Harry Caray has a statue in Chicago.  It's parked outside the entrance to the bleachers at Wrigley Field. 

All die-hard Sox fans can recite the Harry Caray story in a couple of sentences:

"Harry was with the Sox.  But he didn't want to be on cable so he went to the Cubs where he got drunk, got super-famous, got senile, and died."

Today, Cubs fans might be paying tribute to Milo Hamilton - if not for six weeks in the fall of 1981.

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A flashy General Manager, an unorthodox game plan, an aggressive press corps, unpopular owners, and a crumbling ballpark.  Heck, there was even a Joe Cowley.  How the drama of 1986 leaves 2010 in the dust.

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Since we have some time to kill until play resumes on Thursday, let's take a look back at the White Sox on TV.  Video, and more, after the jump.

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The lawyers among us should be familiar with the concept of the mock trial.  Consider this the case against Ozzie Guillen. 

Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury, "Fire the manager!" is the typical meatball response to a slow start.  I've been a fairly staunch Ozzie supporter.  I think, by and large, he's done the best with the players he's been given.  But 2010's troubles belong to the manager.

Ozzie should have had more than 83 wins in 2004.  It wasn't his fault Magglio destroyed his knee.  The pitching staff regressed in 2006.  Freddy Garcia pitched with a shredded shoulder.  2007 belonged to Kenny, when his plan to stock the bullpen with young fireballers fell apart.  The 2009 Sox Dyed with Jermaine. 

2010 is the result of bad managing.  He has not assembled a lineup that takes advantage of the players who are hitting.

Take Juan Pierre (please!).  He's having a very hard time with the game of baseball.  Yet he is still in the lineup, leading off.  Gordon Beckham has been given time off to get right.  Carlos Quentin has been given time off to get right.  Ditto AJ.  Mark Kotsay played himself out of an everyday role.  But there's Juan Pierre, grounding out to second base. 

Even if Pierre is taken out of the lineup, or bats lower, we'll probably see more of Omar Vizquel.

One of the things Ozzie supposedly brings to the table is a loose clubhouse.  He likes to have fun, and that attitude supposedly extends to the players.  Yet every year, the players are pressing, or "trying to do too much."  Doesn't make sense. 

After three dramatic wins over the weekend, the Sox should have walked into Texas with a little bit of swagger.  They can get the big hits.  Instead, we had Paul Konerko say home runs were a bad thing.  Did he come to that conclusion on his own?  Or did that come from the manager?

Another count in the indictment?  The end of last night's game.  Juan Pierre's troubles have been well documented.  Andruw Jones should have pinch hit for Pierre, and Beckham should have pinch hit for Vizquel if the inning continued.

Gene Lamont was fired after an 11-20 start in 1995.  Terry Bevington was fired after an expensive, and disappointing 1997.  Manuel lost his job after the flame-out in 2003.  I think it's time to start looking toward the future.

Feel free to add more examples. 

But there are some ground rules:  "He's a jagbag" is not a valid reason.  

I'm not talking October 2005.  But February of 2005.

I wasn't really following White Sox baseball (other than "I'm a south sider and I like the White Sox"), during the 2004-2005 off season.  

What was that offseason like?  If everyone freaked out about the Twins signing Jim Thome and Orlando Hudson, then everyone must have really lost their minds five winters ago.

There are a lot of parallels between this offseason and 2004/05.  Power hitters like Lee and Magglio were gone,  replaced by a slap hitter and a guy with a questionable injury history. 

PECOTA had the Sox at 80-82 that year, in third place behind Cleveland and Minnesota.  Detroit was pegged as the team most likely to break out.

Here's what Nate Silver had to say about Kenny's moves:

Perhaps Kenny Williams has some form of Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy, and needs to ruin the team in order to save it? Perhaps it's something in the White Sox' ill-conceived lease with the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, which doesn't require the White Sox to pay rent until the 1.5 millionth customer has passed through the U.S. Cellular turnstiles? In any event, this was looking like the year in which the Sox might finally have done poorly enough to trigger some necessary, long-overdue front office changes, but the flurry of constructive late-winter signings ought to be just enough to pull them back into their self-built purgatory.

Jay Mariotti wrote in the Sun Times:

Oh, this makes loads of sense, building a slap-and-tickle team to play 81 games in the most power-friendly ballpark in the majors..... Ken Williams is trading mashers for midgets....Amazingly enough, a team that hit a major-league-best 242 homers in 2004 has lost four prime power hitters, including Jose Valentin. And the only attempt to fill the void was Williams' cheapskate signing of injury-hobbled Jermaine Dye, who will make $4 million next year ($10 million less than Ordonez made last season) and is a career .208 hitter with two out and runners in scoring position.....Don't be fooled by (Scott) Podsednik's 2003 National League Rookie of the Year award or his 70 stolen bases last year. This is a leadoff hitter who has trouble leading off, hitting only .244 last season with a lame .313 on-base percentage....

Of course this sounds familiar, because this is what we have been saying for the last three weeks.  It must have been much worse then, because Lee and Magglio were still in their prime.

As we all know, everyone went on to live happily ever after.  

That brings us to this year.  The pitching staff, in my estimation, is much better than five years ago.  These guys are good.   You don't have to wonder if someone's going to pull a phenomenal season out of their ass. 

You might want to check my math on this - but I'm willing to say that heading into this year, the offense is better than five years ago.  Even without Thome and Dye (yet). 

Here's what I'm looking for this year

1- The hot start.  Five years ago, the Sox jumped out of the gate so fast that everyone kind of forgot that the Indians were the best team in that division (at least until September).  Throw in a couple of extended winning streaks, and I can enjoy a Tums free summer.

2- The question marks.  Not ours, theirs.  Everyone talks about the problems with the White Sox, but what if the Orlando Hudson that shows up in Minnesota is the Slow-Dog who lost his job in LA to Ronnie Belliard?  What if JJ Hardy is the player that bounced back and forth between Milwaukee and Nashville?  What if Justin Morneau has a hard time recovering after back surgery?   There's some stuff lurking in the weeds up north too.

3- The deal.  Kenny's not done.  He can trade for a bat.  He can sign someone. 

4- The bouncebacks.  The consensus in the stat community is that Rios and Quentin will bounce back.  You toss a non-slumping PK, an older Beckham, and Alexei into the mix, you have a team that can hit the ball.

5- Ozzie.  With the exception of 2007, he's outperformed PECOTA.  He beat the projection system by 19 games in '05, 8 games in '06, 0 games in '07 (but even that team did better than it should have), 12 games in '08, and 8 games in '09.   Given Ozzie's track record, the Sox should clock in at 88-89 wins. 

6- Surprises.  Sometimes, a Kenny gamble pays off.  Jermaine Dye, Tadahito Iguchi, and Bobby Jenks in 2005, Jim Thome in 2006, Carlos Quentin in 2008, and Pods 2.0 in 2009 are all examples of question marks who later became cornerstones.  Odds are someone's gonna turn some heads.

So there's your daily dose of optimism.

Winter used to be dull, gray, cold, snowy, and depressing from New Year's Day straight on through the first warm day in March - or maybe that freakish warm day in February.  But then I discovered SoxFest in 2008 and have looked forward to it ever since.

I'm more of a "memorabilia and discussion panels guy" rather than "stand in line for autographs guy."  Speaking as a 29 year old, I think it's odd to stand in line for an hour to ask a much wealthier 29 year old for his signature. 

As a service to you, the South Side Sox reader, I will give live updates on the various panels on my Twitter page:

http://twitter.com/RobHartWGN

Here are some of the discussion panels this year:

Your 2010 White Sox, with Ozzie, KW, Hawk and Stone Pony.  Be sure to play the Hawk drinking game during any discussion panel he moderates.  Drink every time he hijacks an answer.

Also - drink every time KW says this is a lineup that can win the World Series, drink every time Ozzie talks about flexibility, and drink every time a fan brings up Scott Podsednik. 

Heavy Hitters, with PK, Harold, Walk, Teahen, and Juan Pierre.  Yes, Juan Pierre.  No really, Juan Pierre.  Moderated by DJ.  Take "five swigs"  every time Walk talks about the cold.

Game Face with Hawk, Stoney, AJ, Jenks, Kotsay, and Sweaty Freddy.  Don't play the Hawk drinking game during this panel, because he hijacks every answer and you will pass out.

Any panel with Jeff Cox is fun, because Jeff Cox is insane. 

I'll be there Friday and Saturday.

A friend of mine is the producer of the morning show at WMBD Radio in Peoria.   Jim Thome will be in studio Friday.

Have any questions for Mr. Masher?  List 'em below and I'll make sure she gets 'em.

I've got three questions:

1- Will you be in a White Sox uniform come April?

2- Have you talked to Kenny Williams?

3- If you can't discuss that, have you talked to "William Kennys" "Bill Kenneth" or 'Schmenny Filliams."

UPDATE:  Listen to the interview here.

Every story must begin with a relatable anecdote:  I worked at WTMJ Radio in Milwaukee for 5 years.  It is the flagship station of the Green Bay Packers radio network.  This happened to be during Favre's glory years, so playoff appearances were pretty much a guarantee. 

Every year, fan expectations followed a predictable pattern.  They were cautiously optimistic on Monday morning.   "We're facing a formidable opponent, we shouldn't take (team) for granted," they would say.  By Friday, they were yelling "SUPER BOWL!!! TITLETOWN!!!! LOMBARDI!!!! WOOOOOO!!!"  The Packers would then lose on Sunday, and the same people who were cautiously optimistic just seven days before came into work looking like their dog died. 

Which brings us to Friday.  

The Picasso wore a "medal."  Turns out it said "participant" on the other side.  I heard there were 20 thousand people in Daley Plaza for the Olympic announcement. 

I'm willing to bet most of them were ambivalent about the Olympic bid...until the hype machine cranked up this week.  

It wasn't too hard to get caught up in the craziness.  Every news story leading up to the Friday's IOC meeting was a sign Chicago had it in the bag. 

Oprah was going to Copenhagen!  Obama was going to give a speech!  The national media will be here to cover the announcement!

Even Charlie Gibson was flying to Chicago to anchor ABC's World News.  They must have some inside info!

The rally itself was a combination of screaming Olympians and a halfway-decent cover band.  Swimmer Rowdy Gaines was the master of ceremonies.  Scottie Pippen pumped up the crowd.  The lead singer of the cover band flawlessly copied the vocal styles of Donald Fagen, Michael McDonald, and Robert Plant.  Cubs fans brought their "It's Gonna Happen!" signs.  Ronnie Woo Woo got kicked out of the press area.

The IOC opened the vote at 10:12.  It began with each bid city getting assigned a random number.  Chicago got 4, and everyone cheered.  The vote closed five minutes later.  IOC President Jacque Rogge then said Chicago got the fewest votes, and was out.  The four year effort to land the 2016 games was over in two seconds.  People at Daley Plaza had no idea what to do next.  

I had to do a live shot on WGN, and it wasn't that good.  I had no clue what to say.  I had to resist the temptation to say "we gone!"

The people who brought the "It's Gonna Happen!" signs took markers and wrote in "It's NOT Gonna Happen!"  The signs remained pristine through TWO consecutive playoff three and outs, but the fans break out the markers for a failed Olympic bid?

I didn't see anyone crying.  Most said "screw it" and went back to work.  Those who did stick around cheered when the IOC picked Rio.  Classy. 

Rio's Olympic rally was a huge event on Copacabana beach.  Made the Daley Plaza rally look like the dog and pony show it really was.

In the end, I got to interview Scottie Pippen (asked him if the IOC members' memories of the original Dream Team could help the Chicago bid), and I have another credential to add to my hall of failure:

There will be a lot of blame to go around in the coming days and weeks.  I think it's unfair to pin this on Obama.  Daley, of course, will have to wear it. 

I, on the other hand, blame Mark Buehrle.  We haven't been awarded a single Olympics since his perfect game.

A look back at the Summer of '99.

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