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Monday, February 7, 2011

Criminey

Now that Mark is getting close to Spring Training, he's been throwing bullpens 2x a week and going to the gym 2x a day... I've been going with him at night but I'm going to start going in the morning with him too. I'm not really into lifting... more conditioning.... but it's not gonna hurt to tighten up a bit more....

Between working out twice a day and working so much I'm gonna need to double up on the caffiene too... good thing Luigi taught me how to make a wicked espresso at the Cafe in Otto at work... I now have double shots at my fingertips whenever I need a pick-me-up at work which is a LOT.

Mark was really sweet tonight on the way from his bullpen to the gym today-- he said he had to be selfish because he only had a few weeks before ST and needed to concentrate solely on baseball...which convienently for him I fully support anything and everything baseball 100% of the time... I even enjoy going to his bullpens... I know he's my boyfriend but getting to watch him throw the way hes been throwing is awesome. I love seeing his pitches break up close like that. His coach is Teddy Concepcion and he's awesome.... The first thing he did when he met me and found out I was a White Sox fan was show me that he had Joey Cora's phone number... hes a really awesome guy.

Anyways... I thought it was sweet that Mark thought he was being selfish by concentrating all his time on baseball... Theres nothing I want more than for him to succeed and I really love being a part of his pre-season training.

Anyways--- this weekend is convention week... I got notes from my boss that we're at full capacity and it's gonna be nuts this week. There's a shoe convention and a motorola convention too so work's gonna be friggin nuts this week. That's good though because I'll be making my first visit to California next week for Kathy's (mark's sister) Senior game at Santa Clara. I for sure wanna throw back some money in the savings before the game and before we go to Cali because Mark and I really want to go to San Francisco so I can see the town. For those of you who forgot, Full House was filmed there and I WILL be riding a trolly.

Today I was in a pissy mood though. I own money on the electric bill back home and I was wanting to pay it on Saturday but Bank of America apparently wont process my check until tonight and it wont be in my account until tomorrow. The problem is that I cashed my check there on FRIDAY. I couldn't be more pissed about that whole situation... it also effed up Mark and I's date night... we were gonna go to dinner and a movie but we only have like $12 in our account so there goes THAT on my only day off. Then on top of it I couldn't find anything to eat (granted I was being picky just because I was in a bitchy mood) so I downed coffee all day long... by 6pm I was going stir crazy and after going to Mark's bullpen we went to the gym.... the only thing available for me to work out on was a bike that was far too tall for me and hurt my crotch and made my pants ride up my ass. On top of it, there were eleventy billion girls in the locker room at LVAC walking around naked. WTF?

Anyways before I call it a night--- I wanna put a challenge to everyone.... name the reference forthe new name of my blog.. "Whats a Crop?" ...... :)
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Melissa's Book of the Week: The Devil Wears Pinstripes


I read this book on my way to Spring Training in 2007 and fell in love with it. I let a co-worker barrow it a while back and never got it back and have just placed an order for it through Amazon as that's the only place I can find it now.

It might be the most hilarious book about the Yankee's that I've ever read in my life.. Jim Caple I believe is still an avid columnist on ESPN's Page 2 and is always a good read... I learned the majority of my information about the Yankees and went on to actually make an attempt to fall in love with the history of the team quickly after reading the book and understanding who the real "villians" of the franchise are based on this book alone.

Pick it up. At $3.41 for a new copy on Amazon you simply can't afford NOT to.

Direct link here


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Friday, February 4, 2011

Welcome Back, Welcome Back, Welcome Back

Well, I feel as though I owe everyone some sort of explanation. Most of you know that I moved this site to it's own domain (which I hope to restart whenever I learn how to do that) of www.whitesoxdiaries.com. About 4 months ago I was told that my website had been suspended and after a rather controversial 2010 season for my blogging, my (and others) immediate thoughts were that it had been shut down by *perhaps* white sox media relations.

I'm rather glad to report that's NOT the case :)

Instead, the domain that was supporting it was shut down (at least I think... Im rather technologically retarded, but thats what I got out of the explanation), so until then I'm going to start reposting on this website.

So, before the questions roll in, which I'm sure they will, I'll explain my absence.


In the last 8 months that I haven't been posting, I've been diagnosed with ADD (that alone should explain it, haha), started dating my future husband, lost 30 lbs, moved out of my roommates house, and then made the move to the FABULOUS Las Vegas where I am now working for Iron Chef, Mario Batali at Otto Enoteca at The Venetian on the strip. Oh, and I adopted a stray cat. Her name is Chelsea.

I feel as though some of you think I have "given up" on baseball, but thats highly not the case. I just haven't had time or access to the constant White Sox chatter as I did last season. Also, for those of you keeping track, this is about the time last year when I started this blog, so we'll look at this as my own Spring Training after a rather long and eventful offseason.

As I will be blogging about the White Sox, Baseball, etc, I've also come to the conclusion that baseball is not my WHOLE life, it is only a really really large part of it. I now live in Las Vegas and will be blogging about my life as an avid baseball fan, who has moved far away from her family and all of her friends, is working in a job she NEVER thought she'd have, and who's boyfriend is moving away for 7 months in about 30 days.....

There's only so many characters that facebook status updates can hold.

So without further ado, let the blogging commence.

I'd like to leave you after this first post with a small story of something that happened to me yesterday.

While I was at work, a man I was waiting on saw my Sox tattoo on my wrist and immediately started flirting with me. You know how you tell a lie and you think you're really cool because you don't think anyone else will call you out on the lie?

Well, this guy starts to tell me that his best friend owns the majority of the stock in the White Sox, and then asks me to meet him to go out after work. I'm assuming he saw some special on the Packers and how they were a publicly traded company, and then just assumed that ALL pro teams were publicly traded or something.... because he was straight up trying to tell me that his best friend owned ALL this stock in the Chicago White Sox and basically owned the team.

So I simply told him that the White Sox weren't a publicly traded company. He looked at me slightly confused and responded with "Yes they are." I calmly said "no sir, they aren't like the Packers. The Packers are publicly traded but the White Sox aren't. In fact, I don't believe ANY Major League teams are traded, and I know for a fact that the Packers are the only NFL team that are."

I kind of expected the guy to put his tail behind his legs and say something like "oh well, I must be confused" or something to the effect but this guy WOULDNT STOP. He responded with "Well, my best friend owns the majority of the team, I know that. He's like the guy that works right above their GM."

Of course I responded with "Oh, so your best friend is Jerry Reinsdorf?" "No, it's ____(insert guys name that I've NEVER heard of before in my life). He lives in Florida, and he owns the White Sox."

At this point I was getting slightly annoyed. I mean who the hell doesn't just back down when they're wrong? Luckily his friend cut in with "I don't think you need to be drinking this early in the morning anymore" and brushed him off allowing me to leave the table without decking the guy in the face. Something about morons trying to talk baseball when they know nothing about it just totally irks me.

By the way, 12 days til pitchers and catchers report :)
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Sunday, June 20, 2010

Feelin .500 Good

My recap on ChiCitySports

The last time the Chicago White Sox were at .500 was April 7th of this year when they were 1-1 in their series opener. It’s safe to say that they’ve made large strides during this 10 day 9 game roadtrip, sweeping both the Pirates and the National’s and taking 2 of 3 from the Cubs up at Wrigley to get back to that spot.

Sitting with my father watching the game today on Father’s Day, the Sox didn’t let either of us down as they went on to take the 3rd game in the series against the Nat’s. It would also be a big day for Rookie Dayan Viciedo who got his first Major League start at third base.

Alex Rios started things out for the Southsiders with 2 out in the 1st with a single hit to center field. With Konerko batting, he stole 2nd and scored on a line drive single by Paulie, making the score 1-0.

Dayan Viciedo, who lined out sharply in the 2nd inning of the game, got his first major league hit in the 4th with a single on a line drive to center field and was given his game ball after the inning

Sweaty Freddy was in typical form today with an ace of a performance striking Nat’s pitchers out left and right. Washington didn’t score until the bottom of the 4th when Cristian Guzman tripled and then scored on a fielders choice single by Adam Dunn. Shortly after Roger Bernadina singled on a ground ball to Alex Rios and Dunn scored making it 2-1, Washington. The Nats then advanced the score to 3-1 on a single by Wil Nieves that scored Josh Willingham.

Not ready to give up, the Sox came back in the top of the 5th starting with two consecutive singles from Juan Pierre and Alexei Ramirez. Almighty Rios knocked in a run with a sharp line drive double to score Pierre. Not to be outdone, Konerko stepped to the plate and singled on a ground ball scoring Ramirez. 4-3, White Sox.

A single by Ramon Castro kept the inning alive with no outs followed by an RBI double play ground out by Dayan Viciedo who managed to get his first hit and first RBI all within two innings. Not an awful day for the rookie.

The Sox kept the lead and kept Nat’s pitching at-bay until the 9th inning when Drew Storen came in for reliever Miguel Batista. Vizquel spent his time advancing after starting the inning off with a single with help from Pierre, Ramirez, and finally an RBI single by Alex Rios. “Obviously Alex Rios was the hardest out for me,” said Nat’s reliever Drew Storen to me this evening, “he got two hits off of me!”

“It was cool to pitch against them because my dad and I used to go watch them play in Chicago all the time when I was growing up.,“ Storen continued giving me his opinion on the team. “Obviously the lineup is good and full of good hitters that are patient and have a good plate presence. They’re a great lineup to face and they got a few hits off of me.”

JJ Putz would come in to close for the Pale Hose and allow for another victory against Washington and ultimately their second sweep in a row.

They Sox have an off-day tomorrow and then will face the Atlanta Braves at home for a three game set.

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Wednesday, May 26, 2010

When Did Joe West Make the 40-Man? This Game is NOT About You!

What happened in today's game was a joke. Hawk has never been more correct. Not only was it a joke, but Joe West is a joke. I won't even bother going into the first alleged balk because anyone with eyesight could see it clearly wasn't.

The problem here is that Joe West doesn't know how to control his emotions, and he's the epitome of an "attention whore."
Before I get into the depth of it, let me just say this. Joe West is an umpire. He is ALSO a country music writer and singer. For the sake of passing on information and to further prove my point that he's loves the spotlight, I'll share the following. I've been told by more than a few media writers in the industry that Joe West has his own personal PR Agent. The media constantly gets emails offering interviews with Joe and ways to promote his music career. The girl in me would like to equate this to the huge douche, Wes, on The Bachelorette. His actions to get his name out there are to be kept off the baseball diamond. Plain and simple.

West who has a contract with MLB through 2014 proved today why he needs to stop calling games all together. I never dog on Major League umpires. I'm aware of how hard it is to get to the bigs as an umpire- some would even say it's harder than making it as a player, and they get paid less than a league minimum player would (300k a year at the most). However there comes a time after 32 years when it's just simply time to stop calling balls and strikes. When you're blowing calls, taking vendetta's with managers out on mild-mannered pitchers, and being an all around side-show, it's time to retire.

I never go to the game excited to see the umpires. I'd venture to say that 99.9999999% of fans don't go in hopes of seeing a great call by the home plate umpire. However, ALL fans go to the game to see the players PLAY. He ejected Buehrle on a BS call (he didn't eject him for balking.. he ejected him for "throwing" his glove after the 2nd balk he called on the same pitcher who had only one balk called on him previously in the last 3 years. Buehrle also has one of the best pick-off moves in the AL and its the same move he's been using his entire career).

The problem here is as follows:

1) By ejecting Buehrle after 2.1 innings pitched, he forced the White Sox to tax their bullpen, going into the Tampa Bay series with tired arms.
2) He significantly could have altered the mood of play of the players to feel as though they had no control over the situation at hand with the game being ruled by overly pompous umpires.
3)He took his emotions out on a manager that he openly dislikes. He didn't call the balk on Buehrle, he called it on Ozzie who he had already ejected.
4)He made the game about himself, which is disgraceful, disrespectful, and wrong.
5)Buhrle never balked.

I'd like to concentrate on point 5. MLB outlines 13 different rules on what is and isn't a balk. Basically it's when a pitcher intentionally tries to deceive a base runner while pitching. There are 1000 different situations in which this can happen, but we'll concentrate on today's problem. Reviewing the clips, the main argument was whether Mark's right leg was taken too far back, crossing either the left leg planted on the rubber, or the plain of the pitching rubber on the mound. After clear review it is obvious that neither of these things happened. Mark's knee crossed his mounted leg, but his foot did not. After talking to fellow umpire, Michael Frain, there are also a few other points that could allow West to have called a balk the 2nd time, but both can be laid to rest by simple rules. They are as follows:

(Via Michael)
1. A left-handed pitcher should NOT be called for a balk for closing the front shoulder (only a RHP should be called on it)
2. The 1b umpire does not have the correct angle to judge a shoulder movement - that is completely and SOLELY the plate umpire's coverage

With that being said, I went tech-savvy and took frame by frame pictures of the series of events that lead to Mark's second called balk. Enjoy :) Because of the way this site is set up, I only included three frames, but if you want the rest, you can email me and I'll foward them to you.










You can cleary see where Buehrle's foot never crossed either his left leg or the rubber. Not a balk. Signed. Sealed. Delivered.

Now when is MLB going to do something about these umpires? This isn't the first time West has made sure he's been in the spotlight during a game. During the BoSox/Yankee's series West had to make sure everyone was listening when he complained about the pace of the game. I'm not sure when he thought we cared about his opinions outside of the ballpark, but it was completely unacceptable.

Any time a player, coach, manager, or umpire brings unrelated vendetta's into a ballgame and uses them to directly influence the outcome or put a team at a disadvantage he needs to be fined, suspended, and depending on repeated offenses and the circumstances, even forced to retire or fired.

When a player starts showing signs of depreciation or lack of respect in a disgraceful way he is sent down, traded, put on waivers, released, what have you. There is no system in place like that for umpires like Joe West. Talk about tainting the game. Whatever problems an ump has with someone on a team or in a franchise, it's his DUTY and JOB to to bypass such feelings and do his best to call a fair game. He has a responsibility to the fans, players, and everyone else in the MLB to do what's right, and if West isn't held accountable for his actions, then I've lost a little bit of respect for the MLB.
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Thursday, May 20, 2010

Homeless Man Takes Stroll Across Warning Track to Get Concessions


When one lives outside the confines of conventional society or woefully below
the poverty line, obeying accepted boundaries and respecting the niceties of
regular behavior just doesn't seem quite as important. Say, for example,
you're a homeless man sitting in the bleachers of a ballpark. You spy a
concession stand across the concourse.
Do you:

Make your way
from your seat to the concourse, joining the crowd of well-to-do attendees who
scorn you and heap disdain upon on your tragic plight?

Or, do you:

Hop the centerfield wall and meander through the outfield (Ed. Note:
Link goes to Busted
Coverage, which has some NSFW content.) in hopes of
stumbling across some food, before eventually being caught by security?

Whatever you chose doesn't matter. Because 24-year-old Tyrone R. Squires
already selected the latter last night at an Altoona (Pa.) Curve game.

[He] was described by police as being homeless and originally from
Massachusetts but with no permanent address. Sporting a thick, dark beard and
wearing an old-time military hat, Squires kept
his hands in his pockets as
he strolled at a very slow pace from left to right along the outfield wall on
the warning track. Ballpark security allowed him to keep walking until he exited
the field near the Curve bullpen down the right field line, where officials
detained him. About 20 minutes later, Logan Township police arrived on scene to
make an arrest.

Naturally, no talk of a fan trespassing on a baseball
field is complete without referencing the taser incident that occurred in
Philadelphia earlier this month. Cleveland Indians prospect and Akron Aeros
outfielder John Drennen, who was less than enthused by the delay, told the
Altoona Mirror, "There's no room for that. He should have gotten Tasered."
Fortunately for Squires, Altoona security officials don't carry Tasers. Problem
is, they don't lug around concession items either.

Link to the story



I mean, come on. This is just plain funny. A little ironic after the fan that got tased during the Red Sox game, and then another fan running onto the field during the Sox game, that some homeless guy would wander around the warning track looking for nachos and a ice cream ballcap. I could only imagine what was going on in these player's heads.

"I was in the stands charting and looked up to a guy just strolling threw the outfield with out a care in the world. I guess he was just trying to find out where the concession stand was. I'm just happy no one got hurt" Altoona Pitcher Rudy Owens told me this evening.

When asked about his opinion on the homeless man getting Tased, Rudy laughed, "At the time I was [for him getting Tased] but he wasn't trying to be stupid and get a laugh out of it. Now that I sit back and think about it probably not"

So what are you opinions on the matter? Is this another guy trying to get some attention? How out of hand is this "fans being on the field" thing getting? In my opinion, it's starting to get old and out of control. There's a reason why the guys on the field get paid $6mil to play the game and why we pay money to WATCH them. Let's make sure the guys getting paid the big bucks are the ones getting the TV time.
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Today in Baseball History; May 20th

MAY 20

1919: Babe Ruth won a game on the mound and at the plate. He hit his first career grand slam as the Boston Red Sox beat the St. Louis Browns 6-4.

1932: Paul Waner of the Pittsburgh Pirates hit four doubles in one game.

1941: Lefty Grove of the Boston Red Sox won his 20th consecutive game at home, the longest home park streak in the major leagues. Boston beat the Detroit Tigers, 4-2.

1953: In the 13th game of the season, the Milwaukee Braves surpassed their 1952 attendance of 281,278, when they were in Boston.

1959: The Detroit Tigers beat the Yankees 13-6, placing New York in last place for the first time in 19 years.

1978: Willie Stargell hit a 535-foot homer off Montreal’s Wayne Twitchell, the longest home run in Montreal’s Olympic Stadium, highlighting the Pirates’ 6-0 victory. It was also Stargell’s 407th career homer, tying him with Duke Snider on the career list.

1984: Boston’s Roger Clemens earned his first major-league victory. The Red Sox beat the Minnesota Twins, 5-4.

1999: Robin Ventura became the first major leaguer to hit grand slams in both games of a doubleheader, leading the New York Mets to a sweep over Milwaukee, 11-10 and 10-1. He had two slams in a game for the Chicago White Sox on Sept. 4, 1995.

2001: Barry Bonds hit two homers in the San Francisco Giants’ 11-6 loss to the Atlanta Braves, giving him a total of five in two games, becoming the 23rd player in history to do so.

2006: Barry Bonds tied Babe Ruth for second place on the career home run list during San Francisco’s 4-2, 10-inning victory over the Oakland Athletics.

2009: Boston center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury tied a major-league record with 12 putouts by an outfielder in a nine-inning game, previously done by Earl Clark of the Boston Braves in 1929 and Lyman Bostock of the Minnesota Twins in 1977. He accomplished the feat in the Red Sox’s 8-3 win over Toronto.



Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2010/05/19/1957868/this-date-in-baseball-may-20.html#ixzz0oUxo9PHm
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