 in the 5th. miracle man got the start and pitched a great game. i forget who the angels starter was (i think it was john lackey), but he got shelled. sucked to be him last night. the final score was 17-3. BOO-YAH!!! :D

but despite our lopsided victory, there came some bad news. yup, it involves none other than my boy, carlos jose quentin. oh boy, what now? might you ask. well, its his hamstring. after hitting that 2-run RBI, he pulled his hammie running into 2nd base and had to be helped off the field. this latest injury is compounded on top of plantar fascitis (sp?) in his left foot (basically, the tendon in your heel is damaged or strained. it makes walking painful. my mom had it and it took her 6 mos. to heal). i swear! my carlos has become a crystal chandelier!! poke him, he blows out his shoulder; pat him on the back, and he falls to pieces like that liquid nitrogen drenched quicksilver terminator in "terminator 2: judgement day". i say, when he's not playing, wrap him up in bubble wrap and store him in the closet till he gets better. theres no telling when my boy will be back, so therefore i wish him to get well soon.

tonite, that fat tub-o-lard bartolo colon gets the call to start. fatso is 2-4 as of now, and i have no idea what his ERA is (probably over 5 by now). BA will be playing in carlos' spot and the game is at 9 tonight on WCIU. it sucks playing on the west coast cuz the time difference means that games start later and end later for us in the midwest. i dont think i'll be able to watch the whole game, but i'll hold out for as long as i can before my mom has to drag me kicking and screaming to bed. hopefully tonite, we'll win. dont care how we do it, but we have to win.

GO WHITE SOX!!!
tamtam

*editors note*-ladies and germs (well, germs mostly), once again, ive made a mistake. in our whuppin of the angels, i incorrectly listed the starting pitcher's name for the angels as john lackey. last night's starting pitcher was in fact ervin santana. tonight's starting pitcher is joe saunders. also fatolo's ERA is 4.23, not nearly as high as i first thought. my most sincere apologies for this mistake.

rollin' rollin' rollin'

hallo! hope your memorial day weekend is/was awesome!

we've won our second series! unfortunately, a sweep against the pirates was not in the cards for us. our lone ace mark buehrle was out on the mound for us, and while the game was on comcast (i dont have cable, remember!), by all accounts, buerhle pitched a great game. unfortunately, bobby jenks and his dustmop beard blew the lead and gave up a 2-run hr to give the pirates the win. final score was 4-3.

tomorrow, we head out to LA to play the angels. i dont think they're as intimidating as last yr., but vlad guerrero is always a force to be reckoned with.

in other news, BA hit a home run, alexei is on his way back, and my boy is still having problems at the plate. real mixed bag, eh?

speaking of "eh", here in my home city of chicago, the city's gone crazy cuz the local hockey team, the blackhawks, are close to going to the stanley cup. now i know this has nothing to do with the white sox, but since the sox game wasnt on, i got my sunday sports fill watching the blackhawks get pummled by the red wings 2-0. i dont particularly care much for hockey (i love to play it-well, floor hockey cuz i cant skate, but watching it is kinda boring), but it was better then watching those pathetic losers on the north side known as the cubs! plus, my uncle came to take me, my brother, and my dad to see "terminator salvation", so i was out all day (i think the 1st terminator was the best 1. nobody beats ah-nuld as the cold killing machine)

GO WHITE SOX!!!
tamtam

roller coaster

hi-yo!

WE WON OUR FIRST SERIES IN A LONG TIME!!! tuesday, mark buehrle got us our win, and wednesday, john danks the miracle man got us the second win. that game was a thriller. though we didnt wake up till the 4th, we piled on 7 runs, 4 of which came from a grand slam off the bat of jd. miracle man held up pretty strong till the 6th inning when he ran outta gas and the great octavius d'oh-tel came on to get the job done. after 2 more pitchers (scott linebrink and matt thornton), the great bobby jenks came on to get the save-and didnt throw at anybody, unfortunately. we won big, 7-4.

yesterday, that fat tub-o-lard bartolo colon got the call. he performed...miserably. he gave up 1 earned run but was pulled out in the 2nd after getting shelled by the twins (i didnt watch the game cuz i was out all day). our lone run came in on an rbi double that brought in BA. the final was a miserable ass-raping 20-1 in favor of the twins. im thinking fatso should probably be restricted to bullpen duty cuz by all accounts, he made the royals kyle farnsworth look like an ace, and that guy has real issues between his ears (there was a popular joke about farnsy when he was with the cubs that he could throw 90 mph, but every time he wound up to throw, his brain would get scrambled from the heat of his throw-hence explaining why he sucked)! anyway, gavin floyd and his BHB are scheduled to pitch tonite against the pirates. since everyone knows the pirates suck, this should be a sweep.

burtie, gm-carson, i know you two blog about the pirates on 'we should be gms'-make sure you cover this series thorouoghly, and leave no blade of grass unturned (not exactly the word i was looking for, but it works).

no word yet on my boy carlos! hope his heel's feeling better.

btw, i should probably add my 2 cents about the whole peavy debaucle. by now, the entire sports blogosphere has digested that jake peavy said no to the white sox trade cuz he didnt wanna uproot his family. thats fine, i understand, but what has me raising my eyebrows about this trade was once peavy got here, would he be as good in chicago as he was in san diego? but i guess thats a risk you take with all trades. however, despite our bullpen troubles, i think it was best for everyone if peavy stayed where he was. the time to get him was in the offseason, but kenny wasnt quick enough.

GO WHITE SOX!!!
tamtam

you make me sick!

hallo!!

sorry im late in posting, but it took me 2 days to move outta college, i was sick 1 day, and my mom and grandma have been dragging me everywhere with them, so the precious time i can spend in front of my computer is decidedly more rare. also, no further word on employment, so perhaps there is some hope of closely following the sox this summer. maybe i can get paid for doing this, only id have to find a sponsor...

oh boy, where to start. the sox are bad. REALLY bad!! jd got suspended for hitting the ref with his helmet (it wasnt on purpose!!), my boy is hurt with a sore heel and out for another few days, maybe a week (no surprise there, crystal chandelier), the fat tub-o-lard got pulled for a stomach ailment yesterday (here's a tip: STOP EATING!!! if you watch what you eat, you wont be sick), and we're on the verge of getting swept-in canada of all places. the bottom has just fallen out and there doesnt appear to be any end in sight. the last score i checked said that the sox were down by 2 in the top of the 5th.

this whole week has been stressful on my health. finals and waiting for the grades are 1 thing, moving out has been hard on me cuz of all the crap i had to pack up and whoever designed my building was a complete idiot cuz he didnt include an elevator-and wherever there's ladies, there should be an elevator cuz you cant always find a reliable strong guy to help carry heavy things for you, so i had to carry my shit down 3 flights of stairs to my uncle's truck. and to top things off, my boys in black-and-white have been driving me insane with their ineptitude and inability to score!!! YAAAARRRGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

but on a happy note, finals are over and i have the summer to detox and regain my health. also, BA is almost ready to play-he'll be back on tuesday. hope he plays well so after the game, he and my boy can go honey-hoppin' at the bars on rush street :D.

id like to sign off with an amusing tidbit by our rambunctious manager ozzie. a few days ago, i think it was friday, i came across an amusing quote by our crazy ozzie. i dont remember exactly how the quote went, but ozzie was saying that he'd switch the saturday lineup to include harold baines, joey cora, and any other coach he could find in place of the players "so that maybe now we can score some [bleeping] runs". now, most of the coaches, like harold, were playing before i was born, but harold doesnt look to be THAT old or outta baseball THAT long, so maybe he's still got some stuff left in the tank. of course ozzie was joking, but for a yung'un like me who until a few years ago didnt even know who harold baines was, it would have been a fascinating experiment.

GO WHITE SOX!!!
tamtam

back-2-back

SOX WIN!!! SOX WIN!!! we took the lead early on an aj pierzynski solo homerun, and almost lost it early after gavin floyd and his BHB gave up 3 runs in the 4th. however, we roared back to tie the game up in the 7th with some small-ball, meaning that speedy little alexei is getting back in the groove by hitting some singles and stealing some bases.

but in the 7th, we broke it wide open when my boy carlos hit his 8th homerun to break the 3-3 tie (you shoulda heard me screaming and cheering. i coulda broke some windows!), then right after that, jd comes up and hits a solo homerun himself!! we managed to get another run in the 8th before walking out with a 6-3 victory.

on a more somber note, BA left the game in the 8th with a sore oblique. general soreness jerry owens replaced him for the remainder of the game. looks like someone cant go honey-hoppin' tonight!

tomorrow my boys are going down to texas to play the rangers. hopefully my boy carlos won't be hoppin' on hamilton for this trip! tomorrow is also my dad's birthday, but there wont be a game for him to watch. i also wont be able to send him anything cuz i've got a monsterously busy day tomorrow with a math test, a bio presentation, and other shit.

the next televised game is saturday on WGN, and then sunday on ESPN.

GO WHITE SOX!!!
tamtam

rainout, ozzie spills his guts, and guess who's back!

hey-yo!!

today's game in detroit was rained out. that sucked cuz our miracle man was due to start. but tomorrow the newly-svelte jose contreras is due to take the mound. hope he has a better game tomorrow. this trip for us in detroit has been pretty good so far. paulie and jd went back-to-back for record-setting home runs, my boy q hit 2 home runs in the same game, and buerhle got his groove back.

so to fill out this rain-delay, i came across a funny Q&A segment featuring none other than ozzie guillen, our crazy manager.

in this Q&A, ozzie revealed that he would like to interview fidel castro, hugo chavez (who's regime he is currently displeased with), and barack obama. ozzie also is very superstitious: when the team is on a winning streak, he doesnt change his clothes (including underwear), and after a 10-gm winning streak, he claims "my locker doesnt smell too good". i gets thats a good way of picking who he wants to talk to in the media on a given day: interview ozzie by his locker and the ones left standing get to give the interview XD. other than being disgustingly dirty when the team is on a winning streak (i'll bet there are times his wife just wishes the team would lose so she can wash ozzie's clothes and send him off to bed/work smelling CLEAN!!), ozzie reveals that he dreams about shakira and considers sox fans the smarter chicago baseball fans ("sox fans actually care about baseball...cubs fans only go to get drunk."). the Q&A, conducted by es-pun's jim caple, can be viewed in its entirity here.

finally, a story which broke this morning, and has been thoroughly digested by people all over the sports blogosphere (well, specifically at south side sox). scott podsednik, known affectionately as 'podsie-pan' (see here for clarification-its old, but its perfect timing too!), went from being a speedy catalyst to being a putzy crunk, and bounced around the majors for a few years. since his fielding has declined considerably since his time with us, the sox signed podsie-pan to a minor league deal. i guess they'll bring him up when general soreness jerry owens, brought up when ba starts to suck, goes down with another sore groin. basically, podsie-pan is now the backup to the backup to the backup.

thats all for tonite!! im going to a tea party tomorrow here in tucson, so i may or may not be able to catch all of the sox game on wgn. but if i miss, the next televised game is on saturday. thank god for south side sox to break things down for me when i cant catch the games.

GO WHITE SOX!!!
tamtam

resurrection

after today's win, all i can say is that the white sox have resurrected their season. from looking like they were gonna end up at rock bottom to establishing a strong effort to get back on top



since today is easter (for my non-orthodox christian friends and readers-ours comes next week), i thought id put up my spin on our new team rebirth.

this is an orthodox christian icon that depicts jesus raising the dead. i thought it worked perfectly for our situation, so i spliced the saints heads in with the heads of jd, my boy carlos as jesus cuz he got the team going, bobby, jolly jim, ozzie, ba, d'oh-tel, jeff marquez (don't worry-he's in hell along with ozzie :)), paulie, aj, john danks the miracle man, and finally that fat tub-o-lard bartolo. i originally had that fat tub-o-lard bartolo up as jesus, but the more i thought about it, the more my boy carlos made sense as the resurrector. since i know the orthodox church is gonna go after me for this, let me just put my disclaimer up:

ATTENTION BISHOPS, PRIESTS, AND WHOMEVER THIS MATTER MAY CONCERN: THIS IMAGE IS NOT MEANT TO MOCK ORTHODOXY. IT IS PURELY FOR ENTERTAINMENT!!! AS A DEVOUT ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN, I'M NOT MOCKING ANYTHING ABOUT MY FAITH!!



that said, i hope you all had a happy easter and GO WHITE SOX!!!

tamtam

camelback ranch

ok, i know ive been slacking, but i've been kinda busy this week. i had a test in bio which prevented me from writing an entry about my boys in black.

since im on spring break, my uncle decided to treat me to a baseball game. no trip to phoenix is complete without a baseball game (when its in season, of course). we decided on camelback ranch, as i had not yet been there, and i wanted to see if it was really all the hype.

the facility is nice, but i dont know that i would have picked glendale, or that particular design for a ballpark. for 1 thing, glendale is a little out-of-the-way, and the stadium is located in kind of an isolated area. but im probably speaking too soon cuz knowing arizona, they never stop developing. within a few years, there will be more houses and shopping malls surrounding the park. personally, id disapproved of the sox moving north cuz 1 of the reasons i chose to go to u of a was to be near the white sox for spring training!! it should also be known that before hightailing north to phoenix, the sox had a contract worked out with the tucson park district about staying in tucson electric park (to which i have yet to pay a visit) all the way till 2010. since the sox broke their contract, they worked out a deal to reimburse (sp?) the tucson park district for what the remainder of the contract was worth. if they hadnt done this, the city of tucson could have sued the white sox for a breach of contract, which is totally legal. i know, i know, kenny (thats our gm, for those of you unfamiliar with the white sox management system) had his eyes set on phoenix for a while, but it would have been economically, and legally less of a hassle to just wait until the contract expired, and dont bother to renew it. although i know a lotta players make their offseason homes in phoenix and it is a far drive to and from tucson (its 2 hrs going there and to come back is another 2 hrs), i wonder if tucson electric park is located in a dumpy area, and maybe kenny really wanted to get outta there just cuz of the neighborhood.

but enough legalspeak bitching and on to BASEBALL!!! todays game was white sox vs. texas rangers. and no, josh hamilton was not playing, so carlos quentin couldnt eat him (see 'hopped up on hamilton' for this one (note-each word is a separate image), courtesy of the ever-amazing carl skanberg). i got to see my boys stretching and doing batting practice.

before the game, however, some team in the white sox minor league organization won some championship, so the sox honored them. while the team was honored, i was taking pix of my boys engaged in some roly-poly-style-stretching

this over here is the team that the sox were honoring.

and this below is my boys doing roly-poly stretching :)

first 1 on the right is paulie, all curled up and rocking back and forth like a japanese wobble toy :)

this next one was ba. he was literally going head-over-heels during his stretching routine. as the guys at south side sox might suggest, the 'honies' (or alternatively spelled "honey's", basically a slang term for cleat chaser groupies) that ba likes to pick up after games are gonna have a good time taking advantage of his flexibility (and wallet, among other things).

finally, my favorite stretching pic.

aside from that gorgeous man in the middle on his knees (none other than my boy, carlos quentin :D), i liked the groupshot of jd getting a real rubberband man workout from the trainer along with ba.

the game itself was a thriller. our miracle man, john danks, got the start for us. the sox were down 3-1 at one point, but came back to win 8-4 after consecutively scoring a run in the 7th, 8th, and 9th innings. the 9th inning was the best cuz my boy q, after having a rather dismal game, got a rally going. he hit a double, and then scored on 2 subsequent singles, tying the game 4-4. after the pitcher walked the bases loaded, ba came on and hit a grand slam. it was the 1st grand slam id ever seen live. i was glad i went.

as for the stadium in general, the food isnt too bad. for lunch, my uncle bought me a hot dog with all the fixin's. basically, that was a vienna beef hotdog with relish, onions, gardinia (at least i think thats how you spell it. its that italian hot pepper salad that you find in the grocery store in the glass jar), cheese, chili, jalapenos, and finally ketchup and mustard (although i didnt put mustard on mine. i dont like mustard). it was messy, but it wasnt bad. id definately have it again. for dessert, i had this italian ice dessert, i think its called 'sorbeto'. it tastes like a popsicle, and was actually kinda refreshing. it got rid of the peppery aftertase left behind by the hotdog.

the giftshop was REALLY CROWDED!!! they were selling the st. patricks day green jerseys of various players. the special was of my boy quentin. well, the man does have some irish roots, so it was appropriate (i remember reading a tribune article about him, and that little tidbit was mentioned, among other things). my dad went to the game on tuesday, and told me that in the team store, you could find a manny's-dreadlocks wig, complete with bandana. i couldnt believe it, so after the game, my uncle and i went to the team store and fought the crowd to see if we could find it. unfortunately, the store was sold out of those wigs, but thats ok. the next time i go to camelback ranch, they'll probably be in stock. i dont intend to get 1, but i just wanted to see it cuz i couldnt believe they existed.

that was my day at camelback ranch. i would love to go back in the near future :)

GO WHITE SOX!!!

tamtam

sox vs. australia

today, i was able to watch some of the sox vs. australia game before i had to run off to english.

i got to see q for the 1st time this spring training!! he went 1-3. kinduva bad day, but compared to the rest of spring training, its not too bad.

bff ba had a good day today. i saw him wack a home run over the left-center (i think, i dont remember) wall. as the folks at south side sox like to joke, after the game, ba went for the aussie wives (ba is rumored to be pretty promiscuous. so is q, allegedly, but it hasnt been confirmed for the latter).

as i was watching the game, i noticed how dead camelback ranch was. im serious!! there were only like 50 people in the stadium, at most!! man, this economy really truly spares no one. not even the sports industry.

in short, sox win. hope the same for tomorrow.

GO WHITE SOX!!
tamtam

picture day

dear readers,

today was picture day for all the baseball players. the white sox' mugshots are slowly coming up on yahoo sports, and though not all the players have been uploaded, so far they're looking good.

jd (shown left), jeff marquez (below and on the right side of the blog-sorry, having some formatting problems here!), and the ever adorable pidgeon-toed octavio dotel (lovingly referred to by me as 'octavius do-tell'-thank 'dj' darren jackson for coming up with that one; shown below and left) looked cute in their mugshots, however, like always, there are always a few anomolies.

such an example was bartolo colon. until i saw bartolo colon's mugshot, i didnt realize how fat he really was (plus, he needed to shave). its like this: you just know picture day is not the right time to be photographed. until mom fixes your hair and reminds you to smile, you just know that something's gonna come up and the pic won't come out nice. yeah, that tub-o-lard you see below is the infamous bartolo colon. not that i dont have anything against the big fella, but given that this pic is goin up on the white sox website and soon enough it will adorn entries on countless sports blogs all over the blogosphere, make at least a half-ass attempt to look nice.

speaking of half-assing looking nice for the team pic, i wonder if q (that would be carlos quentin-that hungry fella who's biting his bat in the picture below) remembered to smile for his team pic. normally he does not and that bugs me cuz he's got a really cute smile (plus he's a total cutie when he smiles). this year he's got some reasons to smile in his team pic-he's a happy newlywed, he's virtually cemented his legacy here in chicago, and he's got good dental work (im a dentist's kid-the first thing i look at is people's teeth!!). if he didnt, im gonna whup him (just kidding-i wouldnt whup my favorite baseball player-he's huge and i would likely die from that fight)!! i promise that when his mugshot goes live, i'll post it here too.

speaking of q, his bff brian anderson (lovingly called 'ba'; and i can honestly call ba q's bff cuz everywhere q goes, ba's always with him: wedding, some bar with john danks and a woman who looked suspicously like q's new bride) went live. to be honest, he looks like he's getting the shocker or something else up an unmentionable orfice. just not comfortable at all. but then again, i heard ba gets more ass then a toilet seat so why should this be a surprise? ---------->

there were also some surprises. paulie shaved his goatee! i knew from pictures that paulie had shaved his beard, but i didnt think it was permanent! he doesnt look bad w/o the beard, but to be honest, it looks...different. might take a little getting used to.

now its aj's turn. i cant go an entry about the white sox without a piece of aj. i call this man my dad's twin cuz if you saw a picture of my dad 30 yrs ago and aj today, you would see a frightening resemblance. i know aj went bleach blonde again-i saw that in spring training videos. im a little torn between which picture i should upload of aj-the one where he looks like he's about to kill someone (see below)

or the more friendly one. (see below)i guess i'll upload both.

jim thome was looking jolly. didnt appear that he slept much cuz his eyes are all bloodshot. or...it could just be the dry arizona air. judge for yourself cuz i dont figure thome to be a drinker. -------->

now to the pitchers: first on my hitlist is the great bobby jenks (see left). he's earned a reputation as an untouchable (almost) closer who will shut down the opposing batters. unfortunately, dying your beard bleach blonde for the team photo probably wasnt the smartest thing. it appears that a dust mop has settled on our closers' chin and it aint goin anywhere anytime soon.

the second target on my pitcher list is ehren wassermann. this guy was a rookie last year and was injured most of the time, if my memory serves me right. normally, i wouldnt care 1 way or another about this guy, but when i saw his picture, i knew there was some material there. to be honest, i feel a little bad for poking fun of his picture cuz he looks absolutely terrified in it, but it was sitting there, ripe for poking with my sarcastic pen (well, keyboard more like), screaming 'pick me!' so i did. at least its nicer than joba chamberlain's now-infamous up-my-nose team mugshot (or as someone on 'big league stew' commented 'joba being asked: "how's life now that johnny damon has moved into your garage?"').

i guess i'll be signing off for the night. if carlos quentin's picture doesnt go live by midnight tonight, i'll put it up for sure tomorrow. i'll be monitoring the search engines till midnight. after that, it's goin up tomorrow. he's the only 1 im waiting on.

good night and go white sox!!

tamtam

**update**-looks like q's picture isnt coming up. I CANT FIND IT ANYWHERE!!!! looks like you guys will just have to wait a little longer >:[