Happiness Reigns on South Side and in South America
If your local sausage merchant, empanada slinger or Seattlest editor seems to have an extra bop in his bop sh'bop sh'bop today, it's because the Chicago White Sox won the World Series last night.
This Series victory, the Chi-Sox first since 1917, brings joy not only to South Siders (of which Editor Dan is one) but also to Venezuelans.
Sox manager Ozzie Guillen is a native of that country, and pinko commie President Hugo Chavez took time on his live TV show, Hello President, to congratulate Guillen. Freddy Garcia, winning pitcher of clinching Game 4, is also Venezuelan.
Garcia, to complete the circle, was a Seattle Mariner from 1999-2004. His 73 wins as a Mariner place him third in the team's history, two wins ahead of Mark Langston.
The other Mariner on the champion White Sox, Chris Widger, was a rookie on the celebrated 1995 team. Widger, a promising prospect, had an inconsistent career, and last year was playing in a slow pitch softball league. But he felicitously signed with the Sox this year, and drove in a critical run with a walk in Tuesday's extra-inning marathon.
After the game, Widger provided one of our favorite quotes of the postseason, when asked if softball games ever went six hours:
"Heck, no," he chuckled. "Our softball games were over in an hour and a half. We had to get them over with so we could go have a couple of beers."Widger didn't do much walking in those softball games, either, he admitted -- at least not of his own volition.
"But I used to get some intentional walks," he quipped, "because I was actually a good player in that league."
The Mariners open the 2006 season at home, 158 days from today, against the L.A. Angels. Hugo Chavez, by then Dictator of the Western Hemisphere, will throw out the first pitch.
