As I’m sure you’re all fully aware, SoxFest is this weekend. Fans from all over will flock downtown to meet some of their favorite players and hear some of them in panels. Before SoxFest starts, the White Sox wanted to give season ticket holders a chance to talk to Tom Paciorek and Robin Ventura during a conference call this afternoon.

As with every other season ticket holder chat, Gene Honda moderated the call, and we started with Wimpy. He’ll be a big part of SoxFest this weekend, as it will partly be a celebrationg of the 1983 “Winning Ugly” team. Wimpy is excited to be there this weekend with a great group of guys and a great coaching staff. He mentioned that while most fans remember the players, some people may have forgotten the personnel of the 1983 team. » Continue reading “Conference Call with Tom Paciorek and Robin Ventura”

Buddy answering questions at Blog Night

Tuesday night, the Chicago White Sox hosted their sixth annual Blog Night. It is a chance for fans to chat with some key people in the Sox organization as well as interact with each other. Somehow, I have missed hearing about the previous Blog Nights, but I made sure to go this year. Guest speakers were Buddy Bell, Brooks Boyer and Ron Kittle. Below is a summary of what was talked about. Scott Reifert acted as emcee for the event and it was a lot of fun to participate in.

Most of the discussions were answering questions from us fans rather than any prepared speeches about things and then answer questions. Scott Reifert got thing going by filling us in on some upcoming things at the park. There will be another social media night, like the tweet up earlier in the season. This one will have some giveaways involved before the event for things that wil happen at the event.

As for other events, Mayor Daley will be honored on August 3rd. Aside from the President, he is probably the most famous White Sox fan. Moose Skowran was supposed to attend the night, but he wasn’t feeling well. He is toward the end of his treatment, but overall is doing very well.

Roland Hemond, who was recently awarded the Buck O’Neil award will be able to receive congratulatory messages from fans. There will be a table set up soon (if not already) at the park near the White Sox Charities that you can write messages to him. They are looking into doing something similar for fans who’d like to send well wishes to Moose as well.

» Continue reading “Blog Night At The Cell”

Camp is officially in full swing! Only a few more days until games actually begin and we can see what potential there is for the season. Much fodder has occurred thus far in camp to give people things to think about. Fortunately, unlike last season, the fodder is all season and baseball related and not personal relationships / drama between the Guillens and KW.

Speaking of KW, he gave an interview where he said giving Albert Pujols $30 million per year is asinine. He is all for a level playing field because as he says, at the start of the season, everyone plays under the same rules, but before play begins, everyone plays by different rules when it comes to paying players. He would even be okay with shutting the game down to get things under control in terms of the money spent on salary. KW even apologizes to White Sox fans saying if he got $30 million, he will not spend it on one player and instead spread it out to make the entire team better. On this last point, I have to agree with KW. As an old skool curmudgeon when it comes to how the game is played, I truly believe you need a mix of players doing various things to win the game. Sure, I’d love to have a team full of 5-tool players, but that rarely happens. And if you’ve read me at all, you know I am not about having a team full of sluggers with crap defense and eh pitching. As for a salary cap in general, I am not sure where I stand on this. If the reason for wanting it is so that every team has a chance to make the playoffs, then that argument doesn’t hold much water for me because in the past decade or so, a higher percentage of different teams in baseball have made the playoffs than in the NFL, where there is a salary cap. Also, there is that whole thing of what the smaller market teams actually do with the revenue share money they get. » Continue reading “Happenings at 35th & Shields”