163 (Day Two)

Well, the White Sox will not be going wire to wire in first place like they did in 2005. The Sox disappointed an Opening Day sellout crowd by stinking up the Cell in a 12-5 loss to the Indians. The loss leaves the Good Guys with a Magic Number of 163 and a game back of the Tribe, the Royals, and the Twins, who, by winning yesterday, are tied for first. The Update wasn't able to witness the awful outing as we were busy watching an Opening Day debacle of our own here in D.C., but we were keeping track via a little scoreboard watching. While yesterday's game clearly isn't a good sign, it's a little too early to write off the season based on one bad game.

The dangers of a small sample size become clear when you play out what would result by extrapolating from one game. Obviously, the Sox would become the first team in Major League history to lose all of their games. Jim Thome, Tadahito Iguchi, A.J. Pierzynski, and Rob Mackowiak would go hitless the entire season. Jose Contreras would post an ERA of 63.00, and newcomer Nick Masset at 9.00 would seem good only by comparison to Contreras. On the other hand, the Sox would draw over 3 million fans, Brian N. Anderson (Is there another Brian Anderson in the league? Why does the box score list his middle initial?) and Alex Cintron would each bat 1.000. Paul Konerko and Darin Erstad would shatter Barry Bonds's home run record by smashing 162 dingers each. You get the idea.

It's just one game. One bad game, but just one game. Let's win the next one and at least pull even with Cleveland. At least we aren't behind Detroit too. Go Sox!