Broadway Lights Up Cousin's TV Viewing

Saturday night (May 2, 2009) I was guilty of my usual routine of dozing off in front of the TV. Nothing unusual about that. When I fell asleep I was watching the Texas Rangers and the Chicago White Sox players seeking shelter from the rain in Arlington during the middle innings of a game that was heavily favoring the home team Rangers. WGN's cable TV channel had to opt for alternate programming until the major league baseball game could resume.

I had learned about a week earlier that my cousin, Lance Broadway, had been recalled from AAA Charlotte by the ChiSox and he had made his 2009 major league debut against the Seattle Mariners by getting roughed up to the tune of two earned runs allowed in two and one-third innings of relief work on the mound. In that April 28th game, the Mariners got five hits off of Lance when he was summoned from the bullpen by manager Ozzie Guillen for mopup duty in a game the Mariners had in the bag.

I awoke late Saturday night and blearily gazed at the TV to see cousin Lance and his familiar number 41 emblazoned on the back of his black Sox jersey, throwing pitches from the Rangers' pitching mound. Thirty-seven-year-old Jose Contreras had started the game for the White Sox and was replaced by southpaw Clayton Richard after giving up seven runs. The Rangers scored two more off of Richard and were leading 9-1 when the umpires made the decision to cease play until the increasing rainfall slacked up a bit. It was the third rain delay the May 2nd game would endure. Lance Broadway was summoned to pitch for the Sox when play finally resumed around 11 p.m. (CST).

I knocked on my son Bret's bedroom door and informed him that his cousin was on WGN-TV and urged him to switch his bedroom TV from whatever porno channel or whatever he was watching. Then I attempted to notify my brother via cellphone that our first cousin Lynn's son was pitching on TV, but I was only able to leave a message. Cody didn't return the call until the following day. I told him that the White Sox and Rangers were going to be on ESPN Sunday night as well, but it wasn't very likely that Ozzie Guillen would call on Lance to pitch two nights in a row, and he didn't.

Lance did not allow any runs to score against the Rangers Saturday night in his two innings of work on the mound. He allowed only two hits while striking out one and walking one. So, after two outings this past week, his ERA is at 4.15, with his hopes obviously focusing on wanting Ozzie and pitching coach Don Cooper to call on him not only when the team is so far behind, but when his performance is more pivotal to the game's eventual outcome. When he gave up the two earned runs against Seattle April 28th, they proved to not be a deciding factor in the game, which the White Sox lost by a large margin. When Lance left the game Saturday night in Arlington, the Sox catcher hit a grand slam off of a Rangers' reliever named Mendoza, so it was a much tighter game than when Lance first came in. The final score ended up being 9-6 in the Rangers' favor.

Lance graduated from Waxahachie High School in 2002 after having spent his junior year at Grand Prairie High School (Cleveland Indians' closer Kerry Wood is a Grand Prairie graduate). He transferred to Texas Christian University in Fort Worth from NAIA school Dallas Baptist between his sophomore and junior seasons in college. His junior year at TCU, Lance was a first team All American and the Conference USA Pitcher of the Year. He went pro following his outstanding junior year with the Horned Frogs, becoming the 14th player taken in the first round of the 2005 college draft by the Chicago White Sox. Prior to being drafted by Chicago, Lance was one of three finalists for the prestigious Roger Clemens Award given to the nation's best college pitcher each year. Luke Hochevar of Tennessee won the award on July 14, 2005, edging out Lance and Cesar Carrillo of the University of Miami. Lance was also a finalist for the Dick Howser Trophy, given to the best player in college baseball. Alex Gordon of Nebraska, who was the second player taken in the 2005 draft and is now the starting thirdbaseman for the Kansas City Royals, won both the Dick Howser Trophy and the Brooks Wallace Award (both of which Lance Broadway was a finalist for in 2005).

After being drafted by the White Sox and leaving TCU, Lance worked his way up quickly to Double-A Birmingham where he was named the "Pitcher of the Week" twice in 2006. He was quickly promoted to Triple-A Charlotte by the White Sox brass and made his major league debut in 2007 when the White Sox roster could be expanded on Sept. 1st. He appeared in four games with the big league club in September, 2007, going 1-1 with an impressive, microscopic 0.87 ERA with 14 strikeouts. Lance got to pitch in seven games this past September with the White Sox following his callup from the Charlotte Knights. He was 1-0 in 2008 with Chicago, winning his only start in September with the White Sox.

Goose bumps accented the excitement that I felt last September when I watched my cousin pitch on WGN-TV against the Yankees in the White Sox final visit to old Yankee Stadium, where so much history of the game had occurred over the decades, from "The House That Ruth Built" to the more recent dynasty years put together by Joe Torre's Yankees teams. Following the 2008 season's conclusion, that Yankee Stadium was torn down to make room for the christening of the NEW Yankee Stadium at the beginning of the 2009 season last month.

This September, 2008, game in New York City marked the first time that I had seen my cousin perform on television. My wife and sons and I all huddled around our TV to see Lynn Broadway's son pitch (in relief) to the heart of the Yankees' batting order. He got to face Johnny Damon, Derek Jeter and Bobby Abreu . . . before striking out AROID; uh, I mean A-Rod when Alex Rodriguez was caught looking at strike three to end the inning. As WGN went to commercial in between innings, we all just looked at each other in amazement in my living room. Can you believe it! Lance Broadway, the grandson of my mother's sister, had just struck out on national television the player considered by a majority of fans to be the best player in baseball. It was exhilarating! A major moment of pride for me, as a member of the Giesler family of East Columbia, Texas.

And then this past Saturday night the feeling reoccurred for yours truly, watching my cousin Lynn's son do his thing on national TV. And this time it was highly likely that Lance's mother Toni and his father Lynn and many of his other family members were able to be in attendance at the Texas Rangers' stadium in Arlington, which is not too far from where Lance grew up and played high school ball in Grand Prairie and Waxahachie. I wish I could have been there too. Lynn's brothers Randy and Gary still live and work near West Columbia, as does Lynn's uncle Howard Giesler, and I'm sure they would have all liked to be at the game too. With the several rain delays that occurred Saturday night in Arlington, Texas, it is possible that some of Lance's family members may have left the stadium. With him being used strictly in relief by the White Sox at this time, one can never pinpoint exactly when Lance will pitch.

Hopefully his future will result in Lance being inserted into the White Sox starting rotation. That is where he excelled in college and in the minor leagues. The ages of two members of the current starting rotation leave Lance something to look forward to. Contreras, as mentioned before, is 37 and will be 38 in December. Bartolo Colon will be 35 on May 24th. Southpaw Mark Buehrle, the ace of the White Sox staff, just turned 30, and fellow left-hander John Danks, a native of Round Rock who now resides in Austin in the offseason, is only 24. Lance was born in 1983, as were Gavin Floyd and Clayton Richard, who are both penciled in ahead of Lance by Ozzie Guillen at the present time when it comes to viewing the team's starting rotation for the not too distant future. But if Contreras and/or Colon continue to struggle, who knows, Lance Broadway just might get the chance to impress Guillen, Cooper and the many White Sox fans who only want the team to return to the World Series. And if a repeat world title, like Chicago claimed against our Houston Astros in 2005, is in the cards for the near future, I am only hoping that my cousin Lance will contribute in one way or the other; as a starter or reliever.