Lowe throttles Flubs

(July 14)

Short Take:  Some consolation for Sox Fans

Sox Fans hate losing, and the 2001 season has been the most disappointing in probably 17 years for us.  1984 was the year that similar Sox championship aspirations were crushed following a successful previous season's campaign.  And while the terminally-stupid Cubs fans of the city think we derive joy at their expense (and the dolts in the media parrot it back in print and on the airwaves), it's only success over mediocrity Sox Fans truly crave.  It's only that the Cubs franchise (and their loser fans) personify mediocrity that any joy is felt inside any Sox Fan after such a victory.

So it was with a measure of satisfaction Sox Fans finally pulled to clear advantage over the Lovable Losers, winning yet another series 2 games to 1 and taking a 13-11 lead in the all-time city series record.  This is not the championship Sox Fans sought, but it ought to come in handy fending off loud-mouth Cubs fans at the water cooler the next several months.  Sean Lowe and Carlos Lee power the Sox to a 3-1 victory at Wrigley Field.

Our team might suck, but theirs sucks worse.  True Sox Fans never make excuses.  What excuse can Cubs fans make for their "love" of mediocrity?

David Wells joins James Baldwin, Cal Eldred, and Jim Parque as the four Sox starter to land on the DL this season and like three before him have his season ended.  Only Mark Buehrle has taken every turn in the rotation since opening day.  Sean Lowe is the latest to take the hill for the decimated Sox staff.  Here's a guy sent to Charlotte this spring because the general manager claimed Lowe was "the eleventh man on an eleven-man staff."

It wasn't the first time Kenny Williams was wrong, and clearly it won't be the last either.

Lowe set up and sent down Cubs hitters like a bowling pin machine.  The Lovable Losers managed just three hits and one walk off Lowe in seven innings work.  Only in the second inning did the Cubs threaten, Lowe inducing a double-play grounder to cripple the threat, and in the seventh inning when The Great One lofted one into left field for an rbi sacrifice.  Too little too late!

Sox hitters again discovered the magic of taking pitches and drawing walks to get on base.  Chris Singleton's lead-off walk to start the third inning led to the first run of the game.  Carlos Lee led off the following inning with a scorcher over the wall beyond left field to make it 2-0 Sox.  A few quick kisses to the camera inside the Sox dugout didn't seem to upset anyone too much--not even girlie-man Dan Baylor.

Somewhere in Cubbie Land, the veins on Chimp Caray's neck are sticking out.

Sosa's sacrifice might have signaled the beginning of a Cubs comeback but the Sox answered in the next half-inning on an sacrifice fly by Carlos Lee.  The Cubs would never challenge again.

Gary Glover appears to have taken over the set up man's role from the struggling Bob Howry, pitching an uneventful eighth.  Keith Foulke got the last three outs in order.  A few fights in the stands, but that will happen when delusional and drunk Cubs fans get a dose of reality slapped across their face.

A nice win.  Sox Fans wish we had fifteen more just like it.