ISportsFan

Similarly, Selig said he doesn't care personally, but MLB has always had control of domes in World Series play and they made Arizona open their roof in 2001. They want to set a consistent standard, he said.

I have watched over 140 of their regular season games and all of their playoff games. I gave summaries of the good and bad things from their first few weeks of games until the board basically told me that they couldn't care less and would rather have endless talk about the Cubs, Red Sox, and Yankees. So, I stopped talking about it. But, I didn't stop watching. I have at least 25 friends that I talk to regularly who are just as die-hard about the White Sox as I am, as well. Just because the fanbase isn't large (it is 20th biggest in the nation according to something I read in the newspaper about a week ago) doesn't mean it is nonexistant. I know many people who live and die with the team, just like I do. And it's been a long time coming to have a good team. To be honest, we don't care that you guys think there is only a fanbase starting with this playoff run. We know that we've existed. You may not, and that's not entirely your fault since ESPN only does specials on Red Sox and Cub fans, and Fox and ESPN only focus on the Red Sox and Yankees. It just hurts them in the long run precisely because it leads to this reaction--the one that the board has now. "Who cares about Houston and Chicago?" And it leads to lower ratings. But we don't care--we'll be watching just like we have been all season.

Smackdown is in Indianapolis the night after Raw, so it is not a double taping.

Berman has the Sox/Sox series, so he will not be in Atlanta. Jason

Not only that, it wasn't really questionable. He did the right thing. When the ball is hit to the runner's left (or behind the runner) on the ground, common practice and accepted baserunning is to advance to third. Now, Millar is pretty slow, but Iguchi got lucky because he did not make the right play and fortunately for the White Sox it ended up working out.

Jose Contreras is starting game 1 and is, effectively, the #1 starter at this point of the season for the White Sox. Buehrle is going in game 2 and either Garcia or Garland will go in game 3.

Oh, and don't get me wrong. Ozzie is still an idiot. But he's an idiot for putting Marte in games (or in tonight's case, leaving him in to start the 9th) and stuff like that. He is not an idiot for starting who he wants to start in order to get rest for his major players and trying a squeeze with a fast baserunner and a good bunter (even if it wasn't communicated properly).

Especially after they just complained for hours about how bad the lineup Ozzie put out there was. Also, the squeeze play was botched. There was miscommunication and Willie Harris didn't begin to break for home. So, he was a dead duck.

Who would buy a $25 wig of Carlito's hair? Jason

110. Pender's great singing

Damaso Marte should have never seen the field. Ozzie Guillen picks the worst times to micromanage with his worst left-handed bullpen pitcher.

I wouldn't, but then again I'm biased. Jason

Except Cleveland is now only 5 behind Chicago because the White Sox have been awful since August and blew a 5 run lead at KC to lose 10-9. Jason

1. That's a good question. I have no idea how he did that. 2. It serves no purpose, especially after Orton used gamesmanship with the casket and still got beat. Other comments: At least it was Benoit v. Christian that set up the tag match and not Benoit v. Jordan again. They should just get rid of the cruiserweight title if that's how they're going to treat it. Rey beating JBL clean was good. The tag titles are dying on LOD because they simply cannot work at all. Why have a GM at all if he never makes any matches, but just gets mad when Palmer Canon makes the matches? Jason

Once again, the first set of spoilers is vague and leaves a lot out, and was flat out wrong in some cases. Here's what PWInsider's spoilers said (the first 2 of the set of 3): Jason

I think what he meant was that since everyone helped Florida last year through their hurricane season, he is happy (not that a hurricane hit, but since one did then...) Florida can return the favor and help out others. There is little reason to believe that he would say anything that could be construed as evil intentionally on national TV in the wake of that; it would be suicidal both politically and, perhaps, literally if somebody who lost a loved one got his/her hands on him. Talking football, that game was really sloppy. Some good defense, but too many penalties and unforced turnovers for my liking. I am glad Miami lost, though, because maybe it'll shut Michael Irvin up. Jason

Here's what PWInsider has, it's quite different (with some things the same): Adam Carey sent this report. Quick Smackdown spoilers totally off memory. Dark Match Shane Twins Beat Buck Quartermain and Antonio Banks. Velocity Vito beat Steven Richards with a version of Edge's finisher. Returning Brian Kendrick beat Paul London in a great match with sliced bread #5. Doug Basham Beat Mike Madden??? Didn't catch the last name. Super Crazy beat Nunzio in a non title match. Another Superb Match, good week to see Velocity. Smackdown Recap of last week with the network shutting down the women's match. First match: Heidenreich beat Joey Mercury with all kinds of outside interference. Beatdown on LOD after win. Backstage "The Mole" talking to the network rep and thanking him for signing the Tag Team Title Rematch for Friday Smackdown (guess UPN is booking the show now?). From here, it gets a little sketchy in some of these so they are maybe not in order. Bob Orton intros Randy Orton and cut a promo about how they ended the Undertaker's legacy. They hype next week whether UT will show up or not. Announced for tonight that Randy Orton will face Rey Mysterio Jr. Network rep apologizes to Stacy and Christy about having to cancel their match last week but wants a straight up match between them tonight. Divas accept. Chris Benoit backstage says he wants to show yet again what he can do faster than the match with Orlando Jordan so he has Josh Matthews time him while he uses the bathroom and washes his hands. Pretty funny stuff Rematch: Chris Benoit beats Orlando Jordan by tap out in 23.4 seconds. Clock was counting down in the corner of screen. Can they bury Jordan any more? ANOTHER rematch announced for next week with Jordan and Benoit. Teddy Long congratulates the network rep on making the first episode of Friday Night Smackdown the best ever so far. The Network says that the Batista-JBL match will be a bullrope match and Teddy Long counters with the Mysterio-Guerrero match being a cage match now. Simon Dean out to claim that Batista uses his Simon System and that is why he is champion now. Out comes Bautista and states he can't remember for the life of him ever using the product but wants to give it a try. He takes a chug and says it's making him feel stronger and bigger by the second. He then tells Dean that it makes him feel more aggressive. Total squash from there, Batista wins via Batista Bomb. Mr. Ken Kennedy beat Booker T with Sharmell. Kennedy won with his top rope finisher. Christian did commentary and got into an argument with Sharmell. Booker T was on his way up to the top rope and was distracted by what was going on and got caught in the finisher. Sharmell let him have it and he argued back this time. Scotty 2 Hotty and Funaki lose to William Regal and Paul Birchall. Eddie Guerrero cuts a promo in the back behind a cage basically stating he has lost his family and he has nothing to lose. He says he will brutilize Rey in their match. Went WAY too long. Randy Orton beats Rey Mysterio Jr. in a phenomenal match that went easily 15 to 20 minutes. Dark Match Main Event Batista Beats Randy Orton via Batista Bomb. A lot of people were VERY angry that the Undertaker and JBL were advertised along with Eddie Guerrero and did not appear, even though JBL has an autograph session right here in Jacksonville tomorrow. Unbelievable that they get away with this garbage with no explanation. Arena was 3/4 full. Overall a hot crowd with some dead spots in the interview segments that went on and on. ------------------------------------------------------ Ilan Glazer sent this report. I was at the Velocity/Smackdown taping tonight in Jacksonville, Florida. Thought I’d write in and see if you guys can use my thoughts. I didn’t catch every wrestler’s name on Velocity, but the rest should be good. There was a dark match before Velocity. Two Jacksonville wrestlers I’d never heard of took on two other wrestlers I’d never heard of. Needless to say, crowd was hot for the locals, who actually looked half decent from what I saw. They looked like identical twins, and the crowd at one point started a Goldberg chant cause they looked like him. That was pretty funny. Needless to say, locals won. Nunzio and Big Vito come out to Nunzio’s entrance music (can’t Big V get his own?), Vito faces Stephen Richards. Big V gets the win when Nunzio interferes. Lots of ECW chants from the crowd. Hardcore Holly vs. Steve Menecit(sp). Hardcore Holly was great and the crowd was totally into him. Definitely a squash match, but Holly was very entertaining. Holly gets the pin. Paul London vs. Brian Kendrick (formerly known as Spanky, I believe) For some reason I forgot to jot down the winner her. Pretty sure Paul London won in a pretty entertaining match up. Doug “The Bashman” Basham (I’m not making that up, that’s what it said on screen) vs. Michael Patrick (who came on while London was still making his exit. Oops!). Total squash match. Basham wins easily. Super Crazy of the Mexicools vs. Nunzio (haven’t we seen that entrance video already?). Non-title match, which I’m pretty sure Super Crazy won. Crowd was into the Mexicools. Did we really just have five matches on Velocity? How’d that happen? Smackdown, from Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena Heidenreich of LOD vs. Joey Mercury of MNM. Good match, crowd goes wild when LOD comes out, lots of LOD chants during the match. Heidenreich wins. Dumb backstage scene with Teddy Long and one of the UPN Network guys. They bs for a bit and Network guy books Diva match for later in the show with Christy Hemme vs. Stacy Keibler. Stupid segment. Cowboy Bob Orton comes out to introduce none other than Randy Orton. Randy comes out to decent applause to promote the Undertaker Retirement Fund. Randy says he’ll fight Rey Mysterio later in the show. Both Ortons leave. Interesting segment with Benoit being interviewed backstage. Interviewer says how impressive Benoit’s 25.5 second win over Orlando Jordan was at SummerSlam. Benoit says he can do more than just wrestle in 25.5 seconds. Start the clock, Benoit pees and comes back out before the 25.5 are up. Then says he’ll beat O.J. again tonight. Orlando Jordan vs. Chris Benoit. O. J. taps out at 23.4 secs. Perhaps the Chief of Staff needs a new job, what with JBL on Raw. Ok, really weird angle. Stacy Keibler and Christy Hemme come out for Diva match. Bell rings, they move to start, when Sylvan Grenier’s music comes on. Sylvan comes out and says he’s a handsome dude. Hardcore Holly comes out, tells Sylvan that he, like all other guys in the arena, just wants to watch two hot chicks, and that Sylvan should exit the premises. Holly smacks Grenier, Grenier leaves. Then, Hardcore, Christy, and Stacey pose in the ring, and all three leave. Huh? Hardcore makes a save to ensure a match that doesn’t happen even though the network guy promised it would? What? I hope they cut this from Smackdown. Holly gets a nice pop, but the scene was just dumb. Take a pee break during this one, folks. Christian’s entrance music on, he starts to come down to ring. This interrupted by us going backstage to more of Teddy Long and network guy, who are making matches for next week’s first Smackdown on Friday. JBL vs. Batista in a Bullrope match. Benoit vs. OJ again, LOD vs. MNM, and Eddie vs. Rey in a Steel cage match. (Is it me, but can’t they come up with anything else than bringing JBL back to a Smackdown show? Thought we’d gotten rid of him.) Long peeved when the network guy books matches without consulting him. Back to Christian’s entrance as he walks down to join the announcers. One of the refs pretends to do a Flair strut, announcer tells him not to, crowd gives a few whoos just for the heck of it. This happens throughout the night. Booker T. vs. Ken Kennedy. In a funny move, Kennedy takes the mic from the announcer and announces himself for the match. Not bad if I do say so myself, but then he says to Booker, Can You Dig THAT, sucka? Booker not too pleased. Audience was HOT for Booker T who had Sharmell by his side. Kennedy gets the win, when Christian distracts Booker. Simon Dean comes out, hypes The Simon System sports drink. Says Batista himself uses The Simon System, that’s why he won the World Title. Enter Batista to thundering ovation. Batista says he honestly can’t remember whether he’s tried it, asks to try some. Simon gives him a drink. Batista pumps up a bit, tells Simon it works, he (Batista) feels stronger and more powerful. Also feels more aggressive, bell rings and Batista wipes the floor with Simon Dean. Towards the end Batista has a few more of The Simon System sports drink, which gives him the extra boost necessary to finish Simon off. This match and scene were absolutely hysterical, one of the funniest WWE scenes I’ve ever seen. This match alone was worth the price of admission! (After Batista leaves ring announcer asks for round of applause for Simon Dean – er?). Paul Birchall and William Regal vs. Funaki and Scotty Too Hotty. Birchall and Regal win a pathetic match. This was painful to watch. Crowd into Scotty, could’ve cared less about the other three. This was total filler, and bad filler at that. Make this a definite bathroom break. Loudmouth guy in stands behind me yells out Boo this Brit! That got the biggest pop of the match! Sadistic Eddie Guerrero promo. Eddie filmed behind a steel cage. Eddie talks about his wife betraying him, losing Dominic, in short Eddie’s lost everything. And it’s his own fault cause he gave Rey a chance to win. Next week in steel cage he won’t make that mistake again. Ends with asking Rey how you beat someone who has already lost everything? Randy and Bob Orton come out. Randy vs. Rey in a long match. Orton pokes fun of Rey’s height. Couple of funny moments during the match, including Orton chasing Rey around the ring (unsuccessfully) and Rey doing Orton’s pose from the top rope. Cowboy Bob interferes a few times, Orton with the win. Post-match (and presumably rest not shown on Smackdown) RKO takes mike and says Where’s Taker. Taker doesn’t show (unless I’m mistaken, wasn’t the main event for tonight advertised at Taker and Rey vs. Orton and Eddie? Or did I make that up? Taker a no show and Eddie gets a backstage scene. Interesting). Batista comes out to yet another thunderous ovation, and Batista and Orton get it on! Crowd solidly behind Batista, who wins to end the night in Jacksonville. Great match, several funny moments including Cowboy Bob falling backwards off the ring apron and Batista doing the chicken dance in the ring when RKO stepped out for a bit to get a hug from his daddy. Again, great match. Orton is fabulous in the ring, plays really well off the crowd and has great mic work. Batista poses for a bit to end the night. Great crowd, decent booking, with the exception of the over-hyped yet non-existent Diva match and the boring Bertram/Regal vs. Funaki/Scotty match. Batista vs. Dean was unreal, as was Batista vs. RKO. All in all a good night of rasslin’ from Jacksonville. Interesting note – I bought an official souvenir program, which has not been updated with the draft changes. That was how long ago?

It was a double play, he missed the call. Of course, the Sox were bound to lose anyway with Adkins pitching over the next inning or two anyway, since the offense is nonexistant at this point. Jason

True, but if the game counted would you ever take Bobby Abreu out of the game? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> No, not a chance. That's why home-field in the World Series should not be on the line in a game where managers try to get everyone in and fans vote on starters. Jason

Podsednik and Crawford may be a joke as an all-star possibility, but if the game really "means something" then they're very good options as a pinch runner if the game is close at the end and you either need a stolen base or a fast runner. Especially with the defensive capabilities of the NL catchers regarding throwing out runners. Jason

Edge had a title match against Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman in a handicap match at a UK PPV, I think it was at Rebellion 2002. Jason

But the homer for Frank ends up meaning nothing when Hermanson walks two straight, and both score after an error and a sacrifice fly (which would have been the third out if the error did not happen).

White Sox beat the Rays for the first time this season, 5-2, behind Orlando Hernandez and Dustin Hermanson pitching extremely well. Konerko may be struggling, but his hits are big, as a double plated 2 runners. Jason

I don't feel like looking it up, but I believe he's correct when he said that. In 1999 the ratings were higher than 2000, but it didn't translate into PPV buys. Russo put a product out that was good at garnering interest from casual fans on Monday nights but was difficult, relatively speaking compared to the ratings, to get people to pay for PPVs. 2000 had higher buyrates on most shows, if I remember correctly, probably because the workrate was higher and people knew they'd get a good show, with great matches, on PPV. Jason

The White Sox lost again today, 7-6 to Tampa behind a poor pitching performance by Contreras, Vizcaino, and Takatsu. Jason