Frank Thomas - 500 Career Home Runs

It's been a fairly forgettable season for the Sox...check that, VERY forgettable. But a nice moment during this evening's 4-3 win as the organization again salutes the man who was THE franchise for 16 years, The Big Hurt, Frank Thomas. Enjoy the video which played during the first inning of tonight's game above. And take heart...Tadahito Iguchi has gone to a better place.

Maybe You Can Have It All...

"But as the philosopher Jagger once said, you can't always get what you want." -- Dr. Gregory House

Of course, as it turns out, when you try sometimes, you get what you need.

Mark Buehrle wanted a full guarantee that he wouldn't be going anywhere for at least another 4 years. Kenny Williams balked at the idea of shielding his top pitching commodity from any type of trade over that time, figuring that you can never say never. While for the longest time it looked like this was going to kill the deal, both sides FINALLY met each other in the middle and sealed the proposed 4-yr, $56 million deal with a proviso that if Buehrle is traded in that window from Opening Day 2009 thru July 2010, a fifth year at $15 million kicks in. In essence, Buehrle will cost the Sox an extra full year of salary to trade, so Kenny better be getting somebody REAL valuable if and when that ever happens.

This is a great moment for the Sox as a franchise, because they were able to wiggle out from a tough place and now have their two most popular players (Paul Konerko and Buehrle) locked up through 2010, along with a suddenly much-improved Javy Vazquez as well as Bobby Jenks. Now Williams can turn his attention towards other areas of the roster that need to be re-tooled. In order of importance:

1) Bullpen
2) Outfield, ALL 3 Positions
3) Third Base - attempt to keep Crede, or hand the job to Fields? Make the call sooner rather than later, Ken.
4) Bullpen
5) Bullpen
6) Shortstop - at least get Uribe a personal hitting coach
7) Bullpen
8) Second Base - minors are suddenly flush with options it seems; what becomes of the Gooch?
9) Bullpen

Are you noticing a theme yet?

Buehrle's back through 2011. Insert shout of joy here.

Didn't We Almost Have it All?

Baseball players tip their caps an awful lot. After dramatic home runs, emotional homecomings following a free-agent departure, at retirement ceremonies, at All-Star games, as an acknowledgement to those who've shelled out a lot of money (and a lot of their own emotional sanity) following one of the most mercurial games man has ever known. Pitchers tend to doff the cap the least, usually after an outstanding game that they can't quite finish, departing a potential shut-out in the 8th or 9th, saluting the fans and saying, "I almost took it all the way that time."

So there's never a bad side to a friendly tip of the cap, right? Tough to explain that to the legions of Sox fans who watched or tuned in to this sight with two out in the 8th inning of Monday's White Sox-Orioles contest...



Mark Buehrle made what was potentially his final start in a White Sox uniform on Monday night, and it was classic Buehrle - working fast, mixing speeds, baffling hitters with his 90-mph fastball, a good change, a nasty cutter, and pitching instincts that just cannot be taught. Not bad for a kid who got cut twice from his high school baseball team, only stuck with the sport because his dad made him, went to community college, got picked in what is universally regarded as the throwaway, career-minor-leaguer-if-you're-lucky portion of the MLB Draft (38th round), and was never in his quick rise through the Sox farm system regarded with anywhere near the reverence of a long-line of eventual busts in the White Sox organization...Kip Wells, Aaron Myette, Royce Ring, Jason Stumm, Josh Fogg, Matt Ginter, Kris Honel, Brandon McCarthy, Heath Phillips, Sean Tracey. Those guys were supposed to make it. Some of them have go on to lead the National League in losses, others to unspectacular careers in a variety of bullpens, and at least one of them has a permanent place in history as "the kid who Ozzie made cry". The point is you don't come as far as Buehrle has without being something special, owning something raw, something instinctual, something that all the "can-'t miss" kids are missing.

102 victories, a sparkling 3.79 career ERA that includes two horrendous half-seasons (one from April-June of 2003, the other from July-September of 2006), a no-hitter, a World Series ring to go with the odd accomplishment of starting one World Series game and saving the next, and a host of memories in between.

AND WE'RE GOING TO THROW ALL OF THIS AWAY OVER A NO-TRADE CLAUSE HE'LL HAVE ANYWAY IN LESS THAN THREE YEARS???

The White Sox can look all they want, but after seeing him pitch this year I think I know - they're not going to find another Buehrle for a long, long time. You can replace somebody like Jose Contreras, or somebody like Jermaine Dye. But for all the maxims about how "anybody can be replaced", how "there is no player who, if the price is right, can't be traded"...you can't tell me the Sox have any combination of pitchers ready to come in and duplicate what Buehrle's been giving you for the past seven seasons. Not with a straight face, anyway.

So now it all comes down to this, Mark and Kenny, alone in a sea of people, all watching to see who blinks first. There's a sort of tragic beauty to all of this, and not only because after Mark exited to a hero's ovation with a 6-2 lead did the Sox ticking-bomb bullpen turn it into a 7-6 loss that only further staked the Sox into "the land from which there is no hope of a dramatic second half surge". It was obvious to everyone that Buehrle could very well be on his way out, off to chase another championship in the fall and then even more with the security of a five or six year deal for 75-90 million from somewhere like St. Louis or New York or Los Angeles. The crowd knew it. And as he signified with a deliberate raise and salute of the cap, Buehrle knew it too.

Kind of reminds you of the cliffhanger ending to the "The Butter Battle Book" by Dr. Suess...

"Be careful Grandpa,
Be careful! Oh gee!
Who will drop it, will you or will he?"

We'll see. We will see.

An iPhone Update...

Time for a brief treatise on the evil fate of the Pale Hose...at a later time. Right now I'm having too much damn fun with the iPhone!!!