It's been a tough year for the Detroit Tigers.  Decimated my injuries, the Tigers are out of it in the AL Central after many expected them, not the Chicago White Sox to be pushing Minnesota.  No matter how bad a season this has been for Jim Leyland and company, there is one new member of the Tigers who will never forget this season: Catcher Max St. Pierre.

Max grew up in the French part of Canada where you wait for the lakes to freeze in October, lace up your skates and dream of playing in the NHL.  But somehow, Max got hooked on baseball and was drafted in the 17th round by the Tigers...in 1997.  978 games later, St. Pierre got a September call up.  It's probably based on his service to the organization, but it's a call up none the less.

Imagine, hanging in there for fourteen years for your big break.  And the road hasn't been easy.  St. Pierre has had problems at one time or another with his offense, defense and language skills (his primary language is French. )  But all that is behind him now as St. Pierre has finally made it to "the show" and will, according to manager Leyland, get some PT before his cup of coffee is empty.

I think that this is a great story, worthy of a crappy ESPN movie.  A man has a dream, works hard at it and finally gets his big chance.  Most likely, this will be the end of the line for Max and he will go quietly into the night, but hey, you never know.  For him right now, this is a great time to Max St. Pierre.

It is a lesson to us all.  Hang in there and maybe, just maybe you'll get what you wish for.  You may be huge success or you may go down in flames, but put the work in, show up on time and have a positive attitude and eventually, even fourteen years later, someone may notice you.  Good luck, Max.  You've earned this moment.  Enjoy every second.

        

What up, human?  I can't tell you how happy I am to be back!  It's been a long spring and summer keeping the fat dog from sitting on me and I've got to tell you, this is a hell of a lot more fun.  I'd rather try to type without opposable thumbs than be chased around the living room by the canine equivalent of Mark Mangino. 

In addition to keeping away from the fat dog, the bald guy has been all cranked up with this baseball pennant race.  I guess the White Sox are so desperate they will let anyone play for them.  Yesterday, we were watching the game, and Cousin It from the Addams Family came to the plate. It was either him or the ghost of Bob Marley. 

And I don't understand why the bald guy hates Twinkies so much.  He must blame his appearance on eating too many because I keep hearing him say "those f'ing Twinkies." 

All I know is, I'm staying away from the bald guy until this is all over, lest he go Brad Maynard on me.

There were lots of changes in football over the summer.  That slick guy who was at Tennessee went to USC only to be caught in the middle of a cheating scandal which started under the other coach who went to Seattle.  Sounds like an episode of General Hospital to me.  Meanwhile a couple of coaches got fired for being too old school.  I don't understand that at all?  What is a coach supposed to do when a quarterback throws his fifth pick of the game, give him a hug and say "don't worry, things will be alright?"  Coaches are supposed to chew out players.  If a coach hurts a player's feelings, it's because he doesn't have what it takes to make it.  Either that, or he's kin to Mitch Mustain.

Alright, down to business.  For those of you new to the concept, each week I pick five college and five pro games straight up.  Since the pros don't get going until next week, we'll do five college games this week.  We usually do our games on Friday, but since the bald guy is so excited that college football is kicking off tonight, he wanted me to do the first on a on Thursday.  And in case you don't think a dog can pick football games, last year I went 131-65 which is pretty good considering I spend most of my time cleaning my own private parts.

Here's what I like this week:

• Pittsburgh vs. Utah: Boy, the bald guy really hates that Pittsburgh coach, probably because he looks like Snidley Whiplash and stutters.  But even he can't deny that the Panthers are a pretty good outfit this year.  They should make short work of their hosts.  Take Pittsburgh.

• Northwestern vs. Vanderbilt: They should call this the "egghead bowl".  Vandy has regressed the last couple of years and the Wildcats will pounce on them like a nerd pounces on an algebra book.  Take Northestern BIG

• LSU vs. UNC: This is the game of the day Saturday.  Les Miles is under the gun even though he's won a lot of games and a national championship at LSU.  Butch Davis is feeling some heat too with the NCAA sniffing around campus.  In the end, a good SEC team should beat a decent  ACC team.  Take LSU.

• San Jose State vs. Alabama:  Some people think the Tide is in trouble because Mark Ingram is out.  Are you kidding me?  Alabama is so good their backups have backups.  Mr. Hightower will run all over SJSU and Greg McElroy will be carrying a clipboard by the end of the third quarter.  Take Alabama BIG.

• Wisconsin at UNLV: The Badgers have some pretty lofty expectations this year.  Last year, they had a lot of close calls, but this year, with some experieince, a mature quarterback and a formidable running game, it could be a nice year for them.  Take Wisconsin.

        

He's baaaack.  Tomorrow marks the return of the poo, the myth the legend, Butkus D. Dogg, the football picking Bichon-Poo.  This will be the little guy's fourth season of pigskin prognostication and he is yet to have a losing year. Last year, he hit at a 67% clip, going 131-65.

Nobody is more excited football is back than B.D. who has been idle since February waiting for his return.

We look forward to having him with us beginning tomorrow and moving to Friday next week.

        

I don't care where Manny Ramirez has been.  I don't care what he's done or if he's cheated or not.  I don't care if he wears his hair short or down to his ankles in dreads.  The only thing that interests me about Manny Ramirez is when he comes to the plate in a Chicago White Sox uniform and gets a hit when there are runners in scoring position.  Homers are nice, but I'll take an clutch RBI machine.

Last night was a result I saw coming down the street in a gravel truck.  The White Sox score five runs in two innings and then, with the exception of a sixth inning Alex Rios homer, stopped.  Mark Buehrle sputters a bit and lets Cleveland off the hook while the Sox offense leaves man after man on base.  Bobby Jenks coughs up a seemingly insurmountable lead against a bottom feeder team in the bottom of the ninth.  Ozzie's bullpen is so battered, his only hope is Scott Linebrink. Seen this movie before?

Manny Ramirez may not change this, but then again he might.  He is, without a doubt, the White Sox last chance to rise up against the Twinkies and make the playoffs.  if Manny fails, the Sox fail, but if Manny is Manny, the Sox have a shot.  After an August of injuries, poor defense, one run losses and a bullpen leaking huge amounts of oil, Manny Ramirez can wake this team up.  He has that power. 

I don't give a damn what the critics think, especially our new BFF Jonny Mathis who called the Sox "pathetic", Manny "moody and narcissistic" and Ozzie "the controversial manager who has a reputation of lashing out on issues with profanities, and isn't timid to use the racial card without grasping common sense" (nice unrelated swipe there, Jonny. Who pissed in your cornflakes?) 

The bottom line is, the Sox stepped up when they had to and did what they had to do to get this team into the playoffs.  Maybe this is a deal with the devil, but it came at no cost.  The Sox are doing nothing but renting Manny for a month without having to dig into their shallow farm system and extricate yet another prospect. 

The Sox, as a team, have received the message loud and clear: Management believes you can win and has given you an extra piece to play in the final month of the season.  Now, it's up to you.  If you play the way you should, the results will should turn out favorably.  Think of Manny as Jesse on "Burn Notice."

This may be the last hurrah in pinstripes for two Sox heroes:  Paul Konerko and A.J. Pierzynski.  It may be the last chance for some of the veterans to make the playoffs.  Next year's team will probably look a lot different with a lot more youth blended in.  The urgency is there and by picking up Manny, the Sox may have the weapon to get them over the hump against the Twinkies.

The players want it.  The fans want it.  If Manny wants it, October could be a really fun month.

        

Now that Manny will be Manny in Chicago, the Chicago White Sox have some work to do.  The first order of business is getting Manny on the roster.

I would imagine the correct move would be to send Carlos Torres down for a day.  If the Sox cut a bench player, they are doing themselves a disservice.  If the Sox get into the playoffs, Torres will most not likely be on the roster as J.J. Putz and Matt Thornton will be back.  And for all you Mark Kotsay haters, he still is Paul Konerko's backup, so he needs to stick around.  Being a pitcher short for one day is no big deal.

Second, where do you hit Manny in the lineup?  Do you hit him third to protect Paulie?  I would do that moving Alex down to five and Q to sixth. Or maybe hit A.J. sixth to break up the righties and put Q seventh.  In my book, Manny sort of picks up some of the slack from Q, so hitting him lower in the order may relax him and give the Sox big time power threats at three, four and seven.

Finally, how will the free spirited Manny fit in the Sox clubhouse?  The Sox are a pretty button down organization.  Will he have to lose the dreads?  As far as how Ozzie will deal with him, Ozzie is a great player's manager.  Ozzie will lay the law down to Manny the minute he gets off the plane that Manny's sole focus is to help the Sox win games and that anything else is unacceptable.  I think Manny and Ozzie are a lot alike in that both are a lot smarter than the media gives them credit for.

It is reasonable to conclude that  Manny wants to compete for a championship to maximize his potential for a contract with someone next year. Certainly his agent Scott Boras is aware that so many name players were idol this year (like Jermaine Dye.)  In order for Boras to get Manny one more big payday, he'll have to hope Manny can be the difference maker in the AL Central race.  Otherwise, this may be the end of the line for Manny. 

For Manny, hitting some bombs and driving in some key runs while helping the Sox win the division just makes Manny look better.  I think the only time the Sox might have issues with him is when and if they get eliminated from the race.

It is a gamble for sure, but this clearly shows you the White Sox want to pull out all the stops to try and catch the Twins.  They certainly need some help and will Manny Ramirez playing for a contract, they may just get it. 

        

Joe Posnanski of Sports Illustrated has complied a list ranking the current (and some currently former) Major League managers in terms of their playing ability. 

To the surprise of no one, Joe Torre of the Dodgers was first.  Torre was an above average catcher/third baseman/first baseman for several teams including the Cardinals and Braves.  Second was Kirk Gibson, followed by Dusty Baker, Mike Scioscia and Ozzie Guillen.

Ozzie Guillen? 

Sure, Ozzie was a decent player.  He had an excellent glove, an average arm and he never met a pitch he didn't like.  In fact, when it came to plate discipline, Ozzie had none whatsoever.   Ranked directly below Ozzie are Bud Black, Juan Samuel (who was interem manager of the Orioles) and Lou Piniella.  So, are we saying Ozzie was a better player than Lou?

Maybe I don't remember things exactly as they were, but I thought Lou was a decent player.  I know he could rake.  He was an average outfielder with an average arm (he threw better than Scotty Pods or Juan Pierre, that's for sure. 

Apparently since Bill James has a fondness for Ozzie, Posnanski does too.  While I respect all Bill James has done to revolutionize stats, I think it's important that you watched some of these guys play.  Maybe I remember Lou being better because he could hit.

Here is the entire list .  Judge for yourself.

        

• Leave it to Jerry Reinsdorf to score major kudos by kicking Jay Mariotti while he's down.  I am not a fan of Marriotti nor am I a fan of any man who hits a woman, but it just seemed odd to me all the love for The Chairman. who has turned into everyone's kindly old grandfather.  Truth is, he's got a few things he shouldn't be  proud of, although nothing on the scale of Marriotti's transgressions.  It's just funny to see how polarizing Marriotti is when people like The Chairman, who have been polarizing in the past, can take their best shot at the pinata that is now Jay and get universal appreciation.(The Big Lead)
• Why is it when two people decide to attend a political rally, their employer gets nasty phone calls ?  Don't we have a free political system here? If you disagree with someone's politics or choices, getting them fired or ruing their lives is not the right way to deal with it.
• An interesting theory on how the White Sox can win the AL Central .  Mine is win five more games than Minnesota. (Pale Hosed .com)
• The Manny deal is far from being done . In the mean time, Sox fans continue to dream of a world with him in it (White Sox Examiner)
• Here is another optimistic White Sox piece. (Bleacher Report)
• Outside of the Mark Teahen injury and the Jake Peavy injury and some usual Q owies, it's been a reletively quiet injury year for the Sox.  Until now, anyway 
• .Has the Cover 2 defense been rendered irrelevant, similar to the way the Bears coach will be soon? (FireLoveSmith.com)
• We are a week from the start of the 2010 college football season (whoo hoo!) Here are some games you should put on your calendar . (No Guts, No Glory via Yardbarker)
• Don't let the win fool you, Skins fans.  He is still Rex Grossman

        

I want to make it clear if you come here you will not get hugs or choruses of kumbaya. Political correctness to me horse crap, a device that liberals invented to hold businesses, broadcast networks and politicians hostage while generating negative bad publicity.  They organize, they spin and the next thing you know, they get what they want.  This is hardly what the founders had in mind.

This brings us to the raging Wisconsin issue of Indian nicknames.  Recently, this fine state and it's über liberal Governor, passed a law which said that anyone offended by an Indian nickname could petition the state and if the review board felt the name was offensive, they would order the school board to change it or fine them heavily.

This has all of the charm of a Chicago election in that the system is stacked against any school that has a complaint made against it.  You could have a defense team of Robert Shapiro, F. Lee Bailey and the rotting corpses of Johnny Cochran and Clarence Darrow and it wouldn't matter.  You will be ordered to change your name.  And once they root out and get rid of all the Indian names, they will disband and go on their merry way until PETA goads them to get rid of animal nicknames.

There is nothing wrong with names like Warriors, Braves, Indians, Chiefs, Blackhawks, etc, especially in a state that has a rich Indian heritage.  Most of these school districts have gone to great lengths to bring honor on these names and their long tradition is what binds a community.

In the Milwaukee suburb of Mukwanago, they have been called the Indians for years. But apparently someone had an issue with that.  And that someone is a former student, Rain Koepke, who claims the whole thing is racist and that he was teased in school because he is an Indian. 

According to his attorney  "Rain, in opposing the use of Indian mascots and logos is fighting for his psychological health."  Son, you fight for your psychological heath with a trained professional, not your whole damned community.

As you can imagine, the entire town of Mukwanago is furious about this .  Many of the people that went to the school talk about the pride they have in the name and how it brought them strength during their playing days.  Yet because of one self admitted psychologically damaged kid, years of tradition will most likely be ordered to an end.

So, here's an idea for you lefties.  Instead of you knowing what's best for us because you are smarter, why not let the people of Mukwanago decide?  Why not let the community vote during the primary in September or the election in November and let them decide what THEY want..

Oh wait.  Let me answer it for you.  Because if you did that, you wouldn't get what you want.   And what you want is the eradication of Indian nicknames not because they really bother people, but because you the liberals have decided that they are bad for us.

As for the kid who complained, Rain Koepke, if he thinks his psychological health is precarious now, wait until they order the town to change the name.  I hope he has a good shrink and a better place to hide.

        

From the home office in New Holstein Wisconsin, here are the top five reasons the Chicago White Sox will not get Manny Ramirez:

5. Scott Boras, Manny's agent, will demand that Manny be traded for Gordon Beckham, John Danks and Chris Sale, not to play for the Dodgers, but to become Boras' personal indentured servants.

4. The dreads aren't going anywhere they are not wanted.

3. Chicago isn't big enough for two famous hot dogs.

2. The White Sox already have a Man Ram...his name is Pierzynski.

1. With Ozzie being Ozzie, Kenny being Kenny and Oney being Oney, there is no room for Manny being Manny.

        

Boy, what a great episode of Dr. Phil this would make.  Or, better yet, Jerry Springer. 

In the midst of losing to the dregs of the American League, Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen is being confronted with another, albeit unnecessary issue: The inane "tweeting of his middle son Oney.

Most Sox fans know the story of Oney's tweets earlier this year which cost young Gillen his job in the Sox scouting department.  And for all intents and purposes, the story should have ended right there.  But it didn't, rearing it's ugly head yesterday when it was discovered that Oney had been "tweeting" some nasty things regarding Sox GM Kenny Williams.

According to Oney while the Sox were splitting a doubleheader with the lowly Royals, Kenny was out in Schamburg at a comedy club.

Let's stop the tape for a moment.  I don't care what Kenny does in his spare time.  The man works his ass off and surely he had these tickets before the Royals rescheduled the Friday game for late Saturday night.  To deny Williams a life is ridiculous by anyone's standards, which is probably why no one is upset.  Or at least appears upset.  But there's a little more to this.

Oney's ax to grind with Williams is causing his father problems.  While Ozzie publicly says his son has the right to "tweet" whatever   he wants, you've got to think that in a tough year, in a tough fight for the division, this doesn't help.  Ozzie has enough stress of his own not to have to deal with  the "tweets" of an obviously spoiled child.

As a parent, Ozzie needs to lay down the law to Oney.  He needs to tell him that he's distracting his father and interfering with his father at work.  in short, his actions are making his old man look bad. And then firmly request that he stop NOW.  That if he wants to "tweet", fine, but leave the White Sox organization out of it.  (Then, I would bend him over my knee and teach him some discipline, but then again, I'm old school. That's a whole different topic for a different day.)

There are some (not me) who may suggest that Ozzie is the man behind the curtain on this stuff.  I think he has far more to worry about than if Kenny is watching a game on TV. 

While I don't have issues with social networking, I wonder sometimes why some people aren't smart enough to realize that it does have consequences.  We''ve already seen athletes restricted from "tweeting" and fined for things they did "tweet."  Oney has already lost his job because of it.  Everyone on the planet, friends, enemies, media, can see this stuff.  Oney needs to stand down for the sake of his father and the organization.  If he doesn't, he'll cause Ozzie more than a headache.