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#170 – Andruw Jones

andruw-jonesName: Andruw Jones

Rank: 170

Position: RF/DH

Year With White Sox: 2010

After the disappointing 2009 season, the White Sox looked to improve their bench by signing outfielder Andruw Jones to a 1 year contract.  Jones, just 3 years removed from his last All Star Game, had seen his production fall of a cliff after leaving the Braves and was hoping to turn his career around.

His White Sox career got off to a good start, as he showed up to training camp 30 pounds lighter than the previous few seasons.  As the White Sox worked towards a second place finish in the AL Central, Jones continued to show flashes of power but struggled to regain an ability to hit consistently.  His personal highlight came on July 11, when he hit his 400th career home run against Royals.

Following the season, Jones moved on as a free agent.

Jones’ numbers in a White Sox uniform, both for games I attended and overall, were:

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Book 6 (of 52) – Silver Screen Fiend

Silver Screen Fiend: Learning About Life From An Addiction To Film - Patton Oswalt

Silver Screen Fiend: Learning About Life From An Addiction To Film – Patton Oswalt

In the late 90s, Patton Oswalt, having recently moved to Los Angeles, found himself at the New Beverly Cinema for a double feature.  Thus started a four year obsession with film that, in some cases, took over his life.  The comedian’s memoir of that time in his life touches on his anxieties about his comedy and his short tenure writing for MadTV.

I went through a similar, though not as high falutin, obsession with movies at around the same point in my life, which was a year after Oswalt’s obsession died, thanks to George Lucas and Episode I.  Over the course of the 365 days of the year 2000, I managed to see 351 movies.  To this day, I can’t fathom how I managed this.  I certainly could not recall specifics about the films or where and how I saw them, unlike Oswalt.  Thankfully, I burned out much more quickly, as this was by far the most I had ever done in a single year.  In fact, if you add up 1999’s and 2001’s totals, you would still be 100 films short.

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#171 – Tim Hulett

dpccwshule_20080716139Name: Tim Hulett

Rank: 171

Position: 2B/3B

Years With White Sox: 1983-1987

Tim Hulett joined the White Sox organization as their first round pick in the 1980 January secondary draft.  He made his major league debut on September 15, 1983, replacing Julio Cruz in the White Sox 12-0 victory over the Mariners.  Hulett ended up appearing in 6 games for the AL West champions, getting 1 hit in 5 at bats.

Hulett returned to Triple A Denver for the 1984 season, again earning a late season call-up.  This time he appeared in 8 games, going hitless in 7 at bats.

1985 saw Hulett getting his first extended shot in the big leagues.  Splitting time between second base and third base, he found his way into 141 games and hit .268.  In 1986, Hulett found himself as the opening day second baseman, but, while he set career highs in games, at bats, and home runs, his average fell to .231.

Hulett was the opening day third baseman in 1987, but things turned south quickly.  After being one of the few bright spots on the team in April, hitting .294 with 3 home runs, he fell of a cliff.  He hit .194 in May and .196 in June, before he was demoted to Triple A on June 26.  He returned for 3 games in August before returning to the minors for the rest of the year.  “I went bad at the wrong time,” said Hulett, who finished the season with a .217 batting average. “Five guys went bad the first month, but the team was still patient. I went bad the second month, but the team wasn`t patient anymore. I guess my timing was bad.”

When spring training of 1988 arrived, Hulett found himself off the 40-man roster and he was given a non-roster invite to camp.  “I have no chance here,” Hulett said.  “I`m at the stage in my career where I don`t have two or three years to waste in the minors. My confidence is a lot better this year. I know I can play in the big leagues. I just want to get a chance to prove it.”  He would not get a chance to prove it with the White Sox, though.  Prior to the start of the season, Hulett was traded to the Expos for a player to be named later.

Hulett’s numbers in a White Sox uniform, both for games I attended and overall, were:

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Book 5 (of 52) – Joyland

Joyland - Stephen King

Joyland – Stephen King

Joyland, Stephen King’s second novel for the Hard Case Crime imprint, tells the tale of a young college student who takes a summer job at an amusement park in North Carolina, stumbling upon a murder mystery and a haunted ride in the process.  Mostly, though, this is a coming of age story, as the protagonist, Devin Jones, gets over his first heartbreak, finds a place where he truly fits in, at least for a while, and manages to solve the crime of who murdered the girl who haunts the Horror House.

The crime elements, along with the supernatural, take a back seat in this tale, which I gather is not quite the intent of the line.  But when a name like Stephen King offers to write a book for you, I guess you don’t let silly quibbles like that stand in the way.  I enjoyed this side of King’s work and might look to pick up his first novel for this line, the inspiration for the Syfy series Haven.

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Fitbit Week 1

Week1_FB

With the GlobalFit program now officially shut down, it was time to start a new fitness program.  I ordered the Fitbit Charge the previous Saturday and the good folks at Amazon delivered it on Wednesday.  I managed to get in a whopping 19 steps after setting it up Wednesday night.

Thursday and Friday both came in over 6000 steps, thanks to trips to North Plaza for afternoon coffee.  Saturday even managed to break 5000 steps, due to trips to 2 grocery stores.

My initial feelings are that the Fitbit is a tad bit more generous than the GlobalFit tracker.  Breaking 5000 steps on Saturday was a little suspect, but I also deviated from my normal activities as well.

Weekly total: 18,510

Daily average: 6170

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Top 200 Albums – #46 – 53

itunes_imageMy latest desktop computer arrived in late 2007, at which point I transitioned all of my music off of my laptop. 2 iPods, 3 iPhones, and an iPad later, that computer is still my main repository of music, with iTunes updating its stats every time I listen to something.

Having already gone through cassette tapes and CDs, and digital music, it’s time to roll everything up with the Top 200 albums whose songs I’ve listened to as of September 2014, according to iTunes. Today, after months of counting down, we crack the top 50 of the list and look at the 8 albums ranked between 53 and 46 with 58-65 listens.

#46: Various Artists – Monster Madness
iTunes stats: 65 plays
9 tracks, from exciting artists like Faith No More, Lita Ford, and Nelson, make up the total for this hair metal compilation.

#46: Various Artists – The Transformers: The Movie
iTunes stats: 65 plays
6 tunes, from the likes of Stan Bush and Weird Al Yankovic, make up the total for this soundtrack from the animated TransFormers film from the mid-80s.

#48: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – Greatest Hits
iTunes stats: 64 plays
10 of Tom Petty’s biggest hits make up the total for this greatest hits compilation.

#49: Various Artists – ’90s Style
iTunes stats: 62 plays
9 tracks, from exciting 90s artists like Jill Sobule, Green Jelly, and MC Hammer, make up the total for this compilation album.

#50: Snoop Dogg – Doggystyle
iTunes stats: 59 plays
Snoop Dogg’s debut album uses 5 songs to make up this total.

#50: Various Artists – Millenium Rock N’ Roll Party
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GF4 – The Final Week (For Real, This Time)

Y4Week30

After many false starts (or stops, really), things finally came to a close last week for the GlobalFit Destination: You program at work.  As previously reported, the check-in points in the cafeteria have been removed and, while the one in the bridge between North and South Plaza was working Monday, it didn’t update anything the rest of the week, so I’m assuming everything is done.  I assume I would have topped 5500 steps on Monday were the rest of the day counted.

TheEnd

So, in 3 years and 29+ weeks, I finish with 6,511,500 steps.  This estimates out to about 35,197 steps per week, or 5028 steps per day.  Not great, but, all things considered, not bad.

As for the future, I’ve ordered a Fitbit Charge, which should be arriving by Monday.  I should be back in the game soon enough.  We’ll have to see how the two compare on an ordinary day, but hopefully they are close enough for comparisons to be valid.

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#172 – George Foster

GFosterName: George Foster

Rank: 172

Position: LF

Year With White Sox: 1986

When George Foster burned some bridges in New York after getting released by the Mets, accusing them of racism, the White Sox decided to take a flyer on the veteran left fielder, picking him up on August 15.  “If he’s happy, he’ll hit,” GM Ken Harrelson said.  “I don’t believe he was ever completely happy in New York.”

Things did not exactly work out in Chicago, as Foster appeared in only 15 games before being released again on September 7.  “I have no regrets about the release from the White Sox, because I feel they did give me a chance,” Foster said.  Those 15 games were the final ones of his major league career.

Foster’s numbers in a White Sox uniform were:

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Book 4 (of 52) – Melissa Explains It All

Melissa Explains It All: Tales From My Abnormally Normal Life - Melissa Joan Hart with Kristina Grish

Melissa Explains It All: Tales From My Abnormally Normal Life – Melissa Joan Hart with Kristina Grish

Starting right with the subtitle of her memoir, Melissa Joan Hart, star of Clarissa Explains It All and Sabrina The Teenage Witch, wants you to know that she is normal.  To prove it, she offers up what might just be the worst of these celebrity “tell-alls” ever produced.  Certainly the worst that I have read.  Which is a shame.

Clarissa debuted on Nickelodeon during my junior year of high school.  Clearly, I was not the target audience, but, during the summer, we would occassionally come across it, along with other classics like Hey Dude and Salute Your Shorts.  5 years later, Sabrina debuted, which I watched for most of its run on ABC.  I guess you could say I was (am?) a Melissa Joan Hart fan, so you would think her book would be right up my alley.  Sadly, she hardly touches on her experiences on these shows, glossing over most of her time on the shows and instead on who she roomed with or how she was out with her hairstylist.

The one big “scandal” that Hart was involved with was her racy Maxim cover, which wasn’t out of the ordinary for the magazine, but landed her in hot water with Archie Comics, the owner of the Sabrina property.  This whole thing is covered in about 3-4 paragraphs, while an entire chapter is devoted to her husband’s love of Alabama football.

In her attempt to tell us little people how normal she actually is, Hart succeeds in showing how out of touch she truly is.  She lists the 4 things that she is unable to do to this day, things normal girls learned as teenagers, like putting on makeup or making fashion choices, but she always had professionals to do them for her.  She could have listed a 5th, tell a compelling story in a way that makes a reader relate to her.

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He Gone!

IMG_0892
The countdown on Dayan Viciedo’s time with the White Sox started ticking last Wednesday when he was designated for assignment to make room on the 40-man roster for the re-signed Gordon Beckham.  The Viciedo era officially came to an end yesterday when he was waived for the purpose of giving him his release.

Viciedo defected from Cuba in 2008 at the age of 19, and that November he signed a 4 year deal with the White Sox.  He spent the 2009 season in Double A Birmingham and moved to Triple A Charlotte for 2010.  He spent some time with the big league club in 2010, making his major league debut on June 20 against the Nationals.

He returned to Triple A in 2011, until Carlos Quentin went down with an injury in late August.  Viciedo returned to Chicago, this time to stay.  He became the everyday left fielder in 2012, putting up decent, if underwhelming numbers.  Viciedo became a bit of a conundrum in 2013, as his average improved slightly, but his power numbers decreased.

Viciedo was slated for a platoon role with Alejandro de Aza last year, until Avisail Garcia’s shoulder injury opened up a spot for him.  By the time Garcia returned, de Aza was in Baltimore and Viciedo had left field all to himself.  He was unable to capitalize on the opportunity, though, as his average and OBP fell to a career lows.

As Rick Hahn remade the White Sox roster over this off-season, Viciedo appeared to be the odd man out.  With Melky Cabrera signed to play left field and Adam LaRoche on board as DH, Viciedo would have been relegated to backup duties.  Now, he will try to continue his career elsewhere, hopefully with better results.

Viciedo’s numbers in a White Sox uniform, both for games I attended and overall, were:

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