One Loss After Another

Twins - 4
White Sox - 1

So the Sox lost again, this time to the Minnesota Twins. No surprise there. Two more games of this pinballesque nonsense and we can all move on with our AL Central lives.

But that's not the big news of the night.

Say it ain't so, Joe. Sox beat reporter Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times is declaring via his Twitter feed that Jim Thome has waived his no-trade clause and is being shipped out as we speak. To where? I'm not sure. And for what? Who knows.

According to MLB Trade Rumors, the White Sox sent out a list of available veteran players in a league-wide memo. Besides Thome, it reportedly included:

1. Paul Konerko
2. Jermaine Dye
3. Scott Podsednik
4. Octavio Dotel
5. Scott Linebrink
6. Jose Contreras

Good luck getting rid of 3-65. Hopefully there's someone out there who's dumb enough to give up something for them. I've got to assume that this latest front office flare-up is Kenny's way of saying that he's putting the nail in the 2009 coffin; it's a perfectly reasonable reaction to this team's play over the past few weeks but especially this road trip. 1-7 now? No fun there.

Jim Thome was a great Sox player. He really, genuinely seems like a kind, down-to-Earth guy. Hell, he grew up in Peoria... so without baseball in his life he'd probably have ended up a farmer or a truck driver. To the best of my knowledge, he never caused any problems for the White Sox. I've only witnessed him get tossed from one game, and it was because the umpire was definitely full of shit. If Jim Thome's arguing with you, you're wrong. And also full of shit.

I hope he hits 600 home runs. He's got one of the sweetest swings that I've ever seen in my life. Even when he was with Cleveland, and killed the Sox, I actually enjoyed watching him hit. And whenever he comes back to US Cellular, if he gets to, he's going to kill us again. And I'll cheer for him. I don't suspect that his name will ever show up on any PED-positive list. He's always looked like a lumberjack.

Jim Thome is a future member of the Hall of Fame. He's a good guy, a great ballplayer, and (to me, anyway) is one of the best examples in today's world of how a professional athlete should hope to conduct themself on and off of the field of play.


Vaya con dios, Slugger Jim. You were good.

-=-=-

11:28PM - Cowley updates: Thome sent to Dodgers with cash for 2B/SS Justin Fuller, Contreras sent to Colorado for cash and AAA pitching prospect Brandon Hynick.