Obama’s Team ~ 03 March 2009

President Barack Obama, unlike many Chicagoans, makes no bones about the fact that he’s a White Sox fan and not a member of the die-hard root for the Cubs bandwagon. Truly, the White Sox have managed more recent post season success than the Cubs having won the 2005 World Series. So now that the White Sox have Presidential sanction, can they go all the way again?

The team that is now the White Sox commenced play in 1901 as an American League team. These were the White Stockings who became the White Sox in 1904. The first official American League game played by the team took place on April 24, 1901 as the White Stockings defeated Cleveland 8 - 2. This game was played in Chicago and no doubt was an afternoon game. It was common in baseball’s early days to commence play mid-afternoon at about 3:00 P.M. So here we have a chart set for guesstimated time. While we cannot assure the angles of the chart, the Moon is accurate within a degree or slightly more and the planets are reasonably close to actual.

Unlike most of the modern Aries teams, the White Sox originated as a Taurus team. Certainly in the successful early days the players proved they could be “bought” when discontented with treatment by the team owner. The team sports a Cancer Moon, approximately half way in between Neptune in Gemini and Mars in Leo. Funny how it is in Chicago. For whatever reason, the Cubs collected more fans, more rabid fans despite the team’s persistence in breaking the hearts of their fans - a manifestation of Neptune’s invisibility no matter how good they are? Certainly the “black sox” White Sox scandal can’t taint perception forever, can it? Where’s the compassionate forgiveness of Neptune so readily applied to heros bearing apologies? In recent years, the White Sox have had some great years. Three times since 2000 they’ve made the playoffs and in 2005, they took the World Series by handily defeating the Houston Astros. Last year they won the division and this year they have Presidential hopes pinned on their acquisition of a pennant.

Twice I’ve watched the White Sox in Spring Training. It’s so much fun listening to Ozzie Guillen speak his own language - an unpredictable mixture of English and Spanish delivered with the velocity of a rocket. The team is crisp. They’re playing like a team in the stride of May. The defense is solid. They hit and the pitchers pitch like they know what they’re doing. But that’s just the observation of this baseball savvy fan. What’s the chart say?

Throughout the first half of the year the team enjoys Saturn in Virgo trine the team’s natal Jupiter-Saturn conjunction. They have discipline. They can play “small ball” mush to the glee of Saturn and they know the basics, also building Saturn favor. This trine passes as July begins and fades during the month. Toward the end of the season Saturn closes on a square to Neptune. Fatigue, lapses of concentration and the erosion of the psyche by pressure starts to take its toll at a most unfortunate point in the season.

They can look to Jupiter for help. Again, early in the season Jupiter sextiles the team’s Mercury. This portends favorably for tricky plays, coming from behind in games and excellent fielding and hitting. Jupiter opposes the team’s Mars in May causing an uncontrolled surge of energy that could deplete the reserves as it retrogrades through the aspect again in July. Given the similarity of the timing of the Saturn and Jupiter transits, it seems the heat of July and the mid-season All-Star break can change the momentum of the team.

The White Sox do benefit from a three-part streak in September courtesy of Mars opposing the Chiron-Jupiter-Saturn in September. Injuries and fatigue should heal and bring a second wind. Homers return as a cornerstone of offense and well-executed play brings a string of victories. Will it be enough? Well, without Saturn and Jupiter in strong patterns at the conclusion of the season, more challenges appear in the quest to capture the pennant than do benefits. While the win column likely stands respectable strongly rooted in the first half of the season, it seems more likely that a discipline Chicago team can use Saturn more readily in the 2010 season and ride the Jupiter transits of Aries and Taurus in 2011 and 2012. Close this year and definite contention the following three years? Sounds like the challenges facing Obama: One huge collection of stuff to sort taking a year of dedicated focus. Then come three years to ride the momentum built.

Get Carlos Quentin (Aug 29, 1982 Bellflower, CA) healthy and keep his Virgo self-criticism in check. When Saturn and Quentin make friends (which could be in the off season when Saturn crosses his Mercury), this guy is going to put up some huge numbers. He is a wall-climbing spider in the outfield. With a fabulous swing, once that mental factory under the batting helmet calms, he will be monumental in putting up numbers.

Fire up the new rookie long ball threat, Pisces Cuban defector Dayan Viciedo (March 10, 1989, Remedios, Cuba) and get him focused (what a year he’ll have in 2010 and beyond).

Captain Paul Konerko (March 5, 1975, Providence, RI), who is playing brilliantly in Spring Training, should be the lighthouse of the team with opportunistic Jupiter tracking two planets in Aquarius throughout the season. Next year his Sun in Pisces will benefit from Jupiter and the year beyond that Jupiter nudges a collection of planets, dwarf planets and Chiron. Konerko in his early thirties, logically and astrologically has a potent five year run ahead of him. With Konerko’s Saturn in the general vicinity of the team’s natal Moon, he could be a long term favorite.

Then there’s Ozzie. This Capricorn Manager (Jan 20, 1964, Ocumare del Tuy, Venezuela) has Saturn in Aquarius, Jupiter’s transit track for the year. The press will be a mixed bag and fickle, depending upon the winning percentage. But as any good Capricorn does. He knows what he’s doing and he has a plan. With Planets in Pisces and Aries, the transits of 2010 and 2011 do him great favor, tracking along the patterns seen in the team’s chart.

The White Sox are worth watching. Pull up a chair, grab a tofu dog and local brew. Salute the success of the President’s team and take in a display of doing Saturn right.