Yes, it’s true: though Detroit offered more money originally — and apparently is still offering more money — the Sox are still in the mix here, and even feel like they’ve closed the gap.

When I broached this quickly last week and dropped this Fox Sports link, there was one thing that stood out to me: Damon and his wifey prefer big-city living. Would you pick Chicago or Detroit in such a scenario? Yeah, that’s what I thought.

Further, A.J. Pierzynski went golfing with Damon recently, which should totally put them in first place in this sweepstakes. Totally.  From the Sun-Times:

As far as all the buzz over the fact that Damon went golfing with Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski, well, Pierzynski might have been doing his best Urban Meyer in recruiting Damon, but the two are also good friends, playing baseball at Dr. Phillips High School in Orlando, Fla., as well as Damon getting involved with Pierzynski’s TNA Wrestling storyline “Basebrawl” a few years back.

At the end of the match, it was Damon, sitting ringside, that handed a home plate to Pierzynski. Home plate then went upside Simon Diamond’s head for the win.

If the Sox do land Damon the plan is to primarily use him as their DH, giving him some reps in the outfield.

So summing this all up here: If Damon makes a choice based on the financials, Detroit is the clear winning candidate. And he’s a Scott Boras client. You expect him to go that way.

But as he’s still not made a decision, the Sox believe they’ve picked up ground, and they’re angling for him in a variety of ways, perhaps he’ll choose Chicago for lesser money because all the other factors make more sense to him.

And Damon presents an immediate upgrade at DH. He may be 36, but he put up a line of .282 /.365/ .489 to go along with a .854 OPS last season. Hell, he should bat leadoff over Juan Pierre with that .365 on-base percentage. He also hit 24 homers and had 84 RBI. He’s the lefty bat the Sox are missing. They could really use this type of player right now.

And if they pull it off, it will certainly increase their chances of winning the AL Central.

Hey, has anyone heard this new president of ours, the Barack Obama guy, is a White Sox fan?

I think I read that in a newspaper, or maybe saw it on the local news.

Anyway, here’s a nice little rendition of his new home with the White Sox’s exploding scoreboard as the facade.

(Thanks for the e-mail, Matt.)

If there is one overriding theme of the White Sox’s offseason so far — besides “we couldn’t wait to get Nick Swisher out of here fast enough” — it’s that they’re going young. Well, not so much that they’re completely retooling the roster to cut costs and start anew. It’s more they are going to instill more trust in the likes of some of their guys that have only seen sporadic playing time the last few years. (Or haven’t been on the team at all yet.)  I’ll let Ozzie explain:

What about starting Josh Fields at third, Chris Getz or Jayson Nix at second and Jerry Owens or Brian Anderson in center?

I love it. For two reasons: I think we have the [veteran] people [and] we can still compete; and we have to say to the minor-league coaches, instructors and scouts [that] those kids deserve it. They have enough credentials to play here. … They have to play good enough in spring training to convince me they can play in the big leagues. We’re not going to do this just to go young, go cheaper. We want to give those kids a shot. If they don’t take [advantage], they’re not going to get in.

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