Weather Update

The sun is shining bright here in lovely St. Petersburg :)

The White Sox Bandwagon

It filled up quickly after the destruction of the Red Sox, so I'm pleased to have hitched a seat sometime after Game 1 of that series.

Okay, we get that the White Sox haven't been in a series since 1959. This statement seems grossly unfair. No newspaper or pundit ever said, "This is the first World Series the Red Sox have played in since 1986!" during their run last year. The phrase "The White Sox haven't won a World Series since 1917" seems so much more appropriate. "It's been 88 years!" should be a rallying call.

Is this the first series since 1985 (Cardinals-Royals) to take place solely in the Central Time Zone? Who looks up these things? I guess I do. Nevermind; the Twins beat the Cardinals in 1987.

I would like to thank Houston for finally getting this far. I recall picking them to win the sorry Central back in the early '00s (2000 and 2001, I believe), only to sit helpless as the Cardinals won in 2000 and the Braves crushed the Bagwell-Biggio-Berkman-Alou Astros. They fell out of my favor, and it is justice that the White Sox will win now. Except that I like the man behind Junction Jack better than I like the girl behind whatever the White Sox mascot is.

The White Sox have spinning mints on their scoreboard. This is key. And I like Jeff, the man who runs the show at We're-A-Cellphone-Company-That-Bought-The-Stadium-Name-But-Everyone-Still-Calls-It-Comiskey-Park.

White Sox in 5. I'd imagine Roy Oswalt or Andy Pettite will step up for a game. Brandon Backe is either going to get hammered or pitch a 1-hitter.

Wilma

Hurricane Update: The predicted tracks of Wilma are changing every hour or so. A few days ago, Tampa Bay was outside the track...then we were on the edge...then we inside the track...and now (as of 11.52am Sunday), we're still under Hurricane Warning but a hike from the edge of the track.

Track. Track. Track.

Saturday was excellent, weather-wise: The sun was out (among clouds) until about 3pm; after 3, nothing but grayness and a lil' wind. No rain. No rain Saturday night. Sunday morning's cloudy, but no wind or rain.

The word "evacuate" hasn't even been mentioned by officials in the TB region, and unless Wilma decides to take a serious northernly turn, we'll probably just be looking at some rain and gusty winds. Because of the geography of St. Petersburg, evacuation here would be a nightmare, and I doubt we'd get the call to leave unless a storm was seriously bearing down on our lovely little city. You can't go west (obviously), and the only roads east are two bridges. South (to Bradenton and Sarasota) is not passable except via the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, so you're left to head north, which is tough enough to do on a normal day.

For anyone who is wondering: Tropicana Field is NOT a shelter. Like the SuperDome, its purpose is limited; in this case, to serve people on a given slew of weekday nights for 3-5 hours at a time. Employees have been told to NOT COME to the dome if there's an emergency.
Steve and I will probably buy some water today and, if there's no work tomorrow (they have Hurricane Days much like the more-universal Snow Days), we'll play Monopoly or something. Maybe go swimming, if the weather's nice.

My computer was begging to look better, so I pimped out the Winamp with a red and black Batman skin, reconfigured the AVS so now these trippy red graphics spill all over the screen during songs, and made the taskbar red so it all matches. It's pure Julie Frick, now that I think of it. Or communism. Which reminds me; I'd like to thank the Tampa Bay theater owners for not finding a place for Good Night & Good Luck. We can put In Her Shoes and The Fog on 42 million screens, but an Oscar contender with George Clooney and the pitcher from Nine Men Out isn't cool enough for any sort of love.

PostSeason

WhiteSox. Angels. Cardinals. Braves.

Forgetting the at-the-moment destruction of the RedSox, the Cards' earlier win, and Jake Peavy's fractured ribs, it's time for some season-ending parting shots.

The WhiteSox are going to win 3-1 because the RedSox don't have much in the way of pitching. They scored a lot of runs this season (900, .356 OPB) but had a team ERA of 4.76, 7th-worst in baseball. Chicago was in the middle of the pack in runs but had the 4th-best ERA. And the Red Sox look tired. They're playing for everything; the WhiteSox are playing loose and free, and coming into the playoffs they had nothing to lose. The RedSox also have dirty helmets.

The Yankees are going to lose because their second baseman is named Robinson. And because the Angels have cooler scoreboards. New York's team ERA is only 0.01 (4.48) point better than Detroit. De-freaking-troit! They fired their manager! Exclamation point! The Yankees also look tired. Who would you rather have right now...Vlad or Sheffield? Plus, only the other day did I realize Derek Jeter's haircut is pretty much a recipe for disaster.

The Cardinals are really good at baseball. Tony Larussa has a book about him. Jim Edmonds has an I Live For This commercial. And Mr. Pu- I Have No -jols In My Strike Zone plays first. He is 1 of 3 players to ever hit 100 RBI in his first four seasons! Wow! Hooray! The Padres have Robert Fick, and bless his heart for hitting that insane HR on the last day at Tiger Stadium, but his team doesn't quite compare. It'd be great if they could scrape out the series (how about a Padres/Angels World Series), but I'm pretty sure you don't beat the team that has the most-likely Cy Young winner.

The Braves are going to win because the Astros, despite having the best media guide among all the M.L. teams, have a 50-year old guy in their mascot suit. I'm sorry; that's just a recipe for disaster, as nice as that particular gentleman is. They also named their stadium Enron Field, which means it will now be perpetually haunted by schmucky cheaters (Jeff Bagwell?). The Roy Oswalt/Andy Pettite/Roger Clemens triumverate of greatness can't be ignored, and I've always liked Lance Berkman, but I think someone named Jeff Francoeur (anyone with 4 vowels in his name is sweet) is going to steal the show. And Tim Hudson is going to strike out 88 batters in 1 game. That would be sweet.

Then: Angels beat the White Sox. And the Cardinals beat the Braves. Finally: The Angels beat the Cardinals in 7. And a World Series comes to Los Angeles! Or Anaheim! Whatever!

It's Done!

Rays '05 season comes to a close today! Hooray!