See the below post for the reference...

Round 1: Rays...

There was this great skit that was on Mad TV many years ago. It was a dating service for people that were in their thirties and getting desperate to find a mate. Well, mostly. It was called "Lowered Expectations".

I think that would accurately describe my view of the Sox this post season. Yes, they COULD go all the way. Anything's possible. But, reality rules my life and I don't think we can go. So any victory is gravy and I will cheer as hard for them as always. I just can see the truth of what is going on and what kind of team they are.

Be careful what you ask for...

So, for about, oh, 6 months now, the Cubs have clinched their division and not had any real challenges in their (what I believe and the numbers show) inferior League.

This cannot be debated with anyone intelligent because overwhelmingly the American League beats the daylights out of the National League in every head-to-head venue (inter-league play, All-Star Games, and Series). Nevertheless and proving the first point, the Cubs fans continue to try to excuse, explain, or change the facts regarding this.

I contend that the best teams in the National League are on par with the 2nd-3rd place teams in the American League. Again, the numbers don't lie.

So I've endured listening to Cubs fans rant on and on about their record being so good (couldn't be a lower class of competition), 1st place, and other things. My Sox, as has been detailed on this blog, have been struggling just to make the playoffs. We may get it handed to us now that we're there, but you can't win the Series if you don't make the playoffs.

Tonight, the Cubs got a bit of a comeuppance against a very good team, the LA Dodgers. The intelligencia have put the Cubs in the World Series since May. What they have forgotten is nothing is handed to anyone.

Cubs fans are the most abused, taken for granted, simple, faith-filled fans in all of baseball. By simple, I mean easy to read, not mentally (though there is a lot of that in the bleachers at Wrigley. I've seen it...). They just want their team to win. Finally. After a 100 years of futility and misery, they finally thought they had their team. They still might, by the way....they're not out of anything yet. What I saw was a group expectation of failure by their fans. Dempster gave up a Grand Slam that put the Cubs down by two runs in the 6th. What's the big deal? It's not the end of the world, right? Not if you saw what happened at Wrigley. The term "air out of a balloon" could never have grasped the depths of the lack of oxygen in that place.

Contrast that to last night. That Sox game was electric. If the pitcher got down, the fans cheered them to success. Every strikeout was like the last out of a big game. When there was a man on third with one out, the place was exploding and the team came through.

I couldn't help but wonder if the Cubs were wishing for their own "black out" tonight. Not physically, but enthusiasm-wise. I, deep down, don't think that the Sox fans are better fans than Cub fans as fans. I think we are just different. Were we before the '05 season? Probably not. We needed our team to prove us wrong and the Cubs need to do that for their fans as well. Then, all the goats, cats,and Bartmans in the WORLD won't matter.

It's OK Cubs fans. Eventually your faith will be rewarded. Go back at it tomorrow and let the Dodgers have it.

By the way....GO SOX!!!!! BEAT THOSE RAYS!!!!!

This captured the moment perfectly... GO SOX!!!

IT.......IS......ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hands down, bar none: The greatest sporting moment I've ever witnessed. The Sox pulled it off with the pitching, hitting, and defensive gem they've needed for 2 months.

Go Sox!!!

Alexei Ramirez Grand Slam 9/29 - yeah!! Starring ME as the GREEN BLOB!!

Woo-hoo!! My first time on Youtube!!! Granted, I'm only a green blob. But, ya gotta start somewhere...

:)

"I'm feeling much better now..."

So. What did you do tonight?

Want to know what that is a picture of? That's the ball Alexei Ramirez hit for a winning GRAND SLAM tonight to a guy 3 rows behind me.

That was COOL!!!

In fact, if you look at the replay, you'll see a green blob in the lower right quadrant of the screen with both hands raised and mouth open. I can see it now. You're all saying, "what's new about the mouth being open????"




I got a ticket to the game so I went. I walked right into the lower deck (even though I had an upper deck seat - the Sox have a problem with hillbillies running on to the field and hitting people occasionally (well, twice in the history of the team, but that's a different story) and so they don't let the upper deck (cheaper seats) people down to the lower deck) and picked out a seat in the bleachers. Actually, the original seat I was in would have put me in the fray to get the ball which I would have LOVED.





So the heart attack kids did it again and are playing tomorrow night in a playoff playoff game. I meant that double speak there. The have to play a post-season one game playoff to find out who wins the American League Central Division and can go to the post-post-season playoffs...





The game for tomorrow is sold out and did so 45 minutes after the game.





Would be really cool to get a ticket to THAT game!!!





Oh.





Wait.





I DID!!!! Woo-Hoo!!! I love wireless internet and Ticketmaster. Well, wireless internet anyway.





Sept. 30th is going to be a white sox "Black Out". We're all wearing black to the game tomorrow and they are giving out 40, 000 black towels (hopefully not for drying our tears!).





GO SOX!!!!

"I'm not quite dead yet..."

I just hope that the Tigers don't have any teeth.

We STILL have a chance. How? I have NO idea, but we play a final game that was postponed by rain earlier in the year tomorrow against the TERRIBLE Tigers. The problem? We play terrible against terrible teams. It's called playing down to the competition. It happens everywhere, in every field or endeavor, with bad teams. Well, sometimes. The theory is that if you play down to your competition, you also play up to it.

Uh...that's the THEORY anyway. I would ask where that theory was for the last 5 games.

Let's go Sox!!!

Bring Out Your Dead: 4

It's freeing, really. When your team's ineptness, injuries, and lack of heart (at least for a few of the players) presents itself in glaring evidence, it makes it a lot easier to watch them fail.

This entire year, the Sox have exceeded expectations and have had a good year. The problem is, they never won when they had to. They just don't have the bullets in the gun to do that.

They COULD get on a roll, but I doubt it highly. They are spent and really don't have anything in their tanks.

Bring Out Your Dead 3

Cowards and Heartless.

The Sox peed down their legs again last night.

What's new?

If I was a Cubs a__Clown I'd blame the terrible call by the ump in the third inning, but good teams overcome those things. You know. Like the Twins. Good teams like that.

So our entire season, for now, comes down to Gavin Floyd pitching.

Mercy.

Joe Biden Tells Chuck Graham to Stand Up-what an IDIOT.

Sometimes, you just have to laugh. What a mope. I love it. Joe Biden is infamous for this type of stupidity. Just yesterday he said that we should have a president like FDR who guided America by having fireside chats through their TV's. Uh, last I checked FDR was elected in 1932 and the TV wasn't invented until the late thirties.

What was that Forrest? "Stupid is as stupid does, sir." Right.

Wow. Didn't see THAT coming.

Apparently, Clay Aiken came out of the closet.

He's gay.

He must be the LAST PERSON ON EARTH that didn't realize it.

Linday Lohan is swinging in a new direction as well. Such a stable gal... can't believe it.

Next thing you know, Britney Spears will shave her head and stop wearing underwear.

Better stock up... or down. Whatever.

ForYEARS I've been lamenting the spend, spend, spend we see all around us. During incredible prosperity and swelling tax revenue what did our government do? Put some away for a rainy (catastrophic) day? Nope. The spent MORE than what they had coming in with new programs that were, in every case, "essential". At least, that's what they told us. Now that the coffers are empty, alas, in the RED, they are looking to raise our taxes instead of reeling in their crazy spending.

This whole mortgage mess is laid at the feet of the people in congress, specifically, the democrats Barney Frank and Chris Dodd. If you don't know, they have blocked over 15 times the Bush administration trying to reform this mess since 2005. Now, the idiots that actually caused this problem are on the OVERSIGHT of it getting fixed.

In the words of my hero, Forrest - Forrest Gump: "Stupid is as stupid does".

I'm thinking of starting a petition that will eliminate lawyers from public office. The mess starts with these elitist (completely out of touch) morons parsing the snot out of everything instead of meaning what they say.

Meanwhile, HOW STUPID ARE WE? We keep putting these idiots into office. Imagine if people like you and me ran this government. Just imagine.

I'm tired of it.

Are you?

Is that a heartbeat I hear???

Magic Number: 5

My boys of summer have given me a modicum of hope. After the Bears embarassed themselves AGAIN today, my Sox kept rollin' along. Now, the series we've all been dreading/hoping for has arrived and we're 2.5 games up on the Minnesota Piranhas, uh, Twins.

Surprisingly, I'm looking forward to it. Let's see who wants it more. The sCrUBBIES have been in the lead all summer long and had not had any real chance of losing it. We haven't had the luxury they have of playing in a terrible division of a terrible League. The numbers back that all up (60% winning percentage when the American (i.e., professional) League played the National (i.e.,amateur, girly, inferior(take your pick)) League).

If we win it, we've overcome injury, adversity, and some stupidity to bring ourselves to the playoffs. We may not do anything once we're in it, but we'll at least get there. The other issue is we just won the whole shebang 3 years ago. I now enter this time of year firmly believing we can do it because, well, we just did.

It's gonna be fun!

WHITE SOX WIN THE WORLD SERIES FINAL OUT!

This is kind of cool This is video shot of the last out of the World Series in 2005 from a guy in the upper deck.

Bring Out Your Dead: 2

Sigh.

Sigh, again.

I cannot stand apathy. ESPECIALLY when it comes to my sports teams.

The most positive thing that can be said about the end of the season for my Sox is that they are almost done.

I hate it when they lay down. Right now, I cannot stand the lazy way that they are playing. Where's the leadership? Where's the passion? Gone. All this on the day that both the Cubs and the Twins came back to win games they should have lost. I get to watch my team give up and go through the motions.

Frankly, I hope they don't make the playoffs. They don't have the heart they used to and unless they find it, I'm not interested in watching them lose in the first round like I did for the first 34 years of my life.

If they can wake up, I think they can actually do something in the post season. They have some real experience on the team and their starting pitching could get on a good streak.

I just never remember seeing them lay down during 2005...

Go, Sox. Just GO.

Yee-Haw!!!

For a while now, I've been intrigued by T. Boone Pickens. First, his name. I wish I had such a cool name. Does he go by T? Boone? Pick? T. Boone? Mr. T? Whatever way - it's a really cool name.

Second, I must admit, I dismissed his plan out of hand. There are some serious issues with wind power. It is really expensive to put up the super-fans: In fact, the megawatt vs. expense to create is not even close to nuclear power.

His plan is really pretty good. His idea is progressive: Use natural gas instead of gasoline. When I worked at Schwan's many years ago, all their trucks ran on natural gas. At the time, the cost was relative. Now, they are at about 1/2 the cost of the other industries. The cool thing is we wouldn't have to go to the gas station to fill up. You would just have an adapter in your garage hooked up to your gas in your home. Obviously, there would have to be the addition of natural gas tanks at regular gas stations, but that is no big deal.

I'm in with the "T-Meister". I think that the sooner this is done the better. If your interested in the entire plan, the link is here.

http://www.pickensplan.com/

It's worth a look... I'm the last person who thought he'd be for going green, but things are lining up that way...

Repenting...

I'm really getting a message from God... You know, when a theme repeats itself over and over coming from all different sources: book, speech, work, bible, etc...

What does repent mean? To pent again? Well, I guess it does. I think that pent is just a short version of penitent, or remorseful.

I think that we have bought a bill of goods here in the church. Jesus' mercy is all-encompassing and available to all who recieve it. It is sufficient for all of us. But we lazily rest in that and sin continually. I'm generalizing, I know, but it is symptomatic of our culture. We hate the hard thing. Why did Jesus' say we should repent if it's ok to sin? The point is, it's not. It's not OK to struggle with the same things again and again with no victory over them.

I believe that if we really search scripture, pray, and look inside of ourselves we will find that sinning is unacceptable and it needs to stop. Can we stop it? Yes. Yes we can. Will it be easy? No and Yes. No, stopping the behavior will be difficult or at least it can be. The easy will come as we no longer submit to that sin and we reap the rewards of a more substantial voice of the Holy Spirit. It will be easier to live without that constant drum beat of failure. Failing God, failing ourselves, failing our families, and failing our potential growth personally and spiritually.

God it beating this into my head at 38. You know what? It feels good. I've stood on his grace in a life of repetitive failure in some areas. It will be even better to get some victory and at least engage in the fight.

To repent means to turn 180 degrees. Not to stop, but to actively move in the right direction again.

Here's to repenting!!!!!

Wendys Meatarian...

Dedicated to a one Vegetarian we all know and love...

Here ya go, Kell...

When God makes TOTAL sense...

Yay! I figured it out!! I can post YOUTUBE's...

Anyway, thanks, God, for the timely wave. Now, about the washed out to sea part of my prayer...

:)