In the hood

So roughly 1/2 mile from the park parking dudes are asking for $80!!!! I found a guy with a garage for $40 and I get to keep my keys, same distance.

FYI the guy at $80 charges $20 during the season..........

I'm hanging at the Brownstone (Irving Park & Lincoln) which is owned by Mary Kay's cousins Courtney & Matt. Great place, good food but its a "Texas" bar. Meaning a place where Longhorn fans show up in droves to "hook 'em". I have to remember that for anyone coming in town from our Austin location.

True Irony - in a baseball kinda way

So the Shite Sox start their post season today in Tampa Bay. Hmm, Tampa Bay.... that sounds oddly familiar doesn't it?

Sure whilst many around the nation are amazed that the Tampa Bay Rays (they removed the Devil cuz it's the South ya see?!! Even a baseball team can be born again and saved, hallelujah), one of MLB's newest teams has made the playoffs after only a few years of futility (9 of them HAH), I sit here and just remember some facts that will make the Sox-Rays series oh so ironic.

In 1982, the Sox told Chicago that they would leave town if they didn't get a $5,000,000 tax-exempt bond to finance the build-out of luxury suites at Comiskey Park. The city, which at THAT time was under Jane Byrne (an old Daley machine gal), got the City Council to approve it and all was well at the cost of any taxes that should have gone to the city.

1988 rolls around and once again Sox ownership (Jerry Reinsdorf and Eddie Einhorn) say that Comiskey Park is in dire need of renovation and in fact, they want a new stadium from Chicagoans and that if they don't get their way, well, there's a lovely place that was being built in Tampa-St. Pete which will be the Sox NEW HOME, the "Florida Suncoast Dome". "Their way" included clauses that once built, if the Sox didn't hit a minimum average attendance for the year that their rent would only be $1 to the State of Illinois who would fund the building of this new stadium. Of course, at this time, a newly elected Mayor, Richard M. Daley, born and raised on the South Side of Chicago (Bridgeport) made sure that it was approved and pushed through.

So when people bitch and moan about how I have such a bad taste in my mouth about the Shite Sox, it's not really a Cubs/Sox thang. It's a "we were held hostage and still pay for it every day of our lives as residents of Illinois" thang that's so conveniently forgotten by the faithful followers of that team that will continue to have me hot under the collar. The team is privately owned but yet, the PUBLIC funded and built them that mall in the hood. I guess on the side of town that relishes in their backroom politics, this really shouldn't be a surprise.

So this series is really one where the people of Tampa should be angry and ready to take a beating on the Sox. For it took them 6 more years of having an empty facility (except for a few NCAA Tournament games and 3 seasons of the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey club) before they were even granted an MLB franchise and 3 more years from that point before an actual baseball game was played there. That's a lot of tax dollars spent that went unsatisfied for a long time because ownership of the Sox played a political game and got people's hopes up. People down there were angry enough at the team that the Sox eventually pulled out of Sarasota for Spring Training and went to Arizona.

Yet, there are a lot of Chicago transplants down there so I won't surprise me to hear enough of a roar for the Sox when they bat. Unfortunately people have short memories about these things. I don't and never will.

TBS and Advertising

With the Cubs being a huge television draw, I have to ask after watching Game 1.... What the hell does TBS do to sell advertising?

I saw the same MasterCard ad I saw last year with the price of each base across different countries. We suffer through literally HUNDREDS of Frank Caliendo SAME ADS AS LAST YEAR promos for his upcoming series and, since I have DirecTV, I see at least TWO DirecTV stupid ads which they show over "local" ads.

This big of a draw and they can't sell any decent advertising?..........wow, either folks down in Atlanta are getting really lazy or it's just the suckiest network of all times and Big Ted just bought his way into showing the games. Even if it wasn't the Cubs it's Chicago and Los Angeles watching..... #2 and #3 largest DMA's in the country.

You hillbilly morons!

Here we go again!!

One would expect me to rant and rave about the Cubs loss tonight. One might even expect me to predict doom and gloom for the remainder of the playoffs. One could go as far as saying that I've finally drank the last glass of Kool-Aid being handed out at Clark & Addison.

But I really think this club can pull off 3 out of the next 4 and continue on to the next level of the series. The Dodgers aren't all that they are cracked up to be and in fact, if Dempster had had ANY of his stuff tonight (and he wasn't even close), quite possibly we'd be talking different right now. Sure that's easy to say, but we need to be serious here, he looked like crap and we actually didn't do that bad at the plate.

The fear in most Cub fans hearts at this moment is which Carlos shows up tomorrow night? El Bueno Zambrano or El Diablo Zambrano. He's had a very rough go of it over the last couple of weeks since his no-hitter. But I think he's had enough time on the pine to realize that he has to stay focused and pitch how he knows how to.

Watching the entire pitching staff tonight just brought to mind the famous Crash Davis to Nuke LaLoosh line, "Don't think meat, just throw the damn ball". There were so many balls in the dirt that I thought the Cubs were playing Cricket tonight. Geo Soto was half the way to China he was digging so deep.

Other observations:

• Alfonso Soriano. You're now 2 for 19 in 4 post-season games with the Cubs...HELLO!!! Even my WIFE knows you can't hit a low-outide ball...stop swinging at them you moron. Everytime you do that, every Cub fan sees Sammy Sosa in a bad acid flashback.
• I don't know about you, but did Lou Piniella watch the same Kosuke Fukudome that I did this season? He's batting 2nd and Theriot is batting 8th? Seriously? I mean seriously??? I'm not questioning the man who has brought us to back-to-back playoffs, but I'm just askin'.
• Mark DeRosa continues to be this generation's Mark Grace. He just shows up, asks "Where am I playing tonight?" which can be any of 4-5 positions, and goes out and just does his damn job and WELL!!
• Samardzija: I love this kid, but they've really pushed him up way too fast. He's supposed to be one of our Ace starters in another year or two. He was not that great in Class AA ball and they pushed him quickly through Iowa and then brought him up when Rich Hill went to Hell. I just hope we're not ruining him for the future, cuz he's going to be one of the great ones with the dirty stuff he throws at batters.
• Greg Maddux closes out the game against us. Ouch that hurts. Man, how many times can he come back to remind us that we've let him go TWICE? He's MY age and he's still got nasty stuff. God Bless him, but I wish he was able to be in OUR bullpen over Howry, Cotts and Marquis.

So, I'll be at the Friendly Confines tomorrow night. Game time temp is supposed to be 51 degrees. I'll be bundled and probably tired since the start time is 8:30pm!!! Stupid TV. I'll likely be posting FROM the game (lots of short posts, but hopefully "spirit of the moment" ones)