As you walk through the immaculate stadium, do you ever wonder how it gets to look, and taste as good as it does? With the help of one handy e-mail I am here to peel the curtain back on some of the things we all take for granted each and every day.

Here is part of what was sent to me:

Delaware North Companies and their Sportservice branch provides concessions and retail operations for the White Sox.

Thank you ladies and gents for all the hard work you do. You make the ballpark experience great every time.

What I want you all to do is the next time you see one of the hard working people is smile and say, “Thank you.”

Fast-forward 30+ years and those wild dreams are now being brought to life, courtesy of Pepsi-Max. For the second year in a row Pepsi Max is hosting a Field of Dreams game. What is that, you ask? It’s an opportunity for a couple average Joes to play a game in their hometown with ten former MLB stars. This year the game will be played in Rochester, New York, also the hometown to one Johnny Perotti.

Representing the American League, Perotti won the 2013 Pepsi Max Field of Dreams contest over his National League counterpart Stephen Katchmark. These lucky guys and five of their buddies get to play with five legitimate former MLB studs. Studs may be to light a word.

One of the guys on Perotti’s team will be long-time White Sox 1st baseman and future Hall of Famer Frank Thomas. The Big Hurt played in last years game too.

Being a kid who had the same dream as Perotti and Katchmark, I asked Thomas if he understood how excited these guys truly are? He didn’t take the pitch, he smacked it out of the park, stating that the pleasure is all his and repeating a number of times how much of an honor it is to actually be able to not only share his talent with the guys, but to help them with tips and pointers that’ll make their games better in the future. I know, run on sentence, but I’m excited.

All 10 of the average Joes will be in for a treat if Thomas does what he did last year when he connected fot two home runs. So lets just toss away the “Do you take the game seriously” question.

Since it is the Big Hurt, I had to ask him about this years Sox team. He loves their team chemistry and their Manager, Robin Ventura. Thomas, who played with Ventura for nine years, says the Manager’s ability to exude quiet confidence is what’ll make the team successful. For those of you wondering when one of the Windy Cities favorite sons will ever helm a team, lets just say it’s not out of the realm of possibility.

I know you Sox fans know that Paul Konerko recently passed Thomas for 3rd place on the all-time Sox hit list. Thomas is very happy for Konerko, but he couldn’t help but wonder how many hits me might have had if he didn’t miss close to 400 games from 2001-2005. He wasn’t bitter or anything, and offered Konerko congratulations, but I think he knows he might be the Sox all-time leader if injuries didn’t derail him.

One thing Thomas won’t talk about is the Hall of Fame. He says in 2014 when his chance comes up, he’ll just wait and see what’ll happen. I told him that if he isn’t in the Hall, they just as soon shut it down.

Working for the Sox in the spring, I hadn’t seen Thomas around the camp much and was wondering what he is doing nowadays. He didn’t divulge many details other than to say he is trying to grow the Frank Thomas media empire. I know he has his Big Hurt beer that he recently debuted at the Meatball spot in Las Vegas.

He is also has a band, and still dabbles in baseball activities as well.

Which brings me back to the Pepsi-Max field of Dreams game. It’ll be played on May 18th in Rochester, New York. Both squads are a who’s who of former MLB stars.

Pepsi MAX MLB Field of Dreams American League legends include:

· Wade Boggs
· Rickey Henderson
· Reggie Jackson
· Pedro Martinez
· Frank Thomas

Pepsi MAX MLB Field of Dreams National League legends include:

· Johnny Bench
· Trevor Hoffman
· Fred McGriff
· Mike Schmidt
· Ozzie Smith

The two luckies guys in the world are Perotti and Katchmark. Not just because they won this amazing contest, but to spend a few hours with a baseball legend such as Frank Thomas is something one can only dream.

Right now the Nats are better than the Sox.

Once again Washington waited until the 4th inning to do the lions share of their damage–scoring 3 runs.

Jeff Keppingers bat appears to be waking up, but Tyler Flowers is in a deep slumber.

Game nine and Alejandro De Aza swiped his 1st base. Two hits an RBI and a SB for the birthday boy.

Alex Rios has 3 stolen bases while Ramirez, Wise, De Aza and Dunn all have one. Not the go go Sox.

Top 3 batters:

Denard Spann, Jayson Werth and Bryce Harper were a combined 16-24 in the three games (.666)
De Aza, Keppinger and Rios were 18-40 (.450)

Middle 3 batters:

Zimmerman, LaRoche and Desmond went 14-30 (.466)
Konerko, Dunn, Ramirez and Viciedo went 10-40 (.250)

But the biggest difference between the two teams over the past three days is RISP (Runners in scoring position)

Nats: 11-25 (.440)
Sox: 4-28 (.142)

Ballgame

Hopefully they’ll do better in Cleveland

If Tyler Flowers doesn’t strike out with the bases loaded Friday night, the Sox would have swept the Mariners right out of Chicago.

I guess last season wasn’t a fluke for Alex Rios, who homered in all three games against the Mariners.

Paul Konerko picked up his 2,137th hit and is now in 3rd place on the all-time White Sox hit list. After Sunday’s game the Captain still has 2,137 hits and is hitting .100.

I hope the league hasn’t discovered Jose Quintana’s secret. He’ll switch places with Dylan Axelrod in the rotation, throwing Friday instead of Thursday. Quintana looked less than impressive Friday night.

Talking Axelrod, he looked real good, unless you think one unearned run in almost 6 innings is bad. He did out duel Hernandez, who is now 1-5 at the Cell.

Attention Kameron Loe–throw a non-sinking sinker to Dayan Viciedo and he’ll deposit it in the seats.

What’s with the Sox and Communication? Matt Thornton and Conor Gillaspe bang into each other Saturday, Ramirez and Viciedo almost crashed into each other again while Flowers gave Dunn a facial on Sunday. Repeat after me, “I GOT IT, I GOT IT.”

Didn’t know it, but the Sox signed a pitcher with the last name Deal. Hey, his name is Donnie Veal. FOX embarrassed itself by not changing their mistake all night. It kept running on the bottom line over and over and over.

Jeff Keppinger is having trouble, going to the bench with a meager .048 average. I told a friend of mine to pick him up ’cause he’s a good hitter. My friend has since released him.

Sox have played 6 games–Addison Reed has three saves and one win. Go Aztecs! He’ll reunite with his old buddy Steven Strasburg when the Sox play the Nats starting Tuesday. Reed used to close game for the Washington star at San Diego St–Go Aztecs!!

One veteran or active member of the military will be selected to represent the White Sox at the 2013 All-Star Game at Citi Field.

Major League Baseball and PEOPLE magazine today announced the “Tribute for Heroes” program, an initiative that recognizes veterans and military service members and builds upon both organizations’ commitment to honoring our country’s heroes. Beginning today, fans are encouraged to visit www.TributeforHeroes.com to nominate an active or former member of the Armed Forces of the United States or Canada.

A guest panel of judges that will include current players will help to select 90 finalists, three representing each club. Fans will then vote for the winners to represent each MLB Club. The 30 honorees will win a trip to New York City, be included in All-Star festivities and recognized during the All-Star pre-game ceremony leading up to the 2013 All-Star Game at Citi Field on July 16th on FOX. A “Tribute for Heroes” winner will be featured in PEOPLE magazine the week of the MLB All-Star Game.

TributeforHeroes.com

Sitting in Coopers spot will be Bobby Thigpen. But to be honest with you, no one can replace Cooper who has the complete trust of every pitcher in that locker room. He’ll hopefully be able to rejoin the team when the Sox return home on the 19th.

More crappy news for the Sox. Gordon Beckham will be out for 4-6 weeks after undergoing wrist surgery. This comes at a time when it looked like he was finally starting to figure things out, hitting .316 while playing his usual Gold Glove defense. Depending on what corner you sit, this could be a big loss for the Sox. Won’t find a better guy that Beckham, hope he gets back sooner than later.

After that downer, what else is there to say. Sox couldn’t find a way to get out Adam LaRoche on Tuesday and had an even worse scouting report on Bryce Harper on Wednesday.

LaRoche came in to the series hitting triple zeros. He is now at .143 with 2 home runs. I thought everyone knew that Bryce Harper loves first pitch fastballs. He got one on Wednesday and smoked it.

Sox have played eight games and Alex Rios has an eight game hitting streak. The right fielder is hitting .419. In one stretch he hit a home run in four straight games.

Sox have led in both games 1-0 after 1 inning.

Nats make amazing adjustments the 2nd time through the batting order. Through two games in innings 4-6 the Nationals have scored 11 runs on 16 hits.

FYI: Through the first three innings the Nats have no runs on three hits.

I love the resiliency of the South Siders. Even when things seem dire, the Sox find a way to to get back into games. They almost pulled Tuesday nights game out even though they trailed at one time by four runs in the 7th and three runs in the 9th.

Tyler Flowers is now 1 for his last 15. To be fair A.J. Pierzynski is 3 for his last 13 with a home run.

Alejandro De Aza is 29 years old today.

Only three players in todays starting lineup are hitting better than .300: Rios, Ramirez and Gillaspie.

Dylan Axelrod will be asked to stop the Sox mini-skid. At least last year he proved to be pretty good in big games.

For those of you wondering what happened to former Sox bench coach Joey Cora let me be the first to tell you that he’ll be joining the MLB Network’s MLB Tonight on May 6th. Cora wasn’t a huge conversationalist during the springs, but who knows maybe he has TV personality. Good for him though. Still think he’ll be a good manager someday.

I criticized the Jeff Keppinger signing because I didn’t think he was a full-time 3rd baseman from the defensive standpoint. He has made the hard plays look easy, and the easy plays easier, but he isn’t hitting a lick. Plus, he has struck out twice in 3 games. He only fanned 31 times last year in 385 at bats. In 2010 with the Astros he only fanned 26 times in almost 600 AB’s. He best slow down, or he’ll blow past both those marks before the month is out.

Alejandro De Aza hit into one double play in 2012. He has one already in 2013. Same with errors. He has three in 2012, he already has one in 2013.

Man I am negative..Must be the flu I am battling.

Gavin Floyd looked good. Jeremy Guthrie looked better.

Sox put up a stat about Floyd that tracked his progress depending on his 2012 pitch count. It said once he got to 76 pitches, batters started to figure him out. They were absolutely right. 5th inning pitch #75 was ball four to Eric Hosmer. After that it was single, ground out, single, double. I am not a big stat guy, but they were right on.

E:Me. I said the Sox used all their relievers through the first two games. Uh, they didn’t use Hector Santiago until today–and he looked great!

Paul Konerko is still tied with Frank Thomas for the 3rd most hits in Sox history.

Gordon Beckham with another nifty play, backing up 1st base and throwing out Jarrod Dyson in the 5th. And by going 4-4, Beckham is now hitting a robust .556.

Sox start a series against the Mariners Friday. Another two out of three wouldn’t be bad.

Oh yeah, went and saw “Olympus Has Fallen” and who’s in it? None other than former Sox number one pick Lance Broadway. I guess he got tired of bouncing around the minors. Unless he makes a comeback he’ll end his career with a 2-2 mark and an ERA of 5.24. Drafting him was not one of the Sox best moves unless he wins an Academy Award, then it was stroke of genius.

I’m out

Dayan Viciedo has to call off Alexei Ramirez in the 1st inning before they run into each other. The crowd wasn’t big, or loud so communication shouldn’t have been a problem. Viciedo compounded the problem by committing a horrible error in the 3rd that gave Kansas City their first run.

Left field was the Bermuda Triangle today as the usually solid Dewayne Wise also dropped a catchable ball in the 7th.

With four more today, the White Sox are on pace to hit over 400 home runs. They have scored six runs in two games, all of them via the long ball.

With Mr. Meatball himself, Ervin Santana was throwing for the Royals, so I knew balls would be flying out of The Cell. Watching him last year with the Angels, Santana allowed 39 home runs. With the way he pitched today, he could allow 70 or more.

Tyler Flowers will break Barry Bonds home run mark by the all-star break. That is, if he continues hitting one a game. That breaking pitch Santana threw him must have looked like it was on a tee.

Flowers 2, Pierzynski 0

Other bombs were hit by Dunn, Viciedo (making up for his error) and Ramirez, who teed up Luke Hochevar.

Jake Peavy’s fastball was clocked ay 93mph today, which was faster than any he threw last year. Two games in and Chris Sale and Jake Peavy have allowed 1 run in 13.2 innings. That’s a ERA of 0.68. They also have 13 strikeouts. Nice to have two studs at the top of the rotation.

The strength of the Sox is their pen and they have been dominant through the first couple games. Every man in the pen has pitched and their ERA is a sparkling zero. Donnie Veal & Matt Lindstrom, making his team debut, pitched out of a bases loaded, 1-out jam in the 7th inning.

Paul Konerko is now tied with Frank Thomas for 3rd place on the Sox all-time hit list with 2,136. He is still 334 back of the #2 guy Nellie Fox and 613 back of the the all-time leader Luke Appling. Don’t think he’ll catch either. He’ll still get a nifty picture on the Cell wall a few years from now.

Adam Dunn has made it his goal to hit earlier in counts. So far, so good. On his two hits Dunn saw a grand total of three pitches.

Lorenzo Cain meet Gordon Beckham. Two games, 2 robberies by the Sox 2nd baseman. On Wednesday he went up the ladder to rob the Royals left fielder.

Gavin Floyd tries to complete the sweep tomorrow. Jeremy Guthrie is throwing for the Royals, and he usually dominates the Sox.

I estimated that Chris Sale would win between 14 and 16 games. If he pitches like he did today, he’ll win 32. His recently signed 5-year, 32-million dollar contract might very well turn out to be baseballs biggest bargain.

Make it 6 straight years and 13 of the past 14 that the Sox have started a southpaw. Their record is 8-5, including a 1-0 shutout in the 2005 opener. And we all know how that season turned out. Nothing like getting ahead on one’s self after game 1 of 162.

Make it Tyler Flowers 1, A.J. Pierzynski zero.

I wonder when any team would have scored if not for Flowers 5th inning home run. 18 players combined to leave 32 runners on base. Adam Dunn and Mike Moustakas combined for 11 all by themselves.

Not the best season debut for Nate Jones. 6 pitches, 2 strikes for the hard-throwing righty.

Is it just me or does Addison Reed look bored? Do what he did today about 35 more times and he can slip in and out of consciousness for all I care.

He may have an equal, but there is no 2nd baseman better than Gordon Beckham. Beckham’s reaction play of Lorenzo Cain’s liner in the 7th was the biggest defensive reason why the Sox won. He also turned in two nifty double plays with guys barreling into him each time.

Matt Thornton with quite the reaction after blowing away Moustakas in the 8th. Nice to see out of the normally reserved lefty.

The open was fun. I still like the Pirates themed one of the past couple years though.

White Sox and Cubs are now 1-0, with each ace allowing no runs. Rumor has it the teams have talked about a Sale-Samardzija trade.

April Fools!!!

Last year, anyone who was anyone predicted the team to languish near the bottom of the Central Division. They, whoever THEY are was wrong. Once again, those same they guys are predicting the same fate for the 2013 version of the Sox. They will be wrong again!

Am I going to go out on a limb and say the Sox will win the division? No, but they won’t be a second-rate team. I see the same quiet determination that I observed last year. These guys want to close the deal that they were unable to do in 2012.

Expect the same solid number from Paul Konerko. By solid I mean 25 home runs, not 35, and 80 RBI’s. He is a prideful player and wouldn’t be taking the field if was to just collect a check. Same for Adam Dunn, who looks and acts like a guy ready to explode. He has made it a point to be more aggressive early in counts, so that should, and I am saying should lead to more success, and possible more home runs.

The rest of the infield is defensively solid, if not spectacular. Gordon Beckham is a Gold Glove 2nd baseman. The same goes with Alexei Ramirez, who still makes all the spectacular plays, but can fumble away a routine one from time to time. 3rd base is a hodge-podge, Jeff Keppinger was signed to take the roll, and very well might, but don’t count out the quiet Morel. Morel looks to have added muscle, while his creaky back appears to be a thing of the past. However, herniated disks do have a way of rearing their ugly heads, so until he plays 80+ games there will still be trepidation in the organization. Anyhow, when healthy, Morel can pick it with the best of em. And if he swings the bat like he did near the end of 2011, Keppinger will find himself playing a lot of other positions besides third.

Beckham is the x-factor though. He looked to be figuring things out in the 2nd half of last year, and should be up to the .250′s this year as far as batting average. I do think his power numbers will decrease a tad though. If Ramirez gets off to a good start with the bat, he’ll have a great year. If not, he’ll have a good one. I think we all know what to expect from the shortstop.

Things will get real interesting if Dayan Viciedo and Alejandro De Aza continue to mature. Viciedo has the ability to his 40 home runs. I said the ability….and he very well might, if he cuts down on his swing, something I have not seen him do this spring.

De Aza will never get the respect he deserves because he is not a glamour name, but he could swipe 40-50bases. His average will continue to climb as well if he incorporates bunting into his game. Haven’t seen him do that yet, and I don’t expect him to. I can hope, can’t I?

From what I have seen so far, Alex Rios could have an even better year than his 2012 career year. Rios is locked in, and we haven’t even gotten out of February. He is also taking the ball to right on a regular basis, which should move his numbers in a positive direction. Expect a better than average year for Rios, who is 32 and in his prime.

It’s the pitching that really excites me. Chris Sale has the arm, makeup and demeanor to be a big winner in baseball. He is always looking for ways to improve, picking the brains of other pitchers and any coach who has an opinion. Another guy that I expect to explode will be Jake Peavy. Peavy threw a ton of innings, and could very well do it again this year. He also has his swagger back. By that I mean he isn’t wondering if he can come back, he knows he is back, and one of baseballs best. I think he’ll be in the top 5 of the Cy Young voting.

John Danks looks ready to go, but until I see him in regular action, I will reserve judgment. Knowing him and watching him, it’s hard not to pull for him.

I know a lot of people don’t like Gavin Floyd, but his numbers are solid every year. Usually winning in double-digits with a passable ERA. You another guy who was like that? Jon Garland. Garland did have two 18 win seasons and helped the team win a title, but Floyd won 17 games back in 2008. He like, Garland was close to .500 most of the rest of his career, similar to Garland. Anyhow, Floyd says he’s healthy, but like Danks, I’ll believe it when I see it.

Jose Quintana, I want him to win a bunch of games. However, he could be one of those guys who surprises one year, then fades away in his second. I have a hunch that could happen to this guy, but I have been wrong once or twice in my life–haha.

The bullpen is loaded with great arms. From Addison Reed to Nate Jones to Jesse Crain, Matt Lindstrom and Matt Thornton, there is a lot of heat in them arms. I didn’t even mention Donnie Veal or Leyson Septimo or Hector Santiago, who very possibly will make up the rest of the pen. This will be the strength of the Sox and should win them a number of games.

Following them could be Simon Castro, Scott Snodgress, Dylan Axelrod, Nestor Molina, Andre Rienzo and more. The Sox are stacked with good arms who can start or relieve. Not many teams have the plethora of arms the Sox have.

All told, this should be a good year for the Sox. I am saying they will finish second with about 82 wins.

Now back to my enchiladas..Yummy!