114 (Sox); 0 (Blackhawks)

Congrats to the Chicago Blackhawks, who ended 49 years of frustration last night by winning the Stanley Cup, 4-3 in overtime last night in Philadelphia.  I remember that 1961 team well.  Bobby Hull, Red Hay, Murray Balfour (later killed by a golf ball to the head) on the Million Dollar Babies line; Stan Mikita, Kenny Wharram, and Ab McDonald on the Scooter line; Moose Vasko, Pierre Pilote, Jack Evans, Reggie Fleming as defensemen; Glenn Hall and Denis "Did Not Play" DeJordy in goal; Eric Nesterenko, Chico Maki, etc. filling out the roster.  Those Hawks won the Cup in Detroit in six games, just as this year's edition won in six games on the road.

Those were glory days.  Two years after the Hawks won it all, the Bears did likewise.  And two years before that Cup victory, of course, the Sox won the pennant.  Little did I realize at the time that I would have to wait 49 years for the Blackhawks to win another Stanley Cup, 46 years for the White Sox to win another pennant (and World Series), and 22 years for the Bears to be champions of the NFL again.  And that other team, well, we all know how long they've been waiting to win again.

Speaking of winning, the Sox did last night, 15-3 over Detroit.  Freddy Garcia, the de facto "ace" of the staff, continued his mastery of the Tigers (he's 18-6 lifetime) by allowing only three runs on seven hits in seven innings.  J.J. Putz and Randy Williams each pitched an inning of scoreless relief.  Williams was making a rare appearance in a game the Sox won.  Charter Update subscriber Bob Koza mentioned to me the other day that he turned on the game and heard Williams was pitching and knew the Good Guys were losing without even hearing the score.  Bob's right.  Of Williams's 24 appearances this season, only four of them have come in Sox wins.  It must be kind of frustrating to know that you're likely to pitch only in lost causes.

The big story yesterday for the Sox was at the plate.  Fifteen runs on 16 hits.  Each of the nine starters and the one pinch hitter (Brent Lillibridge, who had a home run) had at least one hit.  Omar Vizquel notched three, and Paul Konerko, Carlos Quentin, Mark Kotsay, and Ramon Castro each collected a pair.  Alexei Ramirez and Castro also homered.  The Sox scored seven runs in an inning twice.  As my Dad always says, they should have saved some of those runs for the next game.  If they could only figure out how.

The win allows the Sox to remain 9.5 games behind the Twins with interleague play just around the corner.  That'd be a good time to get hot -- before Trader Kenny Williams dismantles the team.  Go Sox!