SB Nation User Blog: e-gus

I Gotta Get Drunk (with da Cheat) And I Sure Do Regret It.

e-gus — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 22:04:45 -0000

So it seems the SSS post-season meet-up has tentatively been scheduled for this weekend in the southburbs, specifically Tinley Park. Cheat, feigning knowledge of the area, has passed the buck to me, or rather, us, down here living the dream since there seems to be several SSS'ers rocking the suburbs.

Im open to either night leaning slightly toward friday, but I think our starting point should probably be Holstein's due to its close proximity to the Rock Island Line that runs from the Windy City clear out to Joliet. If you get off at the first Tinley Park stop the bar is right across the tracks. Also in walking distance are Teehans and Durbins, and I guess Cuzins and the old Tinley Pub are within a mile as well. Durbins or Holsteins probably have the best tvs, and as I mentioned before theres free pizza at holsteins on fridays, but both places will likely have live music interrupting the baseball at some point. There are tons of other bars in the area however, and we should have enough cars to haul the train commuters(cheat, om) since skanch, kenwo, myself and dr. emily lizard are all relatively local. (The thought of this motley crew just put a smile on my face actually, and no kenwo, not that crue)

So answer the poll as to what day works best for everyone and lets start to figure out a head count. [Note by The Cheat, 10/13/09 6:47 PM CDT]: Removed the poll. It's Friday.

Off of the top of my head Im guessing about 10 will commit and myself plus two other people will show up.

One of those two could be you!

Which Way to Play-Off Baseball?

e-gus — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 21:26:19 -0000

Lets say you want to watch a live baseball play-off game this time next week, do you take 80-east to Detroit or are you headed west-bound and down toward the twin cities? Put that hammer down and give it hell.

Personally, I think I will try to go to St. Louis and see the best hitter in the game, but lets keep it AL Central.

Poll

Who will still be playing next week?

Detroit

122 votes

Minnesota

35 votes

157 votes | Poll has closed

The Road Warrior

e-gus — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 05:54:03 -0000

More photos » by Charles Rex Arbogast - AP

One of these guys is hitting .218 at home this season and it isn't Harold Baines. ~AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast

Browse more photos »

One of the few positive things Sox fans will take away from the 2009 season is the meteoric rise of Gordon Beckham. He was anointed 'the Savior' and as side-kick to the mighty Q! they were going to take us all back to the promised land. We watched the rookie get a full-time job on the big league club almost a year to the day after he was drafted. We watched him rake clutch hits, we saw more power than we expected, we observed rapid improvement at the hot corner and can feel good about his campaign and his future. Those errors are going to be put-outs in 2010. All of 'em. Why not.

I wanted to look at some of the specifics of his season and break down the numbers a little bit. At the game on Tuesday, I happened to look up and see his average was down into the .260s when I thought it was still up around .275. What happened? I knew the club accidentally the whole thing, but Bacon's slide went under my radar.

G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG OPS

June 23 75 11 20 3 0 2 13 9 13 1 3 .267 .353 .387 .740

July 27 97 12 32 10 0 3 18 9 14 3 1 .330 .382 .526 .908

August 28 112 17 25 10 0 3 18 12 24 2 0 .223 .313 .393 .705

September 17 66 12 16 2 1 5 7 6 10 1 0 .242 .315 .530 .845

Gordo's average was at .316 on August 4th- then it slowly rolled off the table. I'm on record as a Pods hater and I cited one good month that masked everything else early this season. I know its not all about the average, and I like those BB:K ratios by Beckham, but one could probably make the same argument here. If that one was a dumb-ass.

Here is the most shocking split stat:

G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG OPS

Home 47 165 19 36 11 1 3 21 15 31 1 2 .218 .294 .352 .646

Away 48 185 33 57 14 0 10 35 21 30 6 2 .308 .383 .546 .929

So yeah, I would have guessed he was better than this at home, and with just three games left here its not going to get that much better. Im not going to try and guess why things shook out this way. On second thought I will, because the possibilities are endless and therefore un-possible to formulate. Who knows if it was the added pressure of being called 'savior', or simply the fact that last call in Chicago is about 3 hours later than the bars in Athens were. Maybe it was all the new tail he was getting after B.A. was shipped out of town(link proves anyone can blog). Perhaps its our fault as fans, giving him a big hand and making those bitch umpires like Angel Hernandez jealous which lead to more bad balls called for strikes. I dont know, but I do know you cant quantify these intangible things so math is stupid(Thanks BCB! they're still at it btw). The cell is a hitters park and I figure this is just a freak thing. All his power and steals will normalize, and if I had to guess Id say his line next year looks more like the road splits x2 than the home ones.

On to the next line of stats, lets look at some situational hitting:

G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG OPS

Bases Empty 94 200 9 49 12 1 9 9 26 37 0 0 .245 .343 .450 .793

Runners On 86 150 43 44 13 0 4 47 10 24 7 4 .293 .337 .460 .797

RISP 75 88 36 26 6 0 2 38 8 13 0 1 .295 .347 .432 .778

RISP w/2 Outs 48 42 19 14 1 0 0 15 5 9 0 0 .333 .417 .357 .774

Bases Loaded 15 8 7 3 2 0 0 7 0 1 0 0 .375 .300 .625 .925

Yeah! Now that is what I'm talkin' 'bout. I especially love how SB is listed here. He didn't attempt any SB with the bases empty. Give that a minute soak in, bask in the glorious aroma of this brain fart cloud.

Thank yahoo! for that one, seriously, thanks yahoo! for these easy to copy and paste #s are all from y!

An OPS of .925 with the bases loaded is great. I dont care if its only 8 AB and if a pitcher loaded the bases against this particular team they probably suck at baseball.

Like most of my posts, I really didn't have a major point to make with all this, just thought I'd share some of the numbers I was looking at to fill the overnight recap slot of the off-day. That home average kind of blew me away and I wanted to bring it you all of your attention.

Derek Jeter Honored For Having Fewer Hits Than Harold Baines

e-gus — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:05:24 -0000

Derek Jeter Honored For Having Fewer Hits Than Harold Baines

the onion.

Is Angel Hernandez the Worst MLB Umpire?

e-gus — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 05:31:40 -0000

Or does he merely detest the White Sox?

He messed up two calls at first base where our pitchers beat the Mariner base runner to the bag, one that was close and one that was blatantly wrong.

Bobby Jenks was there first, it was obvious, Ichiro was out. Octavio Dotel also beat a runner to the bag two innings earlier.. Neither of these bad calls cost us tonight, but they certainly made things tighter, the game for one and other things like Hawk's sphincter.

Another incident this season came on June 12th, with the White Sox visiting Milwaukee for some inter-league action. Scott Podsednik stole second base, popped up, was pushed off the bag by the tag and called out. This was so traumatic for Pods he completely forgot how to run the bases the rest of the season.

According to BuehrleMan on Aug 29, 2008 6:31 PM CDT on Game #134: WhiteSox (76-57) @ RedSox (77-56) Angel Hernandez had the strike zone jumping around on him.

I seem to also recall the faintest memory of a pure hatred for this man in 2008, drunkenly making a photochop of him hanging from a noose, but I cant remember the particulars and the picture was so bad I never published it (which you know is really bad if you've seen any of my other photo-shops I have shown here).

For some reason a search didnt turn anything up, but there had to be an incident that I am forgetting because I know that I hate this man, I think it is because of 2008, yet I dont know why. I want to say it was against the Twins but Im not sure. Could I have been so enraged I have completely blocked this memory all together? Was it the booze? Yes, probably the booze. However, I hate this man for a reason, and he further backed up my belief that he hates the White Sox today. Hopefully someone else also hates this guy and can remind me what started it all.

Screw you Angel Hernandez. How you got to work the all-star game and two World Series' I will never know.

Poll

should this have been a fan post?

yes.

5 votes

fanshot at best.

2 votes

jenks beat ichiro! front page this shit.

12 votes

fuck angel hernandez, nick swisher and lookout landing.

18 votes

jerry owens.

28 votes

65 votes | Poll has closed

Justin Morneau Calling It A Season -CBS Sports

e-gus — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 06:03:46 -0000

More photos » by Jim Mone - AP

The ~~Twins~~ Tigers have already won the 2009 World Series.

Browse more photos »

News: Justin Morneau's season is over because of a stress fracture in his lower back. Minnesota's slim chance of catching Detroit in the AL Central race has been made more challenging by a recent rash of injuries. The Twins are 5 1/2 games behind the Tigers, with seven head-to-head meetings left, but they haven't been hitting well lately and now they're missing more offense. Morneau's injury was diagnosed Monday.

Mark Buehrle said, "Nice Pitch." I said, "Thanks."

e-gus — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 10:57:06 -0000

Recently, the smoking hot wife of e-gus won the 'Jim Beam take the Mound Sweepstakes.' The grand prize included four tickets to the Jim Beam club($270 tickets including free eats and an open bar), an autographed Mark Buehrle jersey(home white, which we all know he doesn't wear but is still bad-ass) and the privilege to throw out the 'first pitch' at the game. Well it all went down 9/9/9, with Mrs. e-gus deferring the honor of playing catch with Mr. Perfect to me, e-gus himself. This is the tale of that fateful day.

What was billed as the first pitch was really one of three first pitches. I was the middle reliever.

We were told to meet up with the Jim Beam folks at 6:15 so at 6:10 we head into the media entrance by gate 4 and wait. Also waiting there are Harold Reynolds and Tony Siragusa. The show Man Caves is on the DIY network and basically Tony Siragusa stands around while some dudes paint a room of your house and give you a new TV and stuff like that. They were giving away one with an MLB theme and some sissy won the prize even though he married a Cubs fan. I guess the house divided was their angle and it paid off. This trumped my Jim Beam prize so this guy got top billing when it was time to do the ceremonial first pitch. More on him later.

The first pitch(es) didn't actually happen until 6:50 or so, which left a lot of time to check out the Sox office and make a couple new friends. Both Harold Reynolds and the Goose were really friendly guys and didn't seem too put off to take a quick photo. I mentioned I was throwing out the first pitch and asked Harold if he could get me on the MLB network. He looked worried since he was there to do the Man Caves show with the guy throwing out the first pitch who wasn't me. The Sox championship trophy and ring was also on display right there which was so great to see up close.

The reps from the Sox and Jim Beam company were all incredibly friendly. They seemed genuinely happy to give the prize to actual Sox fans since their last big promotion ended with $10,000 going to a non-drinker. I told them I was the right guy since I pound their product in the bullpen bar about 20 times a year(and about 10 drinks each time). After shaking hands and smiling we were brought out on to the field. I started getting a few butterflies but watching the Sodfather handle his business had a calming effect. He preps the mound and home plate himself.

There was a lot of time to kill out there so my new pal Goose came over to share some peanuts with my brother and I. This helped as I was a bit nervous about the fact that the other first pitch guy was playing catch with Harold Reynolds while I was just sitting around waving to various friends and relatives scattered around the park and eating peanuts.

The Sox people give me the run down and I come to find out that I am going second after the other guy and before the representatives from the WWE. So this other guy gets announced and heads out there, but he doesn't even toe the rubber. I was feeling a bit jealous of this dude because Reynolds was taking him around and introduced him to Ozzie, had him talking to Mark, just keeping him loose while I just stood there basically thinking about how sweet my back room would be with a Sox paint job and a new plasma. Anyway, did I mention that sissy boy didn't even toe the rubber?

I was no longer jealous of this guy. Siragusa started heckling him to move back. Sally stays where he is and chucks one into the dirt making M.B. field it on a hop and way into the left handed batters box. Basically my worst nightmare. Harold Reynolds was saying "Buehrle tried to save him." and I felt like I was home watching the MLB Network. The Goose told him he had to walk home. I am now a fan of Tony Siragusa.

So now its my turn. My big plan was to go out there and wave as if the place was going ape-shit crazy. My grandparents actually made it out with an aunt and uncle and were down the first base line so they would get the first wave before I let the rest of the joint bask in my glory. Well, I get on the mound, look for the fam and realize I cant make them out of the masses and holy-crap-there's-a-lot-of-people-here-throw-a-strike-and-get-the-funk-outta-there races through my brain. After my half wave, I turn, see the glove and fire.

A smattering of applause for the guy who can actually throw the ball 60 feet 6 inches without moving the glove too much. Number 56 trots half way out to the mound to hand me the ball. I walk up to him, as he hands it over he says, "Nice pitch." I say, "thanks." and trot off. Mark Buehrle style I was out there for maybe 10 seconds or at least thats what it felt like.

Unfortunately, the Mrs. was nudged by a rude Sox employee who was in charge of the WWE folks and she didnt get any photos of the pitch. My cousin did capture a video of it on his i-phone from the field so as soon as I have that I'll link it here. I also expect to get some farther away shots from some people I know that were up both baselines as well. Ill just keep adding that stuff as I get it.

So now its the WWE folks: a midget, a hot blonde with nice legs and a couple dudes on the sauce shuffle out there. The guy on the mound laterals to the midget who chucks it into the air but still to home plate. I think that's how it went, I wasn't really paying attention as I was now right by the Sox dugout and trying to see what was going on over there while getting congratulations from my people.

After their pitch they present AJ a WWE belt for being the best catcher in wrestling or something. Im supposed to stick around for MB to autograph my ball but they are apparently behind schedule so they hurry some country singer out there to do the national anthem. The Sox come out of the dugout to honor the stars and bars and suddenly Im standing right behind Ozzie.

So that was probably the best part. On the field for the national anthem. Love it. I stick around and get my ball autographed and away we go, but first I have to let the umpires through so its another hurry up and wait. However, one of the security guys back there taps me and says 'nice throw.' I smile.

Through the tunnel. A run in with South Paw, and up the elevator to the seats in the Jim Beam club. First row, directly behind home plate. Man, these seats are tits. Here is a shot to put them in perspective.

This was taken right after they won, as you can see there was no one there at the end of the game and I was wondering if you could hear us on the tv audio since we were right below Hawk and the Stone Pony. I'll have to review the tape. My brother was drunk but not retarded drunk, he was just screwing around for the picture(I think) but anyway, we did drink a lot. The amazing food just helped minimize the damage. Talk about a spread. They had London broil, mahi-mahi, roasted chicken, sausages, brats, bruschetta, a couple different kinds of salad, breads, asparagus, mashed potatoes, grilled peppers that were amazing on the sausages, man there was a lot of good food up there. The lounge itself is pretty plush. They brought out dessert in the 7th or so and had about 7 different kinds of cake, build your own sundaes, cookies, you name it. I pretty much stuck to the Jim Beam black as my dessert so I didn't sample as much, plus I hardly had room after eating like a pig earlier.

The game itself was ok. The punch and judy hitters seemed to be the only ones getting on consistently, Rajai Davis and Scott Podsednik 3 and 4 times respectively and swiping bags. They ran all day on Freddy it seemed, and Pena really pissed me off. Both of those hits he gave up to give away the lead were on 0-2 counts. Has this guy ever heard of wasting a pitch? And why pull Thornton? He cant go more than 17 pitches? It was a pretty wide plate all night but it seemed to be pretty consistent helping Freddy strike out 5. Neither team wanted to win it seemed. No Quentin or Beckham and the offense seemed punch-less. Dye looked terrible, striking out twice going 0-6. Rios seems to think he is playing with a t-ball bat, he is getting everything off the handle and not on the barrel it seems taking the life out of anything he hits, even line drives. When they hit Konerko to get to Dye that really pissed me off. Mostly because I had to watch JD hit again.

Late Edition: The missing details

I never said that the Sox actually won the game in extra-innings, with a score of 4-3 in 13 innings thanks to some clutch hitting by AJ Pierzynski.

via images.photo1.walgreens.com

I set down a bag of Sox paraphernalia to make the pitch and no one ever picked it back up afterwards, so I missed out on a couple hats or t-shirts or whatever was in the bag, I never even looked. Whie the chevy girls were tossing out t-shirts the WWE guys were throwing some more out as well as wiffle balls(I think) from the press box above us and that probably got the biggest reaction from the crowd the whole day.

I just thought this was a trippy image so I'm putting it in. I love how the people in expensive seats go bonkers for crappy XL t-shirts tossed out the window in this case by the tiny wrestler Hornswaggle.

Here is the video link, i recommend not using the audio. I did even less of a wave than I thought.

Perfect strike at the knees on the corner though. You cant tell so much from the video, you'll have to trust me.

Half Price Mondays Suck

e-gus — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 15:56:59 -0000

So last night I went to the Sox game. Probably my 15th game of the season, and I noticed something on Mondays that has become a trend. The crowd absolutely sucks. When Rios came up for his very first home AB I could here crickets. No acknowledgment for the new guy? WTF? He was so upset he ground into a double play the poor guy. First JD has been yelling at him and then hes dissed by the fans. Now I know monday is the Pods/Paully crowd because they need the t-shirt to know who these guys are, but c'mon.

this Chevy girl has a better arm than over half the Royals bullpen

There are some appropriate times to clap besides when the scoreboard tells you to, people. When one guy is standing up clapping at least back his play and try to look like you know what the fucks going on. Yeah, thats hard to do in your Dirty 30 t-shirt...

(FUCK NICK SWISHER) but last night was the quietest sell out crowd I have ever heard at any sort of event.

Until the 5th inning of course when the cheap seaters lost all interest in the one run game and started up everyones favorite, the Wave. Woo. God Damn simpletons. Now I know most people are starved for entertainment, thats why such a thing as haunted ghost tours exist, but come on. I heard on the way out a bunch younger girls talking about what a great game it was, and I gotta believe they thought that because it had two key elements, the wave and a win. It just bugs me that as a whole we arent more educated as a fan base like St. Louis or dare I say Boston or Yankee fans. Now I know there are a lot of sheep in there, especially on the last two bandwagons, but at least they are smart enough to follow the lead of the ones that actually know whats up instead of just sitting there trying to look like a bad-ass or something.

This is just something that has been bugging me about our fan-base, but I guess it could be worse.

Discounted Sox Tickets vs KC(tuesday, wednesday)

e-gus — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 19:03:00 -0000

Discounted Sox Tickets vs KC(tuesday, wednesday)

A twitter offer, not a bad deal.

Blog Night

e-gus — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 21:05:44 -0000

A week ago yesterday I attended my second Blog night hosted by Scott Reifert and the Chicago White Sox. Scott is the vp of communications for the team and has run his blog Inside the White Sox since the 2005 season. That first season I was on there a lot talking Sox. Then they went and won the whole dang thing and the traffic shot up (bringing the quality of discussion down in my humble opinion) which lead to my full-time participation at South Side Sox.

I meant to get this down earlier, since Blog night the Sox have had a perfect game from Buehrle, a losing series at Detroit and at Minnesota(despite Buehrle being perfect through 5.2). The Sox have struggled defensively in the outfield costing them at least a game vs. both AL Central contenders. But you already knew that.

Back to reality for Scott Podsednik, .272 avg, .681 OPS, 3 SB, 4 CS so far this month.

This post isn't about the week that was, its about the event that was last week.

So sit back relax and strap it down. White Sox baseball coming your way.

First of all, blog night is a great deal. The tickets were $20 even and they come with all kinds of perks. They give you a blog night t-shirt, a media guide, a 2009 yearbook, a copy of the current White Sox magazine, and this year they even had cookies! Twenty bones well spent right there. Never mind the lower level seat and the fact you get to talk to some of the higher ups in the organization.

You meet in the media center where they do the post game interviews with Ozzie and the players. The fans attending the event sit out where the press normally would and get to lob questions at the esteemed guests. In 2008 the line up was Scott Riefert, Steve Stone, Moose Skowron and assistant GM Rick Hahn. I have nothing but the utmost respect for Steve Stone, I feel like he understands the game better than almost anyone I can think of. Moose Skowron pulls no punches and is a down to earth baseball historian. This is a tough act to follow.

In 2009 we got Ron Kittle in the place of Moose. Now I enjoy this guy, he was the minister in my wedding as a matter of fact(Moose acting as witness) but he said something that sort of rubbed me the wrong way. His belief is that the Sox will never have a rivalry like that of the Yankees and the Red Sox, not even with the Cubs and his reasoning was because Boston/NY goes back to the early 1900s. I saw Reifert cringe with this, probably because he was thinking the same thing as me. The Sox beat the Cubs in the World Series in 1906! No one brought this up. He went on to say that Ricky Henderson dogged it in his opinion and should have won more MVPs. Its my belief he should have won more MVPs anyway, but whatever. Next up was Rick Hahn, which is a great way to get the pulse of the franchise and I really enjoyed listening to him both years. Its only a matter of time before some other club steals him away to run their franchise and the Sox will be weaker because of it. The highlight of his Q&A was when someone asked him how long until Josh Fields was off his three year board. He was stymied and had to laugh saying that was brutal side stepping the question. There were several cheer leader types in attendance so the big talking point was Brian Anderson and why he was wronged. No mention of his 2 for 40 lifetime with the bases loaded performance or his career .225 average. There wasnt a lot of hard hitting questions if any at all.

The final guest was the chairman himself, Jerry Reinsdorf. He seemed to be a pretty down to earth guy and talked candidly with the crowd. He was genuinely touched when talking about 2005. He mentioned all the Sox decorations on grave stones and got in a little shot how it was nice to win before 'the other guys'. The event fell on my brothers birthday so I had a little buzz heading in, but I managed to stammer my way through a question about the possibility of adding payroll and JR assured me that the Sox were players on the trade front who felt they had a chance to win it all this year.

We ducked out on the group photo so we could get a bite and a brew and still catch the first pitch. Plus, I dont really feel like a part of that group. Im more of a lurker at Inside the White Sox, not much of a participant. It was a great time, the game was cruising along behind a solid start by Richard, and then Jenks took a crap in my cereal. No big deal, I fully expect him to bounce back and remain a solid closer from here on out. The division is wide open two days before the trade deadline and I cant wait to watch how it plays out.

Go Sox.

	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	K	SB	CS	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS
June	23	75	11	20	3	0	2	13	9	13	1	3	.267	.353	.387	.740
July	27	97	12	32	10	0	3	18	9	14	3	1	.330	.382	.526	.908
August	28	112	17	25	10	0	3	18	12	24	2	0	.223	.313	.393	.705
September	17	66	12	16	2	1	5	7	6	10	1	0	.242	.315	.530	.845

	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	K	SB	CS	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS
Home	47	165	19	36	11	1	3	21	15	31	1	2	.218	.294	.352	.646
Away	48	185	33	57	14	0	10	35	21	30	6	2	.308	.383	.546	.929

	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	K	SB	CS	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS
Bases Empty	94	200	9	49	12	1	9	9	26	37	0	0	.245	.343	.450	.793
Runners On	86	150	43	44	13	0	4	47	10	24	7	4	.293	.337	.460	.797
RISP	75	88	36	26	6	0	2	38	8	13	0	1	.295	.347	.432	.778
RISP w/2 Outs	48	42	19	14	1	0	0	15	5	9	0	0	.333	.417	.357	.774
Bases Loaded	15	8	7	3	2	0	0	7	0	1	0	0	.375	.300	.625	.925