White Sox fans will have all winter long to lament why the team did not make the playoffs here in 2010. For me, it's not hard to figure out. Consider the following numbers (with records through Wednesday night's games):

Minnesota's record: 93-65
Minnesota's record vs. the Sox: 13-5
Minnesota's record vs. all other teams: 80-60

Sox record: 85-73
Sox record vs. Minnesota: 5-13
Sox record vs. all other teams: 80-60

That's right. If you take out the head-to-head meetings between the Sox and Twins, both teams are an identical 80-60 against everybody else in baseball.

If the Sox had simply gone 9-9 in the 18 meetings with Minnesota, both teams would stand at 89-69 with four games to play. The division would be a dead heat.

But they didn't go 9-9 against Minnesota. They went 5-13. Bye bye, division title hopes.

The Sox missed the playoffs for one reason in 2010 -- they failed to stand up to the Minnesota Twins.

We haven't said much about Michael Bowden lately. The 2005 Waubonsie Valley High School graduate has been bouncing back and forth between the Boston Red Sox and Class AAA Pawtucket for the last couple years.

Well, he pitched against the White Sox on Tuesday night, and he took the loss in relief. Bowden entered in the bottom of the ninth inning with the game tied 4-4. He retired Brent Morel on a grounder to third, gave up a single to Juan Pierre and got Omar Vizquel to fly out deep to right field. He was then removed from the game.

Later in the inning, Boston reliever Matt Fox allowed a two-out RBI single to Dayan Viciedo. Pierre scored the game-winning run. The White Sox prevailed 5-4, and the loss was charged to Bowden.

Bowden now has a 5.68 ERA in 12 appearances with the Red Sox this year. He made 31 appearances in Pawtucket, including 16 starts, this season. He compiled a 6-4 record with a 3.66 ERA in Triple-A.

It's worth noting that Bowden also got his first MLB victory against the White Sox. That was back on Aug. 30, 2008. (Does every young pitcher get his first victory against Greg Walker-coached hitters?) Bowden's career MLB record is 2-2. He's 1-1 against the Sox.

It doesn't seem like Bowden is going to break into the Boston rotation anytime soon. In fact, the Red Sox have told him he'll be used as a reliever in 2011. He'll be headed to Venezuela this offseason to get used to working out of the bullpen.

Bears middle linebacker Brian Urlacher has been criticized over the last few years for his lack of impact plays. It has been a fair criticism.

Leading your team in tackles is all fine and dandy, but when you're the best player on a defense, you need to come up with some sacks and some turnovers. Urlacher hasn't always done that. We'll give him a pass for last season, because he was hurt pretty much all year. But go back and look at the numbers from two years ago - Urlacher's last healthy season - and you'll see that he had no sacks, no forced fumbles and only two interceptions. That's not good enough for a player of Urlacher's ability.

In fact, Urlacher hadn't forced a fumble since the 2006-07 season. That is, until Monday night. With the score tied 17-17 and less than three minutes to go, Urlacher poked the ball out of the hands of Green Bay receiver James Jones. Tim Jennings recovered for the Bears at the Packer 46-yard line with 2:18 to play.

The offense moved the ball down inside the 1-yard line and Robbie Gould kicked a field goal that was the equivalent of an extra point with four seconds left. Bears win 20-17.

And, oh, Urlacher wasn't the only one doing something he hadn't done in ages. We had a Devin Hester sighting on Monday night as well. Hester broke loose on a 62-yard punt return in the third quarter that gave the Bears their first lead of the night at 14-10. It was his first punt return for a touchdown since Dec. 30, 2007.

The big plays by Urlacher and Hester allowed the Bears to pull their second consecutive upset and improve their record to an improbable 3-0. Frankly, I'm stunned. I figured this team would be 1-2 at this stage.

One thing is for certain, the NFC is wide open right now. Dallas and Green Bay were considered Super Bowl favorites coming into the season. The Bears have beaten both. The Packers seem to have a more complete team than the Bears, but they self-destructed in Monday's game. Green Bay committed a whopping 18 penalties for 152 yards. Many of them were of the stupid variety.

The Packers had a touchdown nullified when Mark Tauscher was called for a blatant hold on Julius Peppers. The drive stalled and Peppers blocked a field goal. Green Bay came away with no points. The Packers also had an interception taken away when a Green Bay player - I didn't catch the number - hit Bears quarterback Jay Cutler with a helmet-to-helmet shot. Cheap and stupid. The Packers got the loss they deserved for their idiotic play.

Now, the Bears have a short week before heading to New York to play the Giants on Sunday Night Football next week. I'm not sure this team has what it takes to sustain this success -- the offensive line is still a huge question mark, the pass rush is iffy, etc. But it's really hard to complain about 3-0 at this point.

A new rivalry was born on Eola Road Friday night. Perennial state playoff team Waubonsie Valley hosted first-year varsity program Metea Valley, and surprisingly enough, it turned out to be one helluva game.

After four lead changes and two ties, the Warriors survived, 21-20, to improve to 4-1 on the season. The Mustangs, who drop to 1-4, led 20-14 until late in the third quarter when Eric Josupait scored on a one-yard option run to give Waubonsie the lead for good.

Most observers didn't expect this game to be a contest, but by all accounts, Waubonsie played well below its potential. The Warriors committed nine penalties, costing them 81 yards. They also fumbled four times, two of which were lost.

Metea, a team full of juniors, has shown it can be competitive with most teams. I can see the Mustangs being dangerous next season once they get a year's worth of experience under their belts.

Meanwhile, the kids at Waubonsie know they got away with one.

"In the end, we did enough to win," Josupait told Eddie Burns, our reporter on the scene. "We had a lot of miscues and a lot of penalties and it shows on the scoreboard. We do feel fortunate. We took them for granted and it came back to bite us. We weren't prepared."

Wheaton North 21, West Aurora 13

One team that was prepared was West Aurora, which has given unexpected challenges to Naperville North and Wheaton North the last two weeks. The Blackhawks lost 21-7 to Naperville North last week in a game that was widely expected to be a blowout. This Friday, West played Wheaton North to a 7-7 tie through the first half.

The game remained close until the end. In fact, the Blackhawks (2-3, 0-3) failed to convert two red-zone scoring opportunities in the final five minutes of the fourth quarter. If they had scored on either, they could have gone for two and tried to tie the score.

I'd love to see West get over the hump and pull a major upset at some point, but it always seems like there is one play or one miscue somewhere that costs them.

In Friday's game, West's Nate Zinzer had an 82-yard touchdown reception called back for an illegal block. It was a controversial call. Blackhawks coach Buck Drach told our man on the scene, Chris Pall, that he was frustrated by the ruling.

"The official standing next to me said he only saw the end, he saw him land on his back," Drach said. "The guy coming from the back said it was an unnecessary block, a good block, but an unnecessary block. Is it unnecessary roughness or is it a block in the back? I can live with unnecessary roughness."

Ah, but they didn't call unnecessary roughness. They called a block in the back. There's no doubt the Blackhawk faithful will be unhappy with that.

West also had a turnover in its own territory early in the second half that set up a Wheaton North TD. A play here, or a play there. That's what is holding the Blackhawks back right now.

Here are the rest of the scores from around the area Friday night:
Sandwich 32, Coal City 7
Kaneland 35, Rochelle 8
Aurora Christian 29, St. Edward 22
Streamwood 34, East Aurora 8
Montini 48, Aurora Central 0
Geneva 35, St. Charles North 34
Batavia 28, St. Charles East 0
Herscher 14, Plano 8
Oswego East 28, Plainfield Central 17
Oswego 40, Plainfield East 24
Morris 19, Yorkville 0

Former White Sox shortstop Juan Uribe had a pretty good night at Wrigley Field Thursday. Well, actually, he had a pretty good inning. Uribe went "Profundo" twice during San Francisco's nine-run second inning. He hit a two-run homer to make the score 3-0. Later, he capped the rally with a grand slam. That's a quick six RBIs.

The Giants went on to humiliate the Cubs 13-0. It seems like the Cubs have had a number of these lopsided losses this season. I looked it up and found out this is the 17th time the Cubs have given up 10 runs or more and generally gotten slaughtered this season.

It all started on Opening Day when they lost 16-5 to the Atlanta Braves. Since then, they've added losses by scores of 13-5, 11-1, 14-2, 10-6, 10-5, 12-0, 12-0 (again), 14-3, 11-5, 17-2, 18-1, 11-4, 16-5 (again), 14-7, 18-5 and now 13-0.

That's some bad baseball right there.

Other baseball notes:

The White Sox were officially eliminated from playoff contention after Tampa Bay beat the New York Yankees 10-3 Thursday night. The Rays are close to wrapping up the wild card and could steal the American League East title from the Yankees. New York leads by just a half-game and the two teams are even in the loss column. The Yankees are 92-61; the Rays are at 91-61.

You have to think the Minnesota Twins would prefer to see the Yankees hold on in that race. The AL Central winners will play whichever team loses that AL East race in the first round. If it's the Yankees, the Twins are 2-14 against New York over the last three seasons. Included, a playoff sweep last season.

Tampa Bay is a better matchup for Minnesota, because the Rays generally struggle against left-handed pitching. The Twins could throw Francisco Liriano twice, plus Brian Duensing once, in a short series.

A couple of milestones were achieved in today's Seattle-Toronto game, won 1-0 by the Blue Jays. Mariners outfielder Ichiro Suzuki became the first player to collect at least 200 hits in 10 consecutive seasons. The lone run of the game scored on Jose Bautista's 50th home run of the season. Bautista's performance this year has been shocking, because he has never before hit more than 16 homers in a season

He'll win the home run crown with ease this year. Sox first baseman Paul Konerko is a distant second among American League sluggers with 37 home runs.

On my night off Wednesday, I was able to watch the Blackhawks' preseason opener against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

As you might expect, the Hawks didn't play too many of their regulars. The game was played in Jonathan Toews' hometown of Winnipeg, Manitoba, so he was in the lineup. Patrick Sharp and Duncan Keith also played in the Hawks' 4-2 loss.

But there was no Patrick Kane. No Marian Hossa. No Troy Brouwer, Dave Bolland or Tomas Kopecky. No Brent Seabrook, Niklas Hjalmarsson or Brian Campbell either. With three of the Hawks' top four defenseman sitting out the game, that meant I got to see some of the Rockford blue-liners play.

Yep, Jassen Cullimore was on the ice Wednesday night for the Hawks. The diehards will recall the Trent Yawney years (2005-07) when Cullimore was taking a regular shift on defense for the Hawks. Boy, did he ever suck. I remember being at the United Center during that era. Naturally, there was nobody in the building because the Hawks stunk in those days and the bandwagon was completely empty.

Every time Cullimore would touch the puck, there was a guy sitting in the balcony who would yell, "I HATE YOU CULLIMORE!!!!!!!!!!" at the top of his lungs. The noise would reverberate throughout the empty United Center.

Nowadays, Cullimore is at the end of his career. He has a snowball's chance in hell of making the Blackhawks out of preseason camp this year. He'll likely be riding the buses all season in Rockford.

But during last night's game, Cullimore reminded us all of the old days when he screwed up royally right in front of his own net and handed Tampa Bay its first goal of the night. The puck lay loose just to the right of Hawks goalie Marty Turco. Cullimore was in position to clear the puck, or at the very least get a stick on Tampa Bay's Steven Stamkos to prevent him from scoring. Cullimore did neither of those two things. He just stood there. Stamkos scored and the Lightning went on to a win.

I thought about getting sentimental and singing "The Way We Were" when I saw Cullimore screw up. Instead, I chose to just yell at the damn TV .... "I HATE YOU CULLIMORE!!!!!!!!!"

We have a new computer system here at The Beacon-News. Our first night on the new platform was Monday, and as you might expect, everything is taking a little longer to finish as we learn some new workflows.

Thus, 100 percent of my time is being devoted to my production duties at the moment. I haven't had any time for research or writing. Hopefully, we can get this blog going again by the end of the week.

Thanks for your patience,

JB

Here's the play we mentioned in our Friday night blog:

We're just about to the halfway point of the high school football season with Week 4 now in the books, and two really strong candidates have emerged in the race for Beacon-News Player of the Year.

The first of which is Marmion senior T.J. Lally (pictured), who is dominating games on both sides of the ball despite playing with a broken left hand. Lally's best position, of course, is linebacker. The Cadets continued to play excellent defense Friday night, coming away with a 24-7 road win at Marian Central.

Through the first four games of the season, Marmion has allowed only 20 points. No surprise the Cadets are 4-0. Lally is concentrating mostly on defense this year. He's playing a little less on offense, but he made a huge impact with the snaps he received at running back in Friday's game.

He carried just seven times, but accumulated 144 yards. He had TD runs of 35 and 58 yards. Our man on the scene, Jim Owczarski, described the 58-yard burst as one of the best runs he's ever seen in high school football. Lally carried six tacklers on his back and generally made the Marian defense look foolish.

Kaneland senior quarterback Joe Camiliere isn't doing too bad either. He racked up 311 yards of total offense, passed for one score and ran for another as the Knights improved to 4-0 with a 56-7 thrashing of LaSalle-Peru Friday night.

As I've stated before, I think Kaneland has the best shot of going to state among Beacon-News area teams. Camiliere is the biggest reason why. Through four weeks, he's thrown for 772 yards and 11 touchdowns and rushed for 281 yards and five scores. That will work.

Right now, I'd say Lally and Camiliere are the two most dominant players on the two best teams in our area.

Here's the rundown on the rest of Friday's action:
Oswego 40, Oswego East 21
Naperville North 21, West Aurora 7 (Surprisingly close here)
Waubonsie Valley 45, Lake Park 7
Geneseo 55, Yorkville 14
Wheaton Academy 51, Aurora Central 20 (Ouch!)
Bartlett 40, Batavia 22
Geneva 34, Elgin 13
Coal City 19, Plano 14
Sandwich 34, Peotone 19
South Elgin 48, Metea Valley 13
Neuqua Valley 43, East Aurora 0
Rockford Christian 54, Mooseheart 6

The Bears lost backup linebacker Hunter Hillenmeyer for the season after he became ill from the effects of a concussion during last Sunday's game against the Detroit Lions.

That opens a roster spot, which the Bears filled Wednesday by signing Rod Wilson.

You remember Wilson. OK, actually, you probably don't. The Bears drafted the mediocre linebacker in the seventh round in 2005, and he played 28 games with the team in 2006 and 2007.

Wilson played eight games with Tampa Bay last year and was cut by the Jacksonville Jaguars after the preseason in August.

In any case, we have to welcome Rod Wilson back to Chicago, and that means it is time to sing our song!

As I've mentioned on this blog before, we do have an office fantasy baseball league here at The Beacon-News. I got a good chuckle yesterday when one of the White Sox fans in our league picked Minnesota Twins left-hander Brian "Cy" Duensing up off the waiver wire.

I have to admit, it's a pretty good move. Duensing (pictured) is scheduled to pitch against the Sox Wednesday night. He's a left-hander with a changeup. Sounds like a sure thing against Greg Walker's offense, and the numbers back it up. Duensing is 3-0 with a 2.40 ERA in nine lifetime games against Chicago.

The Sox can't hit Duensing. I know it. You know it. Bob Dole knows it. The American people know it. Anyone who plays fantasy baseball should be picking up Twins pitchers in the days before a Chicago-Minnesota series. It's a smart play.

Hell, even if the Twins were throwing the hapless Glen Perkins in this series, some Sox fan in our fantasy league would probably pick him up. That's how low the confidence level is as the Sox get ready to take on the Twins in the first of a three-game set tonight. There's not a single Sox fan in this office who believes the team has a prayer. We've been bantering about the assorted doomsday scenarios.

Overheard in the office:

"You know what will probably happen? By some miracle, the Sox will sweep the Twins. Then, they'll drop two out of three to the Tigers this weekend and fall out of the race anyway."

"Nah, the Twins are going to sweep the Sox. We'll be nine games back. Once the Twins leave Chicago, they'll go on a 10-game losing streak. The Sox will get hot the last two weeks and cut into the deficit ... and lose the division by two games."

Yep, this is the way we think around here. We've been talking about next year for almost a month. We know it's over. On the bright side, it's not going to hurt us a bit if the Sox lose. People have accepted the fate and moved on. If a miracle happens, well, then we'll all be pleasantly surprised, won't we?

A few points to chew on for a Monday night:

The majority of the postgame discussion surrounding the Bears' 19-14 victory over the Detroit Lions Sunday centers on the non-catch in the end zone by Detroit's Calvin Johnson that could have given the Lions the lead with 24 seconds to go. Or was it a catch?

Well, no, it wasn't. Not by the letter of the law. The officials correctly enforced a stupid, arcane rule. Common sense says it should have been a touchdown for the Lions. The rule book says otherwise.

Let's move on from that and talk about a major problem the Bears have -- their red zone offense is terrible. They had 463 yards of offense Sunday, but only 19 points to show for it because they were 0 for 4 in the red zone. They had 10 snaps from inside the 20, including four plays from inside the Detroit 1-yard line. They couldn't score. That's terrible.

This is what happens when you can't run the ball effectively or consistently. I always say there are two ways to score once you get inside the red zone. 1) You can assert your will physically and run the ball into the end zone or 2) You can tell a big, athletic receiver who can get separation to go get open and pass it to him.

The Bears can do neither of these things. Their run game sucks, and they are short on big, athletic receivers. Tight end Greg Olsen should be that guy. He isn't. That's a problem.

NIU coach hospitalized

Northern Illinois football coach Jerry Kill was admitted to Kishwaukee Community Hospital in DeKalb on Sunday morning, hours after he coached the Huskies to a 23-17 win over North Dakota in their home opener Saturday night.

On Monday, he was transferred to Northwestern Hospital in Chicago with an undisclosed illness.

First, we extend our get-well wishes to Kill. Secondly, if you're an Illinois fan like me, this probably makes you say, "Uh-oh."

I figure NIU is going to be plenty motivated when it travels to Champaign this Saturday to take on the Illini. The MAC teams are always fired up to play the Big Ten schools, and NIU has the additional motivation of playing against the big in-state program. Now, the Huskies have even more motivation: "Win one for Coach Kill!"

Ron Zook's boys better be ready on Saturday.

Karma bites Bruce Pearl, Jay Mariotti

Bruce Pearl is still a pathological liar. He still has no integrity. He still has no business coaching college basketball. He deserves to be fired. He'll never make the Final Four. He's the very definition of a loser.

Here's the proof.

I laughed hysterically when I heard that Pearl was shedding tears at his news conference. He's not sorry for what he did. He's only sorry that he got caught. People like him represent everything that is wrong with college sports.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Pearl, he was an assistant with the University of Iowa in the late 1980s. Iowa wasn't as good as Illinois during those years. Motivated by insane jealousy, Pearl lied to the NCAA and tried to ruin the career of Jimmy Collins, the recently retired UIC coach who was an assistant at Illinois at the time. Pearl accused Collins of offering money and cars to prep star Deon Thomas, who chose Illinois over Iowa and became the leading scorer in the history of Illini basketball.

The NCAA investigated and cleared Collins of any wrongdoing, but Illinois was still hit with sanctions that took the program years to recover from. Pearl lied and received no punishment.

Years later, Pearl is getting his, and Collins has no sympathy for him whatsoever. Bravo, Jimmy, for telling it like it is.

It's great to see people like Bruce Pearl and Jay Mariotti knocked down off their high horses. It was announced today that Mariotti faces seven misdemeanor charges for beating up a woman in Los Angeles. You're a real tough guy, Jay. Just like Bruce Pearl, you're a disgrace to your profession and deserve to be fired.

We had some good defense being played in Aurora Friday night. It might be just the first week of conference play, but Waubonsie Valley earned a big 17-6 win over Bartlett. It's not a stretch at all to think that victory will loom large in the Upstate Eight Valley race this year.

"Our defense came to play," Warriors coach Paul Murphy told Rick Armstrong, our man on the scene. "They outhit the piss out of them."

It was indeed a defensive battle as the two teams played a scoreless first half. But Waubonsie Valley turned the tide by forcing four fumbles on the first five Bartlett possessions of the second half. On the fifth possession, the Hawks snapped the ball over their punter's head and turned it over on downs.

The Warriors took advantage of the favorable field position, scoring two touchdowns and a field goal to win the game, despite being outgained 276-257 on the evening.

Aurora Central, Marmion pitch shutouts

I stated last week that this is a different Aurora Central team than the one we've seen in recent years. The Chargers (2-1, 1-0) did it with defense again this week, shutting out Chicago Christian 12-0. As a matter of fact, Chicago Christian managed only 81 yards of total offense. That's a solid effort against a pretty decent opponent for ACC.

Another Catholic school in town is looking pretty good defensively, too. Marmion came away with a 22-0 win over St. Francis on Friday night. The Cadets (3-0, 1-0) have allowed only 13 points through the first three weeks of the season. Last year was really a breakout year for the Marmion program. After years of falling in the 4-to-6 win range, the Cadets won the SCC Blue, won a playoff game and went 9-2 a season ago. With the solid defensive effort they've been putting forth, they are contenders again this year.

Metea Valley 39, East Aurora 6

Our congratulations go out to the Mustangs on their first varsity win in school history. The first-year program had a near miss in Week 1 when it loss 27-26 to Plainfield East on a last second TD. This one was never a contest. Metea led 13-0 after a quarter and 26-0 at the half. It's looking like another rough year for the Tomcats. I give credit to every kid who plays at East High. It's not easy to sign up to play football at that school, because you know going in you're going to take some lumps.

Here are the rest of the results from Week 3:
Marian Central 20, Aurora Christian 6
Naperville Central 45, West Aurora 6
Batavia 41, Larkin 0
Geneva 30, St. Charles East 20
Oswego 61, Romeoville 53 (No, that's not a misprint.)
Kaneland 55, Dixon 6
Manteno 25, Plano 0
Sandwich 16, Herscher 14
Plainfield South 47, Oswego East 14
Ottawa 34, Yorkville 7

Nothing more needs to be said.

Why do White Sox pitchers always do this? Whenever they throw at an opposing hitter intentionally, they always admit to it, opening themselves up for possible fines and suspensions.

Every team in the league intentionally throws at someone every now and then. The White Sox are the only ones who talk about it in the newspapers. Everyone else lies and says, "I didn't throw at him. The ball just got away from me."

Not the Sox. Here's what John Danks had to say after he threw a brushback pitch to Detroit's Ryan Raburn during Wednesday night's 5-1 Tigers win.

"They hit Manny (Ramirez) twice yesterday and almost hit Andruw (Jones), so we were definitely trying to send a message," Danks said. "We didn't hit anyone, so I don't know if the warning was warranted, but I can definitely understand why the umpire did it. It is his job to keep control out there, so you can't fault him."

I'm glad Danks sent the message by throwing at Raburn. The Sox have their starting second baseman, Gordon Beckham, out of the lineup right now because he was hit by a pitch. And Ramirez has been plunked four times already in his short time with Chicago. Enough is enough. Go ahead and retaliate.

But when the media asks about it, lie through your teeth. There's a reason the White Sox have a reputation as "headhunters," even though their pitching staff has hit the second fewest batters in the league this season. They just can't resist telling the truth in these situations.

Sometimes, you're just better off fibbing a little bit, ya know?

I've been a big supporter of Freddy Garcia's this year. Some Sox fans -- especially those who aren't fond of manager Ozzie Guillen -- didn't want Garcia in the rotation at the start of this season. Garcia didn't have a good spring training. Garcia was only on the team because he's Venezuelan and because he's a friend of Ozzie's, they said.

I called BS on that theory from day one. Garcia can still pitch when he's healthy, and he's been healthy for most of this year. He's got 11 wins out of the fifth starter spot, and he's pitched well enough to have 13 or 14 wins. The Sox bullpen seems to save its worst for the days Garcia pitches. Remember this game. And this game. And this game. You get the point. Garcia has been good for the Sox this year and should have an even better record than he does.

All that said, it looks like Garcia is out of gas here in September. The veteran right-hander has removed himself from the game in each of his last two starts with a stiff lower back. On Tuesday night, Garcia lasted just two innings in Detroit. The Sox were forced to use Triple-A callups Lucas Harrell and Carlos Torres in relief. Predictably, the Tigers rolled to a 9-1 win.

The Sox seven-game winning streak ended and they fell 4 1/2 games behind Minnesota in the AL Central race.

Now the question becomes, what do the Sox do next time Garcia's spot in the rotation comes up? He'd be scheduled to pitch Sunday against Kansas City. Can you afford to put him back out there, not knowing whether he's capable of even getting through the third inning?

I wouldn't take the chance. I also wouldn't waste my time with Harrell or Torres. Neither of those guys is capable of getting the job done from what I've seen. I'd start Tony Pena on Sunday against the Royals. Why not? That move worked once before. I wouldn't hesitate to try it again with Garcia ailing.

When the Sox acquired Manny Ramirez on waivers from the Dodgers last week, critics of the move pointed out Ramirez had only 13 at-bats since the All-Star break. He has spent a lot of time on the disabled list this season. He will be rusty, they said.

They were right. Ramirez is rusty. In 18 plate appearances since joining the Sox, Ramirez has no extra-base hits and no RBIs. He's far from locked in. But you know what? His batting average is .438 and his on-base percentage is .500 -- seven singles, one walk and one HBP is those 18 times at the plate.

That's the thing about your top hitters. Even when they don't have their best swing working, they can still come up with a decent at-bat, accept their base hits and keep the line moving. In Ramirez's case he started the line moving twice in Monday's 5-4 White Sox victory over Detroit.

His leadoff single in the second inning started a two-run rally that allowed the Sox to erase an early 2-0 deficit. HIs leadoff single in the 10th inning off Detroit closer Jose Valverde started the game-winning rally. Ramirez finished the day 3 for 5.

Even though Ramirez has not delivered the big extra-base hit yet, the Sox lineup just seems better when he's in it. Late-inning rallies have become the norm since he joined the team. The Sox are 7-0 on their current road trip. Four of the wins have come in the last at-bat. A fifth win was the result of an eighth-inning rally.

I don't care what anybody says about PEDs, weird haircuts or press conferences conducted in Spanish. I liked the acquisition of Ramirez. It is a gamble, but it's a gamble worth taking in my view. So far, so good.

Again, if this fails, the Sox can just wave goodbye to Ramirez at the end of the season with no harm done.

Ozzie managing by his gut

One other thing I've noticed on this road trip: For better or for worse, Sox manager Ozzie Guillen has been going by his gut in dealing with the pitching staff lately. He's brought closer Bobby Jenks into the game in the eighth inning three times in the last week. Twice, it worked.

During Sunday's 7-5 win over the Red Sox, I wanted to kill Guillen for allowing a tiring Mark Buehrle to face Victor Martinez in the the bottom of the seventh inning. Martinez hit a two-run homer to give Boston a short-lived 4-3 lead. I was right about that one. Ozzie was wrong and got away with it.

During Monday's game, I again wanted to kill Guillen for allowing a tiring Edwin Jackson to face Detroit's Miguel Cabrera in a 4-4 game in the bottom of the eighth. Jackson got the out. I was wrong about that one. Guillen was right.

I also found it interesting that Guillen allowed rookie Chris Sale to work both the ninth and 10th innings in Monday's win. I didn't mind that move, but it went against conventional wisdom. Typically, managers just automatically go to their closer in that spot. Not Guillen. He saw that Sale was throwing exceptionally well and allowed him to face the top of the Detroit order with a one-run lead in the 10th. Sale responded with a 1-2-3 inning.

Even though some of these pitching decisions are questionable, I like that Guillen is managing this way. This is the way he did it in 2004 and 2005, when he first got here. A lot of his moves seemed weird, but they worked. As time has gone on, I feel Guillen has managed his pitching staff by the book more and more. And the more he went by the book, the more the book blew up on him.

The old Ozzie seems to have returned recently. Good. Us media guys are going to rip him at times when one of his crazy moves (like the one with Buehrle Sunday) backfires, but Guillen has always been at his best as manager when he does things that are a little off the wall. For example, he allowed Chris Sale to pitch 2 2/3 innings of relief today.

Unorthodox, but brilliant.

Congratulations go out to Aurora Central Catholic's football program. The Chargers collected their first home victory since 2006 Friday night with a 19-7 win over Marengo.

You had a feeling better things might be ahead for ACC after it played Genoa-Kingston reasonably tough in Week 1, losing 19-0. Just a year ago, the Chargers got whacked 44-0 by Genoa. Those sorts of lopsided losses have been all too common at ACC over the past four or five years. In fact, the Chargers have suffered through 12 consecutive losing seasons. I'm not convinced (yet) that streak is going to end this year, but I do think the arrow is pointing up for that program for the first time in a long time.

The feeling here is the coaching change at ACC has been a positive. With all due respect to Mike Curry, a Hall of Fame coach who stepped down after 23 years at the helm, the Chargers needed some new blood and some fresh ideas to get people excited about football again at that school. Brian Casey, who was promoted to varsity after coaching four years at the fresh/soph level, has fit the bill. He's got the Chargers playing much better defense than we've seen in previous years.

ACC has given up only 26 points through the first two weeks. In past years, the Chargers would struggle to hold the opponent to less than 26 in the first quarter. I'm sure these first two weeks have been a welcome change for the ACC fans.

The Chargers have a tough schedule ahead of them in the Suburban Christian Gold, but there is reason for hope. I don't expect ACC to end up 1-8 like it has in years past.

Waubonsie Valley 35, Oswego 28

Would you believe the normally run-happy Oswego Panthers put the ball in the air 28 times in the first half alone tonight? Yep, it's true. The Panthers are running a spread offense this year with 6-3 junior quarterback Ryan West.

The bad news for Oswego? They are 0-2 after losing by seven to Morris last week and losing by seven to Waubonsie Valley this week. But those are two real quality opponents. Even though the Panthers are in a hole, I expect them to bounce back and get the five victories necessary to qualify for the postseason.

Oswego has traditionally done well in the Southwest Prairie Conference, and I expect nothing different as the year progresses.

Here's the rundown of other scores from around The Beacon-News coverage area tonight:
Marmion Academy 13, Mundelein 6
West Aurora 23, Elgin 7
Aurora Christian 54, Chicago Academy 0
Yorkville 23, East Aurora 0
Oswego East 35, Larkin 34
Kaneland 40, Huntley 12
Batavia 28, West Chicago 21
Rockford Christian Life 23, Mooseheart 12
Plano 35, Seneca 14
Sandwich 31, Dwight 0
Quincy 17, Metea Valley 7

I heard earlier this summer that former Cubbie savior "Messiah Mark" Prior was attempting a comeback.

The Messiah, 30, took the next step toward a possible return to the big leagues Friday when he signed a minor league deal with the Texas Rangers.

Prior had been pitching with the Orange County Flyers, an Independent League team. He struck out 22 and allowed one earned run over 11 innings of relief work. The Messiah, who hasn't pitched in the bigs since 2006, is scheduled to report to Triple-A Oklahoma City on Saturday.

Should be an interesting story to follow.

Sandberg named PCL Manager of the Year

Speaking of the Cubs, Ryne Sandberg was named Pacific Coast League Manager of the Year. Sandberg has led Triple-A Iowa to an 80-60 record this season.

I still don't think the Cubs should hire him as manager, but they probably will. They are, after all, the Cubs. They always make decisions based on popular sentiment, and that's why they haven't won over the years.

Bears cut Afalava

Last year, safety Al Afalava started 13 games for the Bears. On Friday, he was cut. The Bears apparently are keeping six-year veteran Josh Bullocks instead.

Stupid move.

Bullocks is a journeyman, a mediocre veteran who will never be more than a backup player. While Afalava has had a subpar preseason, he's a second-year player who had shown enough promise to see significant playing time as a rookie last season. And Bullocks has been hurt for most of camp and most of his time with the Bears.

Why not keep the young player and try to develop him, as opposed to holding on to the injury-prone backup?

People wonder why I'm not excited about Bears football this year. The current regime at Halas Hall continues to made bad decision after bad decision. I hope they go 5-11 and everybody up there gets fired.

Sox get hurricaned out

Hurricane Earl is causing heavy rain in the Boston area tonight, which means the White Sox and Red Sox will play a day-night doubleheader tomorrow.

The Sox have activated left-hander Matt Thornton off the disabled list, which is good news for a beleagured bullpen that could use all the help it can get.

The pitching matchups will remain the same Saturday: John Danks and Clay Buchholz in the noon game on WCIU. Gavin Floyd and John Lackey in the 6 p.m. game on Comcast SportsNet.

Hopefully, the storm moves out and the Sox and Boston can get three games in before the weekend is over. You don't want to have to tack games on to the end of the season if you can avoid it.

Manny Ramirez started his first game in a White Sox uniform Wednesday afternoon in Cleveland. The new designated hitter batted fifth and went 1 for 3 with a single. He was also hit by a pitch before being replaced by a pinch-runner in the eighth inning.

Not much of an impact, you say? Well, not so fast. For the second consecutive game, Ramirez was standing in the on-deck circle when one of his White Sox teammates clubbed a game-winning three-run homer.

On Tuesday, he was getting ready to pinch-hit for Brent Lillibridge in the ninth inning when A.J. Pierzynski broke a 1-1 tie with a blast that sent the Sox to a 4-3 victory. On Wednesday, the Sox trailed 4-2 in the eighth. With Ramirez waiting to hit, Paul Konerko cranked one out that put the South Siders ahead 5-4. They went on to win 6-4.

Coincidence? Impossible to say for sure, but I have to believe Ramirez's presence helped Konerko today. There was a base open. If the Indians had seen the .236-hitting Carlos Quentin over in the on-deck circle, they might have thought twice about giving in to Konerko, who is far and away the Sox best hitter this season.

Instead of the struggling Quentin, the Sox had a guy with 554 lifetime home runs in the on-deck circle. As good as Konerko is, you're not going to walk him to load the bases for Manny Ramirez. You're just not. Cleveland pitched to Konerko. The Sox captain clubbed a game-changing home run off reliever Justin Germano.

Ramirez is one of those guys whose impact goes beyond the numbers. Even if his skills have declined, he is still a feared hitter when the game is on the line. He's still a guy the opposing managers and pitchers have to game plan for. He can make Paul Konerko better by providing him protection in the lineup. And Konerko's already having a pretty damn good year as it stands.

If the Sox can somehow pull the American League Central Division title out in the final month of the season, Konerko is going to be a candidate for MVP. He's got 33 homers, 12 of them in the eighth or ninth innings of games. Twenty of his homers have been hit sixth inning or later. We've said it here all year -- Konerko has been nails late in games this season.

The Sox first baseman is hitting .319. His previous career best is .313, set in 2006. He's got 98 RBIs. His career high is 117, set in 2004. At age 34, Konerko is having his best year in a Sox uniform. Now, he's got Ramirez to help him out for the final 29 games. We'll see if that's enough for the Sox to run down the Minnesota Twins.