Last night, I'm listening to The Score a little after six while I was being held up by a freight train.  The first caller comes on and says that 2005 was a fluke and that the same guys who were here then are here now.  The host, jumps on the fluke part, rambling on and on that there are no fluke champions and blah, blah, blah while totally ignoring the more glaring comment made by the caller, that most of the 2005 team is still in tact.

Son, allow me to give you a little bit of coaching (and, in case you are not aware, I am madly qualified to do this.)

Yes, the core of the team, Dye, Thome, AJ and Konerko are still around. But look around you.  Joe Crede has been out most of the year.  How many key hits and walk off at bats did he have in 2005?  Pablo Ozuna, who is light years better than Andy Gonzalez has been out most of the year.  He plays multiple positions and has led multiple game winning rallies.  Say what you want about Carl Everett, but was a tough guy on a team of nice guys.  Then there was Timo Perez, the pinch hitter extraordinaire, who also could fill-in in the outfield.

How about Ross Gload who could play the corners and first base and unlike Darin Erstad, kept himself in one piece.  Gload was another guy who could contribute every time Ozzie called on him.

The pitching staff has totally changed.  Gone are Freddie Garcia, good for 200 innings and big game wins every year.  And El Duke, whose performance in the sixth inning of the final game of the Red Sox series was totally cold blooded.  Cliff Politte and Neil Cotts were lights out in 2005.  The biggest loss from that pitching staff was Luis Vizcaino who ate innings like Pacman ate dots.  And Damaso Marte, not the effective 2004 version, but still tough against lefities.

And Chris Widger was a valuable, if understated veteran of that team. 

And, I won't begin to do woulda, coulda, shoulda with Aaron Rowand.

To have "numb nuts on a car phone" say that the 2005 team team is "80% in tact" is to not be aware of who was on that team and what their contributions were.  And, apparently this host had little if any interest in calling bullshit at the top of his lungs bringing that point up. 

Their replacements including names like Owens, Fields, Hall, Danks, Erstad, Bukvich, MacUseless, Thornton, Wasserman, Logan, Cintron, etc. are not close to the experience level and quality of the players they replaced, at least based on those players 2005 statistics.

The other point the host on The Score failed to bring up is how dominant the starters were in the playoffs.  How many times have you seen that many complete games, especially in a playoff situation?  You may never see it again.  .

There's an old saying: Those who can do, those who are waiting for their next job teach.  Consider this a free introductory lesson from someone who should be doing.

Lightning Round

• Nice to see that the boys took Ozzie's tirade to heart.  I agree 100% with our hero and role model: Shut up and bench somebody.
• It looks like the White Sox helped get Rangers manager Ron Washington a new contract.
• The only good news for the White Sox yesterday was the fact that they are still three games behind the Royals.
• With the Sox playing out the string like zombies on Vicodin, assclowns like Jay Mariotti sharpen their poison pens to jump on top of the pile.  Please Jay, STFU.
  
• Memo to the Milwaukee Brewers.  When you are trailing 5-4 in the top of the ninth in a vitally important game, you can't have a certain large headed hitter swinging at the first pitch and ending the game.  Here, take a lesson from the Cleveland Indians.  With the Cardinals again losing to Houston, the Cubs are now 2½ games up on the Brewers and 3 up on the Cardinals.
• It gets even better for the Brewers.  Their number one pick from 2006 got busted by minor league baseball for drugs and has drawn a fifty game suspension.  Arthur Blank says take his signing bonus.  I agree.
• The Bears 19-9 loss to Clevelandpales in comparison to what may happen if tight end Greg Olsen is seriously injured.  Hey Live Smith: The good guys are only supposed to play two sets, not into the second quarter.
• Martin Luther King said that he wanted to be judged not by the color of his skin but by the content of his character.  Bud Selig must have been out on the used car lot that day and missed that conversation.  When the commissioner of baseball starts dictating who the manager of a team should be, we've got problems. In fact, Bud has been whining about minority hiring, even though three of the managers hired in the off season were minorities.  We still count Hispanics as a minority, right?
  
• When Major League Baseball spends more time policing uniforms than catching drug cheaters, we've also got a problem.  As long as terry Francona isn't naked, I don't give a damn what he wears.  You know why baseball cares?  Merchandising agreements and promises to promotional partners.
  
• With all the success that Michael Waltrip and Dale Jarrett have had this year (that would be none) it is a shock that Joe Gibbs racing will drop Chevy for Toyota.  The Toyotas have not proven they can run with the big boys yet and Gibbs, who may have the best team next year with Hamlin, Stewart and Kyle Bush, is taking a big, big risk. I guess the stress of working for the mad midget has finally worn on the coach's sanity.
  
• Soon to be former Gibbs employee J.J. Yaley appears to be headed to Robert Yates racing. Yaley will take over the 88 car being vacated by the retiring (again) Ricky Rudd.
• Yeah, okay, Louisville was playing a 1AA team but the offense looked pretty good anyway. Same for LSU, which became the opening show of the Sylvester Croom farewell tour..
  
• If a soccer player gets injured in America, does it make a sound?
• I don't know how many games Portland State will win this year in football, but I wish I was one of the guys covering the Monday press conferences.
• I have just lost a lot of respect for David Letterman.
• The 2008 Republican nominee for President will announce his candidacy on September 6th.
  
• First people complain Fox News is too right wing.  Now the networks are too left wing.  Can't we all just get along?
• If you plan on driving in Indiana, best do so fully clothed with a closed jar of Vaseline and your chicken in the barn.
• Today's list: The sexiest assassins of all time.