Tragic Number 13 (Again!)

For the second time this season, the White Sox lost their thirteenth consecutive game, dropping last night’s contest against the Mariners 6-3.  This is the first time in franchise history that they have had multiple ten-game or more losing streaks in the same season.  Prior to this year, the only previous single season thirteen game losing streak came 100 years ago in August of 1924, a season they finished 66-87.  The 2024 White Sox have already lost 80 games.

The current losing streak comes amidst a July featuring of 18 losses in their 21 games.  They will look to avoid tying the franchise record for consecutive losses in a single season, set last month, this afternoon against those same Mariners.

Book 30 (of 52) – Making It Home

Making It Home: Life Lessons from a Season of Little League – Teresa Strasser

Ten years after reading about how she fought her fears to have a baby at age 39, Teresa Strasser returns with Making it Home: Life Lessons from a Season of Little League, a memoir of making peace with her father through a season on little league for said baby after losing both her brother and mother within four months.  The ups and downs of the season mirror their relationship, strained since childhood when Strasser was separated from her brother and sent to live alone with her mother.  By the end of the season, they learn how to deal with each other and with the loss they have suffered.

 

 

Looking Ahead To 2025

Last week, on the extra off day in the All-Star break, Major League Baseball released their tentative 2025 schedule while I was away in Amsterdam.  For the third year in a row, MLB is keeping with a balanced schedule, playing 52 games against division opponents, 64 games against non-division opponents in the same league, and 46 interleague games, with series against every team in the opposite league.  With the White Sox about to cement the worst season in franchise history and the Cubs trying to figure out what went wrong on their way back to contention, the 2025 season looks like it could be a long one for the city of Chicago.  So, for one day, at least, let’s turn our attention to next summer for both teams.

The White Sox celebrate the 125th anniversary of the franchise, opening their season on March 27 at home against the Angels, kicking off a six-game homestand that also features the Twins.  They will make their first visit to Sacramento, the new home of the A’s, in the last weekend of April.

The interleague schedule sees the Phillies, Marlins, Cardinals, Brewers, Diamondbacks, and Padres coming to Guaranteed Rate Field, while the White Sox will go on the road to face the Pirates, Reds, Dodgers, Braves, Mets, Rockies, and Nationals.  The rivalry with their north side foes continues with a three-game weekend series at Wrigley Field in mid-May followed by another weekend at Guaranteed Rate Field the last weekend in July.

After wrapping up the home portion of the schedule in mid-September against the Orioles and Padres, the White Sox wrap up the 2025 season on the east coast, battling the Yankees and the Nationals to finish up the year.

On the north side, the Cubs head to Japan to open their season on March 18 with a two-game tilt against the Dodgers in Tokyo.  They return to the US to face the Diamondbacks on March 27 before heading to Sacramento for the first time to face the A’s.  They open up the home portion of the 2025 season on April 4 against the Padres.

Aside from the A’s, the Cubs will head out on the road to face the Twins, Angels, Yankees, Blue Jays, and Tigers, while the Mariners, Orioles, Guardians, Red Sox, and Royals will be coming to Wrigley Field.

Only ten of their 25 games in September are against their NL Central rivals, which could make a difference should the Cubs find themselves in contention.  They end the year with a six-game homestand, facing the Mets and the Cardinals.

Book 29 (of 52) – NOS4A2

NOS4A2 – Joe Hill

Using her oversized bike, young Victoria McQueen has the uncanny ability to use an abandoned bridge to find missing things, something she tries to rationalize away as she gets older.  When she goes looking for the Wraith, a 1938 Rolls-Royce used by Charles Talent Manx to kidnap children and bring them to Christmasland, where he uses their life forces to keep himself young and vibrant.  The encounter between Victoria and Manx leaves the former a broken shell of her former self and the latter in prison, accused of kidnapping and sexual assault.  Years later, after his car is restored by an unwitting father, Manx returns, going after Victoria and her son.  Can she stop Manx before he brings her child to Christmasland?

Way back in 2017, when I finished Joe Hill’s The Fireman, I said “I still have Hill’s other 2 novels waiting on the Kindle app.  I’m pretty sure that it won’t take me another 4 years to get back to them.”  Seven years later, I finally got to one of them, NOS4A2, which was published in 2013.  While I enjoyed this work, it did suffer from some of the same issues I had with the previous works of his that I’ve read, mainly going on and on when a tighter edit could have led to a better result.  He hasn’t published a new novel since 2016, so I still have just the one waiting to read.  Here’s hoping it won’t take another seven years to get to it.

FB10: Week 26

Nothing like a trip to Europe to kick things into a higher gear.  The week got off to a decent-enough start on Sunday, as I ended the first half of the baseball season, and the day, 27 steps away from 5000.  An additional 40 steps on Monday would have gotten me to 3500.  A trip to the airport on Tuesday pushed me up to 5400 steps.  A long flight saw me arriving in Amsterdam on Wednesday morning, chilling the day away to a tune of 2800 steps.  A day of adventuring down towards the Reijksmuseum and dinner out on Thursday gave me my first 10,000-step day of the year, finishing with 13,000.  A trip to see windmills on Friday again pushed me over 10,000 steps.  A visit to the Heineken Experience on Saturday night ended the week on a high note, falling just 34 steps shy of 8800.

Total steps: 49,240

Daily average: 7034.3

Fifty Years Of Music – 2000

Fifty years ago, I made my first appeared on the Earth.  In celebration, we are going to take a look at the year-end Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for each year of my life and see what songs resonated with me at the time and if they continue to do so to this day.

We continue our look back at the music of my lifetime with 2000, the year I celebrated my 26th birthday.   A mere 24 songs remain familiar to me today, with 10 of them appearing in my collection in one way or another.

#99: Jennifer Lopez – Waiting for Tonight
iTunes stats: N/A

Earning Lopez a Grammy nomination for Best Dance Recording in 2000, the track peaked at #8.

#88: Alice Deejay – Better Off Alone
iTunes stats: 21 plays

Only reaching #27 on the Hot 100, the song landed at #3 on the Dance Club Songs chart.

#76: Dr. Dre featuring Snoop Dogg – The Next Episode
iTunes stats: 33 plays

A sequel of sorts to Nuthin’ but a “G” Thang, this third single from Dre’s second studio album went to #23,

#73: Dr. Dre featuring Eminem – Forgot About Dre
iTunes stats: 42 plays

This second single from Dre’s sophomore solo effort topped out at #25.

#71: DMX – Party Up (Up in Here)
iTunes stats: 32 plays

Decreed as the 388th Greatest Song of All Time by Rolling Stone in 2021, it peaked at #27.  It charted a second time, reaching #40, in 2021 following DMX’s death.

#68: Mystikal – Shake Ya Ass
iTunes stats: 13 plays

Rising to #13, it remains Mystikal’s highest charting single as a lead artist.

#55: Britney Spears – Oops!… I Did It Again
iTunes stats: 17 plays

The lead single from her sophomore album, it cracked the top ten, going up to #9.

#51: Eminem – The Real Slim Shady
iTunes stats: 36 plays

His biggest hit to date, topping out at #4, it earned him two MTV VMAs and a Grammy for Best Rap Solo Performance.

Continue reading →

Hall Of Fame Batting Leaders



The Hall of Fame Class of 2024, Adrian Beltre, Todd Helton, Joe Mauer, and veterans committee choice Jim Leyland, get enshrined in Cooperstown today.  With three new hitters joining the list of Hall of Famers I’ve seen play live, let’s check back in with the leaders on the offensive side of the ball amongst Hall of Famers for all of the games I’ve attended between 1984 and 2023.

Home Runs

Name Total
Jim Thome 35
Frank Thomas 15
Scott Rolen 7
David Ortiz 6
Vladimir Guerrero 6

Hits

Name Total
Jim Thome 110
Frank Thomas 54
Joe Mauer 43
Ken Griffey Jr. 32
Fred McGriff 28

Runs

Name Total
Jim Thome 82
Frank Thomas 42
Joe Mauer 19
David Ortiz 16
Scott Rolen 14

RBI

Name Total
Jim Thome 84
Frank Thomas 38
Fred McGriff 23
David Ortiz 19
Continue reading →

FB10: Week 25

Before we begin, you may notice some changes with the graphics this week.  Fitbit, or, more accurately, their parent company Google, has done away with the web interface and left the app as the only way of accessing one’s step data.  I personally find the options through the app to be somewhat lacking, but I’m sure this move saves them a quarter or two. Since that web interface is what was keeping me in the Fitbit ecosystem and away from the Apple Watch and the native iOS options, it may be time to revisit my step-counting solution.

Things continued trending in the wrong direction this week, falling further below the 30,000-step plateau.  The week got off to a slow-ish start on Sunday, as I wrapped up the holiday weekend with 4000 steps.  Monday saw a slight improvement, coming in just 9 steps shy of 4200.  Tuesday fell back slightly, needing 36 more steps to get to 4100.   A busy day at work on Wednesday cratered, coming 35 steps away from 2200.  A decent improvement on Thursday pushed me back up to 3700 steps. Friday pushed me back up over 4000 steps.  The week ended on a high note on Saturday with 4700 steps.

Total steps: 26,909

Daily average: 3844.1

2024 All Star Break Pitching Leaders

The long slog known as the second half of the season kicks off tomorrow, so let’s finish off our look back at the 18 games I attended in the first half with the leaders on the defensive side, beginning with everyone’s favorite pitching stat:

Wins

Name Total
Erick Fedde 2
16 tied with 1

Losses

Name Total
Garret Crochet 2
Michael Kopech 2
Michael Soroka 2
Steven Wilson 2
Jake Woodford 2

ERA (> 6 IP)

Name Total
Dylan Cease 0.00
Justin Anderson 1.42
Erick Fedde 1.78
Chris Flexen 2.45
Tanner Houck 2.57

Strikeouts

Name Total
Garret Crochet 34
Continue reading →

2024 All Star Break Batting Leaders

With the All-Star Game in the books and a few days of rest before the second half kicks off, let’s take a look at the first half offensive leaders for the 18 games I’ve attended so far this season, starting with:

Home Runs

Name Total
Paul DeJong 4
Luis Robert 2
Andrew Vaughn 2
Gavin Sheets 2
25 tied with  1

Hits

Name Total
Paul DeJong 14
Andrew Vaughn 14
Gavin Sheets 13
Nicky Lopez 10
Luis Robert 8
Eloy Jimenez 8

Runs

Name Total
Andrew Vaughn 8
Gavin Sheets 8
Continue reading →