Sunday, October 09, 2005

Baseball playoff thoughts, Tyndale, Deathstar

Well the White Sox have moved on. As I royally predicted though maybe a bit faster. But gee whiz, did the Red Sox look out of it from the beginning. I knew when Clement was starting Game 1 that they were in trouble. No Pedro, No Lowe, and with Schilling only able to pitch well against the Yankees, it's not too surprising. El Duque was incredible.

But here's what I like about the White Sox. Everyone in their lineup can beat you. I didn't like their lineup for a while. I didn't think they hit well enough for average. But things have changed. In the last 2 weeks, EVERY LAST ONE of their starters has had a big hit. Podsednik: HR in Game 3; Iguchi: 3-run HR in Game 2; A.J.: opposite field homer; Crede: walkoff HR against Cleveland; Uribe: HR's, doubles, blah blah; Konerko: enough said; Dye: Game 1 opening homer; Everett: well, alomst everybody. And would you really take any starting rotation over Chicago? Houston? Did you see Clemens get pounded by the Atlanta Junior Varsity squad the other night? St. Louis? Hmm. That's a close one. But the White Sox get a big edge in middle relief, even if you want to give Jason "traded to Oakland for Billy Taylor" Isringhausen the nod over Bobby Jenks at closer. And it's pretty hard to do that right now.

About two weeks ago, I thought the White Sox would win a series and then lose in the ALCS. But looking at how these other teams' are having so many flaws exposed, I have to say the White Sox have as good a chance as anyone, if not the best chance.

I know I dump on Atlanta a lot. Maybe more than I should. (Nah, I didn't say that!) But seriously. How mediocre is the National League when they finish with the second best record in the whole league?

I'm working on applying for a freelance proofreader job at Tyndale Publishing. I have to take a proofreading test. One of the sections is identifying sentnces that have a compound subject vs. sentences that have a compound predicate vs. the sentences that have neither. Oh joy... Fortunately there's a spelling section and I've always handled that well.
Chris McElwee is the pastor of Eccleisa, where I go on Sunday nights, and man he knows how to cook. Friday night he made our whole group bread, salad, pasta, and grilled chicken. I did help, I got to watch over the pasta. Man that angel hair is tough to make a good call on. But I did just fine if I don't write so myself. The chicken is cooked on the Deathstar grill. That's Chris' name for theis monstroscity that I don't think you could fit inside a 747, it's so huge. It had lemon, garlic, wine, rosemary, and then topped with some romano cheese. Man alive, that was something else.

Now this is a little different. Chris and I are the only males eating at the table. It's Chris' wife and mom and five other girls. By the time I took my third piece of chicken, I felt just a little guilty. I actually had the chance to explain the difference between parmesan reggiano cheese and pecorino romano cheese at the table. It helps to be Italian in Wheaton, Illinois. I'm one of the few people out here who when I hear the word Romano doesn't immediately think about a popular CBS sitcom.

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