The Glory Days Archives Volume II

Last weekend was the IHSA state playoffs and as always, and as is tradition, it’s a weekend long dick measuring contest for 30+ year old, washed up has beens like myself and Carl to tout our HS greatness.  Because of that, I figured I’d do a little White Sox mailbag/ glory days/ gym class hero mailbag:

Myself personally?  I quit HS football after my sophomore year to “focus on baseball” when I was a dumb enough asshole to think I had a chance to play baseball at a level higher than division 3, but you better believe I tell everyone I started on the greatest HS team in IHSA history, the 2006 WWS Tigers:

That was arguably the douchiest thing I’ve ever written but it’s kinda true.  Just ask Carl.  He loves being an alumnus of Brother Rice more than you love your own mother.

This doesn’t really have anything to do with the thesis of this blog, but it makes me laugh every time I think about it so I’m including it

The reason I mention all of this is because while HS football ends, HS stories last forever.  And whoever #50 and #45 are on Nazareth are going to tell the story of how they fucked up this kid on Mt. Carmel for LIFE.

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Just fast forward 20 years.  These two will be yucking it up at a bar and it’ll be like “yo man remember the time you beat that kid’s ass and I fake gave him CPR!!!” before the conversation inevitably shifts to them talking about how if the ball would have bounced differently once or twice and if it weren’t for 2-3 bad calls by the refs they would have beaten Carmel and won state.

But let’s get to a little White Sox mailbag at the same time.  Now that Thanksgiving is over and the Winter Meetings are just a handful of days away, I wanted answer some White Sox fans questions on what to expect with hot stove season in full swing.  Here are the best of the best:

The two popular names that are floated around are Pederson and Marte. Marte is awesome and probably a more well rounded player, but would also cost a lot more in terms of prospect capital IMO as he’s controlled for two years opposed to 1 with Joc.  That said, he’s also 3.5 years older or so.  Give and take.  In a perfect world we’d get a stop gap on a 1 year deal, like Pederson, and then go ALL IN on Betts after the 2019 season.  But… we’ve seen that movie before.

Also, congrats on that buzzer beater.  Guaranteed that basement party at the “kid with the cool parent’s” house following that win was incredible.  OTPH’s galore.

We all assume Strasburg and Cole are off the table, which is fine, at least to me.  But if they do whiff on Wheeler (I’m of the opinion they have no excuse to at this point) then the next few best targets would probably be Keuchel, Bumgarner and Ryu in no order.  If any of them would headline the White Sox offseason pitcher’s haul… I’d be really disappointed, as would most sox fans.  At this point in their respective careers, I just don’t see a long term deal working for any of these three.  Now if someone like Keuchel were signed as a 5th starter?  Fuck yeah.  Just not as a headliner this winter.

We are going to be doing a live show with the White Sox in late April.  We’ll have all of the details worked out after the new year, then doing the same ol’ tailgate we do in June and July.  I’ll have dates ASAP.  We’ll be working with the Sox in somewhat of a more professional manner moving forward, which will be great for both parties IMO, especially with the Sox improvements finally coming to realization on the field.

Oh and yes fuck those catholic school assholes.  We beat the SHIT out of Mt. Carmel in the 2006 state game, it was hilarious.  Just an absolute blood bath.

I am of the opinion Madrigal is as ready as he’s gonna be.  Realistically how much better will he get from 100 or so at bats in Charlotte to start the year?  I just hope he worked on not beating the ball into the ground as much over the winter.  Just get a LITTLE lift under the ball.  He’s never gonna be a power hitter, but if he can hit 35 gaps a year he’ll be a really solid top (or bottom) of the order hitter.  That, and I hope he steals 30 bases a year.  Turn singles and walks into doubles to compensate for his lack of raw power.  If it were up to me, he’d start the season in Chicago.

As for your HS gym hero story – an absolutely incredible feat.  1 on 5 vs. a group of seniors is like taking down the Soviet commies in the 1980 olympics.  Thanks for the email – proud of you.

Wish me luck tonight – I’m finally having my pitch off vs. Carrabis.  It’s going to be biblical.  Link to the official rules can be found here