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”

This was a homer happy game, and it…was…AWESOME.

Between the two teams, there were eight home runs hit tonight, as the Sox beat the Twins 11-8. The Sox took two out of three and sit 3.5 games behind the Cleveland Indians who come to town this weekend.

Let’s talk pitching before I get into the home run goodness. » Continue reading “Home Run Happy!”

Photo by Amy Swenson

This afternoon, White Sox season ticket holders got a chance to chat with Steve Stone and Adam Dunn. As you may have learned from the last two conference calls I covered for Cheryl, I kind of love them and think it’s a great idea. I also love that Cheryl is a season ticket holder and lets me participate.

First to join the call was Steve Stone. Gene Honda moderated the call, and he asked Stoney whether he was surprised at Robin Ventura being named manager this year like a national columnist was. Stone was surprised but for a different reason. Most people were surprised because Robin had never managed at any level prior to this position.

Stone said this is not a negative for Robin. He gets the respect of every player in that clubhouse, but he doesn’t command it. It goes beyond being a good player back in his playing days because he understands the players today. Stone also said that just like a first-year player, a first-year manager is going to make mistakes. Robin has to deal with 25 different egos and work with his coaching staff as well.

» Continue reading “Conference Call with Steve Stone and Adam Dunn”

Hawk Harrelson and his usual broadcast partner Steve Stone

I know you will be shocked by this confession (ok, maybe not if you have read me in the past) I’m about to make but according to a recent project at Fangraphs, Hawk and Stone come in last in their off season ranking. I can’t say I disagree with this too much. Mainly because I am not a fan of Hawk.

There. I said it. I’ve said it before, but in the context of who Hawk was working with (i.e., Tom Paciorek.) However, in looking at things on their own, I am still not a fan.

Why? Because the things that make him enduring to some are what drive me bonkers. He’s a homer for sure. And there is nothing wrong with being a homer. Except for when you are such a homer that you can’t fairly criticize when criticism should be levied.

There is also the seeming dismissiveness of the person in the booth next to Hawk. Sure, Hawk has been around the game of baseball for a VERY long time. So long in fact that you can pick up some interesting history if you can listen long enough to hear it. » Continue reading “Hawk Harrelson as Worst Announcer?”

(l-r) Jeff Manto, Brent Lillibridge, Ken "Hawk" Harrelson, Adam Dunn

Yesterday was day two of SoxFest. It was another fun day. There were moments of testiness as well as some questions that were asked that left me scratching my head. Below are the tweets of the day. There are a couple of gaps. For the first time ever, I ended up in Twitter Jail for tweeting too much in an hour. Fortunately, it only lasted for an hour. If it had gone longer, I am not sure what I would have done. Maybe create an account just for the jail time. In any event, enjoy. I will bring you day three today as well on twitter. As always, if you have any questions, please ask. I know the spelling gets wonky at times so some of the tweets might not make a ton of sense. (Like Ichiro turning into i crap!)

Day Two Tweets: » Continue reading “SoxFest Day Two. A Bit Of Drama”

This past weekend’s series in Oakland saw a reuniting in the booth of Ken “Hawk” Harrelson and Tom “Wimpy” Paciorek. Steve Stone, Hawk’s usual analyst for games was taking a few days off. When the announcement was made these two would be in the booth, my first reaction was, “why do I have to deal with the blackout restrictions on MLB.TV and this would be a great time to have MLB Package on my cable to watch any games I wanted, both home and away broadcasts.

Hawk Harrelson and his usual broadcast partner Steve Stone

I realize I am in the minority, but I’m saying it anyway. I don’t like Hawk and Wimpy. I never did like them. In fact, their broadcasting was the primary reason that I would listen to the games on the radio with my tv muted back in the day. It was a habit I did for the longest of time, until eventually I just learned to semi tune out Hawk and all of his hawkisms. It also helped that Wimpy was gone as well. I am not totally sure what exactly it is about those two that drove me to the radio broadcast, but it reminds me in general that a lot of broacasters today are just awful.

Nowadays, it seems every guy in the booth is looking to do schtick so he can stand out amongst all the broadcasters. Some of my favorites are the “old school” guys like Ernie Harwell and Vin Scully. Those guys were / are just classy about calling a game. Sure, Vin will tell you a story that seemingly has nothing to do with what is happening on the field, but he does it in such a way, that you just feel comforted. Not to mention when Vin tells a story, he doesn’t miss a beat in telling you what is going on in the game. » Continue reading “Please Stop Hurting My Ears”

So is .500 really all that bad? It is still early and there are still 149 games to play to decide who really is the best team in the AL Central. Since you might be feeling blue, here are some morning links to hopefully calm you down or at least get you up to date about what is going on with the White Sox.

Through all the changes at the Cell one thing remains the same and that is the Sod Father.

In Peavy Watch, Jake may be back to pitch against the Yankees on the 28th or the Orioles on the 29th. Time will tell which day he makes it back.

YIKES! The White Sox have 16 errors in 2 weeks, but Ozzie still has faith in the defense of his team.

As much as fans wanted to see Mark Buehrle pitch a complete game in his last start, he is aware and understands the club’s decision to hold him back, but at the same time doesn’t want to be babied.

The White Sox made a minor move in sending OF Stefan Gartrell to Atlanta for cash considerations.

Read an excerpt of color analyst Steve Stone’s latest book.

Sox prospect Charlie Leesman had a dominant performance for the Birmingham Barons.

Let’s hope for a win today because I don’t think anyone is ready for a sweep so early in the season. Particularly when there has been so much promise for good things to come this season.

To see what was actually happening at SoxFest from live tweets, you can view day 1 and day 2. To know opinions of the minors,  you can check here.  As for the remainder of the seminars, there was a lot of entertainment.  Ozzie and Kenny seemed to be getting along like peas in a pod. Jeff Cox, the third base coach, is beyond hysterical. So much so, that Steve Stone would translate what Cox said and even Ozzie felt a need to make cracks about Cox’s grasp of the English language. The session with Adam Dunn and Frank Thomas was pretty amusing. There were jokes about Dunn leading off as well as Thomas’ stolen base total. And I think Juan Pierre endured himself to fans even more and to more fans. The man wants enough stolen bases to get to and win the world series.

The 2011 White Sox should be an exciting group to watch. I’m excited to see the infield defense. Gordon Beckham said at his session with Juan Pierre that he was excited to see what the infield would do and that he believes that the stuff he and Alexei will do this season will far surpass what happened last season. I am especially excited to see Brent Morel (or B-Mo as Buddy Bell referred to him – he definitely needs a better nickname in my opinion) will do at third base. When I saw him manning the hot corner last season, I felt a relief that things would get caught like I did when Joe Crede first came up as well as when I saw Robin Ventura play there. I love that there should be great defense to help the team win.

Overall, it was nice to see how the players interacted and share things about themselves and the team that you might not hear otherwise (unless you are a beat reporter covering the team). It was also good to hear about some of the potential stars of the future for the team. Hopefully, we will not be seeing them anytime soon because the guys on the big club are doing so well that things just fall into place for amazing things to come in October 2011. Overall, the feeling and message I got from SoxFest was that you should be excited to see what this team will do this year. It seems like it will be a special thing to watch.

Go White Sox!