Boski's Blogopoluza!

We won, we won, we won!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

World Champion Chicago White Sox, I can type that and it is not a typo or a pipe dream.

Before I get started I have to do one bit of crowing. I did this at the Big A after game five of the ALCS, but instead of yelling it to a group of fans; I have you my blogging audience. Please forgive if your team is mentioned, this more for the “experts”.

Can anyone tell me where the Twins are today?
Not here.
Can anyone tell me where the Indians are today?
Not here.
Can anyone tell me where the Tigers are today?
Not here?
Can anyone tell me where the Red Sox are today?
At home.
Can anyone tell me where the Yankees are today?
At home.
Can anyone tell me where the Angels are?
At home.
Can anyone time where the Astro are?
Going home.
Can anyone time me where the Cubs are?
Sure as hell not here, but they are at home stewing in their own juices.

The experts were wrong, dead wrong. Hell, I will give myself a verbal bashing for not always being positive.

A wonderful season that started with a 1-0 victory ended with a heart pounding 1-0 victory. A game in which, I sweated, twitched and pleaded till the final out. The team that just could not stand the limelight is now basking in it. This team got on the big stage and made the best of it. They lost only one game during the month of October. Not bad, considering they stared down a monumental collapse square in the eye. But why do I have to bring up old shit.

When that last out reached the glove of Paulie (thanks to Juan Uribe, a cast off of the Rockies, who made two amazing defensive plays with all the chips on the table). I sat there in total amazement and awe. Other than hugging my delirious wife, I sat there stunned. It happened. It was no longer a wish, it was now fact. Not only for me but for all my fellow constituents. Ozzie led us to the promise land. Seeing this team do it makes this so special. This team from player 25 up to the owner was a microcosm of my fandom of the team.


An owner who took over in the early 80’s (birth)
Harold, Ozzie and I think I saw Pudge during the celebration (childhood)
GM Kenny Williams (those dark awkward teen age years when times were rough)
Frank Thomas, Joey Cora and Tim Raines (young adulthood – a time of joy and time for sorrow)
Konerko, Buehrle (the I am trying to find myself period)
The rest of the team (everything finally comes together and you see that it was all worth it)

I just stared at the TV at B.J. Chicago’s Pizza in Laguna Hills. Seeing them put up 2005 World Series Champs. My wife seeing me in this wonderful, misty (yes I got teary eye, what do you want to make of it), catatonic state kept telling me they did it and it was for real.

We paid the bill and when I got outside, I got on the unicycle of happiness and ran up and down El Toro Blvd and the parking lot yelling jumping up and down and also injuring my shoulder as I did rolls on the grass. But so worth it.

It got better even after the failed attempt to drive by Fox Sports Grill. Got home sat down to watch WGN, when my wonderful wife again made the push for Best Wife for Goofy Husband Award. She called me to the backyard. Where she proceeded to pull out a bottle of bubbly that was from our Wedding Day and proceeded to douse me with it. That is a great wife right there. I had to be the Sox, the bottle was almost ready to pop on its own.

It is simply amazing, to see WGN broadcast the celebration from Houston and in Chicago and knowing I was watching the Cubs channel (cue Nelson Munz). I got teary eyed again even watching the highlight montage with a cheesy song, which I now like since I am going to always attach it to these past few weeks.

But the journey is done, which brings me to the only bad part of this whole thing. Why did we choose “Don’t Stop Believing”? We really need to see Steve Perry get a check. Come on people we can do better. Look when CSUF won the 1995 College World Series we at least used “Honky Tonk Woman” by the Stones, since no one knows what CSUF’s fight song really is.

Sore shoulder and all I finally laid my head to rest. I was drained but happy very happy.

So as we awake this morning hope is alive. (I know it is silly and there are a lot bigger things going on and I have not forgotten that there is a lot of bad shit going on, I am talking about the hopes of sports fans. Hope should be alive for all the teams we root that are “lost causes”. Since if the sins of Black Sox can finally be put to rest maybe it can come for the others who wait.

For Bills fans that the day will come where Scott Norwood can be forgiven.

Saber fans not to be haunted by Brett Hull and his toe.

L.A. Kings fans (I know a rarity) can throw Mc Sorley’s bent stick on to the victory bonfire.

Arizona Cardinal Fan to see what football is like in late January.

Fans of Northern Ireland and Ireland to watch their teams play in a World Cup again or just even play in one together.

Astro fans to be able to hold there heads high like Jose Cruz’s fro.

The Saints to finally go marching to a Super Bowl (this one is a pipe dream since the Saints will not be the Saints soon. Say hello to your San Antonio/L.A. Whatever’s)

But hope is a live and still likes to see the underdogs win from time to time. The patience and the disappointment can be more than you want to handle, but the reward was worth it.

I must thank all of you out there who have passed on your best wishes for the Sox during the post-season. I also want to thank my favorite former Yankee fan who came out west, became an Angel fan, who really was secret St. Louis Browns fan, since that is who he saw a lot growing up in the Bronx. Thanks Dad, I going to say you had a hand in this and called in a couple favors upstairs. A wonderful father, teacher and friend, who taught me to love baseball and anything with a score.

This fall has moved baseball back into my head. Football is still in the lead, but the gap has closed greatly. Just means I have to better my sport watch skills. I think I have the drive and desire to do it.

So thank you White Sox, thank you. Thanks go from Baines, Guillen, Fisk and to all the guys like Dave Martinez, Lyle Mouton, Ivan Calderon (R.I.P.), Ron Karkovice. Even Chris Snopek, Daryl Boston, Greg Grebek and Paco Martin. Jerry Dibzinski you can come out now, you are forgiven.

Oh hell while we are here:

Top 10 White Sox Teams (during the Boski years)

1. 2005 – Did you even have to ask
2. 1993 – The first team I really got to follow and truly see win, but the playoffs killed me
3. 1983 – Winning Ugly and the South American Airline Uni’s.
4. 1994 – This team should have been the won to win it all. Great pitching and Frank Thomas killing everything. We should have won it. Stupid strike.
5. 1990 – God, this team was ugly but they won and had no business doing so. They had pitching, D and no hitting. But they hung in against a great A’s team. Scrappy bunch.
6. 2000 – These guys come out of nowhere and won. Still remember the road trip where they went 7-0 to really show this team was not fucking around.
7. 1991 – Year one of the cool uni’s and the new stadium and first full year of Frank Thomas. If they had not lost that game in Baltimore I think they fight the Twins to the end.
8. 1982 – My first Sox team by Kenner.
9. 1996 – Faded down the stretch, but they had Harold and I saw them at New Comiskey.
10. 2003 – Year One of Ozzie Ball, yes we faded, but we had a manager who did not take it sitting down. See number 1.