From the Cheap Seats: We Have A Winner

May 22nd

I normally like picking things out for myself, whether it is a choice to eat out somewhere or when to leave to cover an event or something, however there was one thing that I struggled with in recent weeks. With my favorite baseball team, the Cubs, providing drama all over the place, I decided that I need to follow a new team.
What Major League Baseball team to pick to follow became my new thing to pick in a way, but it was a struggle. I sat down and thought about how many teams that I could actually get behind and it got to a list of five.
This process started out two weeks ago when I threw out the five teams that I could follow to the readers of our paper to choose from as I could not make this decision for the life of me. Last week, we had a tie in reader votes, with the equal number of votes coming in for the Chicago White Sox and the St. Louis Cardinals. So, one more week, one more vote. This time, there is no tie.
With the help of the Wilton baseball team providing a lot of the votes, the final total went like this. Chicago White Sox 16, St. Louis Cardinals 13. The Beavers are not short on their love of baseball and I would like to thank them for helping me out in my quest.
The two teams that were able to be voted on each have a local following here in Tipton and Cedar County for that matter.
So we begin. My Cubs loyalties are on the back burner for now and new loyalties for the White Sox come to the forefront.
So, just like a little kid, I wonder who is even on the White Sox now. I have watched a few games of theirs here or there, mainly against the Cubs, so I have an idea. Of the active 25-man roster, I know of 14 of them. As I look at the roster, one of my all-time favorite players is on the team, Jim Thome so that is a big plus. As is players left over from the Sox’s World Series Title in 2005 in Mark Buehrle, Bobby Jenks, A.J. Pierzynski, Paul Konerko, Jermaine Dye and Scott Podsednik.
Am I going to get to see the White Sox on tv? The answer to that is yes. Thanks to Comcast Sports out of Chicago, the White Sox are on a lot. Even better, former Chicago Cub analyst Steve Stone is in their booth.
One thing that is exciting about this is that the American League Central is just as exciting as the National League Central. There are young teams like the Indians, Twins and Royals looking to keep the vetren White Sox from competing for a divison title. The White Sox have a favorable interleague schedule too with home games with the Pirates, Dodgers and Cubs and away games with Milwaukee, Chicago and Cincinati.
So it begins. I will watch this week with interest as the Minnesota Twins come to town to play a three-game series. I also will be very interested in the June 16-18 and June 26-28 games against the Cubs.