It may have taken manager Ozzie Guillen’s team until mid-June to start playing well this season, but the Chicago White Sox are on a roll. The Southsiders have won 8 straight games this month heading into their game today with the Atlanta Braves. The starting pitching the last few weeks has been terrific with Jake Peavy, Freddy Garcia, John Danks, and Mark Buehrle all putting out a string of quality starts. Outfielder Alex Rios is repaying GM Kenny Williams for trading for him last season by raising his batting average to .318. Paul Konerko is having one of his best starts to a season this year with a BA of .304, 17 HR’s, and 52 RBI’s. The White Sox are currently only sitting back 3.5 games from the division leading Minnesota Twins. The Detroit Tigers also have a game up on the White Sox, but the AL Central is looking more every day like a three horse race. A few wins over hated rival the Chicago Cubs in the Crosstown Classic would be a ideal way for the White Sox to finish off the month of June. We’ll see if the The Men in Black can keep this momentum going.

Hall of Fame shortstop Luis Aparacio is lending his retired #11 number to the Chicago White Sox’s new signing Omar Vizquel. The 42-year-old Vizquel and the 75-year-old Aparacio are two of the most decorated professional baseball players to ever come out of Venezuela. Aparacio played ten years out of his three decade long playing career in Chicago winning a Golden Glove awards and leading the league in stolen bases for years. Vizquel, now in the twilight of his career, has model himself after Aparacio breaking the baseball great’s record for most games played at shortstop in 2008. Vizquel asked Aparacio if he could wear the #11 for Chicago to honor him and the legend agreed. Vizquel has played for the Cleveland Indians, Seattle Mariners, Boston Red Sox, San Francisco Giants, and most recently with the Texas Rangers. In 2009, Vizquel was used in mostly a backup infielder role playing in 62 games and did not commit a single fielding error all season. Seeing Vizquel play in Chicago wearing #11 will be great to see this season as two legends of past and present pay homage to each other.