The End
- Of Summer: Now that I'm 2 years out of college, and pretty much everyone I know has graduated too, the only sign that "summer vacation" is coming to an end for me is when the interns here at work leave to go back to school. Technically, there's still a few weeks left of summer, but I'm already regretting that I didn't take advantage of the warm weather and sunny days enough this year. I think I will definitely have to take a vacation to someplace tropical when the Chicago winter arrives.
- Of the A-Rod era: Assuming the trade goes through, a deadline deal struck yesterday in Dudo League sent my precious Alex Rodriguez to Piya's team in exchange for Michael Young and Ben Sheets. After having A-Rod as a keeper for more than 3 years, it was definitely hard to part with him. I think it was about time for me to move on though. You can't argue with his production on the field, but during the past couple seasons I started to dislike him more for some reason. Maybe it was the whole "it's not about the money, but I'm going to Texas" thing, or the "now I'm at a point in my career where winning is the most important thing" when he went to the Yankees. Or maybe I just got spoiled with awesome fantasy players and I got sick of him. Anyways, hopefully Sheets and Young both turn out to be good the rest of this year, as well as in the next few seasons and thus cushion the blow. I don't want to become the "stupidest GM ever" by trading away one of the greatest players in the history of the game for a couple of scrubs that never went anywhere.
More Baseball
- White Sox: Good games this weekend. My favorite moment was Jose Valentin's leadoff single, steal 2nd, move to 3rd on flyout, and score on sac-fly yesterday. Home runs are nice, but that's the kind of thing a winning team needs to do. I like the decision to go to a 4-man rotation too. The one thing that worries me is Shingo, who doesn't look good. I don't necessarily think a closer needs to throw 100 mph, but if you're going to rely on off-speed stuff, you better be able to throw strikes and get ahead in the count. And Shingo hasn't been throwing strikes too consistently in his last few outings.
- Sox announcers: The TV guys have gotten pretty bad this year. First of all, Hawk needs to tone down his Hawk-ness. I don't remember him being like this back in the day, when it was Hawk and Wimpy. All the catchphrases are fine, but not if you use them so much that you sound like a cartoon character. "Stretch!! HE GONE!! Put it on the board... YEEE-SSS!!" And it's ok to root for your team, but not so much that you take it personally every time they lose or something bad happens. As far as DJ goes, he's not terrible, but not good either. Seems like all he does is drop names of players he played with. Seriously, every game, there's at least an inning or two where they don't even talk about what's going on in the field, but spend like 10 minutes trying to list as many names as they can.
On the other hand, the radio guys have been solid for many years and are still very good. I've been listening to John Rooney and Ed Farmer since the first days I was a White Sox fan, and they do a really good job. Nothing spectacular, just reliable broadcasting with a good mix of commentary and friendly banter.
- Cubs: I'm not sure why, but Dusty Baker irritates me. Other than that, I think the Cubs are fine. You would never know it with all the panic among Cubs fans, but the team is still favored to make the playoffs. I was looking at their record, and 9 games over .500 is pretty good considering all the negatives that have happened this season. What a difference a year makes. The expectations have gotten so high that even when the team is successful overall, nobody is enjoying the season.
