Cuban Missile Crisis

If you haven't already, everyone should certainly see this play:



That play is simply unbelievable and unlike any play I've ever seen. It's relatively common to see a fielder glove a ball then toss it to a teammate. But Alexei only uses his glove as a scoop and flicks it to Paulie as his momentum carries him away from first base... That's the kinda shit kids play around with on the sandlot. But Alexei pulls it off. And the icing on the cake is the incredulous barehanded grab by Paulie. He's like "wtf? really?". Then snatches it out of the air. Beautiful.

People dog on White Sox announcer Ken "The Hawk" Harrelson for being a homer, which he is. But I've never heard an announcer who had more emotionally invested in his team. His excitement during good plays... and his disappointment during bad plays, is tangible, palpable. One of the best parts of this clip is hearing Hawk go apoplectic, especially on the replay when he grasps the full magnitude of what he's seen.

It was truly an exciting day for the White Sox. Not only can we "hang a star" on that play. But my boy... the one and only, Carlos "Q!" Quentin. A major inspiration for the existence of this blog had this to add:


Let me set the scene. Two on, two out, bottom of the eighth. Sox down by two runs but have pulled within one run to make it it 7-8. The Rangers pull Eddie "I still play baseball!" Guardado, for their hippy-dippy douchebag closer CJ Wilson to face Q-uperman.

Now, there is some subtext here. Two weekends ago the Sox played the Rangers. In the top of the ninth (in Arlington), the Sox were down 8-12 going into the bottom of the 9th. CJ Wilson then gives up 3 runs to make it an 11-12 game. CJ escapes with a save, but jawing between Ozzie (big surprise) and CJ ensues. Apparently CJ gets a little too excited about getting the Sox players out. Ozzie takes offense. Q! happened to be one of those outs last time.

Fast forward to yesterday. Sox down and the Rangers bring in CJ Wilson to face Q!. And how does Q! respond?

In what is becoming classic Q! fashion. Carlos is building a legend in Chicago, that will be discussed in MUCH greater detail on this blog. But for now, I think the ringing echo of Hawk intoning "Mercy!" is enough to keep this Sox fan warm at night.

-bb13