First Place!

De-fault! De-fault! The two sweetest words in the English language! With today's postponement and losses by Cleveland, Minnesota, and Detroit, the White Sox and Royals are tied for first in the American League Central with a lofty 0-0 record. Now all that remains is to maintain for the next 181 days.

Despite being flanked by two Metra tracks, there has been a mystifying lack of Metra service to U.S. Cellular Field, but hopefully that's about to end. Metra, IIT, and U.S. Representative Bobby Rush are tentatively planning on breaking ground on a new 35th Street Station on the Rock Island District Line that runs just to the east of the Dan Ryan Expressway. The new station will be located at the corner of 35th and Federal St., on land donated from IIT and, if all goes well, South Suburban customers may finally be able to take the Metra to and fro Sox games as early as late 2010.

The Rock Island District, for those unaware, runs between Joliet and the LaSalle Station Downtown. The line serves South Side neighborhoods like Beverly, Morgan Park, and Washington Heights and suburban towns like Midlothian, Oak Forest, Tinley Park, and New Lenox.

Finally, buried on the New York Times' website is a blog from Tyler Kepner, their baseball writer. Normally I don't even bother reading Kepner's writings, but when you pick the Royals to win the A.L. Central, I feel I must bring it up.