White Sox thank heaven for 7-Eleven

The defending champion Chicago White Sox aren’t involved in the playoffs this year, so they have all the time in the world to dream up bizarre sponsorship deals. This morning comes word that they’ve struck an agreement with 7-Eleven to change the first pitch of all evening games, for the next three seasons, to 7:11 p.m., moving some back from 7:05 and some up from 7:35. In exchange, 7-Eleven will cough up a cool half-million dollars, which is one-twenty-eighth of Jim Thome’s 2006 salary (although $160,000 more than Bobby Jenks made this year).