Early Arrivals for San Francisco Giants Victory Parade

It was only 7:50 a.m. this morning, and the victory parade for the San Francisco Giants doesn't begin until 11:00 a.m., but people were already lining up on Market Street. Some folks had practically camped out, squatting on prime real estate with chairs and blankets, so they were certain to have good positions from which to view the parade. In three hours.

Chicago Cubs Are Bankrupt, but Will Still Be Sold for $845 Million

The Chicago Cubs filed for bankruptcy protection today as part of parent Tribune Company's efforts to sell the popular-but-bad team. (I make no effort to be non-partisan on this blog or this topic; I'm a White Sox fan -- as is our president, so it's only patriotic to be a Sox fan.)

The Cubs aren't likely really bankrupt, at least not in the usual sense. (CNBC reported just a few weeks ago that the Cubs remain a money machine. See video below.) It was a necessary part of the sale deal, because likely new owners -- the Ricketts family -- won't be liable to Tribune creditors as Tribune continues working through its own real bankruptcy. (Tribune filed for bankruptcy protection in December 2008.)

I always found it amusing that the White Sox could be winning their division or be in second place almost every year, and they'd often be playing to crowds (what's in a word?) of 6,000 or 12,000. Meanwhile, the Cubbies would be lounging at the bottom of their National League division and they'd be playing to sold-out crowds of drunk Northwestern frat boys and drunk Loop businessmen (former Northwestern frat boys, natch) entertaining clients. Cubs fans love Wrigley Field and the Cubs. White Sox fans love baseball. There's a difference.

The Latest White Sox Fire Sale -- Thome and Contreras

Remember White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf's infamous "fire sale" late one season in the 1990s earned him the (continued?) enmity of many fans who still thought the team had a chance in the race? Reinsdorf thought otherwise, and he pared down his salaries (which he himself had done so much to inflate) and settled for whatevertheheck the Sox could deliver that year.

Now comes news that the Sox, who dropped from second to third in the AL Central this week, have sent Jim Thome to the Los Angeles Dodgers and Jose Contreras to the Colorado Rockies in return for some shiny trinkets and firewater.

Actually, the Sox got something else. Reports the Chicago Tribune:

The Sox traded designated hitter Jim Thome to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Class A infielder Justin Fuller, 26, and dealt pitcher Jose Contreras to the Colorado Rockies for Triple-A pitcher Brandon Hynick, 24, who threw a seven-inning perfect game on June 30 for Colorado Springs. The Sox sent cash to the Dodgers and Rockies in both deals.

As much as I agree that this is probably Fire Sale, Part II, I don't think the Sox were exactly surging to an upset finish at the end of this season. Besides, we won our World Series already this century. We can wait.

If Print Is Dead, Why Did MLB Launch a Magazine?

I received an e-mail from Major League Baseball with an offer (pictured) for their new publication, MLB Insiders Club Magazine.

Though I'm a White Sox fan, I don't plan to subscribe (far too many magazines already clogging up my mailbox). But I find it interesting that MLB, which specializes in delivering a live, in-person experience or in delivering a streaming or archived video and audio experience (TV, online streaming, etc.), is putting out a print product.

I think it's great. It might be an example of print not being dead, or it might be an example of the print sports world being so moribund that MLB has to create its own print media properties to promote itself. Or, of course, it might be a mixture of the two: MLB has to pay for the production of the magazine, but it gets all of the revenue from it, so it shows that print is still an effective revenue medium and it helps the organization get its message out without relying on Sports Illustrated, The Sporting News, and ESPN.

(See also my July 2002 Internet World cover story interview with Bob Bowman, who headed up MLB Advanced Media. Bowman's work was on the flip side of this equation: Building MLB's ahead-of-the-curve online strategy for disseminating content.)

Mark Buehrle, Jim Parque: A White Sox Day

White Sox pitcher Mark Buerhle pitched a perfect game this afternoon, retiring all 27 consecutive batters from the Tampa Bay Whatevers. Great news, and the Sox are just one-half game behind the Tigers for the lead in the AL Central.

It is nice to see the news of the perfect game splashed all over the major media (well, most of them; didn't see it on the home page of the Washington Post). Then again, if a pitcher from the Yankees or Red Sox had done this, we'd be suffering through Michael Jackson-level of media overkill.

Less known but still worth noting here is another White Sox pitcher-related story today. Former Sox pitcher Jim Parque wrote an article for the Chicago Sun-Times explaining how and why he used human growth hormone years ago, in an attempt to resurrect a career following an injury (and after leaving the White Sox).

He explains feeling worried about supporting his family, worrying that he didn't have the skills or experience to work outside baseball, and focusing desperately on making his game better. (He only used the HGH for a short time before abandoning it.

He writes:

I want everyone to know that I fully understood what I was doing, the ramifications of the unethical decisions I made and how it potentially could cast a dark shadow over my career. For that, I truly feel sorry. Although I did not truly know if the drug I took was, in fact, HGH (although I am confident it was because of the way my body felt after the injections and my Internet research), I still chose to inject it, and I am fully responsible for my actions.

I have to admit finding his article very interesting, partly because it reads like a pretty personal and honest explanation of his thought processes, and because it puts a human face on the controversy. (He does say that the HGH he took was not illegal at the time that he ordered it.) I'm no fan of drugs, but I thought he did a good job of explaining himself.

That also gives me pleasure because when Parque was with the Sox, he was my favorite player. I remember going to Sox games early, sitting out in the cheap seats, and watching him warm up, and I liked the intensity he brought to it. He seemed smart and focused, and I guess I like that more in an athlete than dumb and driven.

So it's a weird day for us White Sox fans today. Both news stories, I think, show why baseball is a game that encompasses so much more of its fans lives than just what they see on the field. It's a game of people doing stupid stuff and great stuff and making you think.

29

Okay, I'll depart from my new-found devotion to writing about magazines to note that the Chicago White Sox's magic number (the combination of wins by the Sox and losses by its main opponent) is 29.

Even better, if you were looking for a reason to vote for Barack Obama, then here's this: According to the Chicago Sun-Times (and other outlets), in an ESPN interview to air later this week, Obama was asked about Chicago's baseball teams.

ESPN: "If the Cubs and the White Sox both make it to the World Series?"

Obama: "I would be going."

ESPN: "Who would you root for?"

Obama: "Oh, that's easy. White Sox. I'm not one of these fair-weather fans. You go to Wrigley Field, you have a beer, beautiful people up there. People aren't watching the game. It's not serious. White Sox – that's baseball. Southside."

That's great. He's a real Sox fan -- you can tell, because he not only praised the Sox but he slammed Cub fans (and accurately, too). Now THAT's the kind of insight we need in the White House!

White Sox, Part II

Here's the post-game self-congrats by the White Sox.
It was nice to see former Sox Frank Thomas (not to be confused with Chicagoan Thomas Frank) (seriously, though I do) playing, even if it was for the bad guys.

Chicago White Sox 2:1 Oakland Athletics

I took advantage on Saturday of an opportunity to catch a rare appearance of the Chicago White Sox here in the Bay Area. After losing to the Oakland A's the previous night, the Sox rebounded on Saturday afternoon to a 2-1 victory. The game was not exciting, but it was a great baseball Saturday: Good seats, good weather, a good friend, good game result.
I took the photos in this posting from the 24th row behind home plate.

A White Sox Fan in a Strange Land

Today my company had a staff outing at a game of the San Francisco Giants. The visiting team was the Chicago Cubs. I went, took a bunch of photos (for more, see my Flickr page). The above photo shows a pitcher warming up in the Giants bullpen.

The Giants won 4-1. It was a good game, even though my own favorite team, the Chicago White Sox, was not playing. I will say that the Giants fans seem better behaved than home fans I've seen at Cubs, Yankees, or Athletics games.

Sports Heroes Pro and Con

So you've seen the news: Barry Bonds hit home run number 44,839,925,258 or whatever it is. (Though I'm a baseball fan, my team is the Chicago White Sox, so I don't follow the Giants as much as others do here in San Francisco, where I currently live). This has been the source of much hand-wringing from people in the worlds of baseball, sports in general, and non-sports.

It's made me think about growing up in Green Bay during the 1970s and 1980s, when our hometown team, the Green Bay Packers, was, well, less than stellar on the field and off. In high school, a common topic of lunchtime discussion was the latest arrest of a millionaire player on rape charges. When I moved to Chicago in the 1990s, my White Sox alternately soared and sucked, but they were mostly a group of seemingly good people. (Robin Ventura, Frank Thomas, etc.) But every so often, the team's owners would decide they were going to bring in someone who'd help revive the team – and they'd misfire so badly. One was an accused wife-beater. Another had thrown a baseball at some fans. Neither served to exactly deepen my love for the team. Luckily, those dark forces were only on the Sox for a short period of time before leaving for other teams, and eventually the Sox would soar again, all the way to the 2005 World Series championship.

I continued to follow the White Sox when I moved to San Francisco in 2001, but I also began watching some European soccer (er, football or fussball, if you're German), and names of players there began to mean more to me than baseball players here. Timo Hildebrand, Michael Ballack (pictured above), Miroslav Klose. And you know what? Being separated by an ocean and a continent has helped keep me largely ignorant of detailed news of these players' lives. I assume if any of them was an out-and-out criminal, I'd have heard about it. But I only check the German fussball reports to see how my adopted teams are doing, not to get that sort of day-to-day dirt dishing that we seem to revel in here.

Distance has its advantages.