By The White Sox Report Staff
When a 4-3 loss is “encouraging” because it’s such a “normal” kind of loss, your team has troubles.
Especially when it’s the Toronto Blue Jays who should be encouraged.
Jose Contreras may have matched Roy Halladay’s seven innings, but Halladay picked up his fourth win.
“We know the media was expecting us to finish in the bottom part of the East, so it’s nice to fly under the radar,” Blue Jays catcher Rod Barajas said.
If only that was A.J. Pierzysnki speaking.

Read More

Posted on April 27, 2009

By Thomas Chambers

Ah, the week before Derby Week.
It’s well known that much of the wagering handle is generated by bettors who may bet only one day a year – this one. They may be known as stupid money, chumps, amateurs, civilians, or girls, but I’ll also bet you’ve heard of one of them making a decent Derby score at some point, probably the same year you got skunked.
Pete the Bartender had Giacomo in 2005 and still talks about it, as is his right. He liked the story of how Giacomo was named after the son of Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, better known as Sting, by his owner (Giacomo’s, not Sting’s), A&M Records co-founder Jerry Moss. At 50-1, Giacomo paid the second highest in Derby history and highest since 1913. I’ve read a few things lately showing statistics, trends, standards of excellence and tendencies of Derby winners and a lot of them include the words “except Giacomo.” But Pete had him and I didn’t.

Read More

Posted on April 24, 2009

By The Beachwood Internet Smash Affairs Desk
“Word on the street – Rush, Division, Hubbard, you name it in downtown Chicago – is that downfield might not be the only place new Bears quarterback Jay Cutler likes to take his shots,” the Tribune’s David Haugh reports.
“Among Bears fans, Cutler’s night life since coming to town earlier this month has made him an Internet smash up there with British singing sensation Susan Boyle. There Cutler is toasting new teammate Greg Olsen, shooting pool at Rockit Bar, singing at Wrigley Field or dropping the puck at a Blackhawks playoff game.”
Reading that fast, we hit the Internet in search of drunken Jay Cutler video. We couldn’t find any. We’d hardly call him an Internet smash. But we did discover another Jay Cutler who is an Internet smash along the way.

Read More

Posted on April 23, 2009

By Dan O’Shea

I’ve always been a fan of the promising young outfielder Lastings Milledge, and not just because of his name – though I was accused during one of my fantasy baseball drafts in March of picking him up for just that reason. (Someone said the name suggested someone who wears a top hat with regularity). Go ahead and laugh, I thought, and I’ll be laughing when he hits .300, pounds 20 homers and steals 40 bases leading off for the Washington Nationals.
Well, the dream lasted for 24 at-bats, in which Milledge had a total of four hits, one stolen base, zero home runs and 10 strikeouts (in less than 25 at-bats!). He was sent down to the minors and may be there for a while, having already been passed up once when the Nats recently needed to bring up an outfielder.
The league in which I own him is a hardcore rotisserie-style points league with waiver wire moves limited to 15 for the season, so I haven’t dropped him yet. I’m looking for an excuse – someone to exchange him for on the wire – to do so. I’m also wondering if the Nats, who are as bad as baseball gets these days, might eventually bring Milledge back up to the show and let him work through his problems there. Tough call, though I think I will end up dropping him. But for now, every time I look at my team now I have to stare at that bright red “NA” (not active) next to his name.
That got me thinking about some other players, famous and otherwise very promising, who currently are in the minors or inactive. Will they make a difference this season?

Read More

Posted on April 22, 2009

By Jim Coffman
How cool is it that tonight’s Bulls and Blackhawks playoff games are a potentially perfect doubleheader? The former tips off at 6 p.m. and, barring double overtime this time, should wrap up shortly before the puck drops on the latter (8:30 p.m.). And it isn’t because of TV scheduling ridiculousness (most recently seen in these parts when the Cubs’ first home playoff game began before 6 p.m. last fall and their second didn’t start until after 8).

Beachwood Baseball: The Cub Factor The White Sox Report

This is where the oddity that is the Bulls competing in the Eastern Conference of the NBA while the Hawks reside in the NHL’s West pays off. The one headed over and up to Boston to begin its playoff run in the East while the other headed west to the Mountains (or at least the Mountains’ time zone) when it came time to take its playoff show on the road to Calgary. So even though the games start at 7 and 7:30 p.m. where they are, they spread out perfectly for us. Now all the Bulls and Hawks have to do is win. Neither is favored to do so (although the Hawks have to be favored to win their overall series at this point) but considering how things have been going lately, we’re not counting them out.

Read More

Posted on April 20, 2009

By Marty Gangler
Being a Cubs fan this year is kind of like when you get back together with that crazy girlfriend. You feel good about it and think it’s great but deep down you’re really not sure it’s going to work. It’s happening, but not really happ’nin. So yeah, we all know the Cubs are good. They are “casually dating good” but are they “take home to mom good”? Which kind of means “regular season” good and not “win it all” good. But just like that crazy girlfriend, you kind of never know what is going to happen and that’s always good, it’s always interesting, and it’s always some kind of wild ride.

Read More

Posted on April 20, 2009

By Phil Barnes
Another solid week in the books for the Sox as they finish 4-2 during two road series’. The South Siders showed their offense in the opener against Detroit on Monday, scoring 10. But Tuesday was a whole different story, getting absolutely bombed 9-0. But that is alright, fans should accept a blowout loss a week as long as they continue to play above .500 ball.
Personally, last week’s version of “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” went pretty well, so I will probably stick to this for a while until it either runs its course or I get a few e-mails from people complaining for their money back.
So let’s take a look.

Read More

Posted on April 20, 2009

By Thomas Chambers

Why are these things oh so predictable? Like Crash Davis telling the hitter it’s a fastball down the pipe.
The Daily Racing Form was founded in 1894 by Frank Brunell of Chicago. Horse racing was vastly popular in America, and Iinformation is everything in playing the horses. At first, it was somewhat of a local endeavor.
But Moe Annenberg – a circulation genius/muscle man who made his bones on our very own Chicago Tribune before joining the Hearst empire – and the Mob saw the benefit of providing pre-race information and race results on a nationwide basis, using the developing telephone and telegraph system.

Read More

Posted on April 17, 2009

By Dan O’Shea

Slow and steady may win the race, but some early picks from the waiver wire don’t hurt either.
Baseball is full of slow starters, otherwise solid or even great players who year after year don’t really get going until June or July. It’s up to a fantasy baseball manager to recognize that reality and to factor that into the decisions you make not only during your draft, but as the season progresses.
Roy Oswalt is just one example of a slow starter. I don’t believe I have ever once drafted Roy Oswalt, but more often than not, I have traded for him before the second half begins. Why? Because over the span of his career, he is 65-24 from July 1 onward, but only 54-42 before then. It doesn’t sound like that remarkable of a difference, but further consider his career record from Aug. 1 onward: 52-14. Three of his six career shut-outs have come in September alone. That’s when league titles, fantasy and otherwise, are won and lost.

Read More

Posted on April 15, 2009

By Jim Coffman
The teams are alright.
The local squads swept the weekend, going 7-0. Can’t you just hear good old Mel Allen (the longtime, velvet-voiced host of This Week in Baseball) saying “How ’bout that?”

Beachwood Baseball: The Cub Factor The White Sox Report

And Chicago didn’t just win on field, floor and ice, it dominated . . . starting with . . . the Blackhawks. They caught a huge break with a dubious penalty shot call with less than 30 seconds remaining against the Red Wings in Saturday’s opener of a two-game, two-day, regular season-ending series with the Red Wings. And Dustin Byfuglien took advantage, breaking a 2-2 tie. An empty-netter made the final 4-2.

Read More

Posted on April 13, 2009