This entry almost didn't happen. When I lose at tennis, I don't like to write or remember about it. Yesterday we only played 2 sets, despite it being a great but too windy day with a rare strong and weird northeast wind. Having not played since Memorial Day, I was a bit rusty. We had a 'record' 5 consecutive service games until I screwed up and lost the 6th game played in the set, I ended up losing 6-4. I was serving way too hard and my accuracy was way off. 2nd set I eased up midway and after being down 4-1, I came back and won 6-4. I didn't get sunburned except for my nose & face despite wearing a cap & used some of that anti-stinging / anti-greasy blue bottled athletic DNA-altering sunscreen that CNN hates. My friend got pissed that I eased up, because he was waiting so much farther back and ended up with these softer shots, but I keep telling him, "pitchers don't throw fastballs every time. They throw changeups and curveballs as well."

As for the 4th of July, I will be doing nothing. I'm too sore from tennis. Illinois has a ban on fireworks, probably since at least the mid 1980s, probably so all those stupid little kids in Chicago don't blow their hands off or stick a lit firecracker in their mouths. People here go to either Wisconsin or Indiana for their (illegal) fireworks. Here, everything but sparklers and smoke bombs are banned, especially anything that can go up a few feet in the air. And if you do want to shoot off fireworks, you have to obtain a special and extremely hard-to-get permit. Illinois could make a lot of money selling fireworks if they put a fireworks tax on them. My favorite growing up were Moon Traveler Bottle Rockets. Cheap, loud, plentiful and you can use them at anytime of the day. I remember my dad loved these red mini-sticks of dynamite, where he'd like, in the backyard, put it in a soup can, light it, and then put the garage oil changing collecting pan upside down over it, and the can would shoot up 30 to 40 feet in the air.

Never again: I followed a Rachael Ray recipe. Oven baked onion rings. Sounds simple enough; idiot proof. But no. Recipe took twice as long, was gritty and was essentially the equivalent of eating sand. You also shouldn't follow her recipes because they are extremely high in calories. No Rachael Ray, not "everything in moderation".... instead "eat like you're not an idiot". And everybody knows you have an unhealthy fetish with bacon.

Interleague Play and its idiot 18 games finally ended this earlier this week. I noticed Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf doesn't like Interleague Play either, and he's given up fighting it. I sent an email to the White Sox Vice President of Communications Scott Reifert, telling him that Interleague Play is flawed by design, the old system was better and let Reinsdorf know not all fans like it. Scott replied and said (or at least humoring me) that he'd forward my email to Reinsdorf, which I thought was pretty cool. Nobody I know personally likes Interleague Play; especially N.L. fans, and I don't want to see crummy teams from the other league at the ballpark. And before I start to sound like Bob Sirott and complain about everything that is not old, I'll end this blog post.

I used to do that when I worked in construction & with my electrician dad. But I am here today to talk about something that's not very pleasant that's been going on in baseball for the past couple of weeks. It is Interleague Play. Every year since only 1997, around mid-June common sense stops in baseball, and teams are forced to play 18 Interleague games, including 6 against your "Natural Rival", which only works in about 4 places. Most teams, don't even have a rival close by, like Seattle, or Colorado, or Tampa, which makes the system even stupider.

I come to you today as a baseball "elitist traditionalist & purist", also referred to as "that miserable bitter pissed-off awful old rotten baseball fan in the room". One doesn't become one of these by accident. It took many, many years, thousands of articles, games, radio & documentaries to form such a view. Then a choice has to be made on whether or not you agree with the current system. I of course do not. From an Economic standpoint, it was a great idea to build new ballparks, expand and have Interleague Play. But of course, for the price of sanity, logic and soul.

I would consider the last time I was completely content with baseball was 1993. This was the last year of 4 divisions and no Wild Card. Growing up as a baseball fan since 1987, nothing seemed more absurd to me than a 2nd place team making the playoffs. It just didn't seem right. Other sports did it, but that's *them*, so I understood that. They're not as great as baseball. When baseball went to 6 divisions in 1994, they doubled the playoff teams which makes it easier to kick out the teams with the best records since there is no bye in the playoffs, and with a Wild Card in each league, it makes the regular season not mean as much, and you can settle having "the 2nd best record in the division". The idea of a true pennant race had been killed. Then suddenly this new magical playoff and division structure wasn't exciting enough, and too many people got this idea that they wanted to see more different teams in their ballparks, with players like Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, Ken Griffey Jr, Frank Thomas or Sammy Sosa, so Interleague Play was born to play your division's league opposite. Then people started complaining, saying "oh but my team is in this division, and those guys aren't in any of the opposite divisions!" so they started a completely random rotation in 2002.

What doesn't work about this, is when you have uneven leagues & divisions and an unbalanced schedule, you get 30 different strength schedules in baseball. It's not right, it's not fair and it's not logical. 1996 apparently was the last time teams played with a balanced schedule, meaning you play everyone in the league the same amount of times (or off by 1, since the schedule was 162 games with 13 opponents). This balanced system is the most right, fair and logical. Natural Rivals add a lot of insanity to the unbalanced schedule. Some teams get really easy teams like the Orioles, while others get the really hard Red Sox, which isn't fair to their division foes or themselves. A.L. teams lose their big DH bat coming to the N.L. parks, but the A.L. overwhelmingly has a higher winning % in these contests.

Bad things happen to a sport when it caters to the casual, uneducated idiot fan who says "I want this!" and "I want that!" Let's take the White Sox / Cubs series. 63 games played. After the past 3 day's losses, the Sox are now 30-33 against the Cubs. I don't like losing to the Cubs. It's not a pleasant thing, especially when you're amongst Cubs fans in your everyday life. Of all the people who love to get up in the rivalry, people forget that these games actually count in the standings, and there is not any significant benefit to playing against the Cubs. I would still be singing the same tune if the Sox were winning the series, because of who I am. It's an idea that should have never been allowed to happen, and it's something that should only been done on video games.

I hope the next Commissioner, whoever it is, is a purist and is old school. I would get rid of Interleague Play, balance the schedule out, raise the seams on the baseball so the pitchers would get some help, I'd slowly raise the mound back up to 16", I'd order teams to make their walls higher so there's no confusion on what's a homerun or not. I'd widen the strike zone from the letters to below the knees, ban those ugly Coolflo batting helmets, require to show your socks / ban the long pants, get rid of the Wild Card, schedule more day games & Sunday doubleheaders to get more off days and shorten up the playing calender. Something is wrong when your first and last games of your season are in the snowing months. Oh and I'd ban all commercial music in ballparks as well.

To wrap this entry up, I'm to ask if anyone has any good baseball books to recommend. Someone suggested "Moneyball", which I'm going get cheap on Amazon. I read Goose Gossage's book when it came out 10 years ago, and I have to say, the man is not very interesting at all. Books I have particularly enjoyed were George F. Will's collection of columns and short essays in "Bunts", and Bob Costas's "Fair Ball", based on the Economic state of baseball in the early 2000's. I've also considered reading Ted Williams's "The Science of Hitting". I'm not the type read something like Jim Bouton's "Ball Four". There was a book that I read in Middle School by Tom Seaver that showed you how to pitch and train correctly, but I don't remember the name, and it was made before 1993. It might had been "Pitching with Tom Seaver". I figured if I was going learn how to pitch, it should be from someone like him, only the highest % Hall of Fame balloter ever.

Well here is the 2nd banner, consisting of White Sox graphics from 1976-1981, with a pic from the 1970s of White Sox television announcer Harry Caray before the game to cheer the crowd on our White Sox to victory! He probably a few Falstaff beers in him by this time, that then being the official beer of the Chicago White Sox. Harry was a Sox announcer from 1973-1981. Legend has it that Harry started his 7th inning stretch singing of "Take me out to the ballgame" by accident, "Habitually singing the song in the broadcast booth when it played by organist Nancy Faust, Caray was doing it one afternoon when WMAQ-AM radio producer/broadcaster Jay Scott decided to open the booth mikes on him without his realizing it." It caught on and it stuck with him for the rest of his career, where it became the farce that it is today on "the other side" of town.

The new team graphics were considered traditional and modern, the "CHICAGO" script was from the 1902-1916 & 1930-1931 road uniforms that were navy with white letters, and the script would be red with navy trim on grey roads from 1932-1938. The same script $tyle would be used for the '76-'81 uniform's numbers & the names on the back. The modern "SOX" lettering was inspired from an early 1900s pic of owner Charles Comiskey with a Sox pennant:

Bill Veeck had purchased the team for the 2nd time in December 1975 to prevent the White Sox from moving to Denver, and changed the red & powder blue uniforms of the early 1970s to navy & white. What was unique, was the ridiculous modern floppy collars on the jersey, a pullover no-tuck $tyle and striped socks & no stirrups. They had 4 uniform combinations during this era, from all white & white top / navy pants for home, and all navy & navy top / white pants for the road. Both jerseys said "CHICAGO" on them. They also wore shorts at least 3 times in 1976 which were made by Veeck's wife and were mocked by all:

Who likes short-shorts? Not me.