Sunday, February 4, 2018

Great jerseys found at SoxFest ... and by 'great' I mean not great

One of the annual joys of SoxFest is a visit to the garage sale in Salon B at the Chicago Hilton.

There is a good reason they call it a "garage sale." It's full of junk that sane people wouldn't want -- old lineup cards, broken game-used bats, programs from years ago, used uniform pants (huh?) and, of course, jerseys of bad players.

Any of these jerseys could have been mine for the low, low price of between $75 and $125. Shockingly, I passed up the offer.

However, it was amusing to find some of these gems:


I had trouble containing my laughter when I found this George Kottaras jersey. Did he even appear in a game for the Sox? I don't believe so. This one probably is the rarest of finds.


There was no worse feeling than knowing you had ticket for a game that was going to be started by Dylan Axelrod. Get ready to see some bullpen pitchers used, and pray the offense can score some runs.


Remember when people thought Jason Coats was the left fielder of the future? He could hit Triple-A pitching. Big-league pitching? Not so much.


Jeff Keppinger is the answer to a trivia question. He was Sox general manager Rick Hahn's first major free-agent signing. He also was a disaster in a Sox uniform. Back then, Hahn was considered an inept fool. Now, he's considered a genius because he "finally has a plan." Hopefully, that plan does not include more signings such as Keppinger.


MLB Network's crawl at the bottom of the screen lists the "key free agents" for each team. Somehow, Mike Pelfrey is listed as a "key free agent" for the Sox. Most of us believe one of the "keys" to the 2018 season will be Pelfrey pitching for some other team, hopefully a division rival.


Matt Purke is most famous for his entrance music. "Time for Da Perculator" would blare over the speakers as the useless left-hander would jog in from the bullpen. Time for Da Perculator? More like Time for the Walk Machine, given Purke's habit of issuing walks in bunches. 


Remember when Cody Asche tore up the Cactus League in 2017? I'll bet you don't. He also is the answer to a trivia question: Who was the Sox's starting DH on Opening Day in 2017? It went downhill from there for Asche, as he was exposed as the Quad-A bum that he is. We'll always have the memories from March 2017.

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