Stats Sunday: Worst thing about the 2024 White Sox

The Chicago White Sox start ful squad workout for  2025 Spring Training tomorrow.  I thought this might be a good time to review the 2024 team.  The 2023 White Sox were horrible.  They were record breaking bad. I know, can I analyze or what?

One stat more than any other shows how bad their start to the season was.  This stat would be the number of 1 game losing streaks the White Sox had in the first half of the season.  A 1 game losing streak may sound like a bad thing but it is actually pretty good. A 1 game losing streak is really a series of 3 games in a row, a win followed by a loss followed by another win.  Here is a list of the 30 MLB teams last year listed with their record after 71 games and how many 1 game losing streaks they had at that point of the season.  

Arizona Diamondbacks        34-37         12

Atlanta Braves                      40-31         12

Baltimore Orioles                 47-24        10

Boston Red Sox                  36-35          7

Chicago Cubs                     34-37          12

Chicago White Sox             18-53          0

Cincinatti Reds                    34-37          8

Cleveland Guardians           45-26          10

Colorado Rockies                25-46          5

Detroit Tigers                      34-37           7

Houston Astros                    32-39           11

Kansas City Royals             40-31            10

Los Angeles Angels             28-43            7

Los Angeles Dodgers           43-28           10

Miami Marlins                     23-48            6

Milwaukee Brewers             42-29            11

Minnesota Twins                  39-32             9

New York Mets                    34-37              7

New York Yankees               49-22              8

Philadelphia Phillies             47-24              13

Pittsburgh Pirates                  34-37              10

San Diego Padres                  36-35               11     

San Francisco Giants             34-37              13

Seattle Mariners                     40-32              12

St. Louis Cardinals                 36-35              12

Tampa Bay Rays                     33-38              10

Texas Rangers                         33-38              13

Toronto Blue Jays                    35-36              10

Washington Nationals              35-36              11

In 71 games all the other teams in Major League Baseball had at least 5 1 game losing streaks.  1 game losing streaks are a key to any kind of sustained success.  A 1 game losing streak means you can start inching back up in the win column.  If its multiple losses are followed by a win or two and then followed by multiple losses you are never going to gain any momentum.   

lack of momentum was certainly yjr case for the 2024 White Sox. This was partially  because it took  72 games to finally stop the bleeding after a 1 game losing streak.  By that tine they were 19-53.  In the 90 games left in the season they would have needed to go 62-28 to get to .500.  They did not go 62-28 in their last 90, They went 22-68 or .244 which was actually worse than the  .263 winning percentage for the 1st 72 games.

Very few people including myself, expect the White Sox to be much better than they were last year.  They may well lose 100 or more game s for the 3rd year in a row.  One thing  I will be looking at is  if they can  put a win or two together and then lose just 1 game before getting back in the win column.  In fact I have a plan for a future  Stats Sunday focusing on  how long it takes each team to stop a losing streak at just one game.  Hopefully the White Sox won't be the last team to achieve that this year.  

Team Saturdazzle: The One Where Captain Abearica goes to work.

Team Saturdazzle is in the house.  I had many ideas this week for our time together.  Some of them I discarded, others I forgot what they were, still others, I discarded , forgot about them, remembered them again, bit forgot that I had previously discarded them, and then discarded them again.  This one  happened organically but took about a week to culminate, so I'll share a little of the genesis. 

Monday or Tuesday of this week I found out that our school was having yet another pajama day.  I thought that I might participate this time.  There also had been some talk about a lot of snow coming into our are Wednesday and  some thoughts that the regular school day might be replaced by an  e-learning day.  The main difference between a weather related closure, or snow day and an e-learning day is that an e-learning day does not be made up and a snow day does.  On E-learning days teachers give assignments to students, the students check in with them over the course of the day and it counts as a day of instruction.  E-learning days had their beginnings during co-vid 19 and can be used for weather related closures and other times when meeting at the school is not possible.  I think for the most part teachers like these e-learning days but as a building sub at least in my district I do not because I don't work on those days and when I don't work, I don't get paid.  In a traditional snow day situation,, I also don't work and don't get paid, but when the school year is extended because of the closure I work and get paid making up for the day I missed.

It turns out that our school was not cancelled.  But there was still a lot of snow in the forecast for the majority of the day.  So, I wore sweat pants, a tye dye t-shirt and then put warm pajama bottoms  over the sweat pants and a thick robe on over the ensemble.  As I was leaving I decided to bring 

Captain Abearica, the Build-A-Bear Captain  America my daughter Lucy brought for me and that I've been using in various ways as a Sub since 2019. I figured what goes better with pajamas than a stuffed animal.

Pajama Day  came and went.  The 6th grade science classes that I subbed for that day that weren't too cool for school enjoyed his appearance.  On Thursday after school I decided to take advantage of the perk I have at the movie theatre where I work and watch the new Captain America movie for free.  My plan was to bring Captain Abearica  in as well, because family members also get in for free.   I remembered to bring him to work on Thursday but forgot to take him into the theatre.  

Thursday was the soft opening of the new film whose full title is Captain America Brave New World.  The hard opening was Friday, I was working and I figured the place was going to be a zoo.  I have a very logical mind, at least to me. I thought if the place is going to be a zoo, why not bring a bear, especially one who's dressed for the occasion? 

I talked to my manager, who thought it was a great idea and provided me a name tag for "Cap".

Captain Abearica AKA Steve Pawgers

The Captain was a big hit and some people even offered to buy him.  My manager is letting me bring him back for my shifts for the rest of the run of the film.  Who knows maybe he'll even let me dress up like this?

I'll probably have to wait until the next pajama day.

April Blogging from A to Z Challenge 2025 SIGN-UP March 24-April 5 a-to-zchallenge.com

The A to Z Challenge blog posted yesterday for the first time since May of last year. Besides introducing the above 2025 badge.  They posted the schedule for this years challenge: 

 

2025 #AtoZchallenge Schedule: 

 The THEME REVEAL (optional bonus hop) : March 9- 15 

 Official Challenge Sign-ups : March 24 to April 5 

 Reflections (optional bonus hop) : May 2-9 

 Road-trip (sign up to keep visiting others all year _ optional bonus) : Opens May 10

I'm not sure exactly what I might be doing for the challenge.  I've had 4 ideas and I like all of them, but unlike some of the past years I'm only going to do one of them this year

Even as a big fan of the challenge,   I still take umbrage with the way they schedule the reflection so early .  This year challenge ends on a Wednesday and you have all of Thursday to reflect on the challenge before Friday when the reflection  sign up begins.  That's not enough time to reflect!!!  Well that's my rant.  Remember if you are missing any umbrage, I took it.  

Now for a new Saturdazzle feature:

 Something I said on Facebook this week

My friend's BIL posted on FB this week that he found the Super Bowl game boring. I so did not! So I said this on FB this week:

I loved everything about this game. The Eagles delivered in every aspect of the game after being overlooked in all the talk about a 3peat. Not a KC hater nor an Eagle lover but this was a quality football game Jeff. I’m sorry you didn’t like it.

That's it for this week.  That's my Saturdazzle and I'm sticking to it.   

An Open Letter to Bob Morgan

 

Bob Morgan

Il State Representative  58th District

Dear Representative Morgan:

A few years ago some well meaning member of the state senate decided to fix something that wasn't broke with  a bill called SB136.  At the time, I was the dedicate home educator of our family home school, and  as the bill  was primarily aimed at home education I rallied against it even writing several posts about it on my blog. At that time I thought I might be done with blogging about misguided bill proposals.  But thanks to you, I get to go at it again.  

 While it may have seemed to you  like a good idea to tie winning records into public funding requests  for sports facilities,  and it certainly  gave you 15 minutes of fame, The question remains why you would set winning records as a requirement for stadiums when it is not requisite for other public funding.  

Public schools, for example, continue to receive public funds even when the students are not showing winning records.  In fact, one can make the argument that we should put funds in schools that are not winning so their winning percentage can increase in years to come.  It's called development. Also ,we spend money on prisons and that money is spent on people who come to have losing records, sometimes in your line of work.  

{{Information |Description={{en|1=Staley Da Bear, the official mascot of the Chicago Bears. }} |Source=http://www.flickr.com/photos/blueyeda73/2988610732/ |Author=[http://www.flickr.com/photos/blueyeda73/ blueyeda73] |Date=10 28, 2008 |Permission=see belo

One of the main  reasons we should be exploring the idea of spending public funding for sports teams like the Bears is to bring more quality opportunities to our area.  If the Bears had a state of the art facilty they woukd be much more likely to be considered for hosting events like the Super Bowl and giving the State of Illinois and the City of Chicago more leverage in winning a future bid for hosting the Olympic games.    Those events would certainly bringg revenue to the owners of the facility but would also bring visitors, jobs and positive notoriety to the area.

If you still insist on making winning records part of government financing of a stadium I'm not sure the requirement of  3 of 5 years winning record your proposal calls for is the best way to go.   According to your plan, a team could win 3 of their last 5 and then have 9 straight losing seasons.  A back end approach seems more feasible. Perhaps after the team that receives financial backing from the state starts playing in their new facility there be a written into the contract that if the team has a combined losing record any 5 consecutive seasons in a 19 year period that they have to pay the state a predetermined amount.  This could either be a percentage of the original financing amount or a percentage of their annual revenue.

If such a plan was in place after government money was used to build what was then called Comiskey Park or Comiskey Park II, there would have only been 1 5 year period of 15 (1995-1999) where the White Sox would have needed to pay a penalty.  During that 19 year period the White Sox went to playoffs 4 times and won the World Series  in 2005.  Those 4 playoff appearances were one more than the 80 seasons played at the original Comiskey. When put that way it seems like it  was money well spent.  

By Tony - Bears vs Chiefs, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link

As for calling your act the BEARS act may make sense to you since Lake Forest, I believe is in your district but to name it  for just one team when many may  want to finance a stadium seems again like a cute way to make a name for yourself.  I would suggest a better acronym and a better plan before calling any more audibles.  

Team Saturdazzle: The One where I Mispronounced Meme Twice.

Another Saturday, another Saturdazzle .  Todays Saturdazzle could also be called The one with the 14 year old video.  After I statrted this blog in 2009, I started in short order a few more blogs most notably Crazy Uncle Dave's Sport-O-Rama and Dave Out Loud. Dave Out Loud was my attempt at a vlog.  A few years ago I combined all 3 blogs into this one. 

As I often do in the early months of the new year I've been cleaning up this blog.  Spending time looking at old posts, and revamping the look of it.  While I was doing that I came across this video talking about my the previous week at our home school.

I was participating in a meme called weekly wrap up where you share post about your week and link your post up to a site.  These things still happen and I hope one day to see if I can make Team Saturdazzle a weekly link up.  

A few years after this post I discovered that I had been mispronouncing meme.  In it's correct pronunciation it's pronounced like it thymes with theme.  However, I was pronouncing it me me.  So when I learned of my mistake, I just corrected my pronunciation and moved on.  

What I didn't realized was that there was evidence of my earlier failure to communicate.  I invite you to watch what I am calling exhibit A.  Where I mispronounce meme not once but twice.

Now if you were wondering what I was thinking when I pronounced meme me me, it is this: Most of the memes I knew at that time were blogging memes and it seemed like the purpose of the blogging meme was to get the attention of other bloggers.  It was to me as if you were shouting Me! Me! Look at me,  That's why I pronounced it me me.  

Memories of Kite Fest 1999

Amy and I were married in April of 1998 and her two brothers gave us a wedding gift of a weekend  in Madison Wisconsin, where they both lived and still live.  We went up in early February and discovered there was a kite flying festival taking place.  I have pictures similar to the picture below in a photobook some where. If you click on the caption below the picture, it will give you more infor about the event this year.  While that festival no longer exists.  There is a kite flying event on the same lake today as part of a new winter festival in Madison.  

Kite Fest 1999 Madison Wisconsin
I do not own this picture, click on the caption for the full story.

Team Saturdazzle At The Movies

Powered by Box Office Mojo

Top 10 Films  January 2025 

and by default

 top 10 Films of 2005 as of 1/31/2005

10. Baby Girl Up 2 from December

9. Wolf Man

8. One of Then Days

7. Den of Thieves: Pantera

6. A Complete Unknown Up 1 from December

5. Wicked Down 3 From December

4. Nosferatu Up 2 from December

3. Moana 2 Down 2 from December

2. Sonic The Hedgehog 3: Up 1 from December

1. Mufasa: The Lion King Up 3 from December

Writer's Workshop: 4 Prompts in 8 sentences? I'll try.

 

Here are this week’s prompts(I have the 4 I'm attempting in bold): 

1.  Write a post based on the word military. 
2. Write a post in exactly 8 lines. 
3. Write a list of movies that always make you smile. 
4. Choose a social media platform (e.g. Facebook, X, Instagram etc.) and tell us what you love and hate about it. 
5. Tell us about a time you had to go to court. 
6. Tell us about your best friend from the old neighborhood. 

 My 10 favorite movies  which are The Princess Bride, Miss Potter, Marty, Adventures of Robin Good, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, Chariots of Fire, Casablanca, Ordinary People, The Muppet Movie, and It's A Wonderful Life   (click here for more info) all have moments that never fail to make me smile.  What I hate about Twitter can be summed up by the response to my 2/3/2005 tweet, "I'm thinking of quitting Twitter, ( Can't bring myself to call it X) It's not what it once was.", 5 impressions, no engagements, no comments in 48 hours.  One time I had to go court, not sure exactly why, proof of insurance, probably.  While I was waiting I decided to watch the festivities one young man waited in line with his very  energetic baby  son and when it was their turn, he had to give an update on what he was doing to get his driving privileges reinstated.  He assured the court that he had taken the bus to this appointment.  In the town I used to live in there is no bus stop next to the court room but many are walking distance.  He was given another court date, and then I was called, I provided whatever documentation was required of me and walked out of the court building.  As I walked I saw the man driving his son away in a car, in my town you can put a bicycle in a special holder in front of the bus, I had no idea they also did that for cars!

8 sentences? Maybe. 8 lines? Probably not.  But at least, I get an E for Effort.  John Holton invites  your prompt reply to his prompts at The Sound of One Hand Typing by clicking here.

Team Saturdazzle: The One with Bits and Pieces.

Today's Team Saturdazzle is just a quick compilation of stories, clips and jokes.

Like many days when I was a kid it starts with Sesamee Strret and it ends with a snack,

One of the things I liked about Sesamee Street from an early age was the guest appearances.  One of the ealriest I remember probably since I like puns so much is when the cast of Bonanza came on the show.  They were on a lot of season 2 and did segments where they counted or recited the alphabet or demonstrated math problems like the video below.  

 

In the episode I remember they do a play on the Ernie and Bert banana in my ear sketch (original sketch below) except instead of saying banana in my ear they actually say Bonanza in my ear. Epic!

Sesamee Street has continued with their guest appearances.  I just discovered this gem with Billy Joel and Marlee Matlin (CODA, West Wing, Children of a Lesser God) . I'm a big Billy Joel fan and also love writing new lyrics to old songs and Joel does this by tweaking one of his standards and adapting it to Oscar The Grouch.  

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Yesterday I had one of my days where I was out of the house at 6:30 and not back for good until after midnight. I was home for about 90 minutes in the afternoon.  My wife and daughter were preparing for  an impromptu game night, where they had invited several people a day or less before the party was slated to begin.  A few people did manage to come, but when I was home the only people they had heard from were unable to attend.  This gave me an idea for a wry observation which I shared on my personal FB page:

A lot of times when people can't make it to an event youv'e asked them to attend, they will respond something like that sounds great, but I'm busy that day. Just once can't they say that sounds like an awful time, but I'm not doing anything see ya at 7?

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This morning, Amy and I were judging another speech tournament.  This time it was at held at Lucy's old high school.  When you walk in the hallowed halls of a high school there are pictures of accomplished student athletes and plaques with the names of students who received accolades, awards, accomplishments, and some words that don't start with A like scholarships. None of those halls in any of those schools contain my picture.  I wasn't that kind of athlete, and I was not that kind of student.  However the apple must have fallen far from the tree because my daughter class of 2024 is pictured at least twice and her name is engraved on a plaque as a recipient of a scholarship for mastery in Language Arts.  

Ending the day with a snack

My college friend Angela Rumbold's birthday was earlier this week.  We had many fine times over the years.  When she first moved from Illinois to Georgia, I had occasion to visit her there and she introduced me to boiled peanuts.  It was love at first soggy bite.  years later when I lived in South Carolina for 2 years the boiled peanut became my go to snack as there was a street vendor outside our local Walmart.  I generally did not go more than a fortnight without grabbing me a bag.  

When I ventured back to Illinois in '97 to forsake all others and marry my best friend, I also  ending up forsaking regular visits with my favorite boiled legume.  This +25 year absence of a boiled peanut routine ended about 2 years ago when I discovered inside A BP in Frankfort, Illinois where my sister in law  lives, a boiled peanut station.  So now 4 or 5 times a year on visits to her family I get the fruits of Jimmy Carter's first job (Boiled Peanut deliverer).

Tonight was one of those nights.  My Niece Gracie was in a production of Finding Nemo Jr.  Which is not it turns out a quest to find Nemo's progeny but a children's adaptation of the musical Finding Nemo.  I was glad to attend, but everyone in my family knew there was a boiled peanut quid pro quo in my attendance.  

By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo - https://www.flickr.com/photos/jenniferwoodardmaderazo/3563681031/, CC BY 2.0, Link

Well that's all the Team Saturdazzle I have for you today.  We learned some math, heard some jokes, watched some videos, I shared some stories and  even had a snack.  It's not exactly 3 points and a poem, but it will have to do.