Thome’s AMAZING!!

Cait Higgins, Sox Superfan

I was incredibly lucky to have gotten the opportunity to attend three Sox games this weekend. Halfway to St. Patrick’s Day is one of my favorite games to go to, because I love seeing all the green hats, and how we’re going to somehow manage to pull the game off. It’s always a good time.

What I really wanted to talk about is one of the biggest honors of all time, and that is being able to see a great ballplayer hit his 500th career home run. I got the pleasure of seeing Mr. Jim Thome hit his 500th into left center today. It was such a celebration! I got really emotional when the rest of the team stormed the field and met him at home plate, as if he had hit a walk off home run in the World Series. It was comparable to that night, seeing the whole team band together in support of their teammate. It was such a great experience. They had a whole movie and special banners and things to put on the Jumbotron to honor one of baseball’s truly great players. We got to see him relive his entire baseball career, with his first home run at Yankee Stadium, his 100th at the Ballpark at Arlington, his 200th at the Metrodome, his 450th against his old team at Jacob’s Field, to his 500th against the Angels at home on the Southside of Chicago. Seeing Bobby Jenks and Jermaine Dye carry him on their shoulders gave me a bittersweet rememberance of a couple of years ago when they were walking off the field for the final time at home, October 23, 2005. “Hoist the city up on your shoulders, and they will return the favor.” I hope that is what we did for Thome today. Now, our next goal is to get this man a 2008 World Series ring!

What I like best about Thome is what a stand up guy he is. He seems like there isn’t a mean bone in his body. He doesn’t yell at umpires, carry on, hit other players, or go crazy in the dugout when he strikes out. He doesn’t break bats over his neck, throw his bats, or slam down his batting helmet. Some of the Sox fans call him “Mr. Incredible.” My family calls him “Mr. Baseball” because he always is one of the first guys on the field, ready to warm up for the game. He always seems ready to play, even when he’s hurt. He is one of those guys that you know has developed some serious friends in the dugout.

It was a great day for baseball, if you look past the adventures of our bullpen. That was pretty scary for a little while there. Unfortunately, it’s too late to remember how to play Grinder Ball. Oh well, live, learn, and leave Buckvich in Arizona next year. Thanks, Thome, for an exciting end to an almost disasterous day!

We gone!

Cait Higgins, Sox Superfan

Last year, it came down to the wire. Twins, Tigers, White Sox. This year we’re the first team in our division to be eliminated! Oh well. I guess this season has come to a bittersweet end. Even though we haven’t started the postseason, our season is virtually over. I say it is bittersweet because of ‘05 and then how close we came last year, only to be on the verge of being worse than the Cubs last year (that’s 96 losses, if you don’t remember). The sweet part comes from how the painful season is finally over. We can go to the game and enjoy the fun. Richard Roeper (my hero) made a comment in his article the other day that he has come down to trying to give away his season tickets: “First prize, two tickets to the Sox game. Second prize? FOUR tickets to the Sox game!” Another great quote I heard this week comes from my other favorite Sox fan, Mr. Steve Dahl. He said that this is the time of the season where the fun starts. I believe he referred to it is “Ligue Season” after the infamous father and son duo who decided to beat up the Royals’ first base coach Tom Gamboa in 2002.

Something we can look forward to is having our players back. I can’t wait till spring training when I can see Joe Crede and Scott Podsednik 100% and healthy after a nice relaxing offseason. I’ll be looking forward to seeing them back and ready to perform. If we can have those two guys in ‘05 shape, we wont be in the same spot we’re in right now. And, a year from now if the good people at NBC5 decide to do this again, and I get the honor of blogging my team’s season highs and lows, I will be writing in a much less somber tone.

We have witnessed some of the most wonderful milestones this season. Mark Buehrle no hit the Rangers in April! How exciting was that?! He also got his 100th career win in June against the Astros! Bobby Jenks broke the American League record and is tied for the Major League record for most consecutive batters retired! Jim Thome is (as I am writing this) TWO away from hitting his 500th home run… and he is ready to do it against his old team! Juan Uribe just got his 100th career homer. It has been a good season for milestones for our Sox. I guess if you have to look on the brightside, those are the places you can start.

I hope we will be able to continue blogging into the post-season, just to see how everything plays out. I am pulling, I mean PULLING for the BREWERS (obviously, even though I couldn’t complain if the Cardinals won the Central) and the Mets. So, we’ll see how that turns out. Now that there is that big “E” next to our stats, I can say that I am spending the rest of the energy that is not being burned out by school on rooting against the Cubs. Not to diss any Cubs fans or my fellow bloggers on the northside, just to do what I’ve always done. This year, though, their losing means so much more to me than it ever has before. I’ve been harassed by too many a northsider (I go to school at Loyola, so I am CONSTANTLY surrounded by Cub Nation) to let the team get away without my entire baseball soul rooting against them.

On that note, I think I will focus on my major: sports. Let’s go White Sox. Let’s pull this one out. Let’s use this time to ruin the other teams’ chances to go to the postseason. Let’s get the Royals in there! All kidding aside, let’s focus on knocking these Indians out!