I've made quite a bit of progress on the new site and have decided that I will do my best to have it ready-to-launch on December 14th, which will be the fourth birthday of BrentButler.com. We'll see if I keep on track. Those of you that I've invited to take a preview, go look. Now. If you don't remember how, e-mail me, damnit.

The White Sox last won a World Series championship in 1917 and have only been back twice since. In fact, they've only seen the postseason 6 times since 1917. Ouch.

My beloved Chicago Cubs haven't won a World Series since 1908, but have made World Series appearances 7 times since then (but none since 1945). They have seen postseason play 11 times since 1908.

Both are pretty awful and bleak, but which is worse? I have to side with the poor White Sox on this one. They suffer a similar fate that the Mets go through year after year as their city's "other" team. I'm sure I have a biased opinion, but I think of the Cubs first when someone mentions Chicago; the White Sox seldom enter my psyche. Besides, Wrigley Field is undoubtedly a superior baseball stadium to U. S. Cellular Field on any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

Speaking of Sunday, have you heard about the Washington Redskins knack to predict elections? Since 1936, the result of the final Redskins' home game has corresponded with whether or not the incumbent party retains the White House. In short, if the Redskins beat the Packers on Sunday, expect four more years. Otherwise, John F. Kerry will be President.

Here is a far-more detailed explanation from the host of the MSNBC show "Countdown with Keith Olbermann:" (available at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6210240/)

The football team with the politically incorrect name has been anything but incorrect in presaging which party will win the White House. The franchise began its life in Boston in 1932, when George Preston Marshall bought a dormant team that had gone belly-up in Newark. Originally named after the baseball team in town-- the Braves-- they were re-christened the Redskins in 1933, and thus it would not be until November 1st, 1936, that the ?Skins played their first game during an election season.

In their last game home before the vote, the Boston Redskins beat the Chicago Cardinals 13 to 10. And two days later, Franklin Roosevelt was reelected president. By the time FDR ran again in 1940, Marshall had moved the Redskins to Griffith Stadium in Washington. And, again, in their last home game before that election, the Redskins beat Pittsburgh 37-10, and Roosevelt was returned to office.

On November 5th, 1944, it was Cleveland at Washington. Redskins won 14-10. Two days later, Roosevelt was re-re-reelected. And four years later, they repeated the trick, preceding Harry Truman's unexpected holding of the White House for the Democrats. The Redskins were now 4-0 in their "election day games"-- and so were the Democrats.

But on November 2nd, 1952, the Redskins, in their last home game before the vote, lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers 24-23. And days later, Democrat Adlai Stevenson lost the presidency to Dwight Eisenhower. In '56, it was a pre-election home victory for Washington, and a re-election for Ike.

And in 1960, the tanking Redskins were clobbered in that last home game before the vote, by Cleveland, by 21 points. Nine days later, it was John F. Kennedy over Richard Nixon, by about 21 votes. And by now, the pattern had emerged. If the Redskins won their final home game before a presidential election, the incumbent party kept the White House. If the Redskins lost that game, so did the party in power.

And this, remarkably, has held up:

1964: Skins 27, Bears 20. Lyndon Johnson retains the office.

1968: Washington loses the last home game before the vote, to the New York Giants. The Democrats fall out of power, in favor of Richard Nixon

1972: Skins win; so does Nixon.

1976: Washington loses to Dallas; Republican Gerald Ford loses to Democrat Jimmy Carter.

1980: They lose again; Carter loses to Republican Ronald Reagan.

1984: Washington wins, Reagan wins again.

1988: Washington wins, George H. W. Bush wins.

1992: Washington loses to the Giants 24 to 7, and the incumbent party is bounced again: Bush out, Clinton in.

1996: Clinton's re-election is foretold: the Redskins win their final home game before the vote, against Indianapolis.

Going into the Bush-Gore race of 2000, the outcome of Washington's last home game before the election had coincided perfectly for 16 consecutive games, and 16 consecutive elections: 10 Redskins wins, each of which is followed by the incumbent president and/or party retaining the office, and six Redskins losses, each of which is followed by the incumbent president and/or party losing the office.

On October 30th, 2000, the Washington Redskins, with, to that point, 6 victories and 2 losses, hosted the Tennessee Titans, who had 6 victories and 1 loss. In betting circles it was a virtual toss-up, with a slight edge to Washington because it was playing at home. The Redskins scored first and led 7-0, giving an early hint that the Democrats would retain the White House. But Tennessee rallied to go in front 20-7, and hold on for a 27-21 win. It's a six-point victory, and, six weeks later, a five-electoral-vote victory for George W. Bush-- of the party that had been out of office, the Republicans.