From The Windup is FanHouse's daily, extended look at a particular portion of America's pastime.

I don't know if you've been paying attention, but there are some things going on in this country right now that are far more important than whether or not the Cubs will win the World Series, or whether New York will collapse on itself should the Yankees miss the playoffs.

No, I'm not talking about the new Beverly Hills 90210 - though it's nice to see Lori Loughlin getting work - I'm talking about the upcoming election for President of the United States. Yeah, you've probably noticed in the last few weeks that all your favorite crappy sitcoms and celebrity dancing shows haven't been on in favor of a bunch of people giving speeches in front of sycophants. We call these the Democratic and Republican National Conventions.

For the first time in my life, I've paid pretty close attention to both of these conventions this year. You see, even though I've never been shy about my feelings about this country of ours, and those who have been chosen to run it, I've never actually exercised my right to be a factor in the decision.

That's right, at 27 years of age, I have never voted in a single election. Not for President, not for Governor, not even for Student Council President in high school. So when November 4th rolls around in two months, I will be stepping into a voting booth for the first time, and though I'm somewhat excited about it, I still face a pretty tough question.

Just who am I voting for?

With both the Chicago White Sox and Minnesota Twins doing everything in their power not to win the AL Central right now - both teams are currently playing Our Bullpen Is Worse Than Your Bullpen - the White Sox had been hoping that the return of a healthy Joe Crede could be the boost they needed down the stretch.

Well, apparently those hopes have been dashed because Crede had to leave last night's White Sox loss in the sixth inning after his back problems flared up again. Now his manager Ozzie Guillen is saying that he doesn't anticipate being able to use Crede for the rest of the season.

"I don't expect Joe to play for the rest of the year," Guillen said of Crede, who missed nearly five weeks because of back stiffness before returning Aug. 25. "You come out of the game and your back really bothers you, I cannot count on him for the rest of the year.

"I'm not going to put Joe out there once a week, see how he feels and then play around it. I want him to play because he makes our club better."

Now seeing as how this is Ozzie Guillen speaking, I'm pretty sure we shouldn't believe a word he says. In reality this is probably just Ozzie's way of telling Crede to suck it up and deal with it. Whatever it is, and however the season ends for the White Sox, I think it's safe to say that Crede won't be back on the south side next season.

On Monday night Cliff Lee became the first Cleveland Indians pitcher to win 20 games in a season since Gaylord Perry did it back in 1974. Lee accomplished the feat the exact way a pitcher would want to do it, too. Pitching a complete game shutout against the Chicago White Sox, and at one point retiring 20 straight hitters.

Now obviously Cliff has been fantastic all season, you kind of have to be to win 20 games, but last night he seemed to have a bit of extra motivation. It was as though his intensity level had risen, and after the game Lee admitted it was a bit higher. The reason for this? Well, A.J. Pierzynski of course.

"He slammed his bat down and stared me down[ after popping out]," Lee said. "I stared back. He was chirping in the dugout. It gave me a little extra energy. Actually, I appreciate him doing that."

Of course, Pierzynski had a different story to tell afterwards.

"I rounded first, and he said something else and I looked at him like, 'What?'" Pierzynski said. "I didn't say anything. I was mad because I missed a 3-2 pitch and popped up. It wasn't meant anything toward him. You miss a pitch, you pop up against a guy that good, you can't miss pitches to hit. Oh well."

Now it's hard to believe Pierzynski when it comes to this kind of stuff, as it follows him around constantly, but I'm kind of leaning more towards his side of the story here. Why on earth would A.J. be talking crap to Lee after popping up? "You see how high I hit that? You suck!" That makes no sense.

Deep and sincere kudos to our classic namesake for hitting yet another milestone in his storied, rosy-cheeked, Faulknerian man-child career. 536 is something to be proud of, even if it's still 33 less than Rafael Palmeiro.

HEY GUYS, the last Dugout of August is after the jump.

The stupid thing about the MVP race is that half of it involves perception. Is his team good regardless of how he performed as an individual? Is he a clutch player based on stuff we think we've seen but might not actually know? Is he the type of baseball player worthy of the honor of being selected by us sportswriter types as the best in the game? Is he tall? Is he handsome? Etc, etc.

These ridiculous perceptions are probably why -- despite what the fans think -- Dustin Pedroia will not win the MVP this season. Don't believe me? Just ask Ozzie Guillen, who called the smallish in stature second baseman a "g*dd*mn jockey".

''I never thought I was going to walk a goddamn jockey,'' Guillen said of the 5-7 Pedroia, a player he actually admires. ''Walking a guy who just came from being on top of Big Brown. Right now, he's on a roll. This guy right now is on fire. No matter what you throw up there, he's going to get it. I can't believe you can change professions in one year, go from the Kentucky Derby to the Boston Red Sox ballpark.''

Pedroia has reached base in 10 consecutive plate appearances and became the first Red Sox player with four hits or more in consecutive games since Wade Boggs did it in June 1989.

When he stepped to the plate in the eighth inning, Pedroia was met with cheers of ''MVP, MVP.''

Now, in fairness to Ozzie, he then proceeded to discuss the fact that Pedroia was the heart and soul of Boston's team right now.

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups.

Toronto Blue Jays (75-60) at New York Yankees (68-67) 1:05 PM ET

If Alfonso Soriano can get booed, then why not the player he was traded for? There are probably still some people who want the merciless booing of Alex Rodriguez to stop. But they're getting harder and harder to find after Rodriguez's latest ninth inning gag job: a double play with the winning runs on base and nobody out against B.J. Ryan and the Blue Jays on Saturday. It's gotten so bad, the "Get Rid of A-Rod" websites are starting to turn up. While the Soriano booing might be a little bit silly with the Cubs steaming towards the playoffs, the Rodriguez booing can be understood a bit more with the growing reality that the last season of Yankee Stadium is going to end in September. (P.S. Your inevitable argument that all the injuries are to blame more than Rodriguez is probably valid. But it's harder to boo a player on the disabled list. Trust me, I've tried.)

On Sunday, A.J. Pierzynkski bailed himself out of some atrocious baserunning by manufacturing a B.S. interference call that not only saved the White Sox an out but also awarded him third base, where he eventually scored the winning run.

I saw it, you saw it, everyone in the stadium saw it (here's video - fast-forward to the 3:13 mark) but the umpires. Second base umpire Doug Eddings is the one who blew the call, but third base umpire Ted Barrett came to his defense after the game:

"As a runner, you're allowed to (make contact). What Doug ruled at second base was, even though A.J. did kind of stick his arm out to make contact, Aybar was still in his way, so A.J., if he would have turned, he wouldn't have been able to continue on to third. So after making the throw, Aybar is no longer in the act of fielding and he can't obstruct the runner, which is what Doug ruled happened.

Yeah, nice try, Ted. On Thursday, Mike Port, MLB's vice president of umpiring, came clean to the St. Petersberg Times, admitting (albeit in a nice way) that Eddings did in fact blow the call:

"Looking back at that occurrence, for the first and last time, it was a missed call," Port said. "And it was not because Doug Eddings, an umpire with 10 years' experience and 10 before that in the minor leagues, didn't know the application of the rule, but just that in the moment in applying the rule, he saw something he thought was more than it turned out to be."

Hooray! And as a consolation, Port tweaked the standings to take away Chicago's win and give it to Tampa Bay! Oh wait ... he can't do that? Funny enough, I think that probably annoys fans in Minnesota more than Tampa Bay.

While most of the blogging world has been celebrating the resignation/firing of Jay Mariotti at the Chicago Sun-Times on Wednesday, it's not just those of us who read him that are happy to see him go. The Chicago White Sox have long been one of Jay's favorite targets. Whether he's ripping on team owner Jerry Reinsdorf, manager Ozzie Guillen, or even play-by-play announcer Hawk Harrelson, Jay never had anything nice to say about the organization.

So when the news reached the White Sox in Baltimore on Tuesday night that Jay's reign of terror was coming to an end, the Sox were quite happy to hear the news.

''When people wish the worst on people, you have to be careful because the baseball gods are going to get you,'' [Ozzie] Guillen said. ''He was not asking just for my job, he was asking for thousands and thousands of people's jobs over the years. I'm not going to say I will get the last laugh because I will get fired from this job. But the day I get fired is the day I lose interest in this game.

Somehow, only five weeks remain in the baseball season. Other than injuries, a contending team's schedule might be the biggest factor in determining which teams get a shot at postseason glory and which spend October on the golf course.

The following is a quick breakdown of what the AL teams still fighting for a playoff spot will face over the season's final weeks.

Red Sox

The Good: After Boston finishes a three-game set with the Yankees on Thursday, it will play 20 of its final 29 games at Fenway Park, where the team is 43-18 this year.

The Bad: The Red Sox still have to face Toronto seven more times. The Red Sox are 4-6 against their divisional rivals this year, and perhaps more distressing, have surrendered more than six runs per game against the light-hitting Jays in 2008.

Key Stretch: From Sept. 8-21, Boston will face Tampa Bay and nemesis Toronto 13 times. All things considered, the Red Sox have a very favorable schedule down the stretch, with four off days remaining. The injuries which are rapidly piling up will play a much bigger factor in whether they get a chance to defend their title than who they face.

If you've been following the presidential election closely, you know that the Democratic National Convention begins today in Denver. You might have even heard that the theme is going to be "unity," as the party attempts to quell the anger of the Hillary Clinton supporters who feel that their voices haven't been heard. As hard as Obama is working to unite his party, he apparently has no problem drawing a line between the baseball fans in his home town of Chicago. In an interview airing tonight, he tells ESPN:

[Stuart] Scott: "If the Cubs and the White Sox both make it to the World Series?

Obama: "I would be going."

Scott: "Who would you root for?

Obama: "Oh, that's easy. White Sox. I'm not one of these fair weather fans. You go to Wrigley Field, you have a beer, beautiful people up there. People aren't watching the game. It's not serious. White Sox, that's baseball. Southside."

I imagine that this will go over far better than Rudy Giuliani's attempt to play to voters by wearing a Red Sox cap in Boston last fall and telling people that he was a fan of the "American League." Vacillating on team allegiance is a certain way to make unnecessary enemies at the polls in the fall. And besides, "People that are annoyed by Cubs fans" is a pretty large demographic. City unity my ...