SO perfeXt

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Today was a good, no, a great day to be a Sox Fan. When you are dealing with perfection, you will always ask yourself, “What if?”
What if that foul ball hit by Pat Burrell was a few inches to the right?
What if Ozzie Guillen never made that substitution?
What if Dewayne Wise took a misstep, mistimed his jump or dropped the ball?
What if, what if…what if?
I have a what if: What if I was at the game?
This has been one of my only free weeks all summer. No road trips, no camp excursions, no tech classes. I was free to do whatever I pleased and I thought about taking in a White Sox game. The 11pm SportsCenter “What 2 Watch 4” said it was going to be lefty duel on the South Side between Mark Buehrle and Scott Kazmir of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. The forecast called for a beautiful day, I wanted to show off my grey Sox Griffey jersey and I had nothing planned. Then I thought of how I had needed to finish shrink-wrapping the computer equipment for the Apple Recycling program.
The Sox game or my tech coordinator duties? I knew I needed to finish a job I had started in June, but it is summertime and what better way to spend it than at Comisky Park. This quandary – though only lasting a split second – tore me apart and in the end I knew I had to be responsible.
So at 11:37am, while I made trips to Sam’s Club (Main and McCormick, Evanston) for boxes, Practical Packaging Solutions (Devon and Pulaski, Chicago) for shrink-wrap and St. Josaphat School (Southport and Beldon, Chicago), I was thinking about what fun I could be having at the game. At 3:00pm, I felt quite pleased with myself at a job well done, with the help of Ms. Williams of course. When I got home around 3:45pm, “The Lead” on the ESPN’s Bottom Line said, “Buehrle throws perfect game vs. Rays.”
What if I was there? I would have been part of history…
Tear.
Or maybe: What if I had gone to the game and there was no perfect game? I probably would not have anything to write about. That is how chaotic these perfect games are and you can never predict when they will occur. It seems that since Len Barker did it in 1981 with the Cleveland Indians, every perfect game (with the exception of Yankee David Cone in ‘99) has been on a four-year interval or so. I can say with perfect uncertainty that the next perfect game will happen in 2012 or 2013 somewhere in the continental United States.
How could you not love the White Sox right now? A little over two years since Buehrle threw his first no-hitter, almost all of the same elements were in place:
Same Umpire – Eric Cooper
Same game time – 2hrs 3 minutes
Game ended on – an infield ground ball
Final Pitch count – 2-1 compared to 1-1 (’07)
Final Pitch speed – 81 mph compared to 85 mph (’07)
Strikeouts – 6 compared to 8 (’07)
Total pitches – 116 (76 strikes) compared to 106 (66 strikes) (’07)
Groundout to flyout ratio – 11-10 compared to 11-7 (’07)
Score – 5-0 compared to 6-0 (’07)
Source: ESPN & MLB
Even the jacket controversy during last week’s All-Star Game seemed to be a foreshadowing of today. MLB owners’ attitudes did not dissuade President Obama who opted against coming out in an All-Stars jacket and instead showed off his hometown support in a Sox jacket.
So to those who are not White Sox fans and are not the least bit impressed with Mark Buehrle’s perfect game, I say to you, “You are unpatriotic and un-American.”
As a fan it’s extraordinary. When you’re a White Sox fan and I know the guy who did it makes it even more fun.

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