Jay Mariotti celebrates Geoff Blum:

Geoff Blum. Who else would end Bud Selig's slumber party, the longest game in World Series history, but a former Houston Astro who hasn't been heard from in weeks? Geoff Blum is one of the ''Group 4'' guys, the reserves who aren't prioritized in batting practice. But the other day, Blum and the Group 4 guys had something to say to Ozzie Guillen.

"We know this is our time. We were even saying to him on the bus: 'You can't hide Group 4 anymore,''' Blum said. "We've mostly been hiding out in the cage and in the clubhouse, killing the [food] spread. The other night, we got lobster and crab legs.''

When he returns to Chicago, Blum can eat for free in any White Sox-friendly place for the rest of his life. In the top of the 14th inning, well into the fifth hour, he lined a solo home run into the right-field seats at Minute Maid Park. If Soxdom can wait 88 years, I assume you can wait through a five-hour, 41-minute victory, assuming it leads to the parade and the sirens. And I think it's safe to assume it will.

And the fact that the White Sox are bulldozing their way through the playoffs:

Unless this is the all-time sports tease, the Sox are going to complete the dream. That's what is most amazing about this story: Not once in the playoffs have they given their fans any reason to doubt them or feel the familiar Chicago queasiness. The Sox are defying every phobia known to the local sports scene. Is it actually possible they will buzzcut through the playoffs with only one loss, in what would be one of the all-time October plunderings? If they could plaster Oswalt for five runs and eight hits and rattle him for five walks and a hit batsman -- when he had allowed only two runs in his previous 14 innings and was brilliant the last three months -- what are they about to do to someone named Brandon Backe tonight? Even if Backe were to beat them, Roger Clemens is no certainty to pitch Game 5 with his sore hammy.

The White Sox and their fans are ready to win.