Have you ever thrown a ball 100 miles an hour? Everything hurts. Even your ass hurts.
-- Bob Gibson

Iowa and North Carolina, at least. The only noteworthy event in Burlington, Ontario yesterday was the announcement of Gordon Currie's intention to join Gennum.

Anyway, instead of going over every game as per usual, I'll just update you all on the noteworthy events and prospect happenings of the five games played last night.

Despite losing two in a row to the Blue Jays, the White Sox look to be headed to the postseason. The Pale Hose haven't been there since waaayyy back in 2000 (that's the turn of the millennium, for those youngsters out there). They also starred in the postseason in 1993 (and we all know how that turned out) and 1983, but you have to go all the way back to 1959 to find the White Sox' last World Series appearance.

Before even 1959, and this is a time that only Magpie would remember, the White Sox starred against the Cincinnati Reds in the World Series that nearly destroyed baseball.

It's time to knock off another alphabetic character and assemble an all-letter team for the Hall of Names; this is the 13th letter we've written (har!) meaning we're exactly halfway through the alphabet -- only we're not doing anything so wacky as, say, going alphabetically, so today let's just say we're sailing the high C's.

Would you be surprised to learn that there are thirty men in the Hall of Fame whose last or family name begins with the letter "C"?

Of course, they're not all players -- but we do have a nice starting point with the purported inventor of the game itself in Alexander Cartwright and the man who invented the box score, Henry Chadwick. Need a commissioner? Don't worry, be Happy Chandler. An umpire? Choose among Nestor Chylak, Jocko Conlon and Tom Connolly. Then, before we get to the 23 C-players, there's Charlie Comiskey ...

Four first inning runs hold up as the Jays take their second straight game over the White Sox.

Does this mean Chicago isn't the Jays toughest opponent this year anymore?

Hello, I must be going: a busy month in New Hampshire saw about a dozen players move on and off the roster, including top pitching prospects like Dustin McGowan, David Purcey, Zach Jackson and Shaun Marcum. The Fisher Cats didn’t really benefit from all this player movement, losing ten straight games at one point and falling to third place, 6 ½ games out of the division lead. A little more personnel consistency and some revived hitting (the F-Cats are dead-last in EL batting with a .245/.303/.372 mark) might help spark a turnaround for the defending champions.

I've said it before: Gregg Zaun's career turnaround has the makings of a great and inspirational book or movie. I know that if he decided to write (or co-write, as is often the case) The Gregg Zaun Story, I would be there on the first day of sale to buy a copy.

Here's a thousand words for it:

Show me a guy who can't pitch inside and I'll show you a loser.
-- Sandy Koufax

Tough night on the farm as only Auburn could scrape up a win while Ricky Romero was roughed up in his home debut in Dunedin.

Josh Towers and three home runs propel the Jays to victory. Your game report today is a double-header, notes on the game followed by the scoop on why the Jays did not make a deal at the deadline.

Towers pitched a real nice one.

The White Sox host the Jays having won four in a row (sweep of the O's). They easily sit atop the former Comedy Central division, thanks to great pitching, even better defense, and a 32-9 (!) record against their divisional "rivals." I use the pithy quotation marks because no division has a bigger gap between first and second place than the AL Central's 15 games.

Chicago is also 33-19 at whatever they call their stadium now, while Toronto is 23-29 on the road. The White Sox have been in first place in the AL Central all 121 days of the season and it doesn't look good for the Blue Jays, but this is why they play the games.

On to the Advance Scout!

Ho-Hum, Ho-hum, an average month for the Chiefs. To recap, April and May were disappointing and frustrating for the Chiefs, June was a big improvement and the team moved over .500, but July was just under average, two games under .500 as the Chiefs record was 54-55 at the end of July. The hitters took the brunt of the blame for the slow start to the year but it's the pitchers that pulled the Chiefs under .500 in July. Unless they can pull off a 13-2 run in August, Syracuse have to give up hopes of making the playoffs, they are seven games behind Buffalo, the division leader, but they are also seven games out of the wild card.

Possibly the most entertaining character on the team, here's Josh Towers delivering a strike to an unsuspecting batter:

Except maybe Casey Janssen, who is at his 3rd minor league stop this season and has yet to break a sweat. 3 wins in 5 games for the Blue Jay farm. Meanwhile, General Patton conquers July.