Sox Superfans

Cait Higgins, Sox Superfan
What a wild weekend we had at the Cell. After Friday night, I was nervous for what the Tigers had in store for us for Saturday and Sunday. After Sunday, I can tell you how pleasantly surprised I was with the outcome. 20 scoreless innings for Sox pitchers! Back to back shutouts! Two grand slams on Sunday (Thanks Paulee and Joe for those fantasy numbers)!!! Freezing my butt off this weekend proved to be well worth it. As my brother (and excellent fellow blogger) says, it’s time to START BELIEVING.

Being this good in the opening month of baseball reminds me of another splendid time in my life… 2005. Let’s see. What happened then? I graduated high school…. no. That isn’t what I’m talking about…. The Hawks got Patrick Sharp (<3)? Good, but still not what I’m looking for. Scott Podsednik? Getting warmer…. OH RIGHT. When the better of the two Chicago teams brought home the championship. OF COURSE I am talking about the year the SOX won the World Series!!!!!!

While the fireworks were awesome to watch, I was so excited to see the return of small ball. I thought everyone played 110% the past two days. Everyone in the lineup, top to bottom, showed up in offense and in defense. I think I have a little crush on Gavin Floyd, and it’s not just because he pitched like an absolute beast on Saturday. A pitcher that everyone ruled out as our weakest starter in spring training have a no-hitter broken up in the 8th inning was pretty special to watch. Oh, and he’s 2-0 this year. He’s put up some pretty good numbers, had some nasty stuff, and has been an excellent presence on the mound. He was throwing FILTHY pitches on Saturday. He might have a pretty good season if he keeps up what he’s been doing ;). Since we’re on the topic of Gavin Floyd, did you guys hear about the fan who apparently yelled to him that he was throwing a no-hitter? Unfortunately, it was broken up the next inning. What should we do about it, Sox fans? Cry about it? Oust the fan? Isolate him and make him move into the woods for potentially screwing up our chances of going to the World Series? Blow up the ball that Renteria hit and put it on top of spaghetti? Continue to cry about it for years and years and years and…Oh jeez. Sorry, I’m talking about rational fans. My mistake.

It was excellent of our team to put two excellent back to back efforts for Gavin and Javier. I think that these guys really needed to have solid outings to help bring back their confidence. It was really nice to see Javy get through five innings and not get too shaken up after giving up a couple of hits. He seemed to settle in nicely, keep his cool, and absolutely dominate the Tigers on Sunday. As much as the pitching kept us in it, the hitting was just as important. We need to keep it up, because if we get up on the teams early, the pitching is great. Buehrle is pitching tonight, so our boys need to keep it up. We will see how much offense we can generate for Danks and Contreras.

Along with AJ (of course), Swish is quickly becoming one of my favorite players. This is why the fans in Oakland loved him so much. He is such a personality, and a great addition to the clubhouse. Also why I hated him so much when he was on Oakland. His ability to see the ball is outstanding. He will make the pitcher pitch to him. Something we had in ‘05 with Pods, but were lacking in ‘07. He’s a great lead-off hitter and has almost Aaron Rowand-type grit in the outfield. That is huge, by the way, because I believe that A-Ro is one of the best outfielders in the game. This dude isn’t afraid to slam head first into the walls, and I like that. Welcome to Chicago, Dirty 30.

Since chicks dig the long ball, I’ll touch a bit on the TWO GRAND SLAMS our Sox hit yesterday! I can’t believe Crede has two slammers on the season. Almost unreal. THANK YOU, KENNY WILLIAMS for not trading him away!!!!!!!! It was really nice to see the bats come alive for the guys. It’s so nice to see Konerko come up to the plate with sacks packed with Sox. I almost expect him to come through and do something amazing. Must be that ‘05 hangover. (I was there).

Finally, I got a little misty-eyed when hearing that Pierzynski and Crede were comparing Saturday’s game with Game 2 of the World Series. If you’re familiar with my blogging, you’ll know that I was there for Game 2 with my dad, mom and brother/blogger Don. It was one of the most magical and surreal moments of my life. I compared Saturday’s game with that game. It felt almost like a time warp. To hear the guys compare it to Game 2 was just mindblowing. I am confident that I will see another Game 2, just hopefully with better weather.

Game’s starting in an hour! We’ve got Swisher’s old team coming to town tonight. I’m getting excited for a beatdown of Athletic proportions.

Until next time, Sox fans!