15 from 2005 Intro

It's hard not to get excited about an upcoming baseball season.  As an eternal optimist, it's super easy to get excited at the beginning of any sports season.  But as much as I am looking forward to finally getting the 2020 MLB season underway tomorrow, I'm even more excited to looking backward at the magical 2005 White Sox World Series Championship season.  It has been 15 years since they won it all and I plan to share 15 stories from the season.  I'll be back in a few days with part I.  

20 | The History Behind Kerry Wood's 20 Strikeout Game

Baseball season starts tomorrow. I hope you enjoy this video about Kerry Wood's 20 strikeout game.

I Heart Comics

I have always been a big fan of comic strips.  Anytime I used to travel I would plunk down the change to buy a local newspaper and see what therir comic page looked like.  As you have gathered what newspapers remain in this digital age cost more than change for a dollar.  

Fortunately there are many strips old and new available online. From time to time I will share a few of those here.  Simply click on the name of the comic  to see the strip.  The ones today I found through Go Comics.

   

The Far Side                                                  Calvin & Hobbes

                                                         

Peanuts                                                                                              Pearls Before Swine

White Sox defeat Cubs in exhibition game at Wrigley Field.

This past Sunday Evening in Chicago, a cross town rivalry resumed days before the covid 19 shortened baseball season got underway.  

Jason Kipnis homered for the Cubs in their half of the first inning giving them a one run lead.  Kipnis hit 12 homers against the White Sox as a member of the Cleveland Indians.  The Cubs added to their lead in the second as Wilson Contreras scored on a sacrifice fly in the second.  

The score remained 2-0 until the top of the 5th inning.  With one out, Adam Engel who is known more for robbing opposing batters of home runs, robbed Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks of a shut-out by homering himself.  

After the Engel homer, Tim Anderson singled and Eloy Jimenezflew out to right field and what happened next could only bedescribed as a good old fashioned 2 out rally.  Jose Abreusingle to right moving Anderson to 3rd and removing Hendricks from the game. Jharel Cotton came in to pitch for the Cubs and Andrew Vaughn came into run for Abreu. Yasmani Grandal then doubled in Anderson and  Vaughn giving the White Sox the lead. 

The south siders were not finished yet.  Grandals hit was just the first of three run scring doubles in succession. Edwin Encarnacion who made his major league debut for the Cincinatti Reds in the White Sox World Championship year of 2005 and is  right about to begin his 16th season in the major leagues and his first for the White Sox hit a double to left  plating Grandal.  Then Luis Robert, who has yet to make his major league debut and was 8 years old when the White Sox won it all in 2005 hit a ground rule double to score Encarnacion.  

 

 Luis Gonzalez came into run for Robert.  Leury Garcia  tripled to score Gonzalez.  This brought up Cheslor Cuthbert who just came over to the White Sox from the Royals who had the misfortune of making the first and final outs of the inning.  But when Cuthbert made out #1 his team was behind 2-0, when he made out #3 they were ahead 6-2. 

The White Sox added a run to that lead on a wild pitch in the seventh and the Cubs took that run away in the 8th as David Bote scored Josh Phegley in the 8th ending the scoring at 7-3 White Sox.