Hit By a Pitch

I’m going to admit something.

I love my teams. I love the Nuggets, from the stars like AI and Melo to the up-and-coming Kleiza to role players like Reggie Evans. I love the Bears and know all the words to the Super Bowl Shuffle (no really, I do). I fight fight fight for Iowa. I’m crazy for the Broncos (say what you want about it being uncool to like two NFL teams, I do).

The thing is, if I had to be stranded on a desert island with only one team, I think I’d have to pick the White Sox. It doesn’t even make sense — my grandma was a Cubs fan and I haven’t even liked baseball for very long. But I really love the White Sox more than any other team.

This hasn’t been a good season so far. Sure, I still wear my Sox hat. I still have too much beer followed by margaritas and try to explain, in a very loud voice, why “You can put it on the board…YES!!!” is the greatest thing in the entire world. That said, it’s not fun when your team won the World Series two seasons ago and now they’re at a crappy 5-7 and you’re shelling out the $$$ for MLB Extra Innings and MLB.TV because you love your out-of-state team so much that you want to be able to watch their games anywhere in or around your house.

Tonight, though — tonight brought hope. The thing with baseball is that it’s about hope and summer and amazing days filled with sunshine and beer and always thinking that something really awesome is about to happen. I also get White Sox text messages, and tonight the first one came in while I was watching the Nuggets pound the Spurs — Thome hit a home run. I sat on the edge of my comfy couch while watching Jermaine Dye foul away a million pitches with two outs and the bases loaded, thinking how perfect it would be for him to hit a grand slam — and then he did. I watched Thome hit another home run.

The real magic tonight wasn’t any of that. It wasn’t even when Sosa got picked off at first. The real magic was Mark Buehrle pitching a no-hitter. It was the first no-hitter of the season, the first White Sox no-hitter since 1991, and the first no-hitter in Chicago since 1967. This is why I love the White Sox (well, and because Ozzie Guillen was talking before the game about how he wanted to punch a couple guys in the nose). Just when you least expect it, they go and do something completely awesome.

Sometimes I feel like I don’t deserve the White Sox — I’m the kind of dork from the north side who should like the Cubs. Hell, I’m in Colorado now and should like the Rockies. But I just can’t. The White Sox and I don’t really belong together, but just like I can’t give up Jose Mesa even though he allows two runs every time he pitches an inning and Reggie Evans will always be my favorite Nugget, I’ll always love the White Sox more than just about anything. And just wait — they’ll win the World Series this year. Well, I hope they will, and with baseball, that’s all that matters.