Game Day: Friday, June 19th

Yesterday, I'm finishing up my Game Day article about Tarik Skubal's potential trade market at this season's trade deadline and to my amazement, a real life blue jay landed five feet away from me.  

A bird.  It was a blue jay, blue and white with black and gray wings.  I have seen them in town before but they aren't the most common bird around.  That honor goes to the distinguished American Robin. 

It was a fairly rare sighting.  I don't see the blue jays too often.  The point being that maybe it wasn't a coincidence.  

I don't like betting on omens and I wouldn't bet on this one but if Tarik Skubal does sign with the Blue Jays it will be a good story.

After last night's loss, a win for the Chicago White Sox, a team that I have been an earnest fan of since the late nineties, I thought to myself about the potential for a White Sox and Cubs World Series and how great it would be.  I then thought that it might not be worth the risk.  Losing the World Series to the Northsiders, White Sox fans would never hear the end of it.  Cubs fans are difficult to tolerate.  

I grew up in Illinois but was an earnest Oakland A's fan since 1986 when Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire entered the professional ranks.  I think I can still name the starting lineup of the 1989 World Series championship team.  Let's give it a shot, off the top of my head, here it goes:

CF - Ricky Henderson
SS - Walt Weiss
RF - Jose Canseco
1B - Mark McGwire
LF - Dave Henderson
3B - Carney Lansford
2B - Mike Gallego
C - Terry Steinbach
DH - 

SP - Dave Stewart, Bob Welch
CL - Dennis Eckersley

Not bad, I'm not sure if it was Gallego at the second base and the bullpen behind Eckersley escapes me completely.  I'm also short on the rotation but that was a great team.  I'll look up the rest of the players when I get to a Wi-Fi connection.

Let's see about the 2005 Chicago White Sox.  Let's see if I can name this team off the top of my head.  Here it goes:

CF - Lance Johnson
LF - Tim Raines
1B - Frank Thomas
DH - Carlos Quentin
3B - Robin Ventura
SS - Ozzie Guillen
2B - Darren Jackson
C - AJ Pierzynski
RF - 

SP - Jack McDowell, Mark Buerhle, Anibel Sanchez
CL - Bobby Thigpen

I'm unsure about Quentin and I'm missing a right fielder.  I'm also uncertain about Tim Raines, he might have been on the Sox in the nineties.  Sanchez also could be a miss but I'm certain there was a good latin pitcher in that rotation.  The first name of Wilson is ringing a bell. I'm going to have to look that up later too.

That's it for Game Day today.  It's Friday and it's an odd ball weekend.

The Phillies and the Mets are off today.  For some reason they have a day off after opening a three-game series on Thursday.

The Royals and the Cardinals are off on Saturday.  They take a day off in the middle of a three-game series that also began on Thursday.  It's sort of odd.  

All 15 teams conclude their weekend sets on Sunday and all will be in order to begin the week on Monday.  

14 games on the card tonight.  I'll be back with a pick later this afternoon before post time. It would be nice to string together a winning streak into next week.  Let's see if I can put it together.  Stay tuned.  

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