I've not gotten proper sleep, in either length of time or in accommodations (through only my own fault, by the way), in three days; I've just driven for five hours in an awful, treacherous storm; and my right knee hurts like hell for no reason; but I'm going sit up and watch the remainder of the White Sox-Indians game. It's 11:35 p.m. as I type, and Jim Thome's just blasted a three-run homer after a nearly three-hour rain delay.

I am jealous as hell of "real" White Sox fans (the Sox are an amusement for me, not a passion, but I always want the Cubs to beat them in the World Series) right now. Not only do they have a defending champion ballclub, and not only are they led by a cast of eminently likable players, but their general manager actually took strides to improve the team this year. And he did. And that's just awesome.

One team in Chicago added a potential Hall of Famer (Thome), a 28-year-old former All-Star who was the most sought-after free agent just two years ago (Vazquez), one of the most useful and powerful "spare parts" in the game (Mackowiak), a 27-year-old utility infielder who owns a [surprise!] .279 career batting average (Cintron), and one of the best arms in baseball, one begging to be harnessed (Thornton...okay, it's a stretch to be excited about him).

The other acquired, from what I can tell, two past-their-prime one-inning relief guys coming off the only good seasons of their career (Eyre and Howry) and a "power-hitting" outfielder whose home runs are dropping and who is a candidate to break the single-season strikeout record if he could stay healthy enough to play 155 games (Jones). And, I think, that's it. Oh yeah, and an athletic utility guy perhaps best described as "Jose Macias-lite" (Bynum, on Friday).

[Ed: Added at a later date...Also, Juan Pierre, who we all hope is a lot closer to 2003 and 2004 Juan Pierre than 2005 Juan Pierre. Rage got the best of our reporter.]

I think the Sox will win their division, because their manager won't let them falter. He's effervescent. I think the Cubs will finish .500, although I think they'll finish ahead of the "due for a breakout" (translation: young guys with "potential") Brewers and earn a third-place finish in the division. Any team can have a bad century.

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Gurs recently wrote a poignant two-paragraph homage to his time in Chicago. I was asleep on his chair when he wrote it. What a pal.

Also, I agree that the show sounded mediocre at best, from my perspective from the Time Out Chair. Metro Logan and Metro Tim, I'm coming for you. Just kidding. Also, I think my knee hurting is tangentially related to me winding up on the Time Out Chair. I hope it's well enough Monday for me to take part in an extended post-letting myself go Opening Day treadmill session.

Nemo and I called collegiate baseball together today. The broadcast wasn't very good, I don't think, but, God, I'm geeked for May 24th.