Thursday, June 22, 2006 - Posts

The softer side of Ozzie

It’s a shame ESPN already blew its “reality-show-based-on-current-sports-figure” budget, because if they’d only waited half a year, they would’ve had a sure-fire winner on their hands:

After calling Jay Mariotti a "fag," Ozzie’s going to sensitivity training. 

They could’ve called it “Ozzie PC.”

I’m guessing more people would pay to see that versus “Bonds vs. Bonds.”  For one, some people actually like Ozzie, and for the people that don’t, they’d get to see him in an awkward situation.  It’d be like the Bonds-haters watching Barry trying to have dinner at a teammate’s house.  Or trying to bulk up using hard work, vitamins and prayer.  

When I saw the decision by MLB to make Ozzie take this course, I immediately thought of the “Family Guy” episode where Peter had to take sensitivity training following a sexual harassment complaint:
“The filing's done, Mr. Griffin.”
“Thank you, Miss Ironbox, you are a valued member of our business team.  And I will give you a raise tomorrow if you come to work without a shirt on.”
“Mr. Griffin!”
“I'm sorry, that came out wrong. Let me try again.  Nice ass.”
It would have to make for entertaining television – Ozzie being taught to use his “internal pause button,” saying things like, “Hello, my homosexual friend.  Nice day we’re having, isn’t it?  Made all the better by us both being comfortable with your sexual orientation, of course.  There’s no need to even bring it up.”

They could’ve even gone on a film set to shoot a new Chevrolet “manager exchange program” commercial in which he sells a Chevy SSR to two dudes.  If that isn’t made for television, I don’t know what is. 
posted Thursday, June 22, 2006 10:58 PM by Jim with 2 Comments

The boys of summer solstice

If the Cardinals had outscored the White Sox 33-11 in the first two games of the series during all the sound and fury after Ozzie Guillen's latest comments, let's just say it wouldn't be good times.  Fortunately, Ozzie apologized, which along with being the right thing to do will mute some of the controversy. 

Also, it's the White Sox who are hitting the cover off the ball, and that's a helluva lot more fun to talk about.

They've scored at least eight runs in a franchise-record five consecutive games.  The last two nights mark the first time since 2003 they scored at least 30 runs in two games when they scored 11 and 19 runs late in the season against the Kansas City Royals, albeit in meaningless games.  Unfortunately, since they couldn't manage a run off the Cardinal bullpen tonight, they've fallen one short of what I can find to be the two-game record -- 34 in 1955.

The first game (April 22, 1955) was a 5-3 victory over the Kansas City A's.  In the second game, the Sox set the franchise single-game scoring record after a 29-5 victory over KC.

Then, the following night, they were shut out 5-0.  And 5-0 the game after that with the New York Yankees.  Now that's all or nothing.

The big reason for the scoring surge is the increased offensive output from the bottom of the order.  Take a look at at the on-fire 7-8-9 combo, as well as a couple others who are swooning for June:

Name Month G BA OBP SLG HR R+RBI
Joe Crede April-May 51 .302 .340 .495 8 57
  June 15 .321 .339 .589 4 29
Juan Uribe April-May 43 .208 .243 .333 4 32
  June 13 .271 .271 .521 3 19
Brian Anderson April-May 45 .164 .271 .291 4 27
  June 13 .214 .283 .357 1 13
Paul Konerko April-May 52 .291 .368 .577 15 77
  June 16 .417 .485 .567 2 24
Ross Gload April-May 17 .174 .200 .304 0 4
  June 13 .346 .346 .385 0 7

Check back for updated numbers, as Baseball Musings' uber-fun database is only through last night at this point.  Anderson's numbers will stay the same, but the other four all figure to see a boost in their numbers with another great performance at the plate tonight -- including Uribe, who kept up his two-hits-per-night average over his last six games.  I wasn't sure, but now I think it's safe to call it a hot streak now.

Those numbers even underrepresent Anderson, who started off June 1-for-15.  Since then, he's 8-for-27, with an OPS of .906.  Twelve of those 13 R+RBI have come during this stretch.

I mentioned in the post rebutting Tom Verducci's slamming of Anderson saying the offense was nearly scoring a run more per game even though the No. 8 and 9 hitters weren't hitting for crap.  Now that Juan and Brian are starting to match their true talent, it's hard to think of a scarier offense in Sox history.  The numbers right now are saying there might not be one.
posted Thursday, June 22, 2006 12:02 AM by Jim with 0 Comments