Today is Friday April 18th and it’s shaping up to be a beauty with a tremendous forecast. As such I’ll be on hand at Wrigley in shorts and a t-shirt to watch the Cubs pound Corbin Burnes into submission.
O/U 4.5 in-game beers
Before I head out though I just wanted to share one of the best Chicago sports moments of all time: Mark Buehrle’s perfect game.
Some observations:
- I think he’s on the Mt. Rushmore of Chicago pitchers of my lifetime. And in a Chicago pitchers draft, I’m taking him ahead of Kerry Wood, Mark Prior, Carlos Zambrano and probably everyone except Jake.
- But even then I could easily argue both sides of the debate between Buehrle and Arrieta depending on what you care about in measuring a pitcher
- I also think we don’t respect Buehrle nearly as much as we should and I hope that changes when the statue goes in on July 11th this summer. It’s a Friday night game against Cleveland and I would imagine the place will be a complete zoo. GOOD.
- Mark Buehrle spent just 1.5 seasons in the minor leagues after being drafted in the 38th round. He spent a full year in A ball before throwing 100 innings the next season in AA. He got called up for 50 something innings in 2000 and then never left the big league pitching staff. No DL rehab starts. No optioned back for seasoning. He never even stepped foot in a AAA clubhouse across the entire career.
- He led MLB with a 1.066 WHIP as a 22 year old rookie throwing 88 mph at the peak of the steroid era
- I was initially raised as a White Sox fan because my dad is a textbook diehard southside Johnny in every sense of the term. But then in May 1993 my brother got diagnosed with type-1 diabetes and my family got involved with Ron Santo’s charity, JDRF. From there, my brother immediately converted to the Cubs because Ron Santo was his idol. Nobody loves any athlete as much as my oldest brother loves Ron Santo I can promise you that.
- Shortly after, I started watching more Cubs games because of my oldest brother while the other brother remained steadfast in his love for the White Sox. It was a fun couple years until my dad said I needed to pick in 1997. I couldn’t cheer for both teams so I picked the Cubs age 10 because I wanted to be like my brother.
- Another contributing factor was how much my dad started to loathe Jerry Reinsdorf after the strike. So there’s a solid 2 year window in my childhood where the White Sox were met with abject disgust while the Cubs were celebrated and beloved. So I joined my oldest brother and mom in being a Cubs fan.
- My other brother and dad remained White Sox fans, so you grow up watching and talking about both teams closely. It was intense and awesome and I couldn’t ask for a better way to fall in love with Chicago baseball.
- If you remember early Red Line Radio, people would accuse me of being a closet White Sox fan when it’s not that closeted. I pay attention enough and 4 of the 5 closest men in my life are diehard White Sox fans. It’s unavoidable.
- So I could be a prick and argue or I could get along and I always tried to get along when it comes to baseball. I hate arguing the sport because it’s such a waste of time. That goes back to the original RLR days when I think I covered both teams fairly for a number of years but that’s beside the point.
- For now I just wanted to share Mark Buehrle’s 9th inning and get the juices flowing for a nice warm day around town.
- Enjoy
PS – Hell of a play from Dewayne.