It was like watching a helpless old lady get mugged last night.  The Twinkies, with their speed, defense and timely hitting and the old, slow and totally outclassed White Sox whiffing in the wind.

If that's an indicator of things to come, I'll put my Sox gear in mothballs until next spring right now. 

Does anybody on this damned team have any guts at all?

The best way to describe Javy Vasquez as a pitcher is "professional", which is code for saying the guy has no heart. If you watched him last night, you couldn't tell if he was pitching in the first game of a do or die series or the second game in April.  No emotion.  Bad location.  Hanging breaking balls.  Flatline fastball.  No heart, not even a damned pulse.

Same old, same old for everyone else.  Keep trying to yank the ball and you'll be on the golf course by next Monday.

Is there anyone on this team besides the manager who wants it?  Is Carl Everett available for a few days? 

I know what you are thinking.  Settle down.  It's only one game. They still lead by 1½ games.  Buehrle is going tonight, Floyd is going Thursday.  They'll be okay.

But it's not okay.

It's not okay to come out totally flat against a team that is your direct obstacle to get to the playoffs.  It's not okay to let them beat your ass by six runs and let them enjoy doing it.  It's not okay to think that you can turn it on when you want to.  It's not okay to have your starting pitcher blame his lack of talent and tenacity on an ear infection.  That's loser talk.

We've been through this all year with these guys.  Just when you thought it was safe to poke your head out of the hole, they drop a stink bomb like last night and make you go right back down.  Maybe tonight they'll win 13-1.  Maybe they'll lose 13-1.  Nobody really knows because this team is so inconsistent.  And unpredictable and maddening.  You wonder if these guys are just arrogant and think they can be good enough when they want to or they just have absolutely no heart and no sense of urgency.

And you wonder, if they do make the playoffs, what then?  Does it all of a sudden kick in and they get it and they go on another 11-1 roll or do they get swept out in the first round by a team that many people thought was going to finish in last place?  But you can't even think playoffs until they extricate themselves from this current mess.

Please guys, we love you.  But you are killing us. 

CLEAR!