Thought it might be interesting to compare the remaining schedules to see if either team has a big edge over the other for the rest of the season.  I split the AL teams into three general categories. 

Good teams:  Tampa, Boston, LA and Oak

Average teams:  NY, Baltimore, Toronto, Detroit and Texas

Bad teams:  Kansas City, Cleveland and Seattle

Minnesota's remaining games (with home and road splits)

TB 4  0/4
Bos 3  0/3
LA 4  0/4
Oak 7  3/4

NY 6  3/3
Bal 3  0/3
Tor 3  0/3
Det 7  3/4
Tex 3  3/0

KC 9  6/3
Cle 9  3/6
Sea 9  3/6

White Sox remaining games (same splits)

TB 3  3/0
Bos 7  4/3
LA 3  3/0
Oak 3 0/3

NY 4  0/4
Bal 3  0/3 (and postponed game end)
Tor 4  4/0
Det 9  6/3
Tex 6  3/3

KC 15  6/9
Cle 6  3/3
Sea 3  3/0

And probably the biggest games left for either team, the White Sox play seven more games versus the Twins, all at the Metrodome.  Outside of the head to head games, I'd give an edge to the Sox.  Add those games back in...let's just say that I hope they've overcome the dome curse.

Score by inning, opponent:
1st 15
2nd 12
3rd 4
4th 6
5th 5
6th 3
7th 9
8th 5
9th 4

Score by inning, Sox:
1st 7
2nd 2
3rd 3
4th 15
5th 11
6th 3
7th 3
8th 11
9th 6
10th 2

The Sox haven't scored a first inning run since game four and in the last 12 games have only scored four total runs in innings 1-3.  I don't have the starter/relief numbers but I bet they're dramatic.  Any theories on why this team doesn't hit starting pitching?

Ok, change of subject, since our team is driving us crazy...football.  With the NFL season just around the corner I've set up a Yahoo Pick Em and Survivor league for the upcoming season.  Feel free to join in.
Pick Em ID #50849, password 'pleasewin'.
Survivor ID #19672, password 'pleasewin'.

Good luck and try to remember all the joy we had last October.

Update [2006-9-5 21:57:51 by The Cheat]: Fixed the typo

Many people have commented on how glad they are to have this site to come to (and I agree!).  The biggest plus for me is that I have intelligent people I can discuss my favorite team with.  This probably isn't a problem for you Chicago based readers, but for the rest of us it's a big deal.
This made me wonder where the other out-of-towners live.  I know we've got some on the west coast, some on the east and even one devoted fan in the UK.  Just curious about the rest.
I'll go first.  I live in Minneapolis.  I became a White Sox fan almost by accident back in '87.  Followed them on a whim and have loved them ever since.  
Where are the rest of you from?

The White Sox have played 200 games since the start of the 2005 season.  188 regular season games and 12 memorable postseason ones.  Their record:

128 - 72

Runs scored: 957
Runs allowed: 788

One run games 42 -23

Not too shabby.  The only teams I can think of with similar runs would have to be the '98 Yankees and '01 Mariners.  That's pretty impressive company.

Since I figure many of us are watching this.  For the record, I'd have taken Bush with the first pick.  Curious who the Bears fans are hoping for.  And a small prediction, the Vikes trade with SF for the 6th pick.  Who do the Packers take at 5?  If Millen picks another WR, does he survive the weekend?
Bonus question, does anyone watch the second day?

Almost all of the sabermetric previews of the White Sox have noted how they overacheived their pythagorean expected victories last year.  Most have added that teams that exceed their pythag will return to earth the next year.  Whether that means winning fewer games than their pythag should allow or be back to even isn't clear to me.  But I was curious as to how true that really is.
Last year I put together pythagorean standings for the past decade or so.  (If anyone knows of historical pythagorean results somewhere on the web, please point me towards it!)  I decided to look at only teams that exceeded expectations by 5 or more games.  These should be the truly lucky teams.  What I found suprised me.
From 1994-2004 there were 41 teams that qualified.  Of those 41, 19 played above their expected rate, 5 played even and the other 17 played below.  As a whole, the 41 finished 9 games higher than expected.  
From this admittedly small analysis, it seems that there's no special reason to expect a large swing of fortune for the White Sox.  

I'm trying to decide which way to go this year and I'd love some input from you guys.  For the last few years I've gotten Extra Innings through our cable provider.  The cost has been about $160.  I've gotten to see the majority (90%+) of White Sox games with about 60% of them with home announcers.  I can use DVR to record the games but they don't announce the channel until the day of so you can't plan ahead if you're out of town.  
MLB.TV will cost about half as much.  Will it cover all of the games or just most?  Do I get to pick home/away announcers?  Can I replay past games?  Are there any hidden things I should know about?

Any input will be helpful.  Thanks!

Tooling around the dial tonight, looking for the T'Wolves game and stumbled across Juan Uribe at bat.  Seems that FSN is showing classic Twins games from last season and tonight is the Santana/Garcia gem from August.  You may recall that game as one that the Sox lost 1-0 on a solo homer in the eighth.  Cheat described it as an ESPN instant classic - if the Yankees and Red Sox had been involved.  
Yes, the Sox lose this one.  But it was one of the best games of the year.  And a rare (and unexpected) treat in February.  
April can't come soon enough.

Shortly after the Game Four win, I logged onto Itunes and downloaded Journey's Greatest Hits.  Some of it was giddiness.  Some of it was giving back to our good luck charm, Steve Perry.  And part of it was good memories of high school back in the late 80's.  It struck me that many of the songs could be used to represent different parts of the 2005 White Sox season.  Well, my brain kept chewing on it and here it is.  Songs are in the same order of the disc.

Only the Young - This one's for Jon Garland.  After waiting for years for him to turn the corner, he seems to have done so in a big, big way.  He went from average to Cy Young candidate.  Let's hope it's for real and we get to see it for years to come.

Don't Stop Believin' - We all know where this came from.  I love that they turned a chance song from a cover band into the season anthem.  This is one of those goofy stories that make sports special.  

Wheel in the Sky - This one is for KW and Ozzie.  They had an idea for what they wanted to do with the team.  They faced immense criticism and went ahead and did it anyway.  And now they're World Champions.  

Faithfully - This is for White Sox fans that have stuck around for decades, always believing in their team.  We stuck around and watched other teams win everything.  This was our reward.

I'll Be All Right Without You - This one goes out to Mags.  We loved watching you hit and hit and hit over the years.  But you needed more money.  And your injury situation was incredibly unclear.  Hope you're having fun in Detroit.

Any Way You Want It - I thought about dedicating this to the versatile style of play that the Sox brought to the table this year.  But I can't get the picture of Rodney Dangerfield dancing on the golf course out of my head.  From another group that got no respect, here's to you.

Ask the Lonely - This one goes out to August and September.  We couldn't really blow a 15 game lead could we?  Just as we'd bought into the team, they seemed destined to deal us the worst blow possible.  How many times did we read `worst collapse in baseball history'?  

Who's Crying Now - This one's for Angels and Astros fans.  Angel fans seemed to give up after a losing Game Two.  Did their team even have a lead in the last three games?  Astro fans take the cake though.  Does anyone else expect to see headlines like `Overnight temps dip into the 40's.  Hundreds feared dead.'?  

Separate Ways - This song is for Carlos Lee and Scott Podsednik.  Their trade was when the organization went from power to speed.  Remember when Pods drove pitchers nuts earlier in the season?  Let's hope that comes back next year.

Lights - This song goes out to all 200 homeruns and the following fireworks.  One of the keys to this team's success was having power distributed throughout the lineup.  Outside of the leadoff spot, we got homeruns from everywhere.  I think that was one of the reasons for the `timely' hitting.

Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin' - This song is about breaking up with someone only to have them rebound better and be happy with someone else.  In other words, it goes out to Twins fans and A.J.  The Twins traded him away and he wound up on a divisional rival winning the World Series.  Man, that's got to hurt.

Open Arms - Here's to the pitching staff.  They were deep and very, very good.  Remember how bad our fifth pitcher was in 2003 and 2004?  Being that deep was probably the biggest reason for the World Series championship.  Let's hope we're setting up for a staff like the 90's Braves.

Girl Can't Help It - I've got nothing for this.  Any suggestions?

Send (Hurt) My Love - Here's to you, Frank.  Man, was he a power in his brief time back.  Wish he could have been back for the playoffs.  I loved that he surprised the team in Cleveland after they clinched in Detroit.  Let's hope he comes back next season and can stay healthy.

Be Good to Yourself - This is for Ozzie.  He seemed to do the right thing all year long and especially during the playoffs.  He seemed to walk the tightrope of being one of the guys, but also being the one to make the tough choice.  Let's hope he can keep the magic going.  

Every year when the All Star game rolls around, we end up with the same problem.  The balance of having a representative of each team and the limitation of 32 players per team means that otherwise deserving players have to stay home.  What to do?  Changing the 'at least one player' rule would leave many if not most fans out in the cold.  Especially small market fan.  Having cheered for that one player too many years, I'd hate to see it dropped.
The big problem is that the number of teams has increased too much for this format.  The NL has as many teams now as the entire majors did for the majority of their existence.  Even the increase in the All Star roster only helps a little.  Trying to get 32 players into a single game (as most managers try to do) is often difficult, especially for pitchers.  
Another problem is the selection of the All Star site.  Teams and cities understandably want to showcase their stadiums.  The current rotation means they'd have to wait about 30 years for each turn to come up.  
The solution?  Expand the games and sites.  Picture a four day All Star break, Monday-Thursday.  For simplicity, we'll keep the big game in Detroit.  On Monday, the AL All-Stars play in Cleveland.  On Tuesday, the NL All-Stars play in Cincinnati.  Wednesday brings the home run derby in Detroit.  The winners of the previous games play the MLB All-Star game in Detroit on Thursday night.  
The AL and NL would be split east and west for their games.  Whether by geography or old divisions the split should be easy enough.  24 man rosters should be enough for each team.  Reasonable limitations on pitcher use would still be in place.  
How to pick managers?  Don't know but many different methods could be used.  The Championship managers from the previous year could be used.  Or the managers with the two best records a week before the break could be used (like in the NBA).  
Also not sure what to use for encouragement for the players.  Not a big fan of using home field advantage, but you could.  Maybe just bragging rights.  Or how about a million dollars per player?  Think that $24 mil. couldn't be dug up from sponsers wanting their names on the 3 games?
Anyway, I'm just kicking some thoughts around on how to improve the thing.  What do you guys think?