Riding The Roller Coaster

If there's anyone left who thinks Jay Mariotti is a contrarian, you must visit Tribune columnist Eric Zorn's blog. He goes through 11 months of Jay's dribblings to show how his opinions shift with the winning/losing streaks of the White Sox.

Some faves:

November 17, 2004 --(What Smart fans) want to know is how the Sox plan to win a World Series. Answer: They won't, as long as Reinsdorf and his people own the team. Please sell it.

April 4 -- The Sox will win 84 games and miss the playoffs.

May 15 --(The Sox) have the sweetest rotation in the sport ....And while I'm not about to predict they'll be the first local team in 187 collective seasons to win a World Series, they are built to last deep into September.

June 7 -- I can safely say the Sox won't win a World Series as long as (Jerry Reinsdorf) owns them.

June 21 -- I will state for the record today, on the bosom of Hawk Harrelson, that the Sox are crash-proof in this regular season. You may as well sit back and enjoy the next 31/2 months. They are not going to miss the playoffs. Hear me? The aren't choking. Got that

August 21-- When you see the Sox morph into a limp, feeble club that can't piece together a run, much less win a game -- I mean, is it wrong to mention early similarities to 1969?

September 22 --The Wheeze Sox....aren't good enough to think beyond the next game....So, this dark, doomsday drama inevitably careens toward a final three-game series in Cleveland.

October 27 --What they did, thanks to the feisty leadership of Guillen and foresight of Williams, was write a new blueprint on how baseball might be played in the post-steroids era.

If Jay were in politics, Jon Stewart would lead with him every night.