The White Sox need a legit leadoff hitter. They need another glove in the outfield. Coco Crisp isn’t going to cut it. And Scott Podsednik? No thanks.

But Brett Gardner? Yes. Yes please.

Let’s count the ways.

• 1) He’s lefty. Check.
• 2) He’s 26. Check.
• 3) His fielding metrics, in a somewhat limited sample size, are quite good. Check.
• 4) He actually has a respectable OBP for someone that would bat leadoff. (.414 and .375 in 2008 and 2009 in Triple-A. An OK .345 in 108 games with the Yankees last year.) Check.
• 5) Has plate discipline. Check.
• 6) Is speedy and steals bases. Check.
• Isn’t an old guy Kenny Williams is trying to squeeze some life out of. Check.

According to the Sun-Times article linked above, the Royals are also after Gardner, but Brian Cashman and Kenny Williams are tight, so that could help matters. With the addition of Curtis Granderson this week and Johnny Damon and Hideki Matsui still perhaps coming back to the team, there could be a logjam for spots in the outfield, and thus Gardner becomes some nice trade bait for the Yanks. And, for now, he’s going to come at a somewhat cheap price for the Sox, something they desperately need with their limited funds this offseason.

I really see little, if any, downside to the Sox pursuing Gardner. If KW can pull this one off, the Sox fill a glaring hole with someone they can have for a long time if they so choose. I like it.

You think Brian Urlacher is just bumming around while he recovers from his season-ending wrist injury? Nah, son. He’s balling out. Like being a guest of Joe Girardi’s for Game 6 and the Yankees’ 27th World Series title last night.

Urlacher was a guest of Yankees manager Joe Girardi for Game 6 on Wednesday night. The two got to know each other when Girardi played for the Cubs.

“I just like to watch sports,” said Urlacher, who dislocated his right wrist in the Bears’ season opener at Green Bay on Sept. 13 and is out for the season. “They’re great athletes and I’m excited to see it up close like this.”

Don’t forget, Urlacher also got up close and personal with LeBron James during the NBA playoffs back in May. I guess he’s sort of like Spike Lee, if Lee were seven inches taller and 90 pounds heavier. And played football instead of directed movies.

Come to think of it, they aren’t very much alike at all.

So earlier today on this bright-sunny-man-this-is-great-it’s-not-cold-just-yet November day, I read this via Sports Business Daily:

StubHub this morning confirmed that tonight’s Game Six has become its highest-grossing event in company history. The game now ranks ahead of Phillies-Yankees Game Two, Super Bowl XLIII, Phillies-Yankees Game One, and the ‘09 Florida-Oklahoma BCS Championship game, respectively.

Makes sense. Tickets to new Yankee Stadium are expensive to begin with; when you get high demand for an already high price, the price is driven upwards, especially considering this could be a clinching game. Yes, I took economics freshman year of college. And I passed.

But see, that’s for normal people. The unprivileged types. Why, if you happened to be involved with the government in Washington, you don’t have to deal with silly demand-influenced prices spikes. From the Wall Street Journal:

Federal lawmakers and people who work for them have gotten their hands on scores of tickets to the sold-out World Series games this year between the New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies courtesy of a perk not available to the public.

Major League Baseball and the teams sell a limited number of prime seats to lawmakers and congressional aides at face value, often hundreds of dollars less than the going rate.

[ ... ]

Because the recipients pay for the tickets, the offer complies with ethics rules for Congress and the executive branch. The arrangement, however, highlights what some ethics watchdogs say is a loophole in recently tightened congressional ethics rules, which ban officials from receiving just about any gifts.

Wait, wait, wait: lawmakers are using loopholes in which to gain an advantage? Man, how crazy. I’ve totally never heard of something like this in U.S. government. Somebody get Obama on the phone this instant.

The Boston Globe floated this theory yesterday:

If the Yankees don’t bring Johnny Damon back, the White Sox look like a good fit. They need a leadoff hitter, and while they’d love to sign free agent Chone Figgins and move him to the outfield, he may get too pricy. While Damon has been a No. 2 hitter for the Yankees, he could easily go back to the top spot and give the White Sox some leadoff power.

Figgins should still be Kenny Williams’ No. 1 get. He’s younger (he’s 31, Damon turns 36 on Thursday), more versatile and has put up a higher OBP the last two season than Damon has, something essential to the leadoff spot. Figgins’ WAR was also 5.9 this past season, compared to Damon’s 2.8. Damon’s defense has regressed this season in left field for the Yankees. Outside of power numbers, Figgins is the better player. There’s not a lot of wiggle room for debate here.

Yet, the Sox might get more value from a guy like Damon. Sure, he’s older and slower, but he’s still a solid, above average player, and the 24 home runs he put up last season would fare well inside the Cell. The problem with Figgins is he’s coming off a career year for the Angels, and he’s going to attract a lot of money. It’s not that Kenny’s afraid to spend, but when you look at what the Sox have invested in Jake Peavy and Alex Rios, it might be a little too rich for their blood. With Damon, you get similar needs filled at a reduced rate. For the Sox, either would be a pretty good fit, though Damon’s tenure wouldn’t be as long-term, and would likely have less upside.

One more thing on Damon: he’s exactly the type of player that fits into Ozzie Guillen’s mold — a grinder, a hard worker, a “true” baseball player.

I can already hear Hawk Harrelson gushing about him now …

It happened again last night. Two calls — Ryan Howard’s catch that wasn’t a catch in the sixth inning; an eighth-inning double play turned by the Yankees that wasn’t a double play because Chase Utley was safe at first, which robbed us of Howard facing Mariano Rivera with runners on first and third with two outs and the Phillies down 3-1 — went the wrong way.

Twitter exploded, Joe Buck and Tim McCarver agreed that these were not the correct calls. I’ve been a proponent of instant replay before. And I’m going to lobby for it again.

First, as PostmanE wrote last night, this Bud Selig explanation about why baseball won’t institute further instant replay is bunk:

“I think my position has been clear,” Selig said. “This is a game of pace. I’m worried a lot about that.”

Selig is against delaying a game for a few minutes and making a pitcher wait while a decision is made. MLB began to use replay in August 2008 and was the last of the four major sports to employ some form of replay to correct calls.

“You’re always concerned about pace,” Selig said. “You’re always concerned about how the game goes. And I haven’t changed my mind at all.”

Come on, Bud. Baseball gets its “pace” interrupted all the time. Players can call timeout pretty much whenever they want. There is no shot clock, there are no minutes ticking down until the end of the half. If a call is bad enough, a manager will go out and argue for (sometimes) several minutes. Couldn’t we instead use that time to figure out if a call is right or not? Shouldn’t that be baseball’s most paramount concern? Getting the call right? And what’s the difference between a pitcher waiting for an instant replay call, and waiting for a manager to stop yelling at an ump? Both disrupt the flow of the game.

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I suppose I had too high of expectations for Ozzie Guillen’s analyst debut last evening. But really, what was there to expect? He wasn’t going to cuss. He wasn’t going to go on some long-winded rant. This isn’t the dugout hours before a game where he can kick back and let loose; the soundbites here are just quick filler before FOX jets off to yet another commerical break before the game starts.

That being said: Guillen’s debut was a debut. He fidgeted with the mic chord, and his answers to some of the questioned posed to him weren’t that sharp. He seemed a bit out of place, though he made up for that with some humor.

One surprise, though: Guillen is a big fan of Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez — and he’s an American League guy, after all — but he went with the Phillies in six. “I love the way they play the game,” he said.

And the more I thought about it, the more it makes sense. Guillen would love a team like this Philadelphia squad because I think their perception is how he wants his White Sox teams to be perceived: great team chemistry, guys that like each other, good pitching, a lineup that has depth. (And coincidentally enough, this Phillies team led the NL in homers, something Guillen’s have done in the AL, and entire league, before.)

Anyway, yeah, I enjoyed watching Guillen in his brief camera time last evening, even if he wasn’t overly impressive. And he’s got a few more games this series to get a better hang of it.

This prediction is entirely self-serving. I know the Phillies are very good, they’re back here again, they have great chemistry, they’re a team of destiny, their pitching staff is better than last year, as is their team. It will not surprise me if they win the World Series. It would be a terrific win for the organization if they beat the Mighty Yankees. It’s certainly better than beating the Rays a season ago. (I know a World Series title is a World Series title any way you slice it, but I’m betting it will be sweeter for Philadelphia fans if they beat the Yankees. Just a hunch.)

BUT, setting aside all that, I just can’t help it: I’d like to see the Yankees win. Their lineup is freaking ridiculous. And, I’d like to see Alex Rodriguez continue to motor through the postseason like he did in the ALDS and ALCS. I’d like to see him crowned MVP. I’d like to see some sort of bottom-of-the-ninth heroics in Game 7, and him being crowned king. These sort of moments are rare, I know. But that’s what I’m rooting for, so that’s what I’m going to predict, even if those two things don’t always line up.

And with that bit of gusto, I now completely expect A-Rod to go 0-for-the-series, while making three errors. This is how these things work, no?