MLB's Palmeiro, Rogers file for free agency

Fri, 28 Oct 2005
Major-leaguers Rafael Palmeiro and Kenny Rogers, both of whom served suspensions during the 2005 season, have hit the free market.
They were among 54 players who filed for free agency on Friday, a list that includes Boston Red Sox outfielder Johnny Damon, Cleveland Indians starter Kevin Millwood, New York Mets all-star catcher Mike Piazza, New York Yankees reliever Tom Gordon and San Diego Padres closer Trevor Hoffman.
Palmeiro, who played primarily at first base for Baltimore the last two seasons, was suspended 10 days for a positive steroids test.
The Aug. 1 announcement came shortly after he reached the 3,000-hit plateau.
Palmeiro, 41, was suspended after reportedly testing positive for the powerful anabolic steroid stanozolol – the same substance that disgraced Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson tested positive for at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
Seen as a major distraction for the Orioles following his suspension, Palmeiro was sent home to reportedly rehabilitate an injury and didn't play in a game after Aug. 30. He finished the season with a .266 average, 18 home runs and 60 runs batted in.
Palmeiro, a native of Havana, Cuba, is only the fourth player in baseball history to record 500 homers and 3,000 hits.
Meanwhile, the 40-year-old Rogers was handed a 20-game suspension for shoving two cameramen prior to a 7-6 victory over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim at Ameriquest Field on June 29.
An arbitrator later reduced the penalty to 13 games.
Rogers, who pitched in this year's all-star game, finished the season with a 14-8 record and 3.46 earned-run average.
Damon, who likely will draw plenty of interest, batted .316 with 10 homers and 75 RBIs in 2005, his fourth season with the Red Sox.
Millwood is perhaps the most coveted free-agent starter. Despite a 9-11 record, he led the American League with a 2.86 ERA.
A total of 116 players filed for free agency in the first two days following the Chicago White Sox's four-game sweep of Houston in the World Series.
The notables include outfielders Jacque Jones of the Minnesota Twins, Bernie Williams of the New York Yankees and Reggie Sanders of the St. Louis Cardinals; starting pitchers Jarrod Washburn of the LA Angels, Kevin Brown of the Yankees and Matt Morris of the Cardinals; and relief pitchers Todd Jones of the Florida Marlins, and Jose Mesa of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Source: http://www.cbc.ca/

White Sox beat Astros, ending 88-year World Series drought

The Chicago White Sox edged the Houston Astros 1-0 in Houston on Wednesday to win a first World Series title in 88 years with a four-game sweep.
The Astros finished the 44-year-old franchise's first World Series by going scoreless in their final 15 innings as they became the 19th team to suffer a championship sweep.
The White Sox had appeared in the World Series in 1959 and last won the title in 1917.
"We're no longer the second team in Chicago," White Sox designated hitter Carl Everett told a news conference on the field in Houston.
Champagne sprayed, fireworks lit up the sky and fans screamed, hugged and even cried on Wednesday as Chicago toasted the first White Sox World Series championship since 1917.
There were no immediate reports of the rioting and violence that have marred other sports victories in Chicago and elsewhere. Police stepped up patrols in key bar zones and around U.S. Cellular Field, where the White Sox play their home games.

Source: http://english.people.com.cn/

Damon files for free agency

BOSTON -- One of the most pressing issues facing the Red Sox this winter is trying to retain the services of center fielder Johnny Damon, their offensive catalyst the past four years.
Damon officially joined the open market on Friday, filing for free agency.
However, the Red Sox have exclusive negotiating rights with Damon until Nov. 10. After that, he will be eligible to sign with any Major League club.
Second baseman Tony Graffanino, who gave the Red Sox stability in the middle of the infield after being acquired on July 19, also filed for free agency.
Kevin Millar and Bill Mueller, Boston's primary corner infielders the last three seasons, filed on Thursday.
The Red Sox were able to cross one potential free agent off the list on Friday, when the club agreed to terms on a new deal with dependable setup man Mike Timlin.
Other Red Sox players expected to file for free agency in the coming days include lefty setup man Mike Myers, right-handed reliever Matt Mantei and first baseman John Olerud.
But the key issue, clearly, is Damon. The left-handed leadoff hitter is coming off another solid season, scoring 117 runs, belting 197 hits, 35 doubles, six triples and 10 homers.
Damon has repeatedly expressed a desire to remain in Boston, and the Red Sox would love to bring him back.
"I fell in love with Boston, so hopefully I'll be here for a long time," Damon said the day the Red Sox were swept out of the postseason by the White Sox.
Now it's just a matter of whether the two sides can reach common ground.
Damon is represented by Scott Boras, one of the shrewdest negotiators in the game.
Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein, who is likely to sign a new deal by the beginning of next week, has developed a solid working relationship with Boras. On Dec. 24 of last year, the Red Sox signed Jason Varitek -- another Boras client -- to a four-year deal worth $40 million.
While many teams shied away from hard-throwing closer Craig Hansen in the 2005 First-Year Player Draft because of the Boras factor, Epstein pounced. The Red Sox selected Hansen with the 26th overall pick and wound up signing him to a four-year deal worth $4 million.

Source: http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/

Smulyan's Bid for Nats Includes Move Veto

Friday, October 28, 2005; 7:56 PM

WASHINGTON -- Local investors in Indianapolis-based businessman Jeff Smulyan's bid to buy the Washington Nationals would be able to veto any plans to move the club to another city.
Smulyan, the former owner of the Seattle Mariners, announced that element of his bid Friday, part of an effort to quell any concern among city politicians about having someone who isn't from Washington purchase the Nationals.
"I have said on numerous occasions that we will not move the team. We want to be in Washington _ that is the whole reason for our bid in the first place," Smulyan said in a statement. "By putting veto power in the hands of the local investors we have removed any doubt about our commitment to keep the team in D.C., where it belongs."
Eight groups have been trying to buy the Nationals from Major League Baseball, which purchased the Montreal Expos in 2002 for $120 million and moved them to the nation's capital before the just-concluded season.
Washington had not had a major league club since the expansion Senators left for Texas after the 1971 season _ the second time a baseball team left the nation's capital.
Commissioner Bud Selig has been interviewing bidders. Baseball hopes to select a buyer before the next owners' meeting, Nov. 16-17 in Milwaukee, although no firm deadline has been established. The sale price is expected to be around $450 million.
Smulyan, who says he would buy a home in the Washington area and commute from Indianapolis, has added several people with local ties to his group in recent months, including former Redskins players Art Monk, Charles Mann and Calvin Hill, and former FCC chairman Richard Wiley.
"The investor group is going to have a veto about the club moving, and I've already told Jeff I'm voting 'No,'" Wiley said in an interview. "And I don't think this club is ever going to move. It's one of the great markets."
Noting the city's plan to build a new stadium for the Nationals, Mann dismissed any talk about whether Smulyan might leave Washington as "ridiculous."
"Why are people getting on that tangent? I don't understand that. People threaten to move if you don't build them a new stadium. Well, guess what? The stadium's being built," Mann said in an interview. "So let's just stop with that. That's a smoke screen by somebody that doesn't make any sense."
Smulyan also announced Friday that his ownership group would form a hiring advisory committee, headed by Hill, to ensure diversity among employees, and a community outreach council, headed by former U.S. Attorney Eric Holder, to work with community leaders and organizations.
"We're going to ensure that people are hired of all ethnicities, look like the community looks, make sure that happens. You better believe that's going to happen on my watch," Mann said.
Smulyan's group of nearly 20 investors includes at least a dozen minorities, spokesman Dan Rene said.
"If we get this team, there's over $100 million being put up by minority owners," Mann said. "That is historic. Never been done. Wouldn't Major League Baseball like to be a part of something like that?"


Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/

Anyone for Fun 'n' games: 10/29/05

Saturday, October 29, 2005
Following the bouncing ball:A year ago, the ball used for the final out of the World Series caused a controversy. Boston first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz caught a toss from pitcher Keith Foulke for the final out and kept the ball. Why the nerve. Later, the Red Sox said they wanted it, and Mientkiewicz lent it to the team for a year, thus avoiding an ugly battle. There will be no controversy this year, although there was some mystery about the last ball's whereabouts. We here at Fun 'n' games were prepared to dispatch some of our crack research team to Chicago to solve that mystery, but it was solved yesterday before we bought the plane tickets. Whew! Our travel budget is tight. But we digress. It seems that first baseman Paul Konerko kept the ball that Houston's Orlando Palmeiro hit for the final out of the Series. Konerko fielded a throw from shortstop Juan Uribe, and that's 6-3 if you are scoring at home. But, in the most emotional moment of the White Sox's victory celebration, Konerko gave the ball to team owner Jerry Reinsdorf. We're not certain, but we think that's 3-No. 1 if you are scoring at home.

The name game:First, they were the Charlotte Hornets, and then they moved to New Orleans. Now, with New Orleans reeling in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the Hornets will play 35 of their NBA home games this season in Oklahoma City and six in Baton Rouge. Which raises some perplexing questions: What's a radio and TV network to do? And what do you call the team? With a little help from Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman in Oklahoma City, we here at Fun 'n' games will try to answer those questions. We consider it our obligation. And we will do it backward (no jokes, please). First, the team technically is being called the New Orleans-Oklahoma City Hornets. On the air, broadcasters will refer to the team as simply the Hornets. The radio and TV network will work like this: radio broadcasts will be carried on 12 stations in Louisiana, 11 in Oklahoma and 3 in Mississippi. The 65 telecasts produced by Cox Sports Television will reach about 500,000 homes in Oklahoma and 700,000 in Louisiana. Advertisers will be from the Oklahoma area, and, yes, that will sound strange to the audience in Louisiana and Mississippi.


Source: http://www.post-gazette.com/

No scandal in '17 for White Sox

October 24, 2005
Back around the time of World War I, there was a World Series the wonderful and subsequently woeful Chicago White Sox didn't throw. In 1917, the United States entered the "Great War," the Communists overthrew the czar in Russia and Congress passed both the first Selective Service legislation and the 18th Amendment that produced Prohibition. John F. Kennedy, Dean Martin and Ella Fitzgerald were born. Buffalo Bill Cody and Adm. George Dewey died. And the White Sox won the World Series. Honest. It had been 11 years since the "Hitless Wonders" Sox of 1906 had pecked the Chicago Cubs to death in the Series. Not even the most pessimistic South Side fan could have imagined the next drought would last at least eight times as long, from '17 until this season or beyond. In between, the White Sox lost World Series to the Cincinnati Reds in 1919 (intentionally) and the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1959 (unintentionally). Those '19 Black Sox earned everlasting scorn because eight of their members supposedly signed on with gamblers to toss the Series. But that need not detract from the accomplishments of the '17 club. Chicago finished with a 100-54 record in '17, nine games ahead of a Boston Red Sox team that had won the pennant in 1915 and 1916 and would do so again in 1918. Oddly, the White Sox's two biggest stars had off years, with second baseman Eddie Collins' batting average dropping from .308 to .289 and left fielder "Shoeless" Joe Jackson's from .341 to a career-low .301. Center fielder Happy Felsch was the unexpected hitting leader with a .308 average and 102 RBI. There was so much talent on the mound, however, that the pair's momentary decline didn't really matter. Five pitchers posted victory totals in double figures: Ed Cicotte (28-12), Lefty Williams (17-8), Red Faber (16-13), Reb Russell (15-5) and Dave Danforth (11-6). What's more, Cicotte, Faber and Russell had ERAs under 2.00. In the World Series, the White Sox were heavily favored to beat the New York Giants (98-56), who had won their sixth pennant in 16 seasons under legendary manager John McGraw after finishing fourth the previous season despite winning streaks of 17 and 26 games. Chicago's manager was the largely unknown Clarence "Pants" Rowland, a former bartender who sat on the bench in street clothes and presumably worked cheap for penurious owner Charles Comiskey. The White Sox got off to a smart start in the Series, taking the first two games at Comiskey Park. Felsch's solo home run in the fourth inning of the opener gave Cicotte his winning margin over the Giants' Slim Sallee. Then the Sox romped 7-2 behind Faber in the second game, breaking a 2-2 tie with five runs on six singles in the fourth inning. After undoubtedly being treated to a tongue-lashing from McGraw, the Giants rebounded to win Games 3 and 4 in shutouts at the Polo Grounds. Rube Benton pitched a five-hitter to beat Cicotte 2-0, and 21-game winner Ferdie Schupp defeated Faber 5-0 with the help of an inside-the-park homer by former Federal League star Benny Kauff. With matters deadlocked 2-2, the White Sox captured the pivotal Game 5, rallying for three runs in the seventh inning to tie and three more in the eighth as Faber tossed two perfect innings of relief at Comiskey for the 8-5 victory over the Giants and Sallee.

Source: http://www.washtimes.com/

Konerko's magical season keeps getting better

October 24, 2005
As the crowd erupted with one of the loudest roars ever heard at a Chicago sports event, Paul Konerko began his home run trot. By the time he reached home plate and was mobbed by his teammates, U.S. Cellular Field sounded like the loudest place on earth. And why not? Konerko's seventh-inning home run, which came with the bases loaded, put the White Sox ahead by two runs. At the time, it seemed like enough.
''It was a rush,'' Konerko said. ''It was the second best feeling I've had all week. The baby [son Nicholas] born Tuesday night, that's the first; the [grand slam] is second. I think it's a sense that this team is just so selfless and you enjoy it, but it's more than that, we're trying to win the game. It's hard to explain other than it's fun.''
With each huge postseason hit, Konerko's value to the franchise and this city grows. But the unassuming ALCS MVP down played his clutch home run, which came with two outs on an 0-0 count off Houston Astros reliever Chad Qualls.

''He threw it right where I was looking,'' said Konerko, who went 1-for-4 in the game. ''I wasn't good all night. I don't think I got in position to hit a pitch all night. I didn't feel good at the plate and I looked, and [Qualls] has nasty stuff. [But] he threw it exactly where I was looking and I think that's what it might have taken for me to hit a home run.''
Konerko described the mood in the Sox dugout as ''more upset than down,'' after the Astros scored twice in the ninth off closer Bobby Jenks to tie the game.
''They hit some good pitches,'' Konerko said. ''And it's like playing ourselves out there. [The Astros] have a lot of heart, they don't go away, they fight. But when we came [into the dugout] after it was tied ... the overall theme was everybody loves Bobby, we're not going to let him go home feeling bad about this. We're going to pick him up.''
They proceeded to do so in the bottom of the inning when Scott Podsednik launched a Brad Lidge pitch into the right-field seats to give the Sox a 7-6 win.
''I didn't think we thought it would be that quick or by a home run by [Scott Podsednik],'' Konerko said with a laugh.
The Sox' homer heroics left Astros manager Phil Garner, whose team is down 0-2 in the series, frustrated.
''They can't do anything wrong,'' he said. ''And so a lot of things are going their way.''
Konerko's grand slam was the first for a Sox player in postseason history. It was only the 18th grand slam in World Series history. The last World Series grand slam was hit by the New York Yankees' Tino Martinez in 1998. But history will have to wait. Konerko was already looking ahead to Game 3 at Houston's Minute Maid Park on Tuesday, when the Sox will face Astros ace Roy Oswalt.
''It's a tough place to play,'' Konerko said. ''Everybody has been raving about how tough Houston has been, how tough that stadium has been to play in against a guy [Oswalt] who is just nasty, who is on his game right now.''

Source: http://www.suntimes.com/

Want a park? Ignore Chicago

October 24, 2005
CHICAGO. Perhaps the biggest contrast between the Chicago White Sox and the Houston Astros is their ballparks. U.S. Cellular Field, the home of the White Sox and the ballpark that hosted last night's Game2 of the World Series, opened in 1991. Minute Maid Park, which will host Game3 tomorrow night in Houston, opened nine years later. But judging by their design, they might as well have been built 30 years apart. Remarkably, they were designed by the same architect HOK of Kansas City. That should serve notice to the planners in Washington who have employed HOK to design a stadium in Southeast for the Nationals. They should make sure they get a ballpark that more resembles Minute Maid than U.S. Cellular, a sore thumb among the new facilities that have been built during the past 15 years. U.S. Cellular then called new Comiskey Park opened 14 years ago right across the street from the old Comiskey on the city's south side. Immediately there were complaints: The stadium was too sterile. It didn't have the intimacy of creaky old Comiskey. The upper deck was too steep. Perhaps any ballpark forced to compete with the friendly confines of Wrigley Field would be doomed to disappoint. But Camden Yards, also designed by HOK, opened in Baltimore one year later, and new Comiskey went from perceived disappointment to disaster. Camden Yards, with its retro style and modern amenities, changed the game, influencing all ballparks that came after it. It made new Comiskey a $137million, taxpayer-financed embarrassment. They since have spent $80million to correct the stadium's flaws, taking 6,600 seats off the upper deck and installing a retro-looking metal roof over most of the upper deck. It is worth noting that those renovations were designed not by HOK, but by their rival, HKS of Dallas. The Astros didn't need to make changes at their ballpark when it opened in 2000 except the name, Enron Field (talk about embarrassing). The $250 million retractable-dome stadium successfully followed the Camden Yards blueprint. There have been tweaks here and there, the addition of some local flavor.

Source: http://www.washtimes.com/

Mac attack: 'I ain't never been no Cub fan'

October 24, 2005
Minutes before Game 2 of the World Series, and here comes Bernie Mac strolling down the hall behind the skyboxes on the second floor of Sox Park. It was a slow walk, exuding a strong and cool presence.
And he's wearing a White Sox jacket.
"I ain't never been no Cub fan," he said. "They hate us, and we hate them."
We wrote here Sunday that it seemed strange that Mac, of ''The Bernie Mac Show,'' was here as a Sox fan. Celebrities at times pull for whichever team is on national TV. The Sox supposedly turned away John Cusack -- Buck Weaver in "Eight Men Out" -- for having been a Cubs fan
But Mac sang "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" during the seventh-inning stretch at Wrigley Field in Game 6 of the 2003 NL Championship Series. The Bartman game. Minutes later, the Cubs collapsed. And here he was at Sox Park, a Sox supporter?
"The Cubs asked would I do it, would I sing," Mac said. "I said yeah. I'm from Chicago, and we've finally got a winner and I didn't want to not support them."
Instead of singing, "root, root, root for the Cub-bies," he sang "for the champs'' or "champions," depending on whose memory you tap. He got ahead of himself, the theory goes, and cursed the Cubs out of the World Series.
"The Cubs are always blaming somebody," he said. "First, it was the goat. And in 1983 against San Diego, it was what?"
It was Ryne Sandberg spilling Gatorade on Leon Durham's glove, leading to a crucial blunder.
But this was a tell. Mac might really be a Sox fan. The San Diego series was in 1984, not 1983. Every Cubs fan knows that.
Was it Mac's Sox-fan aura that cost the Cubs?
"Maybe," he said. "No, the shortstop [Alex Gonzalez] choked, and their best two pitchers [Mark Prior and Kerry Wood]."
But why did he sing "champs" instead of "Cub-bies?"
"Because they should have been champs," he said.
If they are sticking to loyal Sox-fan celebrities only, then why have they taken Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" as a theme? Journey also has played Wrigley Field.
It's raining, it's pouring ...
When it's raining for hours leading up to the game, there's nothing much going on. Fans are arriving slowly, and the beautiful people don't want to get their hair wet so they don't mill around in public. The teams didn't take batting practice, so no one was on the field. Dozens of writers and TV types huddled in the dugout to blab.
Music review
Going with the music, the word is that Saturday night at The Lodge, a longtime haunt of baseball writers, umpire crew chief Joe West was pushing his CD. He fashions himself a country and western singer. They played the music for quite some time. How was it?
Not bad, one writer said. "But someone said, 'What is this? I want Frank Sinatra.'"
You got Joe West.

Source: http://www.suntimes.com/

All-powerful Oz does more than talk the talk

10/24/2005
Chicago - At Jim's Original sausage stand, a famous South Side dive where the mustard has flowed for nearly 100 years, they never close.
Sort of like Ozzie Guillen's mouth.
The biggest hot dog in Chicago manages the White Sox.
Guillen is open 24/7 for outrageous baseball chatter. The World Series has been turned into his personal Oz Fest.
Two hours before first pitch of Game 2, Guillen leaned forward intensely in his seat of the third-base dugout and waved a finger 8 inches from my nose.
"I might not have a long managing career," Guillen told me early on a Sunday when the White Sox would go on to beat Houston 7-6. "This might be my last chance, but I'm going to do it my way. Because I'm going to get fired my way."
I had offered the free advice that Guillen had better win a championship. And do it pronto. Because his politically incorrect bluntness is hazardous to job security.
This suggestion lit up Guillen like a firecracker. You would have thought I had done something crazy stupid to provoke the skipper. Like tease him about his given name: Oswaldo.
"If you going to shoot me with bullets, don't expect me to throw flowers to you," Guillen said. "I'm going to give you bullets back."
Guillen goes off more regularly than elevated trains from the Chicago Loop. The laughter and brashness never stop rolling from his Venezuelan mouth.
"A lot of managers get fired quick, because they don't have the guts to tell players what to do because (stars) make $25 million," Guillen said.
"A lot of people hate me. Few people love me. But they all respect me."
Ask the Wizard of Oz anything. He will say anything. Tell you his eighth-grade education trumps a Harvard diploma, insist singer Michael Jackson could look good wearing a glove for the Sox and argue Wrigley Field, the beloved home of the crosstown Cubbies, is a rat trap.
"I hate Wrigley Field," said Guillen, blaspheming a Chicago icon. "I love it when the game starts. But before the game, after the game, it's the worst field in baseball.
"It's uncomfortable to go there. I no say I hate playing against the Cubs. I hate going to Wrigley Field. It makes me a bad man? Ask the players. ... They have to go hit in the batting cages where 20,000 rats crawl around at night."
Baseball purists complain about Guillen. Some go too far, dissing the accent of the first Latino manager to write the lineup card at a World Series.
"Nobody can understand what Ozzie says," said Guillen, mocking the ignorance of criticism that has stung his ears. "That's racist."
It all rolls off Guillen like rain. Pressure of a big game? Hanging in the dugout with him is akin to eavesdropping as George Lopez warms his comedic chops in the green room.
"In the country I come from, we can talk about anything: religion, color of people," Guillen said. "Here (in the United States) you have to be real, real careful what you say. Because somebody will not like what you say."
When Guillen leaves the Windy City, ballpark flags will hang limp on their staffs for the first time since he started playing shortstop for the Sox in 1985.
"Ozzie is the Hispanic Jackie Mason," White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf said. "You don't take anything he says seriously."
The joke is on baseball in Chicago.
After Guillen was hired late in 2003 to kick up some dust with the Sox, nobody realized the method to his madness until he had set the city's sports culture on its ear, turned misfits into winners and spoken to disenfranchised local kids looking for a new hero.
"Who would have believed a bunch of jokers like us would be in the World Series?" catcher A.J. Pierzynski said.
Surprise, surprise, surprise. With a walk-off solo homer in the ninth inning, Scott Podsednik staked the White Sox to a 2-0 lead in the Series. Two more wins, and these jokers will be world champions.
"This is a Cubs town," Guillen said. "I want to change it."
The great and powerful Oz has spoken. Doubt him at your own risk.

Source: http://www.denverpost.com/

Lincicome: Long-suffering Sox savor sweet solace

October 24, 2005
CHICAGO - The opposite of long-suffering is what? Short-suffering? Non-suffering? Whoever wins this World Series will be free of the first, and the rest won't matter.
This much is true: A ride on the L-train Red Line to U.S. Cellular Field for Game 2 of the World Series defines feeling no pain. In the unfamiliarly happy, lubricated world of Soxdom, nothing that would happen later would wreck the insulation against the October night and the White Sox's own sad legacy.
Not the spitting rain, not the visible breath, not the sudden sloppiness of their team, not the edge that Houston held until dependable Paul Konerko whacked a grand slam on the first pitch from Houston reliever Chad Qualls in the seventh inning.
Not the ninth inning pinch-hit single by Houston's Jose Vizcaino off rookie flamethrower Bobby Jenks that teetered the totter back to level and delayed things only long enough for Chicago's Scott Podsednik to drive a ball from the unfortunate Brad Lidge over the right-center-field wall for a walk-off, dance-off home run.
"I don't think anybody in the ballpark was thinking of me hitting a home run," said Podsednik, who hit none during the regular season.
"I was standing in left field thinking when Paulie (Konerko) did what he did for this team, what must he be feeling to have done that? And then I do it. The feeling is indescribable."
And how did Konerko feel to hit a World Series grand slam?
"The second-best feeling of the week," said Konerko, whose first child was born Tuesday.
Whomp! Whoosh! Wow! to provide some sound effects a morning later. As good a baseball game as can be expected under any conditions changed things for both teams.
Just like that and without minding what such dramatics might do to their standing as longtime letdowns, the White Sox head to Houston playing with the Astros' money, up two games to none.
"We're not in a good spot," Houston manager Phil Garner said, "It's not the best situation, but it's the one we're in."
And even if Konerko had not been where he usually is, matching the moment, if Podsednik did not take his turn in the nightly nesting doll revelation of White Sox heroes, it would not have been so bad. Being dead even in a World Series is a great improvement on the usual being dead.
The White Sox motto is "Win or Die Trying" and as was obvious in the night chill, the whole bunch was still breathing. Or maybe that is the breath of laughter, of relief, of satisfaction.
"We were not going to let Bobby go home feeling bad. We didn't expect it to happen that quick, or by him," Konerko said, motioning to Podsednik next to him.
"Nor me," Podsednik said.
"It is the way we play all year," Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. "Somebody falls; somebody picks him up."
Both these teams have a vague familiarity with the big moment, as much as fish might be familiar with a wood screw. The White Sox are just quicker learners than the Astros.
Admission these days to the big moments in sports seems to require the added ingredient of agony, as if sustained excellence or meeting expectations are so many crumbs to be swept away by a good back story.
World Series sides are admitted by highest number of years in agony, and the White Sox lead the Astros in that, as they do in the Series, but it is like being stuck in a middle airline seat between grandmothers with wallets full of pictures.
For the Sox, 46 years of failure pales to infinity, or to never, which is where the Astros were, though 44 was the working number. How can the White Sox be more worthy since they have won the Series twice and the Astros have never had a chance?
How can the White Sox deserve the compassion of strangers when they have breezed this far and the Astros have strained and struggled?
This sort of thing has a working pair of legs, so much so that, looking past this Series already, an actual disagreement between a Chicagoan and a Texan developed over who gets the title next. Candidates are the Cubs, of course, no World Series since 1945, but the case could be made for the Texas Rangers, never in a Series and winner of only one playoff game ever.
Whatever. Right now it looks as if the White Sox will be struck from suffering's cruel menu.
"We know we have not won anything yet," Konerko said. "We have to win two games before they win four, but until we win four our job is not done."
John F. Kennedy said that failure has few friends. Well, this ballpark was filled Sunday night, and the same will be true for three upcoming days in Houston.

Source: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/

Destiny changes her socks

October 24, 2005
CHICAGO -- OK, Boston baseball fans. You've seen this before. You know what this is about. The planets are aligned. The baseball gods are walking hand-in-hand with another team that hasn't won a World Series in a long, long while.
It's true. White is the new Red. The White Sox of 2005 are the Red Sox of 2004. They are diamond destiny's children.
The South Siders did it again last night, beating the Astros in Game 2, 7-6, on a walkoff homer by leadoff man Scott Podsednik, a guy who didn't hit a home run during the regular season.
Chi-town is bonkers and breathless as the Pale Hose creep closer to their first World Series victory since 1917. Getting all the breaks, winners of nine of 10 postseason games, the White Sox look like they are destined to bury the Black Sox scandal of 1919.
Ozzie Guillen's men trailed, 4-2, last night, then took the lead on a seventh-inning grand slam by Paul Konerko. After Big Country closer Bobby Jenks surrendered the lead in the top of the ninth, making it 6-6, Podsednik won the game with a one-out solo homer off Astros closer Brad Lidge.
This was right up there with Kirk Gibson in 1988 and Carlton Fisk in 1975. It was the 14th walkoff home run in World Series history. Podsednik's only other homer this year came against the Red Sox in the Division Series.
''This one came at a good time," said Podsednik. ''To go out and hit one out of the ballpark for a game-winner is pretty much indescribable. Luckily, I got in a good hitter's count [2 and 1]. It was a good pitch to hit and I was able to drive it out."
It was the second game-losing blast given up by Lidge in less than a week. St. Louis's Albert Pujols did the same thing to him in the fifth game of the NL Championship Series.
''We'll bounce back," said Astros manager Phil Garner. ''A lot of things are going their way right now."
That is for sure. The White Sox got the big break when they needed it in Game 2 of the ALCS against the Angels. The umpires blew a call in Chicago's favor and the call stood. In the ALCS clincher, the umps reversed a call (correctly) in Chicago's favor. And last night they made another mistake, awarding Jermaine Dye first base on a pitch that hit the outfielder's bat -- just before Konerko's grand slam.
Sometimes the larger forces are with you. That time is now in the South Side of Chicago.
Watching Jenks blow the lead in the ninth would have been deflating for most teams. No problem for the White Sox. They simply sat back and waited for another miracle. Podsednik delivered.

Source: http://www.boston.com/

Luck? For a Chicago ballclub?

CHICAGO - This is all starting to look as predestined as one of those rigged elections for which this city was once famous.
Are you kidding? Bobby Jenks, no folk hero on this night, blows a two-run lead in the ninth inning, and the White Sox barely so much as blink before winning in the bottom of the ninth.
Are you kidding? Scott Podsednik, a guy who didn't hit a single home run during the regular season, a guy who looked overmatched at the plate most of the night, steps up against Brad Lidge and hammers one into the seats like he's Albert Pujols.
Just like that, the White Sox win, 7-6, to take a 2-0 lead over the Astros in this World Series, a lead that seems as commanding as it was cold and wet here last night.
Well, after 88 years you can't say the White Sox aren't due for some good fortune. That's not to say they're not playing the best baseball of anyone in the postseason, but for the last three weeks there sure does seem to be something funny going on.
In the divison series, Tony Graffanino pulls a Bill Buckner on that slow ground ball, Curt Schilling never even takes the mound and the White Sox put the exhausted Red Sox out of their misery.
In the ALCS, Bartolo Colon takes a seat with a bad shoulder, and Doug Eddings makes the noncall on strike three in or near the dirt that perhaps prevents the White Sox from going down 0-2 and changes everything.
Now, here in the World Series, Roger Clemens limps off the mound after two innings in Game 1, and then last night another umpire perhaps changes the course of the series with a controversial call. Jeff Nelson ruled that Jermaine Dye was hit on the hand by a Dan Wheeler pitch in the seventh inning, and while it wasn't anything to rival the Eddings blunder, replays showed that the ball hit Dye's bat, not his hand.
For that matter, Dye himself confessed afterward that the umpires blew another one in a postseason that seems to be some sort of campaign for instant replay.
"It didn't hit me," Dye said. "I turned and he told me it hit me. You have to take advantage of mistakes. The umpire tells you to go to first, you go to first. I'm not going to tell him I fouled it off."
Had Nelson called it properly, who knows? Perhaps Dye makes the final out of the inning and Paul Konerko never gets the chance to hit the first pitch from Chad Qualls for a grand slam that gave the Sox a 6-4 lead and warmed the hearts of freezing Chicagoans everywhere.
Are you getting the picture here? Maybe Shoeless Joe Jackson finally apologized to the baseball gods for that Black Sox thing in 1919 and they're making up for nearly nine decades of punishing his team.
Certainly the Astros seem to be scratching their heads. They were convinced they should have had more runs to show for a night when they thought they hit the ball awfully hard against Sox starter Mark Buehrle.
"The little things are going their way right now," was the way Houston manager Phil Garner put it. "We thought we'd turned it around when we went ahead (4-2 in the fifth), but it didn't work out that way."
Then again, the Astros don't have much right to complain after the way their bullpen pitched in relief of Andy Pettitte last night. Wheeler was all over the place, and the way he was going, he might have walked Dye had it not been ruled that he hit him with the pitch.
Qualls couldn't have thrown a more hittable pitch with his first delivery to Konerko, right down the middle at the belt.
And Lidge? Wasn't it only a couple of minutes ago that he was the best closer this side of Mariano Rivera - with a seemingly unhittable slider to go with a 96mph fastball?
Now, suddenly, you have to wonder if he'll ever be the same after giving up that monster shot to Pujols last week in Houston. It's one thing for perhaps the best hitter in baseball to make you pay for hanging a slider, but when Podsednik, the White Sox's slap-hitting leadoff man, muscles up on your fastball in a situation like this, whoa, time to put in a call to the nearest sports psychologist.
So what is it? Biorhythms? Karma?
Who better to ask than Konerko? About to hit the free agent market, he's adding to a 40-home run season with a Ruthian postseason that now includes a grand slam. To top it off, his wife gave birth last Tuesday, which is why he was thanking whatever gods are looking out for him and his team these days.
"It's amazing to have a night like this," he said. "You lose a lead in the ninth and then come back and win that game ... it makes you feel like you got away with one."
Makes you feel like the Sox can't lose this World Series.

Source: http://www.nydailynews.com/

Fate no longer fickle; Sox look like a lock

Monday, October 24, 2005
Scott Podsednik stood in left field at the top of the eighth inning, staring at Paul Konerko, one thought inescapable.
"What does that man feel like right now?"
An inning and a half later, you stared at it, a fly ball off the bat of a banjo hitter, expecting it to come down harmlessly, oblivious to every sign from baseball heaven telling you it wouldn't.
As it kept going, and kept going, and — are you freaking kidding me? — kept going, and the Astros outfielders giving chase realized their fate, and the ball disappeared into the seats in right-center field, another thought was inescapable:
The Astros might want to concede.
Fate seems now to have so clearly aligned itself with these White Sox. There stands a very real chance we're going to find out if a juice box can hold champagne.
By game's end Sunday night at U.S. Cellular Field, Podsednik knew what it was like to feel like Konerko, and the Astros knew what it was like to be on the donating end of a heart transplant. Twice.
Come on. Podsednik hit a home run to beat maybe the best closer in baseball? Podsednik, the guy with a total of zero home runs during the regular season?
Yes. The guy with two now in the postseason.
"That's when stuff is going your way," Ozzie Guillen said.
Let's face it, folks. Stuff is stampeding the Sox's way.
In Sunday's 7-6 win, one Sox rally was keyed by a dropped pop fly by Houston second baseman Craig Biggio. Konerko's grand slam in the seventh was made possible by another in a series of questionable umpiring decisions in the Sox's favor. Then the Sox survived a game-tying base hit by an ex-Cub in the top of the ninth to win on Podsednik's one-out blast.
It sounds unusual only if you have been ignoring the sudden reversal of 88 years of bad luck. Let us count the ways:
The Sox won a game in Boston when Tony Graffanino let a ball go through his legs, Buckner style, and Tadahito Iguchi followed with a hit, Sadaharu Oh style.
They won one against Los Angeles when A.J. Pierzynski convinced the only guy that mattered, home-plate ump Doug Eddings, of a dropped third strike no one else saw.
They avoided Curt Schilling in Boston.
Probable Cy Young winner Bartolo Colon came up lame before the start of the AL Championship Series.
Seven-time Cy Young winner Roger Clemens came up lame during the first game of the World Series.
And this time, the Sox snatched a win from Andy Pettitte that would have given the 33-year-old left-hander the most postseason victories in history, breaking a tie with John Smoltz.
Pettitte deserved it. In limiting the Sox to two runs over six innings, he was better than Mark Buehrle, who left after giving up four in seven.
But, in that seventh, with the Sox trailing 4-2 and two outs, Jermaine Dye loaded the bases for Konerko when plate ump Jeff Nelson ruled Dye was hit by a pitch that may well have hit his bat.
"I was behind him," Guillen said. "I couldn't see anything."
"I thought the ball hit the bat," Astros manager Phil Garner said. "I don't know what would have happened after that, but clearly I thought the ball hit the bat."
What did happen was Konerko crushed the first pitch from Chad Qualls into the stands in left for the first postseason grand slam in Sox history, and a 6-4 Sox lead.
"It's the second-best feeling I had all week," said Konerko, whose wife had the couple's first child Tuesday.
The feeling lasted roughly as long as the lead. Bobby Jenks, Saturday's hero, gave it back in a rally begun by his first victim a day earlier, Jeff Bagwell, and capped on a two-run single by ex-Cub Jose Vizcaino.
"No one was down," Konerko said. "I think the overall theme in the dugout was 'Everybody loves Bobby, we're not going to let him go home feeling bad about this ... We're going to get this win.'
"I don't think we thought it would be that quick or by a home run by him ... "
Konerko shot a look at Podsednik, seated next to him in a postgame press conference. Podsednik laughed.
"I agree with him," Podsednik said.
And here's something that might agree with Sox fans:
In 101 World Series, 50 teams have taken 2-0 leads. Of the first 49, only 11 failed to win the title.
Minute Maid Park, the Juice Box, awaits.

Source: http://www.dailysouthtown.com/

Another magic night for Sox

October 24, 2005
If this is small ball, Ozzie Guillen is a wallflower. If this White Sox team isn't charmed, rainbows are bad luck.
Two homers driving in five runs in two innings?
Winning by a walk-off dinger?
If that's small, Eddie Gaedel is big.
"That's the way we play all year long,'' Guillen said after the 7-6 comeback victory. "We keep fighting. This team has a lot of unity.''
If Jermaine Dye was actually hit by that pitch from the Astros' Dan Wheeler, Halloween comes in April.
If game-winning home-run guy Scott Podsednik is a wimp, Lake Michigan is a pond.
And if Paul Konerko didn't put that seventh-inning grand slam in his all-time favorite home video, then God only knows what kind of excitement he's looking for in this lifetime.
"It's kind of an out-of-body thing,'' Konerko said of the mental impact of his four-run job.
With the bases jammed in the seventh inning -- Dye on first after plate umpire Jeff Nelson said he was struck by a pitch that clearly bounced off his bat (yep, another dubious call going the Sox' way), Tadahito Iguchi on second and Juan Uribe at third -- Konerko cranked the first pitch from Chad Qualls into the left-field bleachers.
White Sox players hit grand slams in the postseason about every, well, doggone it, they never do.
Welcome to the record book, Paulie.
And welcome to the lore that might be told and retold in Chicago households for generations to come.
Tough to beat
"They can't do anything wrong,'' said Astros manager Phil Garner, looking perplexed. "I kind of thought we turned things around, the way things were going.''
But he didn't count on Pods.
The left fielder who hit nary a homer in the regular season, crushed one 408 feet in the ninth inning to give the Sox the 7-6 win and a 2-games-to-zip lead in this World Series.
Konerko's jack bored a hole through the sprinkles of rain that were still coming through the chilly night.
What a ride those lucky droplets got!
But any moisture on Podsednik's homer probably boiled off with the frenzy.
Podsednik took not one but two curtain calls.
The crowd wouldn't have had it any other way.
"It's pretty much indescribable,'' Podsednik said of his blast. But it's his team's cohesiveness that's propelling the Sox, he insisted. "We have 25 guys pulling on the same rope.''
Shaky moments
Lockdown Sox closer Bobby Jenks let the Astros tie the game in the ninth at 6-all, and you could almost feel the bad karma starting to soak the Sox.
Down 4-2 in the seventh inning, the Sox already had seemed to be running out of the good fortune that had enabled them to win 13 of their last 14 games.
The seven-minute rain delay at the start gave Sox fans time to consider that this little championship journey won't be easy.
Or at least, it won't be relaxing.
After the Sox won Game 1, the path to success might have seemed straight and smooth and decorated with balloons.
Roger Clemens down with a bad hammy?
The White Sox winners of 17 of their last 20 games?
Come on, Chicago, let's hold hands and skip to the Land of Ozzie!
Then a bolt of lightning struck in the cold black sky above right field in the Astros' half of the fifth inning, and moments later Lance Berkman hit a two-run double that gave Houston a 4-2 lead.
It struck one like an electric shock that maybe it isn't written in some cheerful little script that the White Sox are cute and cuddly and get the Commissioner's Trophy without effort because it would be a sweet ending to 88 years of frustration and civic water treading.
In their part of the fifth, still down 4-2, Uribe and Iguchi both got tagged out on the basepaths -- in not spectacular fashion.
Was this finally Bear weather, the time of collisions and scrums, and the Sox' brains had dings in them?
All those stats that seemed so powerful, so dominating, suddenly didn't mean much.
The fact the Sox did so well this season when they took an early lead? So?
They went ahead 2-1 in the second inning, on RBI from Joe Crede and Uribe.
But it wasn't like the first-inning leads they thrive on -- having outscored opponents 121-68 in the first innings through the season, the 121 runs being the most in the major leagues.
But whatever it takes, they do it.
"We'll bounce back,'' Garner said. "We'll make a series of this.''
But will they?
How can they?
If there was a night that the dark clouds said belonged to the Astros, it was Sunday night.
And Houston couldn't snatch it from the unfathomable, seemingly unstoppable White Sox.
"We never let ourselves down,'' Guillen said.
Apparently, you figure, they just don't know how.

Source: http://www.suntimes.com/

Unlike Pujols, Sox's Podsednik is unlikely hero

10/23/2005
CHICAGO — It was one thing for the Cardinals' Albert Pujols to hit a game-winning home run off Brad Lidge last week in the National League Championship Series. It is quite another for Chicago White Sox left fielder Scott Podsednik to do it.Podsednik had no homers in 507 regular-season at-bats (he had one in the division series), but he, like Pujols, solved Houston fireballer Lidge to win a postseason game. Podsednik's 408-foot blast with one out in the ninth was the 14th game-ending home run in World Series history, giving the White Sox a 7-6 win and a 2-0 lead in games in the Series. It also served notice that Lidge, who hadn't pitched since Pujols' blast last Monday night, might not have shaken that moment off.Before Podsednik's heroics, St. Charles native Mark Buehrle was one out from some history. He was that close to becoming the first St. Louis-area pitcher to win a World Series game since Ritenour High star Jerry Reuss beat the New York Yankees for the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 5 in 1981. Instead, Sunday night's victory went to another St. Louis-area native, Neal Cotts, a White Sox reliever from Lebanon.If rookie closer Bobby Jenks hadn't blown a two-run lead on pinch hitter Jose Vizcaino's two-out single in the ninth, Buehrle would have become just the second pitcher and first American Leaguer to be the winning pitcher in an All-Star Game, a division series game, a league championship series game and the World Series in the same year. Atlanta's John Smoltz was the only pitcher to accomplish that, in 1996.

Buehrle, who like many of the pitchers used Sunday night, didn't prosper on a cold (45 degrees), rainy night and allowed four runs in seven innings. But the White Sox turned a 4-2 deficit into a 6-4 lead in their seventh on Paul Konerko's grand slam on the first pitch he saw from reliever Chad Qualls.The previous pitch, a full-count offering thrown by reliever Dan Wheeler, was open to some question. Home-plate umpire Jeff Nelson, who did not ask for help on the play, said it hit Jermaine Dye in the right arm, thus loading the bases. The Astros, who may have been closer to the ultimate truth, thought it hit Dye's bat for a foul ball - an opinion that television replays seemed to endorse."I thought the ball hit the bat," said Houston manager Phil Garner. "I don't know what would have happened after that, but I thought the ball hit the bat."Buehrle, a Francis Howell North and Jefferson College product who was a 38th-round pick by the White Sox in 1998, was pitching from the relative comfort zone of U.S. Cellular Field. Counting postseason games, he is a .667 pitcher at 48-24 for his career there. But he has a little reverse Mark Mulder in him, too. Since the start of last season, Buehrle is 14-2 by day and 18-16 at night.Buehrle, who gave up 20 homers in the regular season, yielded a first-pitch solo home run by Morgan Ensberg in the second inning. Ensberg apparently was more comfortable hitting with nobody on after stranding runners in scoring position three times in Game 1.Third baseman Ensberg failed to handle Aaron Rowand's smash to his left with one out in the White Sox second. Three more mistakes followed - two by the Astros - and the White Sox had a 2-1 lead.First, Rowand decided to tag up at first on A.J. Pierzynski's drive to deep left, where Chris Burke, normally an infielder, jumped but was nowhere near the ball, which caromed 50 feet away from him back to the infield. Pierzynski, fortunately for the White Sox, was running with his head up and did not pass Rowand, who belatedly made it to second.But the White Sox can do no wrong when they are wrong. Joe Crede blooped a single to right to score Rowand and send Pierzynski to third.Juan Uribe flied to short right, where second baseman Craig Biggio, no doubt hearing the footsteps of right fielder Jason Lane, went back on the ball with some apprehension. Biggio reached up for the ball - and dropped it. Lane, getting to the loose ball quickly, forced Crede at second, but Pierzynski scored."We had three balls that should have been caught," said Garner. "Instead, they had two runs on the board."Pitching in Game 2 Sunday night and then a potential Game 6 in Chicago next Saturday, Buehrle wouldn't have pitched in his hometown anyway in what would have been his ideal World Series - White Sox vs. Cardinals."There were plusses and minuses with going to St. Louis," Buehrle said before the Series started."I would have to deal with a lot of family and friends coming up here, and it would have been five times worse if I would have gone back home."I'm disappointed we're not there ... but it's kind of a plus."Nonetheless, Buehrle has made no secret over the years - mostly at St. Louis Baseball Writers' dinners - that he would want to play for the Cardinals one day.Asked the other day by a non-Chicago, non-St. Louis reporter which team was his favorite as a kid, Buehrle responded, "You don't know who I'm a fan of? Are you serious?"St. Louis Cardinals."The Cardinals would like to have seen him this week.

Source: http://www.stltoday.com/

If you're going to hit just one, this is the one

October 24, 2005
CHICAGO,
Scott Podsednik?
Seriously. Scott Podsednik?Well, sure, if you had consulted A.J. Pierzynski beforehand - and at this point, that should be mandatory - your brain wouldn't have melted from watching the leadoff hitter, who had ZERO regular-season homers in 507 at-bats, take Brad Lidge deep for the walk-off blast."You know what the best part is?" Pierzynski, Chicago's catcher, shared last night, moments after the White Sox's 7-6 victory in World Series Game 2. "He told me, before the game, he was going to hit a home run today. I laughed at him."Could the White Sox, up 2-0, make a laugher out of this Fall Classic, now headed to Houston? The Astros shouldn't be buried yet, not after overcoming Albert Pujols' dramatic blast last week in the National League Championship Series.But then again, their closer, Lidge, surrendered a homer to Pujols a week ago tonight, then Podsednik last night. That's like getting knocked out by 1988 Mike Tyson and 2005 Mike Tyson in the same week. The White Sox seem like a team of destiny, so far. They can't close out a 6-4 victory in the top of the ninth, so they take a deep breath and simply clock an extra half-inning. No sweat, not even for the power-challenged Podsednik."That's when things are going your way," White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. "You can ask Pod what's the biggest hit in his life. He's going to say today."As usual, Guillen was correct."To go out and hit one out of the ballpark for a game-winner is pretty much indescribable," Podsednik, the 2005 Tyson, said.Podsednik's poor throw home from leftfield, on Jose Vizcaino's single, helped Chris Burke to score the tying run in the top of the ninth. It sucked the life out of U.S. Cellular Field.Here slugger Paul Konerko had ripped a seventh-inning grand slam off Chad Qualls, putting the Sox up 6-4, rendering moot a terrific start by the Astros' Andy Pettitte. Only to see Game 1 stud Bobby Jenks invite Houston back inside the party.Yet all that top-of-the-ninth sequence did was set up Podsednik for October immortality.There was one out and the score was tied at 6, and with Lidge on the mound for Houston, logic dictated this rain-soaked game was destined for extra innings. But Lidge fell behind Podsednik 2-and-1, and the leftfielder thought along with his flame-throwing opponent."I thought, let's put a good swing on this fastball," Podsednik said. "It was a good pitch to hit. I was able to drive it out."Easily out, over the fence in right-centerfield, and the sellout crowd exploded with shock.Just amazing. Remember, to acquire Podsednik and reliever Luis Vizcaino from the Brewers last December, the White Sox traded slugger Carlos Lee, who is about 1,000 times more likely than Podsednik to end a game with a homer. The whole idea was to create a better-rounded team, one that wouldn't rely as much on the long ball."I don't think anyone in the ballpark was thinking about me hitting one out," said Podsednik, who has two homers this postseason against his zero in the regular season."Podsednik, to hit a home run off Lidge, is something that just doesn't happen," Pierzynski said.According to Pierzynski, it's not as if Podsednik is the type of guy who calls a homer every time he steps to the plate. That's what Luis Sojo used to do in his Yankees playing days, generating laughs but also a reputation as a poor fortune-teller.

Source: http://www.newsday.com/

Collier: Konerko's next contract looks grand

Monday, October 24, 2005
CHICAGO -- After two games of this 101st World Series, the players' pool -- the portion of gate receipts that goes directly into the pockets of the performers -- is at $7,134,418.92, or roughly the amount of money Paul Konerko is going to have floating around in the couch cushions if somebody doesn't figure out a way to get him out in critical situations.
Seven million?
Konerko's not going to take batting practice for that kind of jack.
Is there a better time to be a free agent than the one the White Sox's mauling first baseman has picked?
Konerko's father told Chicago writers this week that the White Sox have had all season to talk contract with the guy who is making this postseason his personal financial institution, and it didn't sound as though his son is predisposed to give his current employers the inside track when the spending starts late next month.
Scott Podsednik's ninth-inning homer off vexed Astros closer Brad Lidge won Game 2, 7-6, last night at U.S. Cellular, but the White Sox were listless and had scratched out but two funny-looking runs off Andy Pettitte in the first two and a half hours of a rain-swept South Side night when Konerko stood in against rookie Chad Qualls.
There were two outs and the bases were loaded, even if they shouldn't have been.
Qualls had come in to relieve Dan Wheeler, whose final pitch hit Jermaine Dye's bat as he tried to get out of its way, but home-plate umpire Jeff Nelson ruled that Dye had been hit by the pitch, which is what loaded the bases.
"I thought it hit his bat," said Astros manager Phil Garner, only because it did. "I asked him to get some help from the other umpires but he said it was his call. Brad Ausmus asked him to get some help. I asked him to look at the ball, but the ball was already gone."
That argument lost, Garner went to the mound to await the arrival of Qualls, whose first pitch Konerko ripped into the seats in left for a grand slam, jerking the White Sox into a temporary 6-4 lead.
"Qualls is so nasty, the only thing you can do is look for him to throw it in a certain spot," Konerko said after his fifth postseason homer and RBIs 12 through 15 inclusive. "You're not going to be able to react any other way. He threw it right where I was looking.
"This is amazing, but it's been this way for us all year. We've won games like this for six months and now we're doing the same thing in the biggest month of them all."
So the MVP of the American League Championship Series, in which he homered in back-to-back games, is bidding to be the MVP of the World Series as the cap to his second consecutive 40-homer, 100-RBI season.
Yeah, that's going to cost somebody, though not, probably not Kevin McClatchy.
You get more than just a run producer in Konerko, who knows what to say and how to say it. Asked about hitting a grand slam on baseball's biggest stage, he said, "It was the second-best feeling I've had this week. I had a baby Tuesday night, so that's the first thing obviously, but really, this team is so selfless and everybody is pulling so much for each other that I had the feeling anybody could have done it.
"It's hard to describe; it's kind of an out-of-body thing, but when you see it go out, you think, 'Wow, now we have a chance to win.' "
With Podsednik's homer, the chances for the Astros in this tournament shrunk to the barely detectable. Teams that take the first two games, as the White Sox have, win this thing 78 percent of the time.
"It's not a good spot," Garner said, "but we had a chance to win, as badly as we've played. We've got to go home and regroup, but we'll bounce back. We'll make a series out of it."
He'll have a ton of psychological healing to do between now and tomorrow night, when he'll send Roy Oswalt to a Minute Maid Park mound to see what, if anything, can be done about Konerko, et al.

Source: http://www.post-gazette.com/

Despite rally in 9th inning, Astros fail to even Series

Oct. 24, 2005
CHICAGO - Paul Konerko stepped out of the Chicago White Sox dugout at 9:45 p.m. Sunday for a grand-slam curtain call. Anybody who assumed that one mere mortal blow would prove to be curtains for the Houston Astros hasn't been paying attention.
Sunday night at U.S. Cellular Field, it took a ninth-inning sucker punch to bring down the Astros once and for all. Scott Podsednik, of all people, drilled a one-out, ninth-inning home run that gave the White Sox a frenetic 7-6 victory in Game 2 of the 101st World Series.
A crowd of 41,432 saw Podsednik prevail in a resistible-force-vs.-sudden- ly-movable-object confrontation with Astros reliever Brad Lidge. Podsednik didn't hit a home run in 507 regular-season at-bats. Lidge has served up game-losing home runs in his past two appearances, leaving the Astros in a blindfold-and-cigarette predicament in the Series.
''I don't think anyone in the ballpark," Podsednik said, ''was thinking about me hitting it out of the ballpark"
Then Lidge grooved a 2-1 fastball, and Podsednik was taking a victory lap around the bases, sending the Astros scurrying home with a 2-0 Series deficit. Of the past 49 teams to face a such a predicament, only 11 have recovered to win the title.
''We're certainly not in a good spot," Astros manager Phil Garner said. ''We had a chance to win this ballgame, as badly as we played. It's not the best situation, but it's the one we're in. We'll bounce back"
They bounced back Sunday from an early 2-1 deficit to build a 4-2 lead. Astros left-hander Andy Pettitte escaped a two-on, two-out jam by getting catcher A.J. Pierzynski to pop out to end the sixth inning. Pettitte had allowed eight hits and thrown 98 pitches on a rainy, 45-degrees-and-falling night, so Garner turned to his bullpen in the seventh inning.
Dan Wheeler took the mound with the lowest career postseason earned run average of any active reliever (0.60). Wheeler left two outs later with the bases loaded on a hit, a walk and a hit batsman. Seven outs from the first Series victory in Astros history, Chad Qualls came in to face Konerko.
Five nights after Konerko became a father for the first time, he blasted Qualls' first pitch over the left-field wall. The first postseason grand slam in White Sox history made the score 6-4, with Game 1 saving grace Bobby Jenks in waiting.
''It's the second-best feeling I've had all week," Konerko said. ''It's kind of an out-of-body thing"
Jenks, a 24-year-old rookie who got the save in Game 1, was one out away from closing the deal again when Garner sent pinch hitter José Vizcaino to the plate. Vizcaino drove in Jeff Bagwell and Chris Burke, who made a nifty slide around Pierzynski at the plate, with a single to left. Tie score.
Podsednik untied it with the 14th walkoff home run in Series history. This one came off an Astros closer who was taking the mound for the first time since having surrendered a mammoth, game-losing blow to St. Louis' Albert Pujols six days earlier in the National League Championship Series.
''This one came at a good time," said Podsednik, who has two home runs this postseason. ''I remember standing out in left field after Paul (Konerko) did what he did, thinking, 'Man, what does that guy feel like?' So to go out and hit one out of the ballpark for a game-winner is pretty much indescribable"
White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen, his team suddenly two victories from winning the Series for the first time since 1917, shook his head in amazement.
''This team made me mad for seven innings," Guillen said. ''All of a sudden, they made me smile in the ninth"
Garner wasn't exactly getting the warm fuzzies watching his team, either. In particular, a two-run second inning rally by the White Sox stuck in his craw. The rally started when Astros third baseman Morgan Ensberg, who had hit his first homer of the playoffs in the top of the inning, did an olé wave at a bad-hop grounder by Aaron Rowand. Single.
Then Chris Burke took a circuitous route to a fly ball to left by Pierzynski. The ball fell safely, off the lower portion of the wall. Another single.
Yet another single by Joe Crede, this one a blooper to right, and a dropped pop-up by second baseman Craig Biggio, gave the White Sox a 2-1 lead.
''We had three balls that should be caught," Garner said. ''Those should have been outs"
Lance Berkman tied the score with a third-inning sacrifice fly and untied it with a two-run double in the fifth. Pettitte was on the mound, with a well-armed bullpen in waiting. After 44 years of waiting just to get to the Series, the Astros will have to wait at least a little longer to win a game.
''It's like playing ourselves out there," Konerko said. ''These guys have a lot of heart. They don't go away. They fight"
The Astros, after all, have picked themselves up from a 15-30 start. The last time a team dug itself out from 15 games under .500 to the postseason was in 1914. That Boston team came to be known as the Miracle Braves, winning the Series. Before the Astros dare to dream that big, they need to win a game.

Source: http://www.chron.com/

World Series Game 2: Sox 7, Astros 6

Monday, October 24, 2005
Scott Podsednik was clearly out of his element.
The White Sox outfielder sprinted out of the batter's box way too quickly, hit the first-base bag like he was legging out a triple, and didn't give a pump of his fist until he was almost at second base.
Yes, Podsednik was clearly out of his element. Then again, it's not often the slap-hitting leadoff hitter is able to end a game with one swing, let alone move his team one step closer to ending an 88-year run of baseball futility.
After going the entire regular season without a home run, Podsednik connected for his second of the postseason Sunday night. And the magnitude of his latest long ball could be talked about on the South Side for years to come, considering the stage on which it was delivered.
With Game 2 of the World Series tied in the bottom of the ninth and Houston's best reliever on the mound in Brad Lidge, Podsednik hit just the 14th walk-off home run in World Series history and the first ever by a Sox player, giving his team a 7-6 win at U.S. Cellular Field, as well as a 2-0 lead in the best-of-7 series.
"To hit one out to win the game is pretty much indescribable," Podsednik said. "Luckily, I got into a good hitter's count, 2-and-1, and I was looking fastball the entire time. I was able to get good wood on it and get it out of the park."
He had some motivation.
Two innings earlier, with the Sox trailing 4-2 and the bases loaded with two outs, he watched teammate Paul Konerko hit the Sox's first-ever postseason grand slam.
"I recall standing out in left field after Paulie did what he did, thinking, 'Man, what does that man feel like right now?' " Podsednik said.
He would soon know.
More important, history is now on the Sox's side to capture their first World Series title since 1917. The latest win marked the 50th time a team has taken a 2-0 lead in a World Series. Of the previous 49, 38 have gone on to win the Fall Classic.
The Sox weren't getting fitted for rings just yet, however.
"We have 25 guys pulling on the same rope," Podsednik said. "You can't get to where we are with just a couple of guys performing. We understand that we haven't accomplished anything yet. We've got to close this out before we can say we did that."
If it's up to Astros manager Phil Garner, that won't be an easy task for the Sox.
"We're certainly not in a good spot," Garner said. "We had a good chance to win this ballgame, as badly as we've played. We'll bounce back; we'll make a series out of this. I'm confident we can come back, but I'm upset. I want to win a ballgame."
Garner and his players had their chances.
On a night when the weather was bad, Sox starter Mark Buehrle was average and Houston hurler Andy Pettitte was flat-out good, it was a grind-it-out game from the start.
It wasn't a good sign the Astros got on the scoreboard first, considering the Sox had scored first in seven of the nine postseason games they had played leading up to Sunday.
Morgan Ensberg broke that trend, getting to Buehrle for a solo home run on the first pitch of the second inning.
The Sox have made a living capitalizing on mistakes made by opponents throughout the season, though, and did that yet again in the bottom of the second.
After Aaron Rowand and A.J. Pierzynski had back-to-back one-out singles, Joe Crede tied the game with an RBI single off Pettitte. Up came Juan Uribe, who hit what appeared to be a sure popout to second baseman Craig Biggio in short right field. But as the veteran Biggio was backpedaling, he misjudged the ball and it glanced off his glove, landing in the grass in shallow right field. Crede was out at second on a force, but Pierzynski scored, Uribe getting credit for an RBI on the fielder's choice.
It was the last run Pettitte surrendered, as the southpaw went six innings, allowing eight hits.
Buehrle's night was a bit tougher than that.
The Astros tied the game in the third when Lance Berkman had a sacrifice fly to score speedy Willy Taveras (triple) from third. Houston seemingly then took control of the game in the fifth when Berkman ripped a two-run double into the left-field corner as the Astros went out in front 4-2.
Pettitte didn't come out for the bottom of the seventh, as the pressure moved to Houston's relievers. It was pressure they did not withstand.
Right-hander Dan Wheeler gave up a one-out double to Uribe. After Podsednik struck out, Tadahito Iguchi drew a walk. Then, on a 3-and-2 pitch to Jermaine Dye, the Sox appeared to get a bit of luck go their way once again. An inside pitch appeared to hit Dye's bat and deflect into foul territory, but home-plate umpire Jeff Nelson ruled that it hit Dye and awarded him first base.
Garner came out to argue, but to no avail.
"(Nelson) said it was his call," Garner said. "I asked him to check the ball to see if it had a black mark on it, but the ball was already gone. Clearly, (the Sox) can't do anything wrong. Every break is going their way. I kind of thought we turned that around, but it didn't end up that way."
Garner then made a pitching change, bringing in Chad Qualls to face Konerko. The move didn't result in the success Garner was hoping for, as Konerko hit the first pitch from Qualls an estimated 383 feet for a grand slam and a 6-4 Sox lead.
"It's the second-best feeling I've had all week," Konerko said. "I had the baby born Tuesday night and that's first. This team is just so selfless, we're just trying to win the game. It's kind of an out-of-body thing."
One of the Game 1 heroes, Bobby Jenks, came in to close the game out in the top of the ninth, but Houston had other ideas, as pinch-hitter Jose Vizcaino tied matters up with a two-run single before Neal Cotts came on to get the last out.
While that would have been demoralizing for most teams, all it did was set the stage for more Sox dramatics.
"When they tied the game up in the ninth ... I mean, it's like playing ourselves out there," Konerko said. "(The Astros) have a lot of heart. But no one was down. We were like, 'Everyone loves Bobby, we're not going to let him go home tonight with this.' We didn't think it would end so quick ... or by (Podsednik).
"This was a big game, but there's still a lot of work to be done. We've got to win two before they win four."

Source: http://www.dailysouthtown.com/

Jenks off Scott free

October 24, 2005
The high drama that had been missing from much of the White Sox' championship run came in a deluge Sunday as Paul Konerko looked to be the hero, Bobby Jenks looked to be the goat and light-hitting Scott Podsednik muscled up while riding to the rescue.
Without a home run all season, Podsednik now has two in the postseason and none bigger than his shot to right-center field with one out in the ninth inning off Houston Astros' All-Star closer Brad Lidge to give the Sox a 7-6 victory and a 2-0 lead in the World Series. It was the 14th walk-off home run in World Series history and helped take the misery out of a chilly, rain-soaked night.
''I was just trying to get on base, then we can work from there, then we'll try to get into scoring position,'' Podsednik said. ''Luckily, I got [the count] to 2-1, and I said, 'Hey, let's put a good swing on this fastball.' It was a good pitch to hit, and I was able to drive it out.''
Just a half-inning earlier, Podsednik could have ended it on a throw to the plate. The Sox had a 6-4 lead and closer Jenks on the mound. With Chris Burke on second and Jeff Bagwell on third with two outs, pinch hitter Luis Vizcaino hit a sharp single to left field.
Podsednik came up with the ball, seemed to hesitate and fired a weak throw just to the left of home plate. A.J. Pierzynski reached toward the plate just behind a sliding Burke.
The runs tied the score and prevented a seventh-inning grand slam by Konerko from supplying the game-winning margin.
Earlier this month, Konerko helped win the clincher in the Division Series with a home run off the Boston Red Sox' Tim Wakefield to give the Sox their go-ahead runs. He won the MVP of the American League Championship Series mostly because of two first-inning home runs in victories over the Los Angeles Angeles. Who knew he was just warming up?
After he delivered at least 40 home runs in each of his last two seasons, the biggest long ball of his life came on the first pitch from reliever Chad Qualls to put the Sox up 6-4 and move them six outs from victory. It was the first grand slam in postseason history for the Sox.
''It's just one of those things that [a home run] is the last thing on your mind,'' Konerko said. ''I'm thinking to get a base hit to drive in two and hopefully tie and bang, you get it. That's usually when you get them is when you're not trying to. I didn't want to get in a long at-bat with him because I didn't feel that great tonight.''
Two more victories remain for the Sox to partake in their fourth champagne party since Sept. 29, and this one surely would top all the others.
The Sox have three chances to finish off the Astros in Houston as Jon Garland starts Game 3 on Tuesday, Freddy Garcia takes Game 4 on Wednesday and Jose Contreras comes back to pitch Game 5, if necessary, on Thursday.
Mark Buehrle handled the duties in Game 2 and kept the Sox in the game long enough for a rally. After the Sox fell behind 1-0 in the second on a home run from Morgan Ensberg, they responded by getting the kind of breaks that have typified a run to a championship.
The Sox scored one of their two second-inning runs when veteran Craig Biggio dropped a pop-up in short right field.
''Clearly, everything they're doing right now is right,'' Astros manager Phil Garner said. ''They can't do anything wrong. And so a lot of things are going their way. Even if they check swing and break a bat, they move a runner along.''
After the second inning, the dean of postseason pitching managed to get the Sox out of their rhythm. Andy Pettitte made his 34th career playoff start Sunday, the most of anyone in postseason history. He allowed just two runs on eight hits in six innings.
Pettitte's departure after six innings was just what the Sox needed, although another break just before Konerko's home run proved to be huge. Dye loaded the bases in the seventh when home-plate umpire Jeff Nelson ruled Dye was hit by a pitch. Television replays showed that the ball actually hit Dye's bat.
Konerko, who entered with franchise highs of four homers and 11 RBI in the postseason, added to the totals when his grand slam landed in the aisle to the center-field side of the Sox' bullpen, sending the crowd of 41,432 into a frenzy.
''You follow the team year-round, that's the way we play all year,'' manager Ozzie Guillen said. ''We keep fighting, making a big pitch. When somebody fails, pick them up.
''I went to take Jenks out, and A.J. is behind me and said, 'We'll come back, don't worry about it.' That's the attitude I like to hear. That's because of the unity they have.''
WORLD SERIES GAME-ENDING HOMERS
Player's team listed first, with year, game, inning and final score:
Scott Podsednik: White Sox vs. Houston, 2005, Game 2, 9th, 7-6Alex Gonzalez: Florida vs. N.Y. Yankees, 2003, Game 4, 12th, 4-3 Derek Jeter: N.Y. Yankees vs. Arizona, 2001, Game 4, 10th, 4-3Chad Curtis: N.Y. Yankees vs. Atlanta, 1999, Game 3, 10th, 6-5 x-Joe Carter: Toronto vs. Philadelphia, 1993, Game 6, 9th, 8-6Kirby Puckett: Minnesota vs. Atlanta, 1991, Game 6, 11th, 4-3 Mark McGwire: Oakland vs. Los Angeles, 1988, Game 3, 9th, 2-1Kirk Gibson: Los Angeles vs. Oakland, 1988, Game 1, 9th, 5-4 Carlton Fisk: Boston vs. Cincinnati, 1975, Game 6, 12th, 7-6Mickey Mantle: N.Y. Yankees vs. St. Louis, 1964, Game 3, 9th, 2-1 x-Bill Mazeroski: Pittsburgh vs. N.Y. Yankees, 1960, Game 7, 9th, 10-9Eddie Mathews: Milwaukee vs. N.Y. Yankees, 1957, Game 4, 10th, 7-5 Dusty Rhodes: N.Y. Giants vs. Cleveland, 1954, Game 1, 10th, 5-2Tommy Henrich: N.Y. Yankees vs. Brooklyn, 1949, Game 1, 9th, 1-0 x-clinched Series
DESTINY CALLS
The White Sox benefitted from another favorable call Sunday night. Here are the calls that have gone their way in the postseason:
World Series Game 2: Ump Jeff Nelson rules Jermaine Dye is hit by a pitch to load the bases for Paul Konerko, who follows with a grand slam. Replays show the ball hit Dye's bat.
ALCS Game 4: A.J. Pierzynski's glove interferes with Steve Finley's bat, but catcher's interference isn't called as ball rolls into inning-ending double play.
ALCS Game 2: Ump Doug Eddings rules Josh Paul trapped ball on third strike. Pierzynski runs to first while Paul heads to dugout. Replay shows Paul caught ball. Joe Crede later hits game-winning double.

Source: http://www.suntimes.com/