Since I no longer have to worry about writing recaps, or writing at all for that matter, I found myself with a bit of unexpected time on my hands this evening. So what do I do with that time? Oh, just save you money and/or allow you to nearly double the number of White Sox games you can make it to this year.

The White Sox run special rates for extremely large groups with discounts of 25% to 50% off face value for tickets. In order to get these rates, they hand out specific discount codes to each individual group. I'm on the list for one of these groups, so when I went to purchase tickets earlier tonight I thought, 'hey, I wonder if I can get some discounts on some other nights,' since I know I've used a Teacher's Night discount before. So I headed to the Sox site, found some info on the various Grand Slam Groups throughout the season, and went to work.

Turns out the Sox use a fairly predictable URL structure which I was able to exploit to get the discount codes to about 20 dates. The links to the Grand Slam Group pages are below, along with the other known Grand Slam Groups for which 15 minutes of "hacking" came up empty. Click the links to find the dates and promo codes.

You're welcome.

• Greek Heritage Night
• Boy Scouts/Girl Scouts
• Building/Construction Groups
• Kiwanis Grand Slam Group
• High School Band Night
• Union Member
• IPRA
• Insurance Night
• Realty Night
• Law Night
• Polish Heritage Night
• Police & Fire Night
• Private Schools
• Library Appreciation Grand Slam Group
• Farm Bureau Grand Slam Group
• Healthcare Night
• Summer Fun (Day Camps)
• College and University
• Dentistry Night
• Spirit Day
• Knights of Columbus
• Faith Nights
• Government Employee Grand Slam Group

Hi. 

The Cheat here.

You may remember me from such directives as "put a subject line on your damn offensive images" and the coining of the nickname "Big Hairy Balls."

It's been awhile, and the site feels a little off. Come to think of it, it smells a bit funny too. Is there an expiration date on this thing?

Turns out there might be.

I haven't been around lately in part because I'm not entirely enthused about the direction of the team -- and a surprising lack of activity on both the trade and free agent front -- but mostly because I just plain haven't had the time to sit down and write anything when something was warranted. Unfortunately, it looks like I'll be just as busy for the next 10 days or so. 

I'm not leaving, that's not what this post is about. I love what we've built here, but I currently don't have the time to put in the requisite effort to maintain the site. And with the exception of the month from mid-December to mid-January, when school is removed from my list of obligations, I can't guarantee I'll have enough time to maintain the site in the future. 

So, we need to find a way for the site to continue as we head forward, and that means some new blood at the helm, someone who has the time and the wherewithal to put up with you guys. I want the site to continue to be someplace we all want to visit, and honestly, that means tightening up the complete lack of rules we have of acceptable comments -- Some of the stuff on the right rail got pretty ugly the last 6+ weeks.

If you're interested in keeping this site as the irreverent band of misfits that currently makes up the site -- and trust me, the Powers That Be at SB*N have this site marked on their radar as in need of new management/direction -- I'd suggest you step up and create some content of your own. We'll make sure solid right-rail material finds its way to the front page. That'll always help, but specifically in the next two weeks.

As for the longer term future, it's time to start a search for the next Dear Leader. I'll still be here, writing (eventually), commenting, and joining you crazy SOBs for drinks, but we're going to need someone else to steer this ship in the long term. There is a financial incentive, a small one, to guiding this unruly bunch, and with proper management -- i.e. someone who posts multiple times a day, provides daily relevant links, and who writes content that generates links not just from within the White Sox blogosphere but the entire baseball community in general, can easily reach 5 figures, which might actually make the position worth while. 

These duties don't necessarily have to fall to one person. It could be a combination of people, someone who focuses on aggregating good content from around the web (both newspaper and blogs) and someone else who concentrates on more opinion pieces,recaps, etc. -- I hope that we can keep most of the other band around (Larry w/ his minor league stuff, Colin & his numbers, U-God and his previews and HSA and her passionate lady flavor) which should provide a good base from which to work from. And hopefully, I'll have the time to chime in every now and then as well. 

If you're interested in taking the helm you should do/be doing these things:

1. Demonstrate that you can generate good content -- either here or at another venue, though we'd obviously prefer you make that contribution here, as we need it pretty bad. 
2. Demonstrate that you can have the wherewithal to stick with it. SB*N isn't going to hand you the keys without both a good sample of your writing and the demonstration that you can stick with something for more than a week (think: months).

We've got your rooting interests, now who do you think is gonna win?

We all know this will be the lowest rated World Series in history. San Francisco vs. Texas doesn't exactly figure to draw in the casual fan. But I find myself oddly excited. 

San Francisco has a cast of characters worth rooting for, and Texas has never been. I know I'll be rooting for the fightin' Uribes, which got me thinking about the last time I actually rooted for a National League club in the World Series. Sure, I rooted for the Rockies in '07 and the Marlins in '03 and the D'Backs in '01, but that was more rooting against the new Red Sox and the Yankee empire.

I had to dig through my memory banks all the way to 1991, the worst to first series, to come up with a team from the NL that I was actually rooting for because of the players on their team rather than the ones in the other uniform.

I'm pretty sure most here are rooting for the Uribes as well, but lets have a poll to make it official.

Need a new thread.... Here's a poll 

So last year in an attempt to drown my sorrows, I headed to the south burbs to take in a couple of playoff games with some real Sox fans. There was a grand turnout of five other SSSers besides myself, e-gus, the split personalities of skancho/mitch/carl, scotty ballgame, Dr. Em, and Lockport Sox. Good times were had.

It just so happens that this year I'll be travelling through the south burbs the exact same weekend. So while I might not need to drown my sorrows, I thought we should reprise the sorrows drowning with less self-loathing. 

So yeah, there's your invitation to a night out with some SSSers -- I emailed e-gus a couple weeks ago, but I'm not even sure if he remembers -- We'll lay down the specifics tonight and tomorrow, but expect it to center in TInley Park and end at the super-classy, and appropriately named Teehen's.

Already in progress

Already in progress