The Wide and Tall Guy

We went over to Chris and Karen’s this evening to watch the first game of the World Series. It was a very good game—the Chicago White Sox ended up winning 5-3. Their starting pitcher, Jose Contreras, was not overpowering, but kept the Houston Astros under control and was finally lifted for reliever Neil Cotts after giving up a leadoff double at the beginning of the 8th. Cotts struck out two batters, and then the White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen called in the big guy, with both arms apart gesturing wide, then tall. This was rookie reliever Bobby Jenks who, as we found out, happens to throw 100 mile per hour fastballs. I haven’t seen one of those in a while. Neither, it seemed, had the Astros hitter Jeff Bagwell, who struck out to end the 8th.

We were all rooting for the White Sox, though not with any great fervor. But none of us can stand A.J. Pierzynski, the Sox catcher, since he left a bad taste for Giants fans in his season with the team last year. Karen won the inning-by-inning pool at the end, but Pica did well too since the score remained stuck at 4-3 for four innings.