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Hall Of Fame Batting Leaders



The Hall of Fame Class of 2025, featuring hitters Ichiro Suzuki, Dick Allen, and Dave Parker, gets enshrined in Cooperstown today.  Though I’ve only seen one of the three new Hall of Famers 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 2024.

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
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Hall Of Fame Pitching Leaders


Tomorrow, the Hall of Fame class of 2025 will be inducted in Cooperstown and CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner will boost the number of Hall of Fame pitchers I’ve seen live to twelve.  To celebrate this momentous occasion, we will take another look at the pitching leaders amongst Hall of Famers in games I have attended between 1984 and 2024.

Wins

Name Total
Greg Maddux 9
CC Sabathia 6
Tom Glavine 1
Rich Gossage 1
Roy Halladay 1
Mike Mussina 1

Losses

Name Total
Greg Maddux 12
Tom Glavine 2
Tom Seaver 2
Mike Mussina 2
Roy Halladay 1
Rich Gossage 1

ERA

Name Total
Lee Smith 0.00
Mariano Rivera 0.00
Billy Wagner 1.59
Trevor Hoffman 2.25
Roy Halladay 3.00

Strikeouts

Name Total
Greg Maddux 92
CC Sabathia 48
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Crossing Sides Of Town

So far in 2025, Brad Keller, Mike Tauchman, Nicky Lopez, and Reese McGuire pushed the total of players I’ve seen take the field in person for both the Cubs and the White Sox to 47.  With the final round of crosstown kicking off tonight at Rate Field, here’s a look at those players, in alphabetical order.

David Aardsma

After posting a decent season with the Cubs in 2006, Aardsma was traded to the White Sox for Neal Cotts.  Aardsma lasted one season with the Sox, where he was unable to duplicate his success from the year before.

Jason Bere

Drafted by the White Sox in the 36th round in 1990, Bere debuted with the big-league club in 1993, finishing 2nd in Rookie of the Year voting.  After an All Star selection in 1994, injuries marred the remainder of his tenure on the South Side, which ended in 1998.  He resurfaced with the Cubs in 2001 and had a decent season, but he went 1-10 in 2002 before being let go.

Emilio Bonifacio

Bonifacio spent back-to-back partial seasons in Chicago, first for the Cubs in 2014 after signing as a free agent, where he played decently enough to be flipped at the trade deadline, along with James Russell, to the Braves for a young catching prospect by the name of Victor Caratini.  He returned to Chicago in 2015, signing with the White Sox, where he he did not do well at all, hitting .167 in 47 games before being released in August.

Welington Castillo

Debuting with the Cubs in 2010, Castillo spent time behind the plate for the Cubs until May of 2015, when, having been replaced in the starting lineup by Miguel Montero, he was flipped to the Mariners.  He returned to Chicago in 2018 after signing with the White Sox as a free agent.  On May 24th of that season, he was suspended 80 games for a violation of the PED policy.  The White Sox then cut bait following the 2019 season, shipping him off to the Rangers.

Neal Cotts

Acquired by the White Sox in the Billy Koch trade, he debuted with the team in 2003.  He was a key contributor in the bullpen during the 2005 championship season and was the only relief pitcher to appear in all 3 rounds of the playoffs that season.  Following the 2006 season, he was traded to the Cubs for David Aardsma, and he spent the next 3 injury filled seasons on the North Side.

Scott Eyre

Joining the White Sox organization in a 1994 trade with the Rangers, he debuted with the big-league team in 1997.  He split the next 4 seasons between the rotation and the bullpen, not to mention between Chicago and Charlotte, before being moved to the Blue Jays following the 2000 ALDS loss to the Mariners.  He joined the Cubs as a free agent for the 2006 season and enjoyed 2 seasons of relative success, before falling apart in 2008, when he was traded to the Phillies.

Clint Frazier

After missing the second half of 2021 with an injury, Frazier was DFA’d by the Yankees.  He signed a deal with the Cubs that offseason, though he notched just 45 plate appearances before being DFA’s once again.  He chose to finish the year in the Cubs system before becoming a free agent following the season.  After failing to catch on with the Rangers, he signed a minor league deal with the White Sox, eventually hitting .197 in 33 games with the big-league club.

Kosuke Fukudome Continue reading →

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He Closed His Eyes Forever

Ozzy Osbourne, the seminal lead singer of Black Sabbath, died Tuesday at 76 after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease.  He, and the band, came to prominence in the 1970s, defining the UK heavy metal sound.  In 1979, he left the group, leading to a successful solo career throughout the 80s and early 90s.  He earned fame with a whole new generation in the 2000s when he and his family starred in The Osbournes, a reality show that became one of MTV’s biggest hits.

Locally, Osbourne caused a stir in 2003 when he appeared at Wrigley Field with his wife Sharon to perform the 7th Inning Stretch.  His performance of Take Me Out to the Ballgame was one for the ages, and not in the good way.  His final performance came just two weeks ago in his hometown of Birmingham, England, where Osbourne wrapped up a ten-hour day with a five-song solo set followed by a four-song set with the original members of Black Sabbath.

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Fitbit XI – Week 26

A letdown after last week, but I still saw my 30,000-step week streak hit double digits.  The week got off to a strong start on Sunday, scoring 5900 steps thanks to the final White Sox game before the All-Star break.  Monday dropped back down a bit, needing 21 steps to hit 4400.  Another slight decrease on Tuesday left me 38 steps shy of 4300.  Things improved on Wednesday, coming 33 steps shy of 4600.  Another increase on Thursday put me over 4700 steps.  A half day off on Friday pushed me back up to 4900 steps.  The week ended with a lazier day, needing 37 steps to get to 3500 on Saturday.

Total steps: 32,290

Daily average: 4612.9

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iTunes Top 200: #2

Music.  It is a powerful thing that brings people together, creates memories, and evokes emotions.  It is the universal language that speaks to the soul.  It forms the soundtrack of our lives.

It has now been five years since we last counted down the Top 200 songs in my iTunes library, featuring he songs I have listened to the most since 2007.  It is time to do so again, seeing which older songs still resonate and if any newer ones have joined the fray.  So, without further ado, here are my most listened to songs, based on number of plays as of January 1, 2025.

Our penultimate entry is a track released as a single in 1990 and became associated with the White Sox in 2004.

#2: AC/DC – Thunderstruck
iTunes stats: 292 plays, most recently on 9/15/2024
Previous ranking: #1

The 12th studio album from AC/DC, The Razor’s Edge, was released in September of 1990, with Thunderstruck released as the first single.  It peaked at #5 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and is now considered one of the band’s signature songs.

The White Sox started taking the field to the song during the 2004 season, and it has been used off and on ever since.  Because of that, it has held a place on every version of my victory playlist since which has led to its high play total.

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Book 36 (of 52) – Bones Never Lie

Bones Never Lie – Kathy Reichs

Whan a cold case in Vermont matches the MO of a murdered child in Charlotte, they both seem to tie back to the same killer: a Canadian woman who escaped from Temperance Brennan in Montreal years earlier.  After a quick trip to Costa Rica to pull in her former lover, Brennan follows the clues and discovers who the actual killer is.

Bones Never Lie, the 17th entry in Kathy Reichs’ Temperence Brennan series, follows up on Monday Mourning, which I read back in 2023.  This is now the sixth book in the series that I’ve read and the fourth since the end of Bones, the television series based on the books.  My enjoyment only grows the further away from the show’s ending we get.

 

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Fitbit XI – Week 25

A great week which extended my 30,000-step week streak to nine while scoring my highest total in nearly a year.  The week got off to a strong start on Sunday, scoring 4500 steps.  A day off of work with a nighttime trip to Rate Field on Monday saw a nice increase, crossing my daily step goal with 8600 steps.  Another vacation day and another tilt between the Blue Jays and the White Sox on Tuesday left me just shy of my daily step goal with 7200 steps.  The end of my time off saw a big drop on Wednesday but still left me with 5300 steps.  Thursday saw me going back to work, leading to just 4300 steps.  The unveiling of Mark Buehrle’s statue on Friday put me back up to 6900 steps.  Another game, celebrating the 20th anniversary of the 2005 World Series champions, got me to 5300 steps on Saturday to wrap up the week.

Total steps: 42,281

Daily average: 6040.1

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Book 35 (of 52) – The Maid’s Secret

The Maid’s Secret – Nita Prose

When a television treasure hunting show comes to the hotel, Molly Gray finds out that a decorative egg given to her is worth millions.  When the egg disappears following the auction, she once again finds herself in the middle of a mystery, the keys to which may be in a diary her gram kept detailing her hidden childhood.

Nita Prose wraps up her Molly the Maid trilogy with The Maid’s Secret.  After a slow start, I got into this one, moving back and forth between the two timelines and picking up the hints that led to the ultimate revelations.  I’m not sure what is next for Prose, but I’ll keep an eye out.

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2025 All Star Break Pitching Leaders

Now that the All-Star Game is behind us and we await tomorrow’s start of the second half of the season, let’s take a look at the first half leaders on the defensive side of the ball for the 23 games I’ve attended so far this season, beginning with everyone’s favorite pitching stat:

Wins

Name Total
Mike Vasil 2
Sean Burke 2
Adrian Houser 2
Matthew Boyd 2
15 tied with 1

Losses

Name Total
Sean Burke 2
Jordan Leasure 2
18 tied with 1

ERA (> 6 IP)

Name Total
Adrian Houser 0.00
Garrett Crochet  1.23
Jameson Tallion 1.42
Shane Smith 1.50
Matthew Boyd 2.25

Strikeouts

Name Total
Saen Burke 26
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