Why I don’t care about Beer

Posted on by chorizy

Let me immediately put you at ease.  I am not talking about the beer you drink.  I care very much about that.  What I’m talking about is Seth Beer aka the greatest prospect in the history of baseball.  If you follow Sox Twitter, I am sure you have seen #TankForBeer in your feed.  The idea here is that the White Sox try to lose as much as possible to get the number one overall pick in the June 2018 draft.  I have a few problems with this:

The Padres

If you haven’t been paying attention to the Padres, you should take a look.  They’ve assembled a team that would make Rachel Phelps jealous.  Yeah, they have a few young players that might be good, but they’re also trotting out Jhoulys Chacin as their opening day starter.  If that is your best pitcher, it’s not good.  And it’s even worse if Clayton Richard is the #2 behind him.  Overall, their team WAR is a frowny face emoji.  This is the team that will pick #1 overall.

Seth Beer probably won’t be the #1 pick

I am sure you’ve been scouting all the high school juniors and college underclassmen that will be eligible in 15 months when this draft occurs, but I know I have not.  What I do know, is that it would be absolutely amazing to know, at this point, who the number 1 pick will be in next year’s draft.  It’s not even terribly obvious who that pick will be this year.  And it’s not like Seth Beer is some once in a lifetime, 5 tool talent that couldn’t possibly be passed up.  He had a tremendous Freshman year at the plate, and he started out pretty good this year.  His current slash is .255/.488/.582 which is impressive, but for a guy who is probably gonna be a 1b that is avg in the field, that’s not a #1 pick.  Baseball America discussed this and said the closest comparison they had at a 1-1 pick was Pat Burrell.  He was a pretty good pro and there are some pretty good Pat Burrell stories, but I doubt #TankForBurrell would be a very successful campaign.

It’s all in the name

Admit it, you really like this guy because his name is Beer.  I like that too, as beer is one of my favorite things.  And it would be really cool to have a guy on the team named Beer, even better if he was a good player.  But in reality, who knows if he’ll be worth picking at the top of the draft come June 2018.  We’ll need plenty of beer to get through this season and probably next year too, but I’ll pass on caring about Seth Beer for now.  We can just add this to the list of college sports I have 0 interest in.

One last note, in looking through great college prospects, I found the guy voted as College Player of the 20th Century.  He actually sounds a lot like Seth Beer.  So get excited to have the next Pete Incaviglia!

-Chorizy-E

The 5 – All The Places We’ve been Banned.

Posted on by mysoxsummer

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Running a blog is a pretty thankless job, but from time to time you make an impact on something or someone, so you keep writing stuff.  I ran a pretty successful blog in the summer of 2012 called My Sox Summer.  I had just moved to Chicago, Bridgeport to be exact, and wanted to see how many games I could go to for under $500.  I decided to try for 50, ended up with 53 games for $400.  This was pre-$7 and $5 upper corner seats, so the lowest face value was around $15. So if you wanna relive that epic collapse of 2012 through the eyes of a guy with no job, you can read it here.

In 2017, we are trying to step our game up here in the 108. We had a bunch of ideas that we didn’t execute last year due to timing and piss poor planing, but look at us now!  We have t-shirts and business cards! They were a big hit at SoxFest. Hell we even have a contest running for the best mustache with Tyler Saladino! And the most epic March Madness Bracket EVAR for the best baseball movie. So anyways we are trying to get more readers and followers in 2017.

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I am not sure how familiar you as the reader are of the White Sox online community, but there was a really popular message board back in the day called WSI (White Sox Interactive).  I was a west coaster back in the day and I am pretty sure one of the moderators hit me with a card back when it started up, but I never joined. Fast forward to 2012 and I am trying to promote my blog, I start posting on any White Sox message board I can find.  I encountered a bunch of red tape when trying to post on some of these message boards, as they don’t allow the small time guys that make no money to self promote their blogs.  After several messages WSI did decide to allow me to post on their board, which drove a bunch of traffic in 2012.  I tried to post again in later years and I was banned for life.  Ha. Soxtalk was another message board that always allowed me to post my blog, which was awesome too.  I had a FB page, Twitter and Insta page. All drove traffic to the blog, all made me $0.

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We started @fromthe108 in 2016, I was pretty aware of the different channels that we could use to promote.  Message boards have since died, mostly due to the moderators being control freaks, and FB pages have become the new message boards.  There are TONS of these pages on FB and I try to join as many as possible.  Mostly I am there as a Sox fan, but I am also there to promote our blog among the others. Many pages allow this with no issue, a few have issues, but I will talk about them later. First let me tell you about the people that run our blog.

In 2012 I met a group of guys that had season tickets to the Sox and let me tell you, I lucked into a group that suited my needs for baseball. All of the guys were very welcoming, but not in a sappy way, more like “we respect you cause you are a big guy, but you are fun drunk so please hang with us” kind of way.  It’s fun to come into situations where the guys were just like my friends, pretty much known each other for life.  Lotta crazy Bridgeport stories, college stories, all that shit.  It was a match made on the southside. We all have tickets (that we pay for) for every weekend series.

On the heels of a video that I shot that went viral, the From The 108 blog was born.If you haven’t, watch this video. It’s hilarious.

We promoted the blog on several sites, most were open to it, some were not.  Here are the sites that had issues with us.

Reddit

I was banned for 7 days?  All for posting links to our stories.  They claimed self promoting, which I was, but is that not allowed?  You can post any link on their sub-reddit, except your own I guess.  We got a serious keyboard lashing from one of the members because our blog didn’t fit in his/her little box of what a fun White Sox fan blog should be.  He called out BeefLoaf for having a dumb name.  That might be true, but fuck him, you write a blog.  So if you wanna read censored White Sox stories, just like you can ANYWHERE, check out The White Sox Sub Reddit.  If you like our blog, post it on there, we’ll owe ya.

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Soxtalk On FB

Soxtalk started as a message board and has a FB page.  We seemed to have a great relationship until we posted a blog in which BeefLoaf quoted Pulp Fiction and said the racial slur “wetback”.  He is of Mexican heritage, so does it even count?  Can’t you make fun of your own race?  Not on the Soxtalk FB page!  We were booted after that blog

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Sox Fans On Deck – FB Page

I got a swell message from the moderator of this page telling me that while he was happy I was part of his group, he would appreciate it if I didn’t promote my page on his page.  We linked to our Twitter contest with Tyler Saladino, I figured the Sox Fans On Deck could use some free tickets.  I was wrong! We launched into a big debate as what most of these pages complain about is me making money off them.  I tried to explain that we made no money with the blog, and then explained how other websites DO make money from ad revenue, but it fell on deaf ears.  Another one bites the dust!

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These are the most recent places that have asked us not to post, or booted us from their site for posting our blog.  It’s America, so rock and roll.  We DGAF  that much, but it is just sad to me anyways that the independent guy can’t post his poorly written blogs but anything that Sports Mockery turns out will get a million views.  Or the Trib.  Or Yahoo.  Christ, these guys are making thousands on ad revenue, but because they are established, no big deal, post away!   This blog costs us money right now, with ticket prices, concessions and these sweet T-shirts that we got made up, we are in the hole.  But we do it cause we are fans that love the White Sox. And we have something to say to you other fans.  I am also sure that many of our ideas have not gone unnoticed.

Soon enough if you wanna contribute to the plan, buy a shirt from us.  We have some sweet limited edition ones that we will be producing later this year, so keep an eye out.  Original content blogs, sweet limited edition t-shirts, what more do you want?  Let us know!

Big thanks to the FB pages (Pride & Passion, Debating Cage, We Love The White Sox, Grinder Ball, Sox Fans Only and many more!)   that allow us to post our content and for the thousands of you that read our stuff.  We promise to keep getting drunk to provide you with hours of shitty content and sweet shirts.

-MSS

Finally, A Move!!!! Goodbye Peter Bourjos!!!

Posted on by mysoxsummer
On January 30th, I was in this space writing about the acquisition of Peter Bourjos and now I am back here less than 2 months later writing about Rick Hahn trading Bourjos to the Tampa Rays for Cash Considerations.

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This is a move of opportunity for the White Sox, they needed some things to fall into place for this to happen.
1. Someone needed to be interested in Peter Bourjos – Given that the White Sox were able to sign him to a minor league deal in late January, it doesn’t seem like the Hot Stove was sizzling for a Peter Bourjos’ services.  Fast forward less than 60 days later and the Tampa Rays, who could contend or could do what the Rays always do and lose lots of 1 run games, weren’t happy with their outfield depth and decided they needed to grab an experienced right handed hitting outfielder who could handle centerfield in a pinch (they have Kevin Kiermaier already).  SO WE HAVE A DEAL!!!  Personally, I thought the Detroit Tigers would come calling for Peter Bourjos given that they are trying to teach a 3b farmhand how to play CF, but to each their own.
2. Jacob May announced his presence with authority – Let’s be real here, the reason this deal is happening is because Jacob May has played great and won the CF job for the Chicago White Sox.  He’s done everything that someone needs to do when a job is available.  He has hit, he has played good defense, he draws rave reviews from the org.  Once it became clear that Charlie Tilson wasn’t going to be healthy and this job was open, May turned on the jets and won the job!!
3. Cash to Send Dylan Covey back to Oakland – Ancillary to the deal, but with the cash coming back for Bourjos, the White Sox now have enough cash to send Rule 5 Pick Dylan Covey back to Oakland.  Thanks Rick!!
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It is a common refrain here and in the other White Sox blogs.  This is what a rebuild looks like, lots of small deals of minimal present consequence.  This looks like a nothing deal, but it opens up space for Jacob May to get a shot in Chicago and if he plays well, maybe he’s a piece of the next Chicago White Sox pennant winner.
– BeefLoaf

Mrs. BeefLoaf on “Hosting the 108ers”

Posted on by mysoxsummer

I am often asked, “what is it like to live at the 108 Pre and Post-game headquarters?”  Let me give you a glimpse…

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Opening Day

Every year on the home opener, I need to be comfortable with the ambiguity that between 40-75 people will be walking through my front door between 10am and 30 minutes before game time.  This year, there will likely be closer to 40 people since our beloved team will be terrible.

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The ‘Loaf and I like to host and we also like meeting new fans.  We only really have one rule on Opening Day and that is: “don’t be a jerk.”  It is pretty all encompassing, and usually people behave themselves, even if after five too many beers.  Most of these characters I will know, but, every year there are random folks that come with others, who do amazing things – like leave their car keys at my home, post-game, and have to do the walk-of-shame the following day to retrieve them.  Or a guest might profess their love to BeefLoaf, while their boyfriend is standing right there – usually a Chorizy-E coworker… you’ll see a theme throughout…

Regular Season – Weekends

Since there are 81 home games in the season and 40 of those fall on the weekends, we see a variety of 108ers.  Friday nights have the best turnouts and since the game is later, the crew has more time to imbibe before the fireworks signal game time.

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Who can one expect to see at the 108 Pre and Post-game headquarters?  Usually, Beefloaf, MySoxSummer and Chorizy-E do not miss a game.  If it is Friday, you can expect to see Biguns and Slumpbuster join in with the afore mentioned.  On Saturdays, you may see Polish w/Extra Onions traded in for the missing Biguns and Slumpbuster.  Sundays – it is a small crowd.  It is also a water-drinking-trying-not-to-vomit, crowd.  It is hard on the liver to be a 108er – that is for certain.

This all sounds too normal, though… there is definitely a whole host of anomalies, that although each unique, becomes more of the norm as the season wears on…

  • “The Pisser” Yes, someone, who shall remain nameless, is known to pee in the street instead of walking the 12 steps up to our home. But then comes upstairs to the house after to have one last beer – then likely pees in the street before heading home.
  • “The Slovaks” These guys were really fun Chorizy-E co-workers from Slovakia that ate, drank and smoked their way through pre-game to post-game. Even commenting “It’s so weird, Americans don’t smoke!”  One of the two wasn’t feelin’ so hot the next day at work and had to go to his hotel room.
  • “The ‘Over-stayed Their Welcome’ Folks”: Although rare, occasionally, whether it is Opening Day or a regular game, there are people whom don’t seem to leave until every can of beer has been crushed and every bottle of booze, drained. This does not include the nights that Beefloaf and MySoxSummer stay up, outside on the deck until 2am trading “I love you, mans”.
  • We have also served as an Urgent Care facility when Polish w/Extra Onion’s poor son fell and skinned his knee on the way to their car. And since they live in the burbs – it was best to get some band-aids on that scrape – STAT!

All in all, it is a pleasure to host so many interesting folks and it definitely gives us lots of stories to share with friends and family around the dinner table. Will we be seeing you this year?  Let us know!

Mrs. Beefloaf is an avid wine drinker, traveler, animal lover, business owner, wife and mom.  You can follow Mrs. Beefloaf on Twitter @KRamos25

You’re Either In or You’re Out – 25 Man Gambles

Posted on by mysoxsummer
Good day friends, it’s BeefLoaf.  I have the 25 man roster rattlin’ in my brains and I figured I would quickly spill it out here………..these are the gambles that the White Sox SHOULD take, but might not.  Remember the days when KW and Hahn would go find a Jermaine Dye that nobody wanted anymore or a post hype prospect like a Carlos Quentin?  Or scoop up a Jose Quintana as a minor league free agent.  Those were good old days, those were gambles with high upsides.  Those are the type of gambles I would like to see from our front office again, so let’s get to it…….as Danny Ocean would say, you’re either in or you’re out, right now!
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IN – Jacob May
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He’s shown promise in the past, but injuries derailed previous runs at a big league spot.  Now he appears healthy and is really succeeding with the bat in spring training.  Peter Bourjos is here, but nobody really needs to see what he has and the incumbent (sort of) Charlie Tilson is still not ready.  This is a bet with a decent chance of paying off.  May could register a .725 OPS and play plus defense, you have at least found a 4th outfielder on a good team, and possibly a player who can take a step or two forward.  In a perfect world, May becomes a league average hitter, runs like a muthafucka and becomes Devon White in CF defensively.  IT.  CAN.  HAPPEN. When the 108ers trudge to the ballpark on April 3rd, we’d like to see Jacob May in CF.
OUT – Matt Davidson
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I was reading somewhere that the way a team accumulates a lot of talent is carefully managing their options and keeping players on the big league club that are out of options.  This article was in reference to why the White Sox should keep Matt Davidson on the 25 man roster.  This is a steaming pile of bullshit.  Davidson has scarcely hit at any upper level minor league affiliate and he has ZERO defensive value.  Take a look at this most recent offseason and look how hard it was for guys with bad hit tool, tons of power and no defense, to get signed………..the difference between the Chris Carters and the Mike Napolis of the world is that those guys have hit > 30 HR in the major leagues multiple times.  Davidson has been shaky at best hitting in AAA.  Gimme a break.  Rick Hahn really showed me something by cutting Brett Lawrie and I hope he does it again with Davidson.  If I am right, he’ll clear waivers and you can comfortably sign him back to a minor league deal.
IN – Michael Ynoa
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We saw a fair amount of Ynoa and he was effective, but perplexing, as he out pitched his peripherals.  He was very wild, but unlike the other youngins that came up to the majors, he got outs.  I see plenty of potential here and what he needs is more time with Don Cooper.  This may end up being a Matt Thornton situation, where eventually he figures it out and becomes the lynchpin of a very good bullpen.
OUT – Leury Garcia
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I know he’s quick, I know he plays many positions, but exactly what are we expecting out of him?  He’s not likely to ever hit and we already have a quality utility player on this squad (I know Saladino doesn’t YET play the OF, but I can’t envision why he couldn’t at least man LF).  There is just no upside here.  There really isn’t a world where Leury Garcia can be a big league regular for a good team.  Time to cut bait now.  Truthfully, keeping him on the 25 man roster is as dumb as the double decker couch.
IN – Rymer Liriano
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I know, I know, I have been on the Rymer bandwagon since he was signed here.  I can’t help it, the thought of him hitting his potential makes my man parts happy.  The key here is that Liriano had an injury, which was a freak accident of sorts that derailed his development.  He has hit in the upper minors (okay, fine, it was the PCL, but at least it is something) which is a good sign and he’s been a touted prospect that just hasn’t found a spot.  He can’t play any CF, so you are probably thinking, BeefLoaf, how can this guy be our 4th OF, when we have Avi in RF and Melky in LF to go with #1 with a bullet other 108 man crush contestant Jacob May.  Here’s the thing……..Melky Cabrera doesn’t need to play LF every day…….or any day, he could predominantly DH.  Liriano has the upside potential to be an everyday regular, but the Sox need to run him out there and give him a chance.
Do you have strong feelings about a roster spot?  Reach out to us on the Twitter Machine or on Facebook to discussion.
– BeefLoaf

The 108 Interview Series – Bond-ing with Matt Bond.

Posted on by mysoxsummer

A year ago when we started up this blog, we had a a few people that started following us right away.  One of those loyal followers (and a guy who responds to our tweets) is Matt Bond.  Today, we celebrate Mr. Bond, Matt Bond (cause that’s original).

Several times while reading through his responses to my questions, I LOL’d and said to myself, “Yep, this is why he follows us.” Enjoy Bond-ing with Matt!

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Likes

Favorite Game That You Were At – Seeing Tyler Flowers’s walk-off in September 2014 home vs Oakland. My aunt got us free tickets from her lawyer. They were front row seats along 3rd base dugout. We were on TV the entire game behind the on-deck circle. Many people we grew up with saw us on TV. It was hilarious. My friend wore his Bane bask to the game which was in Batman.

Favorite All Time Player That Doesn’t Have a Statue On the Concourse – Scott Podsednik

Favorite Drink and Dinner at the Park – Guinness and Helmet Nachos.

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Favorite Place to Sit – Section 162 , the left-center bleachers.

Favorite Uniform –  1959 Home White Sox Jersey.

Favorite Giveaway –  1976 White Sox jersey (even though I didn’t get one!).

Favorite Theme Night – Half-Way to St. Patrick’s day.

Dislikes

What irks you the most about White Sox fans? Negativity and pessimism and only coming to park when they win.

What is the worst part of being a Sox fan? Being a fan of the minority team in Chicago.

In park Food and drink?  Can’t think of any.

Worst part of the game day experience? How can it be changed? Small crowds. SHOW UP!

What really grinds your gears? They got rid of the curly fries at the park!

Anything else? Limited media attention and lack of respect of franchise’s history.

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Game Day

Game Day Experience – Getting out of UIC and parking my car in my buddy’s driveway in Bridgeport and then walking to park. Meet my friends there coming from work. Then I enjoy a brew and probably hit up Ricobene’s.

Most memorable experience as a White Sox fan – Finding out the Sox swept Boston in the ALDS when I was at a carnival. Me and my buddy were die-hards in 7th grade and asked a security dude. We started jumping up and down hugging each other like girls. Who cares though. It was awesome doing that amongst Cubs fans on the northside.

Things the White Sox front office do well – Being frugal and resourceful with money.

Things the White Sox front office need to improve – Drafting and scouting better.

Ballpark experience, how could it be better? Need bars in the Bridgeport neighborhood, pregame and post game.

Intro? Love it. Need to maybe get somebody else besides Chance though.

Best Sox Park hack? Buying cheap tickets, parking for free near IIT, sneaking down to 100 level with small crowd.

What brings you back for every game? The pride of being a Sox fan and passing down what my grandfather, a southside native, passed down to me.

Feelings on the wave? It’s fun. The kids love it. The families love it. Drunk people love it.
 
Feelings on MGD? It’s good. I like all beer except IPAs some crafts.

Feelings on not being able to get pizza slices delivered to your seat? Get it yourself. This is why America is fat.

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Baseball Stuff

What’s your greatest fear about the “rebuild”? Our top prospects turn into busts.

What is there about this team that excites you the most?  Pressure will be off. Kids will get a chance to play. It will be all about development, having fun, and giving the unproven players looks.

Downside of the 2017 White Sox? Not expecting to contend.

Upside of the 2017 White Sox? There is nothing to lose and no expectations.

Thoughts on Coaching staff? Front office? Rick Renteria will have them ready to play. I like Hahn. Don’t really like Kenny Williams or Jerry Reinsdorf.

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Section 108 Questions

What is your favorite baseball word? “Filth”

What is your least favorite baseball word? Cubs.

What get’s you excited about the White Sox? Being an underdog.

What makes you sad about the White Sox? Lack of attendance.

What sound or noise at the ballpark do you love? Gene Honda.

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What sound or noise at the ballpark do you hate? Noise-meter.

What is your favorite Hawk curse word? Dad-gomn-it.

What position would you like to attempt for the White Sox (front office or field)? GM.

What position would you not like to do for the White Sox (front office or field)? There is none.

If heaven exists, what would you like to hear Minnie Minoso say when you arrive at the pearly gates? The Sox will rise again.

Happy Ending

What Other Chicago Teams Do You Enjoy – Hawks, Notre Dame, Northwestern, Bulls & Bears.

Favorite Chicago Sports History Moment – 2005 White Sox World Series.

How Often Do You Tweet – At least a dozen times a day.

Favorite Twitter Account (Besides @fromthe108) – Dom @WhiteSoxDom

What do you like best about @fromthe108 – Sarcasm and sense of humor.

Favorite Sox Broadcaster – Jason Bennetti

Do You Collect Any Sox Stuff – Hats

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Any Stories About Running Into or Meeting White Sox Players? Other Chicago Athletes? I played with Ozzie Guillen’s kids on a men’s baseball league team. I talked to him briefly. He would go to a handful of games. I was at the plate. In his accent, Ozzie would say…” Let’s go Three-Three!” Met more guys at Sox Fest. Saw Gene Honda at a Greek Restaurant. Followed the Stanley Cup bar crawl in 2013 when the Blackhawks won it all. I saw all the players on that team.

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Favorite Band? Oasis.

How Early Do You Get To Games? 30 minutes- 1 hour.

What Do You Bring To Games? My presence.

How Many Games Do You Go To Each Year? 18

Season Ticket Holder? No

Favorite Color? Blue

Married or Single? Looking for a GF? Single. Not looking. Letting it happen.

Do you remember your first Sox game? Yes. 1999. We beat the World Champion Yankees in 103 degrees. I was 6 years old.

What Player had the greatest impact on you? Scott Podsednik

What was the happiest day watching the Sox? 2008 blackout tie-breaker winner.

What was the saddest day watching the Sox? Texas Rangers May 2016, blowing that lead.

What do you do for work? If you could be or do anything else – what? I am a civil engineer working as a cost segregation consultant doing cost estimates on buildings so people can get tax write-offs on their property. If I could do anything else, it would be a public address announcer in a ballpark…hands down.

If you could live in any other time, when might that be? 1920s

If you could have dinner with five White Sox Players, past and present, who would they be?

Shoeless Joe Jackson, Nellie Fox, Billy Pierce, Mark Buerhle, Paul Konerko

What one word would you use to describe yourself? Balanced.

What one word would your friends use to describe you? Chill.

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If you could change one thing in your past, what might that be? Worry less.

What are you most proud of? Graduating college with an engineering degree.

How would you like to be remembered? Being fair with everyone.

What’s the one thing about you few people know? I like alone time despite being social.

What do you dislike most about yourself? Feeling obligated to go out and blow money at bar on weekends.

What do you dislike most in others? Pessimism.

What were your best/worst subjects in school? History was the best. Science was the worst. Ironically I graduated with a Bachelor’s of Science in Engineering. Go figure. Gotta follow the money.

What do you like doing in your spare time? Keeping up to date with sports on Twitter.

Who is your celebrity crush? Jen Lada, ESPN reporter.

What is your favourite movie? School of Rock.

What is your biggest/weirdest fear? Coming off as creepy to a girl.

What would be your one super power? Mind-reading.

What would you change your name to? Jeremy

What pet would you love to have? Dog

What’s your one biggest pet peeve? Laziness

What’s your one annoying habit? Scratching throat

Who is your inspiration? My grandfather.

What other languages do you speak? None.

What would be a good theme song for your life? “How You Like Me Now” – The Heavy

What is your favourite song? “Rita Mae Young”- The Record Company

What ballpark would you like to visit? Old Comiskey

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If you weren’t a Sox Fan, what would you be up to right now? Watching TV

 

Big thanks to Matt!  You can follow Matt on Twitter @bonderman92

New Rules at the G-Spot!!!

Posted on by mysoxsummer
Good day all, it’s your buddy BeefLoaf.  Before we got ourselfs covered in snow, we had a month or so of basically beautiful weather.  During that time, I snapped a few pictures around the ballpark.  Most of the pictures are of the Guaranteed Rate folks smearing their obnoxious logo all over everything. This one in particular caught my eye!
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I must admit, if something like this existed previously, I never knew of their existence.  I assumed Sox Park was basically self policing (and if you have read any of our “BallPark Experience” columns, you’ll know why).  Anywho, here is a rundown of the list…..
– Guaranteed Rate Field will be free from foul/abusive language or obscene gestures by guests
 
When I posted this picture on @fromthe108 twitter, the first rule got the most response.  People cursing at me as to why they couldn’t go a whole game (or inning) without explicitives.  Believe me, I know.  I’m not sure if this rule got the most response because we as a fan base love to FUCKING SWEAR, or we collectively got tired of reading past the first rule because it was Sunday Funday and the day drinking precluded us from continuing much further, but anywho, I digress.  I tried to envision a White Sox game without foul or abusive language and it was awful…..awful like watching Goodfellas on the USA Network.  This is an artform, a medium if you will “FANDOM”, which requires artistic liberty and without it, we are all fucked!
– Intervention with an impaired or intoxicated guest will be handled in a prompt and safe manner
Seems like there is a bunch of code words and triggers in here, but from what I can gather, they aren’t fond of drunk people.  If people aren’t allowed to get impaired, we won’t get awesome chit like John Daly slinging drinks at ChiSox bar before games.
 
Doesn’t feel like a White Sox game if BeerBungHole can’t sidle up with the 108ers double fisting 24 oz Vodka/Sodas because he’s “taking a break from beer” OR if MadMex can’t race down to the bullpen bar between innings for a couple of shots to ensure he has an extra mellow game experience.  It is especially great because the White Sox just spent the last week making statements and releasing articles on who are the new beer partners in the ballpark.  CHILD PLEASE!
This is White Sox Nation, we drink hard and come out to watch a below average entertainment product.  Deal with it!
– Our guests’ experience will not be disrupted by unruly actions of behavior of others, including unauthorized persons entering or throwing any objects onto the field
Glad to see we are on rule 3 and we already have typos.  Did they hire us at the 108 to proofread this shit?  Anyway, although we don’t condone it, idiots run on the field all the time and there are no mechanisms in place to stop them from doing so, so Imma assume it continues despite this bullshit rule.  NEXT.
Fan above really enjoying their visit to the ballpark
– Guests will show their tickets when requested and sit only in their ticketed seats
As maddening as the cursing and drunkenness embargos are, this is truly the dumbest fucking rule possible.  I should do a poll on twitter about this (but I’ll probably forget by the time I am done writing this).  The 108ers collectively have gone to thousands of games and you know how many times there has been a dispute over seating that couldn’t be handled by the fans themselves?  ZERO!!!!!!  I get this rule in very extreme circumstances, say a playoff game, but otherwise, the folks in the red shirt should sit the fuck down unless a fan summons them.  Asking fans to show their tickets when there are 3,800 of us in the ballpark on a Thursday Night in September is some stupid shit.  We in the 108 try to educate those folks on this as the 108 is a lower corner and people often come sit there when they have snuck down from the upper bowl.  Unless there is a problem, there is no need to check a ticket during a regular game.
Obviously a big need to check tickets tonight!
– Use of tobacco products including smokeless tobacco and e-cigarettes is prohibited in the ballpark.  Violators are subject to ejection and fines imposed under……..whatever
Remember the days when you could smoke everywhere?  That was pretty awful.  I remember coming home from the bars, a newly 21 BeefLoaf, I’d wake up hungover as death, and my hair reeked of cigarette smoke.  Ah, those were the days.  I actually get this rule to some extent, so nothing much to complain about.  I do think it would be funny to envision security really taking upon itself to remove a fan from the stadium over an e-cigarette.  Can you envision a hipster vaper getting dragged from his seat with an e-cig hanging from his lip?  Would be fucking magic!
What say you?  Gotta complaint about the new rules?  Hit us up on Twitter or Facebook (preferably Twitter, as everytime I get on Facebook, I get enthralled with everyones political views so it bogs me down).
– BeefLoaf

Wild Predictions OR Things that won’t happen, but you could imagine what it would be like if they did

Posted on by mysoxsummer
Good day friends, it’s your old pal BeefLoaf and I figured I would run down some predictions for 2017.  These are for entertainment purposes only, but if you make any money off these predictions, like Ginger McKenna, I WANT MY CUT.

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Charlie Tilson will generate the most WAR in the White Sox OF in 2017

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Melky is far better and Avi is likely to have more playing time, but Charlie Tilson will be the most valuable OF on this team.  I envision Melky Cabrera logging some time at DH and then summarily being traded.  Avi could lose time to Rymer Liriano or even Jason Coats, but Tilson (hurt as he is right now), appears to have the inside track at as many innings as he can handle in CF.  Unless Peter Bourjos takes his fruit cup or the White Sox suddenly think Jacob May deserves a shot, it will be Tilson leading the squad in WAR in the OF.
“The Wave” will have a BIG YEAR at Guaranteed Rate “aka” Harambe Memorial Field

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You know our take in the 108 and that is, FUCK THE WAVE!  108’s very own MySoxSummer was made a minor celebrity by this video.  Regardless, the fan base will be smaller and when they do come out, they are going to be far drunker, and drunk people fucking love the wave.  Us 108ers will have a lot of time on our hands at the ballpark watching bad baseball, so maybe we’ll figure out an anti-wave to combat this bullshit.
Rick Renteria will gain more weight than Don Cooper

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Look, we all know both of these gents are robust, and its been years since it even appeared that Don Cooper would try to lose weight (I mean the guy nearly died of diverticulitis and that won’t stop his ever expanding waist band), BUT, what I also know is that us latinos tend to expand our waist band as our income expands, and becoming the manager is most definitely a pay raise.  I hope that isn’t the case, but I believe it to be true.
Hawk will cry on air about Todd Frazier being traded

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The man left the booth to check on Frazier last year.  I am hoping for a tearful goodbye as Frazier is traded mid-game, but we’ll probably get that version of crying that you would have as a kid where you are also frustrated and sort of can’t breath either, where its like a gasp, that’s what we’ll probably get.  Maybe he’ll even cuss (he’s often said he wishes he could).  It’s the least he can do for those of us who have stuck by his brand insisting he’s “entertaining”
108 Twitter account will pass Jay Mariotti for twitter followers

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As of this morning the 108 twitter acct has 1,884 wonderful followers and the soul-less pud whack known as Jay Mariotti, the man that Ozzie Guillen once called a Maricon has 5,566.  The fact that he has more than us right now is insane, but we’ll pass him up before we are ringing in the new year in 2018.  If we get to Thanksgiving and we are still behind, we’ll post nudes to get there, “Win or Die Trying”
– BeefLoaf

Another Beer Blog.

Posted on by mysoxsummer

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Did you see the news on Friday?  After a 30 year run (and countless cases of cirrhosis) Miller is out, Modelo is in. I have mixed feelings on the whole deal, and I hope we learn what happened, but more than likely we’ll never really know the details.  It ends a relationship that seemed to be mutually beneficial for both groups, but maybe it is time to move on.  As reported, Modelo is the 2nd leading beer in the city of big shoulders behind Lite. In the 108, it makes an appearance during the summer on Beefloaf’s Patio, sometimes several.  Reportedly this opens up what will be served at the park, which is quite the selection as it stood.  I know we all wanna know if they will be serving Cheladas, which could get very interesting. Let take a look at some of new options that the Sox have included in the conversations going forward.

What are the “NEW”  local options?

Two new breweries have been announced for G Rate Field, Baderbrau and Pollyanna. Let’s take a look at what they both have to offer.

There is this little brewery a mile or so away from the park called Baderbrau. It is often credited as the first craft brewer in Chicago, serving a Czech-style pilsener in the mid-90’s.  They have a sweet location on 25th and Wabash that the 108 posse has hit many times. But the best part? SOUTH SIDE PRIDE. A Helles style brew that it damn tasty.  I suggest you take a look the next time you wanna buy a local beer and give that can a try.  They have several styles, lots of lagers, that are easily session beers that will hold up with any in the Chicago scene. Being so lager forward, it is an easier transition for the domestic drinker to move to a crafty style lager. The Chicago Pils might be one of the most easy drinking beers I have ever had.

 

I am not as familiar with Pollyanna, but I will be taking acre of that problem as soon as possible.  I am pretty sure I was drinking Mazzie during the NIU/Toledo football game in Nov, but who knows?  Whatever it was went down smooth and helped me forget that there were only 47 people at that game.  Their offerings on their website look delish, including a high ABV Porter (Eleanor) and IPA (Lexical Gap). I promise to write yet another blog about beer after I have been to or drank a shitload of Pollyanna Beer. I will do all that drinking just so you don’t. Sacrifice, it’s what the 108 is all about.

What are the OLD “local” options?

A 108 fave is a Revolution Brewery.  We’ve talked at great length about the Sec 112 24oz Anti-Hero for under $12, but they produce other awesome beers. Lagunitas is already there too, but I’d love to see more options from another brewery that is only a couple miles from the park.  Lagunitas serves up some great food too, and the people that work there take great pride in introducing you to a vast array of lovely beers.

I love me some 3 Floyds too, but not a fan of Yum Yum, which is what they sell at the park now.  I get why they sell that there though, one of the more easy drinking beers they produce, I’d hate to see a rowdy crowd killing Zombie Dusts’ like they are going out of style.  Even with a 6.66% ABV, it sneaks up on you and you can go from zero to drunk rather quickly.  With a season upon us that could prove to be brutal on the scoreboard, it could get bad with high alcohol beers in mass quantity.

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I get that most folks don’t really like to crush what they consider “heavy” stouts at a summer game.  But as a coffee stout aficionado, I’d love to see an option on the menu for the early and late season games.  Stouts and porters tend to open up as they warm so even if you sip it, it just get’s better.  One of my faves is from Great River Brewery in the Quad Cities. Redband Stout, which used to be readily available, but now seems to be only available at special times.  Or not at all.  Who knows? If we go outside the state, Coffee Bender from Surly is a strong choice too.  Check it out if you like coffee flavored beers.

So what is the best case scenario?

What I would like to see, it a bunch of draft options, that could be limited, could be unlimited, but always should be fresh.  Can any one brewer in Chicago handle the output?  I am guessing no, but that let’s conquer it in numbers.  Have several breweries there providing their best beers, let’s make it like a beer festival up in the G Spot (ugh, shudder).

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For all you domestic drinkers, I am sure you will be well taken care of, as Lite will still be in the park, just not in the bins.  The Shandy’s will be around I am sure, so that should suffice about 75% of our beer drinking fans.  I’d encourage you to try some of these other beers when you are out and about in your home drinking scene.  I wouldn’t suggest giving them a try at the park when the price will make it even worse if you dislike it.  And you should be fair to beer, it’s earned that right.

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The beer revolution has been great to me and other beer drinkers and I think the Sox have been right on the pulse getting good beer options to the fans.  Way better than up north, that is for sure.  The Sox are the beer (and BP Cup) champions.  I think they will continue this trend with more great options.

Have any suggestions for us?  Send them to us on Twitter – @fromthe108

Cheers fans.

-MSS

Best Baseball Movies of All Time

Posted on by chorizy

If you’ve ever sat with us in the 108, you know that we don’t limit our talk to just baseball.  Whether it be booze or music or movies, we try to keep ourselves entertained especially when the product on the field is not all that entertaining.  When we talk about movies, we inevitably end up talking sports movies, which turns into baseball movies, which turns into me expressing my distaste for Field of Dreams.  I regularly tout it as James Earl Jones’s 3rd best baseball movie (behind Sandlot and The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings).  Now I know trying to ruin your family’s life because you have daddy issues is a common thing, but I prefer to let that play out at Pink Monkey instead of through the course of a long, boring baseball movie.  But that’s enough about Field of Dreams. The point of this is that there are varying, strong opinions on baseball movies, so I wanted to try to figure out what the best baseball movie is.

It’s March Madness time, so why not have a tournament.   And none of us are athletic enough to physically play anything, so let’s do it on Twitter.  Starting Thursday, I’ll put up polls so you can vote for your favorites.

Qualifications

I probably could have filled this with all straight up baseball movies, but honestly, there is no way people have seen all the movies I have listed already.  Instead, I added some almost baseball movies to the mix so we have some dark horses that might pull off an early upset or two.  For example Naked Gun or Parenthood.  Now, they’re not technically baseball movies, so I gave them low seeds.  To sum up, the only real qualification is that I have to consider it a baseball movie.

Costner Region

Kevin Costner is in quite a few baseball movies and even more because I gave him Untouchables just based on the one scene where Capone talks about baseball and then ballbats a guy’s head.  But unfortunately or maybe fortunately, there are not enough to fill a region.  So I added some movies in there that he could have been in, like Moneyball or The Rookie.  I also added Mr Destiny because I had to think of a way I could dislike that movie even more.

I ended up giving Field of Dreams a 2 seed because I know how much people love the whole ‘have a catch’ thing even though nobody ever says that.  Bull Durham got the 1 seed because it’s a far superior movie and they didn’t fuck up which side of the plate Shoeless Joe should bat from.  In the end, I realized I don’t really care for Costner.  Though I probably like him more than this guy does.

  1. Bull Durham
  2. Field of Dreams
  3. For the Love of the Game
  4. Moneyball
  5. The Rookie
  6. Trouble with the Curve
  7. Mr Destiny
  8. Million Dollar Arm
  9. The Slugger’s Wife
  10. Mr Baseball
  11. Long Gone
  12. Fever Pitch
  13. Upside of Anger
  14. My Blue Heaven
  15. Untouchables
  16. Summer Catch

Kids Region

I think this region really splits people into two camps: Sandlot vs Bad News Bears.  And yes, I put the original Bad News Bears, not the shit with Billy Bob Thornton.  I ended up giving Sandlot the 1 seed over Bad News Bears mainly because of Benny The Jet’s sweet stache at the end of the film.  I also have Parenthood in this one because the little league scene is fantastic, but also because “You made me play second base!” always makes me laugh. Honestly in this region, there are some really good family flicks, some garbage I didn’t know existed like the Air Bud baseball movie, and then a few that just should not have been made like Benchwarmers.  Yes, someone (Adam Sandler) actually thought putting David Spade, Jon Heder, Rob Schneider, and Nick Swardson in a baseball movie together would have good results.

  1. Sandlot
  2. Bad News Bears (1976)
  3. Little Big League
  4. Rookie of the Year
  5. Angels in the Outfield  (1994)
  6. The Man From Left Field
  7. The Perfect Game
  8. The Final Season
  9. Hardball
  10. Mickey
  11. Everyone’s Hero
  12. Air Bud: Seventh Inning Fetch
  13. Benchwarmers
  14. Parenthood
  15. Bad News Bears Go To Japan
  16. Sandlot 2

Major League Region

I’m calling this the Major League Region, because I put all 3 Major League movies in it.  It’s definitely not because the movies are “major league” caliber.  This was my dumping ground for the weirder movies.  So much so, I had to pull The Natural in from the Costner Bracket just so there was a reasonable 2 seed.  Other than that, I’ve got some gems here like Battlefield Baseball and the Fan.  The Fan is such a weird movie and by weird I mean terrible, but there is still something great about DeNiro playing a crazy guy.  I also have a Joe Mantegna vehicle about Russian baseball, which just has to be awesome.  Major League takes the 1 seed and is probably my favorite baseball movie.  And yeah, I gave my favorite movie the weakest region.

  1. Major League
  2. The Natural
  3. Major League 2
  4. Mr 3000
  5. Baseketball
  6. Sugar
  7. Game 6
  8. The Scout
  9. Talent for the Game
  10. The Fan
  11. Battlefield Baseball
  12. The Comrades of Summer
  13. Ed
  14. Naked Gun
  15. Brewster’s Millions
  16. Major League: Back to the Minors

Historic Region

I ended up giving A League of Their Own the 1 seed as it is a great flick, but more importantly Jon Lovitz is probably the greatest scout portrayed in a movie.  This region, to me, is the toughest.  My personal favorite here is Bingo Long, but there are a ton of great movies in this region.  If you haven’t seen a lot of these movies, I urge you to check ’em out.  Well at least the high seeds.  Nobody really needs to see The Babe, Ed, or Blue Skies Again which is apparently Just One of the Guys – baseball version.  And to be clear, Life is the Eddie Murphy movie not the crap with Ryan Reynolds that I keep seeing commercials for.  I’m talking about the one with Can’t Get Right and his glorious bat (she knows what I mean).

  1. A League of Their Own
  2. Eight Men Out
  3. The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings
  4. Cobb
  5. 61*
  6. 42
  7. Pride of the Yankees
  8. Bang The Drum Slowly
  9. No No: A Dockumentary
  10. The Pride of St Louis
  11. Soul of the Game
  12. The Babe
  13. Fear Strikes Out
  14. Damn Yankees!
  15. Life
  16. Blue Skies Again

Here’s the bracket.  Make sure to follow us on Twitter @fromthe108 to vote for your favorites.

-Chorizy-E