Twelve Days Away From The Regular Season: Watching The White Sox Play The Cubs

I watched the spring training game between my South Side heroes, the Chicago White Sox, and their North Side rivals, the Chicago Cubs, yesterday afternoon on MLB.com. The game was played at Camelback Ranch, the White Sox training facility, in Glendale, Arizona. It was 60 degrees and raining, and the start of the game was delayed 30 minutes until the rain lessened to the point play could begin. The White Sox still have 51 players in camp, and need to make some serious decisions about the final roster pretty soon. The Sox beat the Cubs 3-2, their 4th victory in a row, and I was happy to see that a lot of their pitchers actually look pretty good. The game was called in the middle of the 8th inning when the rain started up again. Putting those two teams together always seems to bring Chicago's weather to the desert.

I actually tuned into a rebroadcast of the game last night, and planned on watching just the first few innings. However, I wound up watching the entire telecast because during the game, Steve Stone and John Schriffen (who are beginning to work very well together in the broadcast booth) interviewed Chris Getz, the new White Sox General Manager, Brooks Boyer, the Marketing VP, and Pedro Grifol, the 2nd year manager of the team, over 3 innings. Getz (seen in the photograph on the right in the center, with Stone on the left and Schriffen on the right) recently traded ace pitcher Dylan Cease to the San Diego Padres, and talked about his reasoning and why he thinks the 4 prospects the Sox received in return will make an impact on the team. Brooks Boyer talked with enthusiasm about all the promotions that will take place at Guaranteed Rate Field this year, and Pedro Grifol talked about how the team is coming together as a unit and accepting a style of play he feels will win ballgames. I was very impressed with all three, and it makes me feel the team, although now in a rebuilding mode, will prosper in the coming years. Wait a minute! My God! I said it would not happen, but damn it, it did. I have caught that contagious kind of optimism that comes with every spring training. Is there no cure?