The Daily Dose: July 2009 Archives

My phone started buzzing relentlessly, first with calls and then with text messages.

This usually means one thing - the White Sox are doing something amazing.
No team in Chicago brings out the 'fan' in my circle of buddies than the SouthSiders, and today was no different with the acquisition of Jake Peavy.

I used this space before to rip Peavy for wanting to stay and lose in San Diego a few months ago, and I still kind of wonder why it took him a serious ankle injury a two months to change his mind, but this is a great move for the White Sox.

Clayton Richard is a major league starter, but he's not a No. 1. Aaron Poreda has shown flashes, but right now he's no better than a No. 5 or a long man out of the bull pen. And who cares about the other two guys no one ever heard of.

This is a win for the Sox not only for now, but for the next 2 years when the rotation is solid with Buehrle, Floyd, Danks and Peavy. Not many teams can boast that type of talented - and young - arms.

Well, Rockford's Brad Benjamin continues his summer to remember with a thrilling playoff victory over U of I head golf coach & Aurora native Mike Small in the Illinois Open today up at Hawthorn Woods Country Club.

While Benjamin may be the story, check this out. On the 18th hole, Small played hit his shot off the rocks and onto the green, giving himself a chance to save par and extend the playoff.

Unfortunately, he couldn't capitalize, but what great theater!

and this is all I need to get me going again...Only Cubs fans would put on an epic Hat Fail.bmp

well, it's July and Daily Dose has been vacationing for most of it. Making this fairly un-daily...

but, you'll get it every day from the end of this month and for as long as I'm allowed once I return from my last vacation days next week....

so, I'll leave you with this.

Flipping during commercial breaks of the Sox-Rays game to watch the Cubs getting pounded by a real live major league baseball team, I was fortunate enough to catch good ol' Fonsi Soriano try to catch a simple fly out by Shane Victorino.

Now, Soriano closed on the ball pretty well & it was sinking toward the warning track, so he didn't have a chance to do his little hop. And, the ball then bounced right off the heel of the glove allowing yet another Phillie run to score.

Then, Bob Brenly says you really can't be surprised at what happened but adds
"It's baseball. Catch it!"

Well, the major league all-star break has come to a close but Class AAA righty Michael Bowden is still on a vacation - but not by his choosing necessarily.

The Boston Red Sox put the Aurora native on the disabled list for no real reason other than to give his arm a break. No worries though folks - the Red Sox do it all the time with their young pitchers.

While it's too early to tell if Bowden will be traded - the Red Sox are one of the few teams in baseball that have both cash and talent in the minors - what we do know is Boston is high on him.

According to this story, Jim Callis of Baseball America thinks Bowden would be a big leaguer right now if he were any place other than Boston.

"I don't think there's many farm systems that have the kind of pitching depth the Red Sox have in the minors. I think with just about any other organization, Clay Buchholz would be in the big league rotation right now. Michael Bowden would probably be in the big league rotation right now."

Then this from Boston director of player development Mike Hazen:
"I've said this plenty of times before: Guys like Clay Buchholz and Bowden and (Junichi)Tazawa and those types of players, I mean you're not going to make them major league players. They were drafted as major league players."

Good stuff.

Also - what could that mean for Marmion alumnus Matt Milroy? I think we'll be able to assume they feel he could reach the majors in 3-4 years if they give him enough of a reason to skip the U of I.

I'm mean and it's funny.mp3

and...

Back (for awhile) and I don't think you were surprised to learn that Aaron Rowand was at it again over the weekend.

Rowand - or The Fire and The Passion for the rest of us - preserved Jonathan Sanchez's no-hitter over the weekend...

The Fire and The Passion made a leaping grab at the fence to rob Edgar Gonzalez for the second out of the ninth innning.

"I was going to go up and over and land on the other side of the fence if I had to, to try to make the catch," Rowand said.

Of course he would've.

Rowand would've run through the fence.

He would have then knocked out the beer vendor and punted the three small children waiting for the impending home run to get to the bleacher steps.

He would've stuck a cleat in the grill of the grandparents highlighted on the "kiss cam" to take another three steps before pounding a Miller Light and breaking his face on a random brick wall before making the catch.

Why?

Because he has The Fire.

And The Passion.

and off for the next week...

but i couldn't help but think 2009-10 Chicago Bulls = 2009 White Sox.

it seems like this year the Bulls will try to get by, maybe sneak into the playoffs with a sub-500 record as the most important thing is the development of Derrick Rose, then try to make a free agent splash with a big signing in the 2010 offseason.

it's very '09 Sox like - try not to call it rebuilding as to not upset the fan base, but that's what they're doing.

The Eastern Conference has reloaded big time - especially now that Rasheed Wallace has joined Boston.

So let's see - the Magic get Vince Carter from New Jersey, which helped both teams...

Cleveland reloaded with Shaquille O'Neal...

Hedo Turkoglu hopped from Orlando to Toronto, making the Raptors better..

Da Bulls? Well, maybe Joakim Noah will continue to progress to average 12 points per game...

woops.

I dont feel bad for McNair. I feel bad for the children he left behind, the ones who had to find out dad was cheating on mom only after his girlfriend brained him and then offed herself.

Every adult has to live with their decisions, and some times those decisions lead to a loss of life. It's unfortunate. It's not worth the over the top tributes in sports media however.

that's the question I ask...

because Hawk Harrelson says that Gordon "Bacon" Beckham has an athletic face.

what?

an athletic face?

What could that even possibly mean?

Can his eyebrows do the broad jump? Can his jawline bend steel? Can his eyes run a 4.4 40?

well, Mike Small did it again. The U of I head men's golf coach has been the best player in the Illinois PGA section for awhile now, but his performance kind of "dipped" - if you can call it that - the last few years.

Some speculated it had to do with an equipment change.

Well, that should be put to bed as Small captured his 2nd PGA Professional National Championship and earned a berth into this year's PGA Championship up at Hazeltine in Minnesota.

Then this morning, U of I alumnus D.A. Points fired an impressive 6-under 64 in the first round of Tiger's tournament at Congressional.

Points, a Pekin native, is a great guy and 2009 is his first full season on the PGA Tour since 2006. He may have figured something out as he has carded five top 25's already and nearly $1 million.

And of course, you've got Illinois alumnus Steve Stricker still doing big things......

It's been a great summer so far for the blue and orange

if only for an abbreviated time...
see, it's summer - and the Daily Dose has to take all its vacation time during these months betwixt baseball and foo-ball and golf....

so, we'll try to do it big and live it large for the time being...

anyway,
a reader e-mailed in to tell us that Batavia's Jordan Coffey and Aurora Christian's Matt Morse shared a unique honor - the only players in the area to receive all-state nods in both baseball and football.

Interestingly though, the Illinois High School Baseball Coaches Association has since taken down its "all-state" team and says an "all-area" team will be honored July 20.
But this newspaper story on the 1A/2A team lists Morse....

So, this is all unofficial of course, but this reader is fairly up to snuff on his stuff...

Along with Coffey, other area all-state nominees in 3A/4A were
Tim Drish of Batavia, Brady Renner of West Aurora and Sam Carius of Waubonsie Valley.
Congrats to them if its true - but I find it hard to believe that Marmion's Matt Milroy was not an all-state selection, even in 4A...but we'll see in mid-July I guess..