But where does Gawd come from?

Sean's Kottke pointed me here to explain why the White Sox are not the White Socks. The link gives some interesting history of American spelling.

As to the White Sox, years ago Walter, Macon, and I saw a pre-season game (then called an "exhibition game") between the White Sox and the Yankees in Ft. Lauderdale and Frank Thomas played. What a beautiful man! Its great that he is on a championship team at last.

Recalling that first sight of Frank Thomas reminds me of seeing F. Lee Bailey try a case in Manhattan federal court in 1971. It was a jury trial, and there was a witness being examined by opposing counsel in a large impressive court room right out of the movies. No one in the crowded court room, absolutely no one, was paying any attention to the witness, to the opposing counsel, to the judge, to anyone; they were all looking at F. Lee Bailey. He was just sitting at the defense counsel's table, not with his feet up under it, but with his chair more or less turned to stage right, in the direction of the jury. His legs were crossed, and his left elbow was on the table, and he was doing nothing but looking at a legal pad. Now that's presence!

So it was with Frank Thomas: you just could not take your eyes off of him.