Three Things This Thursday

I am a bit of a procrastinator. Thursday is almost over and I am just getting to Three Things This Thursday. Today is supposed to be a themed edition of 3 Things This Thursday entitled 3 Gifts This Thursday. If my tardiness hasn't put too great a damper on the proceedings I will tell you about 3 gifts I have received in my life time and give you an opportunity to do the same.



Gift 1. When I was in the fourth grade my parents gave me a book called Chippy Chipmunk. It was a fantastic read and I read it over and over. When I think back to my formidable years and my life love long of reading I often think of that book.



Gift 2. A few winters back Amy gave me a fantastic book about the 1980 U.S. Men's Olympic Hockey Team that surprised the world and wrested the gold medal from the perpetual clutches of the Soviets. The name of the book is The Boys of Winter by Wayne Coffey. I have used it as source material for a segment I do here at the blog called Hockey Lessons.



Gift 3. Most Christmases and birthdays my Dad gives me a bit of money with the general instructions don't spend this on the mortgage or use this to buy something you generally wouldn't. When my Dad this in Christmas of 2004, Any and I saved it for a few months until we figured out best how to use it. One day a co-worker gave me the White Sox group tickets order form. She worked in the mail room and had received it and knew our company wasn't going to use it and thought I might want to look at it knowing how huge of a Sox fan I am. Most of the plans were untenable financially but there was 1 plan the Minnie Plan named after White Sox legend Minnie Minoso. The Minnie plan was for 9 home games. It still seemed like a lot of money to pay for tickets when we generally only went to 2 to 3 games a year.

Amy was adamant, she said we had the money from my Dad's gift and she knew how much I would enjoy it. So I stepped out of my comfort zone and spent the big bucks on an extravagance.

I am really glad I did. It turns out that the year that I attended my most Sox games was in fact the year they won the World Series. We bought 2 tickets to each of the nine games. I was able to invite friends and family and even if the Sox had not won it all the memories of the time spent with loved ones watching my favorite sports team would be worth every penny my Dad spent.

So those are my 3 gifts this Thursday. What gifts do you remember? What meaning do they have? link on to Mr. Linky below and tell us all about it.






Next Time: Library Week

Happy Anniversary Bobby Jenks

It's Christmas time and everyone seems to be on the hunt for bargains. For Baseball general managers one place to look for bargains is the waiver wire.

This time of year baseball teams are shuffling their rosters around and will often cut a player lose as part of a numbers game. In December 2004, The LA Angels of Anaheim decided to cut Bobby Jenks a highly regarded pitching prospect. In 4 years in the minors Big Bobby had compiled a lot of excess baggage including elbow trouble, erratic behavior and accusations of racism. 1

Enter White Sox GM who on this day in 2004 took a chance on the 100 MPH as a reclamation project. The White Sox decided to shift him from a starter to a role in the bullpen. Jenks came up mid season for the Sox in 2005 and won the role of closer late in the year due to injuries to Dustin Hermanson who was also acquired in December of 2004. Jenks saved 6 games for the Sox in'05 in the regular season and 4 more in the playoffs including the first and last games of the World Series. So in ten months time Jenks had been transformed from the baseball scrap heap to a World Series hero.

Alas, not every waiver wire pick-up has such fantastic upside. But on the 5 year anniversary of the Jenks acquisition, I am still glad that this one did.

Footnotes:

1. Baseball Reference.com - Bobby Jenks Article