First Time for Everything

First first: Sox win. Over the weekend, the Sox won their first Cactus League game of 2007, beating the D'backs, then followed that up with a trouncing of the Cubs. The results of these games really are meaningless, as pitchers work on new pitches, batters try out new swings, and players you've never heard of and won't see on the 40-man roster this season populate the lineups. Still, it's nice to get off the Schneid. (According to the Word Detective: "Schneid" is actually short for "schneider," a term originally used in the card game of gin, meaning to prevent an opponent from scoring any points. "Schneider" entered the vocabulary of gin from German (probably via Yiddish), where it means "tailor." Apparently the original sense was that if you were "schneidered" in gin you were "cut" (as if by a tailor) from contention in the game. "Schneider" first appeared in the literature of card-playing about 1886, but the shortened form "schneid" used in other sports is probably of fairly recent vintage.) And any win over the Cubs makes our day.

Second first: An Update recipient asks to be taken off the distribution list. One of our faithful readers asked us to add the rest of his family to the legion of Sox fans who receive the Update. We were glad to do so and sent out a special message to our new readers. Well, one of them was less than thrilled to have been added and firmly asked to be removed. Although the Update is a little hurt that she wouldn't even give us a chance, we respect her right not to receive emails that she doesn't want in her in inbox and have already deleted her email address. (Anyone else out there who feels the same way, just let us know and we'll remove you too.) We and our sponsors -- Howard's Wine Cellar and Mike S., the official wine store and official golf pro of the White Sox Magic Number Update, respectively -- wouldn't have it any other way.