Dick Allen

There's was more than 5,000 there. That total didn't include season ticketholders who were given comps. I was sitting behind homeplate, right next to Mrs. Shingo and his 2 little ones. Borchard's ball was smoked.

Farmer mentioned today that Garcia's forearm tightened up some more on a side session today. Looks like the White Sox may have underestimated another injury.

You must think Dave Kingman belongs in the Hall of Fame. I think KW has finally tired of Jose's inconsistency. I doubt he'll be back at any price. Uribe is 24 or 25 years old, so improvement at the plate is not unheard of. Jose's average has declined each season he has been with the White Sox, that trend probably would continue. Vizquel on a 2 year deal sounds good to me. Maybe during that 2 years, Uribe becomes more consistent, he is potentially just as good of homerun guy as Jose, and a gifted fielder, opening up the job for him upon Vizquel's retirement. One thing to keep in mind if you are going to say Uribe is not good with the glove, is this guy has bounced around from 3B to SS to 2B all season. He hasn't played 1 position consistently. To expect him to really excel, would be unrealistic. Look at all the slack people were going to give ARod just for moving over 15 feet, and that was playing 1 position consistently everyday. Remember all the complaining Jose did when he was playing 3b and CF. Despite it all, Uribe has done a good job with the glove, and is a lot of fun, at least for me, to watch. I wouldn't put my eggs all in one basket for him, but potentially, he is an All Star, something Jose is not.

This is exactly the reason I think the Sox should seriously consider trading Shingo this offseason. He is a 1 inning pitcher. He is 35 years old. Its very possible the league catches up to him next year, maybe not, Doug Jones had a pretty good career throwing frisbees, but 40 innings per season is all Shingo has been used the last 6 or 7 years. If Shingo falters as a closer, using him for multiple innings doesn't appear to be an option. His salary goes up to $2.5 million next year, expecting him to be as good as this year would be unfair.

Just ignore my wanting Ozzie fired. I never wanted him hired, and its my little crusade right now. His velocity was way off, you're right we are not privy to conversations. But players get criticized if they say they can't or shouldn't play. Remember the outcry last season when Colon told Manuel he was done against the Cubs, and the Sox lost 2-1? The fact he was only throwing 91 or 92 and the warm up, had a couple people in the seats wondering if there wasn't something wrong, it just amazes me that no matter what Freddy would say to Ozzie, Ozzie wouldn't just take charge and say, " I don't like how your velocity has dropped, and I don't like how you're warming up, something is not right", and not take the chance. Just like when Ordonez came back, and didn't want to DH. Ozzie puts him in RF. Ozzie has to be in charge, he has to say no, its too much to risk. I know Magglio's current condition probably has nothing to do with him going back out in the field, but they wanted him to DH for a while when they thought his condition was far less serious than what it turned out to be. Ozzie is the manager, he is ultimately held responsible for these decisions.

So you are saying he injured it after the game? He was either injured before that last pitch, or he was injured that last pitch, its not stupid to speculate, it has to be the case. I don't know if you were at that game, I was. I don't know if you watched it or listened on the radio, and since I didn't see the TV I don't know if it was brought up, but one interesting thing happened that would make you wonder. When he was warming up in between innings, he was just lobbing the ball, like you would lob one to a child, he would let it go a little bit on his last warm up. My friend and I were wondering if there was a problem, but nothing was reported, so we thought nothing of it. I really haven't paid much attention to Freddy warming up before, maybe that's what he does all the time. In my first post about this subject, in which you ridiculed me, I did state that leaving him in probably didn't matter as far as the outcome of the game especially considering Marte was the only one warming up, and he seemed quite generous that evening. I was concerned about injury, and I know its only 1 more pitch, but when guys blow out their elbows, sometimes 1 pitch puts them over the top. You really don't know what kind of stress the previous pitches had on his arm, and if he had this forearm problem, how much he altered his delivery to ease pain. Hopefully this injury is as minor as the White Sox want everyone to believe. Ozzie must realize that this season is a lost cause, and ease up on his horses. He's going to need them next year.

That's exactly what you want to do, extend injured pitchers He probably was hurt before that, but maybe he did get hurt that batter, do you know for sure? Either way, it was stupid to leave him in. If he was hurt before that, are you saying that sending him out to the mound is a good idea? The man you just gave $27 million to? Its about time Ozzie starts taking care of his starters, so next year they won't have the excuse 2 or 3 or 4 starting pitchers got hurt, and who can overcome that?

Now I'm really happy Ozzie threw Garcia out there in the 8th inning last Sunday after throwing 117 pitches, to face Ramirez for the 4th time. Fire Ozzie, please.

The problem with the Orioles is Angelos is a stickler when it comes to passing physicals. Insurance would be real tough to get on Magglio, and if he got it ,pretty freaking expensive. Unless, of course, Mickey Segal is released from prison, and Near North Insurance wants to write him a policy. Aaron Sele was set to sign with the O's about 4 or 5 years ago, but they flunked him on the physical and he won 18 or something like that for Seattle. I don't think the Mets want to take too much of a chance, considering their luck with Mo Vaughn. I posted earlier, I talked to someone who said he was a friend of Magglio, and reading the papers today, made me certain he was telling me the truth. He mentioned to me the $8 million figure, and I posted it last Saturday. He also said it most likely wouldn't be the White Sox giving him that money.

I was reading something about him. He was hitting over .300 at the all star break last year, and fell apart. This guy has ability. He usually is a far superior hitter right handed, but has hit both his White Sox homeruns from the left side. I think Sandy needs to retire. Maybe Ben will get some more playing time, and start living up to some expectations.

It definitely was Delgado. Gammons and Stark both said the Sox had a deal in place for him, but he declined.

Actually, they went into last Sunday's game with a .5 game lead. 7 games later, they are 5 down, and starting to look out.

Load the bases and bring in Marte, just for s***s and giggles

Hawk just said Buerhle was becoming the leader of the club. He also said the Sox really haven't had a leader for a while. I thought that was one of Jose's redeeming qualities?

I suppose the Borchard sucks vultures will be circling after that line out.

Good thing Borchard made a nice play

My advise to you is to drink anyway

That's the thing about his errors. It didn't cause a run this inning, but it forced Buerhle to throw about 10 extra pitches, something that might have an effect later in the game.

Check the numbers the last couple years, Olerud's stick is far from nice.

Looks like Olerud is headed to the Bronx.

Gammons just said the Sox were shopping ELO like crazy. They had a 3 way with Derek Lowe and Brian Lawrence almost go down.

That falls under tipping your pitches.

Gammons sounds like he's gonna cry talking about the Nomar deal.

It happened to Jack McDowell in the 93 playoffs.

The Sox are on the hook for $4 million per season the next 2 years.