True White Sox fans are
said to love their team (while ripping it, see: Jerry Reinsdorf, new ballpark, Chris
Sale trade) and whoever is playing the Cubs that day (Go, Cardinals!). For added measure, I pretty much hate all the
other teams in the AL Central Division.
Take Kansas City,
(please). My dislike of the Royals dates
to the 1970s, when Willie Wilson and company ran themselves silly, courtesy of
the Astroturf at Kauffman. The artificial
turf was replaced with real grass over twenty years, and the Royals still run
themselves silly against us.
Ditto the Twins. The Metrodome used to be a house of horrors
for the Sox, some Twinkie hitting the “Baggie” in right field to insure a
win. The Twins have a new home, but the Sox
keep losing up in the Twin Cities. Holy
Killebrew, Carew, Puckett…
I used to like the
Indians because of Strat-O-Matic. Talk
about a pitching staff: Sam McDowell, Steve Hargan, Luis Tiant. But it’s different when the real thing beats
your real thing. Another thing, those
stacked Cleveland teams from the mid- to late-90s underperformed and cost me a
pizza come World Series time. Factor in
Chief Wahoo, and I don’t like the Indians.
Which brings us to the
Tigers. With them, it’s more
love-hate. I fell in love with the
Start-O-Matic Tigers because of Gates Brown (great cards with good coverage),
whom I actually got to interview once.
The real team had cool uniforms and a wonderful ballpark in Tiger Stadium
with that the upper-deck overhang. But
the idiots tore the park down, and I can’t stand Victor Martinez. So, add Detroit to the “do not root for”
list.
Obviously, then,
yesterday’s 17-7 Sox beat-down of the Tigers was thoroughly enjoyable. It’s always nice when your team has 25 hits,
even if 21 of them were singles. And
Avisail Garcia continued his breakthrough season by going five for five with
seven RBIs, tying a franchise record held by Carl Reynolds in 1930.
I used to have a team
picture of the 1930 Sox. It was over a
yard long and nearly a foot wide, each player shown separately. The first year Clare went to nationals in
Kansas City, I sold the picture on eBay to help finance the trip. If Garcia can tie Reynolds, then maybe one
day I can buy back that picture. I check
every day.
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