A good friend of mine, and fellow White Sox fan, tells me that the Sox-Cubs series is one of intensity. Fans get pumped up, they throw beer at Cubs fans, they fill up the stands, and if you’re at Wrigley Field, they throw trash on the field.

Players and managers get amped too. Last year, Cubs catcher Michael Barret punched A.J. Pierzynksi in the kisser (something the Sox PR department would then use as a marketing campaign to send A.J. to the All Star game). Hell, even the radio people get into it. And even though I’ve never listened to Mike North, the radio shock jock at 670 AM in Chicago, some of you may have heard about his recent incident with Ozzie.

Colorful language highlights a “radio fight” between White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen and The Score 670 Sports Radio talk show host Mike North. The confrontation began shortly after White Sox pitcher A.J. Pierzinski [sic] told the MIke [sic]  North Show he was disappointed that he was not in Friday’s starting lineup.

A little while later, Ozzie Guillen called in and let North have it on the air.

Mike North: “How ya’ doin Ozzie?”

Ozzie: “Aw, shut the f___ up.”

North: “Oh!”

Ozzie: “I know you like A.J. …”

North: “Ozzie, wait we’re on the radio. I know you think we’re just having a conversation, but we’re on the radio.”

North’s warning that they were on the air did not discourage Guillen, instead he continued to curse.

“I’m trying bulls___ every damn day,” he said.

North: “Hey, Ozzie clean up your mouth. Don’t talk go talking down to somebody, you understand me.”

As the conversation went on, North got angrier.

Ozzie: “Why you talking on the air?”

North “…that’s my job, to find out what’s going …to to find out what AJ thinks…yeah, you’d better hang up the damn phone.”

Well, that just doesn’t surprise me at all. Some shock jock pushes AJ’s buttons; he then agrees he was disappointed he wasn’t in the line up, Ozzie takes offense to some radio blowhard questioning his managing, calls him and uses all kinds of nasty language.

And come to think of it, he didn’t even say anything!!

ChiSox fans know that Ozzie will have his flare-ups every now and then, but as someone who thought he’d never get under my skin, this radio incident makes me wonder: What’s next?

I guess it’s more fuel for the grill where two burger patties cook themselves every time interleague comes around. Read this carefully, though:

Moments later, he and Pierzynski met near the first-base line and then gave each other a hug.

“Ozzie and I are fine. That’s the biggest thing. That Ozzie and I know where we stand with each other, and I have nothing but respect for Ozzie and what happened this morning was just a misunderstanding,” Pierzynski said.

Williams didn’t seemed overly concerned about his talkative manager’s latest controversy.

“Am I OK with it? No, I don’t like the use of the language. But in talking with Ozzie, he was surprised when I informed him he used a few choice words that are really not acceptable for the radio,” Williams said.

“He was shocked that he actually used a couple of them to the extent that he did. So that was pure and raw anger that was coming out.”

Is Ozzie full of BS for implying that he wasn’t aware of all the profanities he was using? Or were they a by-product of the heated discussion? Is that going to be the case every time Ozzie decides to take matters into his own hands? Is that good?

Is forced patriotism really patriotic? And is a baseball field the right place to exercise it?

 In yesterday’s New York Times, sportswriter Michael S. Schmidt penned an article regarding a post 9-11 ritual conducted during the seventh inning stretch at Yankee Stadium. For those of you who don’t know (or aren’t registered to access the site), ever since baseball resumed in New York after 9-11, the New York Yankees have made it a point during every game to ask all in attendance to stand for the playing of “God Bless America”. The Schmidt article above raises an interesting topic of whether or not the Yankees ought to be pressuring the crowd to comply. Not only are the Yankees the only team in MLB to play “God Bless America” during every home game (the other teams only do so on Sundays and holidays), the stadium takes extra measures to limit crowd movements during this time. The ushers rope off the aisles so no one may enter or leave, and even have uniformed police officers ask fans to stop talking (eight other teams have these restrictions as well).  

I find this all incredibly interesting. A baseball game in itself has its own rituals. The recitation of the game’s starting lineups is the equivalent of scripture readings.  “Let’s Go Yankees” is the Bronx’s “Amen”. The Seventh-Inning Stretch? Sign of Peace (you know, when people do that really awkward shaking of the hands bit. Or is this merely a Catholic tradition? I forget). The T-Shirt Launch is our Eucharist (am I going to hell for this?). Finally, “New York, New York” is the concluding procession. It’s repeated time and time again until we know exactly what needs to be done at any given time. 

But even a church service does not restrict movement to this extent. You may be shunned by the other parishioners for leaving a service prematurely, but you certainly are not roped into the pews. Moreover, many churchgoers are there to willingly worship god. I know of no one who attends a baseball game because they want to worship America.  

This post is not about moral outrage. I do not think that the Yankees are breaking laws, nor do I find this practice abhorrent. But is it really a patriotic thing to do? If there is a connection between love of America and love of liberty, then restricting movements seems like a very odd way of expressing patriotism.  

“The only church that feeds the soul, day in, day out, is the church of baseball.”- Annie Savoy