A.J. Pierzynski: A case study

May 22nd, 2006 | Posted by PostmanR

I know A.J. Pierzynski is an asshole. And I know he isn’t liked by many players and a good number of baseball fans. And if I wasn’t a White Sox guy, I wouldn’t like him either. But I am, and because of it, I love his style of play.

His decision to run on the supposed dropped third strike against the Angels in game two of the ALCS was a heads-up, smart play.

And if you think that Pierzynski’s running over of Michael Barrett on Saturday was a dirty play, you don’t know baseball. If a catcher is blocking the plate, you have every right to mow him over. That’s baseball.

At lot of people are claiming the fight happened because it was Pierzynski’s jerk reputation preceding itself, but I’d blame it more on a combination of that and Barrett’s reputation of losing his cool. Last week against the Padres, the Cubs catcher got into it with David Roberts of the San Diego Padres. In 2004, benches cleared at Wrigley Field as Barrett jawed with Roy Oswalt of the Astros at home plate. Barrett was the one who said ‘I didn’t even have the f’n ball, bitch’ to Pierzynski and threw a cheap shot punch. (Although it didn’t help that A.J. nudged him as he went for his helmet.)

People didn’t like that Pierzynski raised his arms to the crowd and came back to the dugout fired up while giving out high fives to his teammates after the fight. And again, if I’m an outside observer watching this, I’d be annoyed. But as a Sox fan, I like that a guy shows a little fire, emotion and passion.

Bottom line, if you don’t have Pierzynski on your team, you aren’t going to like him. If he’s on your team, you’re going to love him. It’s as simple as that.

I know everyone has probably seen this clip a bazillion times by now, but hey, we’re going to put it up on our site for your viewing pleasure because this happened Saturday and we weren’t blogging. There’s not a thing you can do about it, okay?

Enjoy.

We’ll see you Monday…

May 12th, 2006 | Posted by PostmanR

…because we’ve decided (due to decreased readership on the weekends and the realization that we do in fact have lives (just barely) outside the land of blogdom) that barring a monumental event (like Greg Oden somehow leaving Ohio State for Indiana) that we’ll be keeping the Postmen to a strict Monday-Friday operation.

But don’t fret. There are plenty of things to entertain you this weekend that don’t involve sitting in front of your computer screen.

- The Chicago White Sox start a three game series against the Twins tonight up in Minnesota. Garland vs. Santana in the opener.

- The Cubs returned home today against the Padres after their miserable 1-8 road trip. They’re currently losing 8-2. Is Derrek Lee healthy yet?

- The agonizingly long NBA playoffs are available for your viewing pleasure. The Heat face the Nets in New Jersey tonight and the Clippers play host to the Suns. LeBron and the Cavs will try and get their first win of the series tomorrow at home vs. the Pistons.

-Mr. Barry Bonds gets a chance to catch the Babe this weekend at home against the Dodgers.

Oh, and that picture we have across the banner. Philidelphia fans weren’t actually holding up a sign promoting the Postmen. (We know you’re all shocked.) You can make that white space on the sign say anything your heart desires at fansonbonds.com.

Have a good weekend, everybody.

It’s a slow sports day…

May 3rd, 2006 | Posted by PostmanR

…And since we can’t find anything too blog-worthy at the moment, here’s a compilation of what some other sports bloggers are talking about.

The Mighty MJD does not like Joe Buck.

The Realests are backing up the Bears for not drafting any worthy offensive talent.

Hawk says the White Sox have rhythm.

Free Darko thinks this is a problem.

Matt Leinart and Paris Hilton? That’s hot.

Hammer’s got our back

May 2nd, 2006 | Posted by PostmanR

Deadspin makes reference to M.C. Hammer’s blog from time to time, and after perusing the site for a bit today, I realized one thing - Hammer has our back.

The White Sox seem to have picked up where they left off.
It’s to early to runaway with it but the swagger is right. Vazquez is looking
strong and was near flawless in his two hitter this week. The Sox have won
9 of their last 10 games.The Cubs are in striking distance early on and should
give Houston all the fight they can stand this season.
Look for others to step up while Lee recovers. The Cubs
will be there fighting it out in September.

(We left the grammar intact as it was on Hammer’s blog. We aren’t about to mess with the man who is ‘Too Legit to Quit.’)

As some of you know, we here at the Postmen are 2/3 White Sox fans and 1/3 Cubs fans. And when we found out M.C. freakin’ Hammer was reppin’ both of our clubs, we got pretty excited. (Even if the post is a few weeks old.)

I guess all we can say is thank you M.C. Hammer, thank you.

No more tarp-slidin’ Buehrle

April 17th, 2006 | Posted by PostmanR

As two-thirds of the Postmen are White Sox fans, we were a little perturbed when we found out that Mark Buehrle’s signature tarp-slides during rain delays are most likely over - as he was reportedly fined for doing it yesterday during a White Sox-Blue Jays rain delay at U.S. Cellular Field.

White Sox GM Kenny Williams said in an email to mlb.com, “He needs to find another hobby.”

Apparently during the rain delay yesterday, some knucklehead came out of the stands and did a little tarp-slidin’ himself. He was promptly apprehended by security.

One team official was pretty certain this had a lot to do with them shutting down Buehrle for good.

It was fun while it lasted, Mark.

Does anyone like this Jay Mariotti guy?

April 6th, 2006 | Posted by PostmanR

Just picked up this interesting tidbit from the good folks over at Deadspin. Looks like Cubs president Andy MacPhail and White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf co-authored a letter to the Chicago Sun-Times publisher John Cruickshank regarding the world’s most notorious columnist, Jay Mariotti.

Mr. Mariotti ripped Bud Selig’s supposed slow response to this whole steroid business in a recent column. MacPhail and Reinsdorf fired back saying that Mariotti ‘has made no effort to be the least bit informed on this important subject.’ And later, ‘If Mariotti would ever trouble himself to make a phone call, maybe he would get the story right.’

It may be a little difficult to side with MacPhail and Reinsdorf for defending baseball’s response to steroids, (and after reading their facts and evidence it’s pretty convincing the burden rested on the Player’s Association and not on Bud Selig) but either way, it’s nice to see the Cubs and Sox can at least agree on one thing – their hatred for Mr. Jay Mariotti.

It has begun…

April 2nd, 2006 | Posted by PostmanR

As M said earlier today, the baseball season is finally upon us. As two-thirds of the Postmen are White Sox fans, (minus E, but he’s from Iowa, so can you blame him?) we are particularly excited about tonight’s match-up.

There are plenty of interesting story lines to follow this season, from Barry Bonds to Damon’s return to Boston on May 1st.

The baseball season signals the start of the weather turning and the start of the summer and it makes me smile.

The Sox and Indians are tied up in this one 0-0 after two innings.

Let’s go Sox.

The quest for a repeat

April 2nd, 2006 | Posted by Matt

The offseason for the Chicago White Sox has been interesting, to say the least. The Sox sat back and enjoyed their World Series Championship. The team acquired the likes of Jim Thome, Javier Vazquez and Rob Mackowiak. The organization rewarded pitchers Jon Garland and Jose Contreras with multi-million dollar contract extensions.

But besides a new World Series banner, some new faces on the roster and some extra cash to throw at their players, the White Sox obtained something in the offseason that they have absolutely never had before - swagger.

They will need more than just swagger to take hold of the AL Central this season though. The Cleveland Indians are a force to be reckoned with and could very well take the AL Central crown. For now, the White Sox are the favorites to win the division.

Tonight, the White Sox will begin the 2006 season against their arch-rival Indians in hopes of repeating as World Series champs.

And the Indians hope to be a thorn in their side yet again.

Whitesox.com Game Preview

ESPN Game Preview