Sox Whitewash Sox

I think "Whitewash" normally means a shutout, and this game was decided 14-2, but this weak pun probably tips you off that Chicago beat Boston. Meanwhile the Yankees beat the Angels 4-2, grabbing the early lead in that series. While I don't believe that rooting for one team or another affects the outcome of a given game or series (unless you are at the game, shouting obscenities or throwing rotten vegetables), I am throwing my support behind the WHITE Sox. This is because whoever wins this series has to go out and beat the Yankees, or it is all for naught. While I think the ChiSox have enough pitching depth to play a five game series and still be ready for the Yankees, I think Boston will have to pin their hopes on miracles and Schilling-esque heroics, unless their bats can carry them. Of course their bats can carry them, but will it be enough? Not if they keep allowing 14 runs per game would be the obvious answer.

I feel like a mother who kills one of her young so that the remaining baby will have something to eat. I think that the final Highlander episode featured Duncan MacLeod killing Connor so he would be strong enough to defeat a common enemy. If that was how this worked I might think the Red Sox had a shot. Hmmmm...a "quickening" could explain how easily the Sox disposed of the Cardnails last year--think how much power a franchise would gain from beating the Evil Empire...the Sox could've switched sports and rolled up the Lakers, Packers and Canadiens(sp?) right about then. (Man-U? Fuck it--throw in Man -U.)

Hey, I caught a little bit of the game on TV, and you know what? The stands were filled with White Sox fans! Just when I was beciming convinced that they didn't actually exist. I think they might just be a bunch of hermits. I can just see them, wearing black, lurking in their basements and listening to the game on the radio....enjoying the solitude of an out-of-the-way cafe, peering through a fog of second hand clove smoke at a volume of Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, or maybe Anne Rice....watching the game at a less than popular sportsbar, the one frequented by a mix of bikers and womens' softball players,... cornering a bartender and quoting obscure stats to him, or muttering obscenities regarding the Cubs into the Pabst Blue Ribbon he's been chasing shots of Evan Williams with....walking into an icy Chicago wind and thinking, "wait 'til next year..."

Maybe this IS next year.

I saw a whole stadium full of fans who certainly seem to hope so. They were going wild, but I wonder how many of them are still waiting for the other shoe to drop. A lot, I bet. These guys still respect curses.

I'm not sure that the Red Sox respect curses anymore--or common sense. In a battle of two of the most cursed franchises in history what do you call starting Matt Clement? A lucky rabbits foot?

Hmmm...ex-Cub...prone to getting hit in the head by line drives...what could go wrong? If there's a lucky rabbit's foot here he's wearing a White Sock.

At least Clement isn't your closer. You don't have a closer....

Maybe he'd make a good closer. Problem is, your starting pitching can't really afford to lose anybody to the bullpen...

But Matt Clement isn't the problem. Sure, I may talk a little smack, and sure, the thought of an ex-Cub on the mound for Boston just may have some White Sox fans licking their chops--

(And maybe not--maybe he is much better than I think.)

This is not the curse of Matt Clement. You'll know the curse of Matt Clement when a couple more pitchers take a line drive to the dome. Hopefully they survive.

This is the curse of Pedro. The curse of thinking you could replace Pedro Martinez on the cheap. Not to mention assuming Schilling would be his own self. I could go on and on. Would Pedro have won that game if he was still a Red Sock? No. But he might've been able to beat the Angels back at Fenway....

You see, when you win your division you get to start out at home, if you have a better record than the other team.